Down the rabbit hole

It was two o’clock in the morning when the library clock stroke midnight. Alice always considered it to be a confusing description, but there was no other way around it. The library, below the flat she was renting, worked as a portal between the two worlds—Svetvselenoi where something unexplainable ruled and the Earth where humans were living—worked.  

If you looked out the library windows, you would see Barcelona’s golden veins intertwining in what was supposed to be a sleeping city, but megapolises never rest. That was the first rule Alice learned after moving to a big city. The second one was that there was always so much you could do that Alice got lost in a hurricane of choices and possibilities. She was almost always late to almost everywhere, although that could be due to her not sleeping at night which ended up in her having to cancel half of her meetings which then irritated people with whom she couldn’t meet. It was an endless loop, but she couldn’t help but patiently wait for twelve o’clock each day. Unbelievable and fascinating things happened at that time.

Alice picked up the book which she used to be obsessed with when she was younger: “Alice in Wonderland”. Her love mostly grew from the fact that she shared a name with the protagonist, but that never stopped her from enjoying the arcs of other characters and their personal developments. When Alice grew up, she spent less time by the book, and more outside with her friends. However, that didn’t stop her from coming back to the story from time to time. Alice looked at the book cover and with regret in her eyes noticed that the flame of love, that was brightly burning in her heart once upon a time, was now no more than an old flickering candle.

The young woman’s fingertips ran around the book pages, crossing the words that used to breathe magic in her life, before stopping on chapter 11. The familiar pages brought good memories back, which made Alice sigh. She whispered two words, praying it would work this time like every other before:

“Dver otkroysya”

The golden particles began circling Alice, sticking to her skin and covering her whole body in the gleaming dust from head to toe. She felt like she was floating in the air, but that wasn’t the truth. She could see her feet stuck to the ground. She started breathing quicker as the dust has flown into her lungs, any minute it could explode and leave nothing of the girl and the library, but that’s not how magic worked. You felt like you would die any second, but that’s just the process of transportation. Alice smiled to herself, already tasting the wonders of the other world on her tongue. Before she could wander about how long it would take her to get there, she fainted. 

The journey between the two worlds felt like a rollercoaster rush where you’re constantly up and down but the inconsistency of the ride is what makes the trip so thrilling and weirdly pleasant. Despite feeling that she was all over the place, Alice knew that she was constantly falling down because that’s the only way you could go in the rabbit hole. No matter where you started or where you’re going, you’re going down it; other choice are simply non-existent.

Finally, after a long journey, Alice fell on the evergreen grass. Landings in the Wonderland were always soft which was just another bonus of coming to this extraordinary country. Alice stood up and looked around. Seeing flying boots, clouds that chatted with each other and birds in hats, somehow set her at ease. The land was quite different from gloomy London Alice was from and sunny Barcelona she was currently living in. Wonderland was the only place she could call home.

Although, Alice had to note that impressions were almost always wrong. Even though Wonderland looked like a carefree place, it wasn’t in reality. Quite the opposite actually. There were many rabbit holes in the land, maybe too many. Some were invisible and could take you God knows where and there was often no way of coming back. The mission of the rabbit hole was to provide a journey from Wonderland to some other place. Alice had already been to couple of destinations, such as Cinderella’s castle, Ariel’s kingdom and others (of which she couldn’t keep the track of). Another thing she had to remember was constantly checking the time—it flowed differently depending on where you were. In Cinderella’s tale, everything went faster and each hour spent there equalled to a day spent on Earth. Alice didn’t know that so once she disappeared for almost a week and scared her friends to death. Obviously, Wonderland wasn’t an exception for the time zones, but to Alice’s surprise, the difference between the times wasn’t grand, just two hours.

Walking straight to the young woman was a blonde girl with twinkling blue eyes, in a bright blue dress. She smiled and greeted everyone she saw, not worrying about some of the creatures' responses (which were often rude). Surely, it wasn’t hard to guess the girl. It was Alice. The one that accidently got into Wonderland. In the children’s book, she came back to her usual world and stayed there but not in the actual tale.

“Hello, Alice! Haven’t seen you here in a long time”

“Hi, it was just two days”

“Well, time flies by differently for everyone. How are you?”

“Better than the last time if that’s what you mean”

“I meant nothing but was rather genuinely concerned for you. And if you got an impression that I meant something, then I’m sorry I didn’t mean to—”

“Everything is alright, nothing to worry about”—Alice (who lives on Earth) said. One thing she knew for sure was that you should do everything in your power to keep inhabitants of Wonderland from getting themselves into a loop.

“What do you want to explore today?”

“Nothing, actually. I won’t be here for long tonight”

“Why not? I thought you liked it here”

“Oh, I do, very much, but I’m trying to stick to my sleeping schedule so I will be able to do all the essential business on Earth and get some sleep and spend time here too, but that unfortunately means me having to cut down some of my time in Wonderland”

“Well, I think that’s pure rubbish, but if you truly believe it would help you, then do it”

“Thank you, Alice. I don’t want to hold you for long,” said woman, suddenly becoming aware that there’s a queue behind her that was waiting to talk to the ‘Princess of Wonderland and Earth’ “It seems you have important matters to solve”

“Yeah, it seems like I do. Goodbye, then the girl who has the same name as me. I’m glad I came across you; hopefully, we’re going to see you here sooner than later”

“Hopefully…Goodbye, Alice”

“Farewell”

The two parted and went their own ways. Alice (the one who lives in Barcelona) decided to wander around the grounds. To her right, the Dark Forest stood with some of the most dangerous creatures ever living there. It was prohibited to enter the forest unless you had a special pass which pretty much no one did. On Alice’s left, there was the castle which was in many people’s opinion just as dangerous as the forest because of the Queen of Hearts. In the outside world, some believed that she died some time after Alice visited the place, but that was a lie. On contrary, she was doing well.

Suddenly, Alice got tired of standing so she decided to lie down. She looked at the crystal blue sky and thought about the lives of those in Wonderland, about how she would love to live here, but sadly she couldn’t do that safely. Her body couldn’t hold the magic for long enough to live in the land for even an Earth month, never mind the whole year. Some were born into a world, they weren’t meant to be in, like the other Alice, but that wasn’t the case with the young woman. She hung her head low, as the Wonderland started to lose its bright colours. She knew that happened only to someone who couldn’t see the beauty of the craziness anymore. That was a signal for Alice to leave.

She stood up and walked to the rabbit hole she disliked the most, the one that would always bring her to the place she tried to avoid, the place she was born at: the Earth. The journey back there wasn’t as pleasant because of the heaviness that like a rock drowned her soul. Finally, she opened her eyes and lifted her head up from the hardwood floor of the library. She sighed, absolutely disappointed in herself. Alice stood up (again) and went to her bedroom to get as much beauty sleep as possible. It was four o’clock in the morning when the library clock stroke two.