Hey, wait…
I look down and it is a light blue dress with a white apron. Wiggling my feet, I see white socks and flat, black Mary Janes. Oh, for heaven's sake. I’m Alice.
Expecting to land on the floor of the well, I am surprised when I have fast forwarded to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. I land in a seat next to the Hatter, who peers at me with familiar blue eyes from underneath his extravagant top hat.
“Oh, for fuck's sake,” I grumble, and he looks at me severely.
“Is that any way for a young lad
y to speak?” comes his very clipped, very British accent, even more pronounced under the circumstances. “Have some tea,” he pushes a China cup, much like my own, towards me.
“I’ll pass, thanks. If I recall, the March Hare offered wine first. Now that, I’ll take,” I say, pushing the cup delicately away from me.
“Hm, there isn’t any,” he says, and I pull my face at him. “And your hair wants cutting,” he adds softly, and that makes me snort in amusement.
“You like the book, then? I’d like it back. In exactly the same condition as when you stole it.”
“Borrowed it,” he corrects me with a rap on my knuckles with his pocket watch.
“Hey,” I say, rubbing them.
“Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” he says instead.
“Seriously?” I ask and he tilts his head to the side, and I indulge him just out of something to do but skipping ahead a few pages. “I think you might do something better with the time, then wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers,” I quote.
Delighted, he replies, “If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.”
Gee, that sounds familiar...
“I don’t know what you mean.” I carry on the conversation directly from the book.
“Of course you don’t!” he says as contemptuously as, no doubt, the Hatter would have. “I dare say you never even spoke to Time.” He bangs his fist on the table and all the cups jump.
The Dormouse starts to sing, “Twinkle, Twinkle, little bat; How I wonder what you’re at…” and I stand. I am so out of here.
“Where are you going?” Remiel asks me.
“Anywhere but here. This is the stupidest tea party I was ever at in all my life!” I huff at him as I stamp my foot and he cackles.
“Oh, Alice. You are a joy to play with. Don’t you see how much fun we could have? Every day could be a new adventure, every night a new experience.”
I stare at him now, unable to answer him. My voice has gone and all I can hear now is the Dormouse singing: Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle… as I spiral up and out of the dream, sitting up in bed with a start.
It is still dark outside, the rain falling softly, the slight breeze blowing the curtain through the partially cracked window. Cole is already up and in the bathroom. I catch my breath and then, I lose my temper. The bed starts to rumble underneath me as the ground did last night and I can hear the rattling of the ornaments.
I open my mouth and shriek at the top of my voice, “RRRRRRRRRREMIEL!” The windowpanes threaten to splinter, and Cole rushes out of the bathroom, steadying himself against the tremor I am causing. The door bursts open and everyone else rushes in to see what the problem is, in various states of awake.
“Liv, what the fuck?” Cole shouts above the roar of the wind that has blown the French doors wide open, letting in the rain, that is now lashing down. I am standing in that stupid Alice dress, with my hair whipping up around me as I call G.I. to my hand. I am finishing him once and for all. He has violated my dreams for the last time.
“Show yourself!” I yell at thin air and I’m sure everyone thinks my marbles have scattered, as I stand there in all my blazing glory, brandishing the sword with an ethereal finesse I wouldn’t claim to have, had you asked me before this moment. It is quite possible that I have gone loopy, as this is one of those Power rushes that has come out of nowhere and for no real reason. Yes, he was in my dream, trying to coax me into staying, but I know better now. It was a silly Wonderland dream, no harm, no foul…and yet. Why am I so angry? The prickle down my shoulder and arm distracts me enough to lose the rush as it is bordering on too painful to bear and I let the sword go, to the relief of every creature in the room. Gripping my right shoulder, I hiss and see that everyone is staring at me in horror. It takes me a moment to understand why, but it hits me as the claws I had been raking down my own arm reaches my fingertips and I run out of flesh to gouge.
“Shit,” I mumble, expecting my fangs to have dropped as well, but they haven’t. I am not all Vamped out. Only my left hand has a set of claws, that actually aren’t even Vampire claws now that I look at them. More like five, black, razor sharp claws. Talons, rather than claws. Oh, crap. Am I turning into some sort of Bird freak now? I turn hastily to the mirror and to my relief, I look like me, but my Dragon eyes have made an appearance. Oh, not so much a Bird freak then, as a partial Dragon Shift. My bad.
“You are so dead, the next time I see you! Do you hear me?” I yell and I hear the loud rumble coming from all over. “Such fun!” he exclaims. “Whatever next?”
“Rah!” I make a noise of frustration and stamp my feet. I notice the returned book to my bedside cabinet and sit heavily on the bed to pick it up. It is completely intact, and I am at least grateful for that. My treasure is unharmed.
“Liv?” Cole ventures after what seems like an hour.