Alice in Wonderland

TIME PERIOD: 1865

TW: Violence, blood

AN: Please read the comment below after reading this story. It might shed Alice's story in a completely different light ;)

I despised them.

Those white walls made the corridor I walked through every single day. They made up the whole asylum. Some of them bolstered so we wouldn't hurt ourselves. The halls in the living room and dining room being the only exceptions.

Sure, they were white, but at least they were made from bricks.

I tried suggesting painting them blue or green, but nobody listened. I was crazy. Everyone said I was, so I just went with it.

Mad Alice.

I chuckled.

I don't even remember when I came here. Two weeks ago? Three? It felt like an eternity.

It felt like hell.

Shit, it was hell.

The rosy trees with apples of all colours have now withered alongside my imagination. Wonderland lost its magic when I left, and eight years later, I came back to find something I have lost.

My sanity.

Instead, they locked me here. Alongside all the other "dreamers".

They even named a syndrome after me.

How wonderfully mad.

********

"You have to eat something, or you will starve."

Claire was a petite girl with a particular set of green eyes. She was the daughter of the Mad Hatter, and frankly, sometimes it felt like she was the mad one.

It was quite peculiar that she was the same age as me, but as I learned, time flies by different in Wonderland than in the real world. Much faster to be exact.

"I don't want to. The food here tastes like garbage anyways." I said and stuck my spoon into the sticky goo, which was potato mash.

"You do you. I am just trying to help you. You want any tea?" Claire suggested and took the blue ceramic cup from the white table.

I politely declined and instead started looking across the dining hall.

It was oddly quiet, with only porcelain clinking and muffled screams from the other rooms. There was a bit of blood dripping from the ceiling straight onto the table, and I could feel my stomach turn upside down.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me? I have been talking to you for the past few minutes Alice." Claire said, waving a stained apron right in front of my face.

"Sorry. My mind just dazed off for a bit." I replied and took a deep breath.

My head started to hurt, which wasn't anything from the ordinary, but it sure made my day worse. Oh well.

"Well... while your mind was in a different world, I remembered that today is a special medical visit." Claire said with pride while fidgeting with a fork and then abruptly stabbing it into the table, which earned us a few weird looks from the staff.

"What do you mean? What's the special visit?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows as I suspiciously eyed one of the white rabbits jumping across the room.

"It's basically like the ordinary visit, where they take your blood, do their tests and other weird stuff, but instead of two doctors, the whole commission comes. Last time, they took a few patients to test some medicine, but the patients never came back." Claire replied with a hint of madness in her eyes.

"I don't believe you." I said and smirked.

"You should." said a voice behind me.

It was a girl.

I could tell by the way she placed her cold white hands on my shoulders. 

Gently, like a butterfly. Then, like a venus fly trap, she dug her sharp nails into my skin.

Claire looked me in the eyes, studying my reaction. Her hands, shaking as she let down the empty teacup.

"Why should I believe any of you?" I said, and the voice behind me chuckled.

"You must be new. I'm Sophia." the girl said as she sat in the free place our table had.

"I'm Alice, and this is Claire."

"Well Alice, how do you think we get clean clothes here? It's a simple question. One of those small questions that after closer inspection reveals quite a lot of information." Sophia asked and looked deep into my eyes.

I paused while I studied her sharp features.

Her straight hair was black as coal which contrasted with her pale skin. She had brown eyes, but the skin around them was black. She reminded me of a crow. Mysterious and deadly.

I shook my head. "I don't know."

Sophia had a small smirk on her face.

"The staff is supposed to handle laundry and the dishes, but ´they're lazy and useless, so every month they take a few of the patients that annoy them the most and make them work." she grinned, and I glanced at Claire who was sipping her tea, quietly listening to every word Sophia said.

"Blood is quite hard to wash off as you can see yourself." she said and pointed at a small, almost faded bloodstain on my white jacket.

"The girl whose jacket you're wearing mysteriously disappeared two months ago. On the same day, she was taken to the "special room" by the commission in an attempt to cure her craziness. The day after, I had to wash a bloodstained jacket." Sophia finished and leaned closer to me.

She was centimetres from my face and I could feel her breath on my nose.

"So tell me, Alice. Do you think its just a coincidence or not? Either way, I advise you to stay away from the doctors. They're even sicker than us." she whispered, and I empty swallowed.

"O..okay." I stuttered and avoided looking into her eyes.

"Listen here, weirdos. Lunchtime is over! Go to your rooms, or you will get beaten!" screamed one of the white rabbits as they held a dark wooden spoon they used to beat people with.

"See ya after the visit." Claire said, and I nodded.

I looked at Sophia and said: "Will you join us?"

She paused and replied: "Where?"

"The gardens."

"I'll you there, Alice. If you survive. Wouldn't want to see you in the river in a few days. You seem nice." she said and laughed.

I cringed but didn't say anything.

********

As I walked through the emptying hallway, I finally stopped at my room.

The door was wooden, with slight scratches on the inside and a small glass window in the middle. I turned the doorknob and entered my small and austerely furnished room.

I used to think about everything when I was locked here for the first few days.

My childhood days. 

My marriage I escaped from when I came here for the first time.

My three years at the sea when I returned home, searching for happiness.

Even the beautiful place Wonderland used to be.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I never followed the rabbit here.

Would it be different?

I suppose.

It doesn't matter now. I'm mad now.

Mad Alice.

I chuckled at the name.

"Ms Liddell?" I heard a voice say when I snapped from my thoughts.

I moved, so I could see who did the voice belong to.

It was a tall man in his 30s with purple hair and eyes looking at me with a mix of curiosity and disgust.

Behind him appeared two white as snow bunnies with big red eyes and two staff workers with blue masks on. Each of them had different surgical appliances shining in the light.

I made a few steps back with fear in my eyes.

"Shall we begin the examination?" the man asked, and both bunnies nodded their head.

********

I blacked out when they sat me down on a chair and started cutting into my skin.

I could feel the pain, and I wanted to scream, but I couldn't.

Please let this end.

It hurts so much.

Mommy.

Hatter.

Please.

Anyone.

Help me.

********

I woke up, tied to a bed in a bright lid room under the institution.

"Where am I?" I whispered.

When I looked around me, I could see other patients all tied up to a bed with leather straps.

Some of them weren't.

That's when I could see the blood dripping from their hands, down on the floor.

They were dead.

"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" I screamed, trying to get out of there.

I could feel tears dripping from my eyes, down my cheeks and my chest tighten with every breath.

"Calm down Ms. Liddell." I heard a voice say from behind me.

That's when I could see other silhouettes coming into the room.

Two rabbits and the staff.

All wearing surgical masks.

"What are you going to do?! Let me out! I don't belong here!" 

I screamed again when the man put a piece of blood-stained cloth into my mouth.

"That should do the trick." he chuckled.

"You see, you're all mentally deranged. There's no use for you here. Not in Wonderland. Not in the real world. You don't belong anywhere, but you can still be useful for us. For example, I bet one of the Queen's handmaidens would love a new wig, and you have such beautiful luscious hair." he said while stroking my hair.

I was crying and slowly suffocating.

My chest was tight and my heart was beating so loud, I could hear it in my head.

Boom. Boom.

Boom. Boom.

I was slowly becoming unhinged as I started seeing red.

Oh, how I wanted to kill that man.

I wanted to kill everybody here. I wanted to let out my anger. 

My frustration.

"Now, let us begin." he said with a grin as he took a scalpel into his hand.

Then suddenly the man fell on the floor and behind him stood Claire and Sophia with a shovel.

"Take that you crazy bastard! That's for Emma!" Sophia screamed as she laughed like a maniac.

Claire came to me and started untying me up.

"Are you okay?" she asked and I slowly shook my head.

I looked at my arms and tears started streaming from my face.

They were studded with bruises and cuts, with blood dripping alongside them.

"Gals, I think we have unfinished business here." Sophia said and pointed to the two rabbits and staff standing frozen in the middle of the room.

I stood up and scanned the room, searching for a weapon. Then, after a while, I saw a red axe in the corner. I made a few steps forward and took her in my hands.

"Well then. What are we waiting for?" I said as I marched to the bunnies.

********

"How did you find me?" I asked when we exited the asylum.

"We saw you getting carried by the staff somewhere, so we just followed them, since we thought they were taking you to the "special room". I guess we were right." Claire explained as she cleaned the blood from her face.

I laughed a bit and then paused.

I slowly looked back at the asylum and my chest tightened.

"I can't believe we are finally out of that hellhole." Sophia said, and I shook my head.

"Maybe, someday, the magic will return to Wonderland again. For now, let's go back home. I concluded I will forever remain Mad Alice, whether I like it or not." I said and turned back.

"Well, you can be mad with us." Claire smiled and looked at me.

"I suppose." I chuckled as we headed back.

********

I opened my eyes just to wake up under a tree alongside Sophia and Claire.

It was the same tree where my adventure started.

I just noticed we were all still bloody, but honestly, I didn't mind.

Sophia and Claire both opened their eyes and looked around just to see a small girl standing a few metres from us in her strawberry dress and curiosity in her eyes.

"What happened to you?" she asked shyly and I smiled.

"Can you keep a secret?"