XSmoke and FireX

*Down the Rabbit Hole*

Screaming. Screaming was all Alice heard for days. The darkness was all she saw, though she heard. It made sense to her. She had died. The fire took her life as well as the lives of her family. Why she couldn't see or hear them she didn't know. They should be dead just like her. Perhaps she was being punished for her cowardice. She sat, meditating on this. Almost for a full year, locking herself as far away from the world as she could. Hiding from it. Something in her was shattered, and she was left staring into the broken mirror.

Then came the light. It was something that should have been so refreshing, so wonderful. But it was horrifying. As the bandages came off and Alice saw for the first time. She stared up at the fluorescent lighting and her chest felt empty, and she knew for the first time that she wasn't dead. She was alive. She was, her family wasn't. She had made it. This ripped the girl apart. Her mind tearing itself to shreds as nothing broke through the darkness. The darkness was nothing but the wall between reality and her mind, as her mind became nothing but a repeated reel of the death. Words became twisted, and she could hear her parents screaming for her to save them. OVer. Over. Over. The unending torture of the screams. Endless screams! There were days she could do nothing but scream herself trying to silence them. But they wouldn't be silenced. They grew louder. She listened as they bounced about in her head just when she felt she couldn't stand them any longer they… silenced.

There was nothing. No sounds, not the sound of her mind, but people seemed to have no sound either. Watching the people move their mouths but no sound came from them. It was a curious sight to be sure. More than a little unsettling as even if Alice wanted to know what they were talking about she couldn't hear them. It felt like time was rushing past her at alarming speeds as new days and nights came and went quickly. Though they began slowing down and the world was coming back to perspective. But only just barely. Scenes that were hazy and distorted. Were they Wonderland or perhaps the asylum? She couldn't tell. The only thing that wove its way between the lines of Wonderland was the White Rabbit. It was always at her side in the darkness no matter what fuzzy scenery permeated her madness, the rabbit was always there. It was a quiet witness to the abuse and misery.

Alice blinked the ceiling of the room suddenly coming into view. She looked about realizing her arms were empty. She sat up in a second, looking around frantically. Where was her rabbit? She began breathing heavily as her panic spread. She leapt out of her bed and tore the bland room apart. Flipping furniture and throwing the covers all over. It was soon apparent that the stuffed toy was no longer in the room. Alice ran to the door, and threw herself against it and it fell open.

Alice hit the tile floor hard. Her teeth clacked together and hit her head on the floor. She jumped up in the next second, looking back and forth. The hall stretched in white, unchanging light. The sound of flickering lightbulbs permeated the silence though no lights flickered. Screams and laughter of the mad interrupted the quiet and there was no sign of where the rabbit had gone. Alice walked out into the hall, her room door creaking shut behind her. The hall stretched in uniformity, white doors sitting in perfect unison every few feet from each other.

Alice walked carefully down the center of the hall, there was nothing different. Alice couldn't shake the feeling something was very wrong. She skirted around a door, that looked just the same as the rest but Alice felt it was dark. Her morbid curiosity got the best of her and she walked to the door's small window. It was too high for her and she had to stand on her tiptoes and pull herself up to the small glass. She saw a room almost equal to her own but empty.

With a horrid screech, a child's distorted and bloody face flew into sight. She jumped and repelled herself to the floor. She hit the floor and the wind was knocked clean out of her. She gasped violently, eyes shut tight. She held her ribs as she seized on the floor. When she finally got the air back into her lungs she was able to look back to the face. It was a child's face, but covered in blood and filled with holes. Eyes bruised and blackened from the terrible treatments that the hospital would administer.

Alice forced herself to look away and back to the hallway. Every door had a window and every one looked more and more sinister. Alice stood up, shaking violently, she was terrified to continue. She swallowed thickly, she had to find her rabbit. Alice continued walking holding herself and shaking. Not daring to look at any of the windows, but the fresh terror of the idea something would sprint from any of the rooms and overcome her. Alice had broken out in a sweat, and tears began leaking lazily from her eyes. The screams and moans from all the rooms made her jump and shake more. Yet she pressed on.

"Rabbit?" She weakly called out. Voice shaky, barely coming out in a raspy whisper. "Rabbit!" She called louder and stronger. Gathering her courage, what little of it she still had.

"Alice?" A hallowed and seemingly disembodied voice called back. It sounded almost familiar however Alice couldn't exactly place it.

"Hello?" Alice called back, hoping it was a nurse or a doctor. Like the nice nurse who liked to speak sweetly to her. "Nurse?"

"Oh Alice…."

Alice stopped moving, an end to the hall in sight. Alice was getting too warm. Practically swimming in sweat as the hall became an inferno. Alice shook in a sob, feeling sick as she stiffly continued on. The end of the hall was a set of double doors. A large sign over the door, when Alice got closer she was able to read it.

Mortuary

Alice's chest felt empty. Her throat felt like it was closing up. She put her hand on the large white door, her strength failing her. She meekly pushed on the door, but with no strength she couldn't budge it. Alice gave another weak sob and pushed all her weight on it and it slowly opened. Alice slid into the room as the door was heavy. The door closed and Alice was left in darkness. She pushed herself against the door but there was no light anymore. Nothing.

Slowly, a small orange light glowed in the far distance. Alice couldn't open the door behind her, as if it was locked. Perhaps only able to be opened from one side. Alice turned back to the small growing light and began walking towards it with little other choice. As the light grew Alice began to hear the snapping and crackling of fire. It made her shake harder than she already was. The orange glow leaked from the small ball in the distance to a full wall of yellows, reds, and oranges. Alice shuffled along, barely moving her feet. Looking down at the sliding motions she made. The cold and smooth concrete roughly passing beneath her feet and chilling her through to the bones. Like she'd been doused with cold water on an ever colder day. Goosebumps prickled along her skin as a cold, empty wave overcame her. Inner organs seemingly falling into a deep dark ocean inside her body.

Fire shadows danced along the unending dark walls. Alice was well aware of what she was getting herself into, knew exactly what lay ahead of her. She couldn't look away, couldn't deter. As if possessed, she moved slowly toward the dancing lights. She was able to make out shadows among the lights. The closer she got, the more detailed the shadows became. Alice recognized the tall, burly figure of her father first. The broad shoulders of her father that once had been so comforting seemed much more intimidating now. Her mother was the second figure she recognized. Not quite the smallest but very close to the size of the third figure. Her mother was a gentle soul but now seemed very disappointed in her. The last figure was Lizzie. Alice couldn't place the reasoning but she felt a very acute fear with the appearance of her sister.

Why did this feeling of dread come over her? She had never been so afraid of her family before. It seemed so very insane. Perhaps, she was insane. Alice finally tore her gaze from the looming shadows. Looking to her feet. She had stopped moving and the shaking had stopped. Now a slow moment had brought a strange wave of calm over her. Perhaps she was giving into her illness. Or her wounds. Whichever. Did it matter at this point? It was this revelation that gave her a moment of comfort. Finally, finally.

Alice gave a small smile and a sigh of relief. She began the walk toward her family, but her family seemed to get farther and farther away. Alice noticed this and began running for them. Never getting closer. Alice began crying and screaming for her family. Screaming their names and for them to come back. Instead the darkness flowed in and the small light flickering in the distance before going out completely. Alice screamed to the darkness, unconsolable. Then shooting up in her bed screaming to the echoing walls.

"Alice!" An ever so familiar voice scoffed. Alice stopped her screaming and looked at her ever familiar white rabbit, staring at her.

"Rabbit?" Alice asked innocently. Eyes filled with tears, sniffling and crying. "Rabbit."

"Oh Alice…" Rabbit Sighed. "See how far you've fallen." The rabbit sighed and ran off stopping at the vanity. Alice wiped her eyes angrily and got out of her bed to follow. The Rabbit hopped up onto a desk and through a large book. Alice followed and picked up the book. It had no words but there were drawings. Pictures on one side of her rabbit and on the other side was a picture of the rabbit in a waistcoat the way he was in Wonderland, She hesitated, wondering where her rabbit was going to lead her this time. The last place she'd been led was less than pleasant. She turned to the page with her picture on it.

On the one side was an exact copy of her, as she was. Sickly, pale and ill. However one the other side, a tall dark and beautiful figment of her imagination. Alice's heart trembled in a small way knowing this wonderful creature was her. She and her, one and the same. Alice closed her eyes and held the pictures close to her and in the next moment it sort of felt like she was free floating. She opened her eyes in panic when something brushed past her hair. She was falling. The book floated away from her and Alice noticed her hair, long and flowing behind her. Looking down her dark dress flowing around her. She smiled, Wonderland was calling….