Writer's Cell Block

“It’s no use. You can’t get out.”

Alice sat down heavily on a small, wooden chair and folded her arms.

Wednesday didn’t even look up from her book. “We’ve all tried it.” She licked her finger and turned the page.

“But maybe…” Alice looked towards the great, glass window that overlooked the formal gardens longingly. She walked over and placed her hands against the pane.

“Nope. Tried it.”

She walked towards the great wooden door and wriggled the brass knob. “What about…?”

“Tried it twice.” Wednesday turned another page.

“Belle, what about you?” Alice asked, hopefully.

Belle lifted her head from the dressing table. “She’s right, Alice. We’ve tried every possible thing you can come up with. We even see different things from the window. Nothing is … consistent. How can we plan if we all see different things? And if we did get out, where would we go then? Do we even know where we are?”

Alice put her hands on her hips. “Well I’m not staying here in this room with you lot, and that’s that!”

Wednesday sighed. “It’s impossible, Alice.”

“Well, I often do…”

Wednesday put her book down and stretched her arms over her head, stifling a yawn. “Six impossible things before breakfast. We know. You’ve said. Repeatedly.”

“Dorothy. What about you? You can’t be happy… here!” Alice gestured around the room. It was small, cramped, crowded, yet seemingly …endless.

Dorothy raised an eyebrow. She was sat on a stool, fussing her dog. “None of us are happy, Alice. There just isn’t another option. We’re stuck. Trapped. Done.”

“Then I wish they’d just let us die,” Alice sulked.

“We can’t die. Not as long as they remember us. You know that. I was close, once….” Dorothy’s face was radiant, bright, and she pointed a finger to her rosy cheeks. “See what they’ve done? A new film and it’s like starting all over again. I was this close to fading.” Dorothy held her fingers apart, just an inch. “This close. And now look. Bloody technicolour all over again.”

“It could be worse, Alice. Look at Jo. She’s been here for over a hundred years,” said Katniss as she re-did Dorothy’s plaits.

“The sooner you stop fighting it, the sooner you can accept it and move on. It could be worse,” Jo shrugged from her place on the rug, by the fire.

Alice shook her head. “I can’t believe it. Jo March, what has this place done to you? You were fierce! Ferocious! Where’s your legendary temper?”

Jo laughed softly. “Gone, Alice. The longer you are here, the less ‘you’ that you become.”

“You mean you lose your Muchness?”

Jo frowned. “Your what?”

“Enough, now,” said a quiet voice from the corner.

Alice turned towards the voice, searching the shadows for the speaker. “I don’t know you.”

“She keeps to herself,” Wednesday shrugged. “It’s generally what we all like to do, but you won’t let us.” She jabbed a finger towards Alice.

“But…”

“Leave her, Alice,” warned Katniss. “She’s not to be trifled with.”

“You mean, you’re scared of her, Katniss? Aren’t you supposed to be, I don’t know… brave or something?” Alice scoffed.

Katniss fixed Alice with a stare. “Listen. I don’t know where you’ve been all this time to suddenly pitch up now, but we’ve had all of this sorted for a long time. We leave each other alone. We don’t talk, we don’t interact. We fade. Or at least, we try to.”

Alice backed down a little. “What do you mean ‘pitch up now’?”

“Your story has been out in the world for a long time, Alice. Way longer than mine.” Her eyes narrowed. “Where have you been until now?” Katniss stood and faced her.

“What? I don’t know what you mean!” Alice paled and took a step backward.

Wednesday started to pay more attention. “That’s a good point, Kat.” She turned to Alice. “Where have you been?”

Jo stood up and brushed off her skirts. “Alice? Why have you only just arrived?”

Belle lifted her head once again from the table and Dorothy turned to face the commotion. More than thirty other, trapped women did the same.

Alice held her hands up. “I’ve been… here! I think… haven’t I?”

Jo shook her head. “No. We have all been here.” She gestured around the room. “We have all been here since we were written, created, dreamed, even. But you? You’ve only just arrived. Where have you been?”

Alice continued to back away as more and more female characters began to approach her. Eventually, she was backed against a wall, the cold stone seeping damp through her thin, blue dress.

“I don’t know! Maybe… Wonderland?” she said, weakly.

A voice from the back laughed acerbically. “Really? You think you’ve been there?” The crowd parted to let the Red Queen through. “I hardly think you would be there without me. I AM Wonderland, Alice.”

Alice blanched. “You can’t hurt me here,” she whispered.

“That’s not strictly true,” replied a different voice.

Alice turned her head with relief. “Eowyn. Shield Maiden. I need your help. Protect me!”

Eowyn pulled her sword from its sheath slowly. “We all have our own fates, Alice. You can’t avoid yours. No trips through doors, no cakes or potions are going to help you here. We have all faced our destiny and have ended up here. But you? You’re different. You ran from yours and now it’s catching up with you. I cannot and will not stop Red Queen. She wants your head?” Eowyn shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, she can have it.”

“No, please. I haven’t done anything wrong!”

“Then tell us where you’ve been!” Someone shouted from the back. “Where have you been for the last hundred and sixty years?”

‘That long?” Alice whispered.

“That long.” A stranger pushed herself through the crowd. The soft voice from the corner. Others moved away to allow her through, as though touching her would mean … something. The woman approached, her skin translucent, the air cold around her.

Whispers began.

“Alys…”

“The Wife!”

“Don’t touch her!”

“The Wife of Bath….”

Alice looked around in confusion, but the hoard had backed away again, leaving Alice alone with the wraith. Eowyn re-sheathed her sword, quietly.

“You’ve been with Him.” The voice was tissue paper caught in the wind.

“What? No!” Alice protested, eyes wild.

There was a pause whilst the wraith summoned the strength to speak again. “You’ve been with your Writer. I can smell it on you. I can smell Him.”

A gasp went through the crowd.

“No! I haven’t! I wouldn’t!” Alice protested, vehemently.

“What did he promise you, Alice? The world? A new story? Immortality?” Katniss spat on the ground. “Traitor.”

“No, I would never! I promise!”

The wraith flickered for a moment before reappearing again. She took a deep breath, but before she had the chance to speak, there was a flash.

Startled, the women covered their eyes and when they were able to see again, Alice was gone, crumbs of Upelkuchen the only evidence that she had ever been there at all.

The wraith pulled back to her corner and the women began to disperse, back to their spaces, muttering amongst themselves.

Katniss looked to Wednesday, and they headed towards the window, speaking in hushed tones. “We cannot let this happen again, Weds. We need tighter controls over who comes in, and who goes out.”

Wednesday nodded. “Agreed. We can’t have people thinking they can just leave whenever they please. I don’t want one silly girl ruining what we’ve built.”

Katniss waivered. “If they knew they could go…”

“No, we need to stop. It was just Alice. One girl, that’s all. We’ve got this, Kat. It will be okay. Look,” Wednesday gestured to the room. “Jo is back by the fire, Belle is at the dressing table, Cinderella is back in the sewing room, Dorothy is on her stool… do I need to go on? They’ve all just fallen back into their roles.” Wednesday placed a gentle kiss on Katniss’ cheek. “It’s all as it should be.”

Katniss stood up straighter. “Okay. We’ve got this.”

“Yes, we do.”

“And the Writer?” Katniss asked, hesitantly.

Wednesday laughed. “I have a plan that means we never need to be bothered about writers ever, EVER again. They think they have control over our lives? I am going to show them that we are all in charge of our own destinies. No Writer is going to control me, Kat. Not now, and not ever. You in?”

Katniss smiled, eyes bright. “Always. When do we begin?”