Down We Go

Alice sat alone in the cold, dim holding cell, her face emotionless and eyes fixated on something distant. Fragmented memories from Alice's childhood emerged as she hummed an settling tune. Flashes of a rundown house appeared before her eyes, along with muffled screams and her father's drunken rage. She saw herself as a little girl, cowering in the cramped closet with her small hands over her ears, trying in vain to drown out the sounds of violence from downstairs. Her mother's cries and pleading mixed with the sickening thuds of flesh meeting flesh. When at last there was silence, Alice would emerge from her hiding place on trembling legs. Often, she found her mother slumped and sobbing on the kitchen floor, her pale face bruised and swollen. The young Alice did not understand the hatred between her parents. She only knew there was darkness in their home. As she grew older, the fights grew more frequent and brutal.

One night, the screaming reached a fever pitch and was abruptly cut short. With dread in her heart, Alice crept to the top of the stairs and peered down into the still house. On the floor below, her father stood over her mother's lifeless body, a crazed look in his eyes. He spotted Alice then and started for the stairs, causing her to shriek in terror. She turned and fled, running into the night as fast as her legs could carry her. Behind her, the wails of sirens grew louder, but Alice did not stop until she collapsed in the forest, exhausted and alone. There in the forest is when she first saw the white rabbit...

Alice was jolted from her reverie as the heavy cell door creaked open. Two large orderlies stood gripping her elbows as they led her from the holding area. She moved as if in a trance, barely registering her surroundings as fragmented memories continued to surface.

They emerged into the bright sunlight outside, temporarily blinding Alice after so long in the dim cell. As her vision adjusted, she saw they had arrived at the imposing courthouse. A crowd had gathered, shouting and jeering as she escorted up the stone steps.

"Madwoman!"

"Lock her up!"

"She's a danger to society!"

Alice tuned out the insults and stared straight ahead, showing no reaction to the onlookers. Inside, however, her heart pounded as the reality of the situation set in. She was about to stand trial for her supposed crimes—crimes that in her mind she did not commit, though she could no longer be sure what was real.

The orderlies pushed open the heavy doors and half-dragged Alice inside the austere courtroom. All eyes turned to stare as she shuffled to the defendant's table, eyes downcast. Deep in thought, Alice did not notice the judge had entered until a gavel struck, echoing in the silent room. Her trial was about to begin. As the droning voices of the court faded into the background, Alice's mind began to drift once more. She gazed out the grimy window at the forest in the distance, seeing not the gnarled treetops but the entrance to a burrow.

A twitching white rabbit peered out at her, its eyes gleaming red in the shadows. Beckoning. Alice rose unsteadily and shuffled towards the light, drawn by some unseen force. The jeers and shouts of the crowd melted away as she followed the rabbit down into the earth.

The burrow narrowed into a sloping tunnel, its earthen walls closing in around her slender frame. Alice continued blindly onwards, her hands trailing along the cool dirt. Up ahead, dancing motes of light hovering like will-o-wisps, guiding her ever deeper.

After what seemed like an eternity, the tunnel began to change.The dirt gave way to smooth stone, and the close press of the walls fell away. Alice emerged into a vast cavern, its ceiling lost to blackness high above. Mushroom clusters dotted the cavern floor, their caps glowing with an eerie phosphorescence that lit the way. Alice's eyes went wide, for everywhere she looked, impossible things were happening. Plants and trees grew to massive size, their twisting boughs forming natural archways and bridges across the yawning chasm.

As Alice gazed entranced at the surreal landscape before her, a cold chill crept over the cavern. The glowing fungi dimmed as shadows stretched long across the stone. A cheshire cat appeared grinning a twisted grin that seemed to widen unnaturally in the gloom as it faded from view. A sense of unease stole over Alice as the first drops of a crimson rain began to fall. They splattered on the mushrooms, staining their caps bloody hues. Thorns and briars sprang up, twisting around the trees and strangling their gnarled trunks. Poisonous flowers bloomed, their sickly-sweet scent cloying the air. Alice spun slowly, watching in horror as Wonderland transformed before her eyes.

The cavern walls bled, their stone faces contorting into grotesque grimaces. Bones and corpses of animals emerged from the earth, rising to stand amidst the twisted foliage as ghosts with empty sockets for eyes. From the depths of the chasm arose a cacophony of screams and mad cackling on the wind. Alice clapped her hands over her ears, but still the sounds wormed their way inside her mind. She fell to her knees amidst the crimson soak shaking violently as Wonderland was consumed by dark decay. Right in front of her, a scarlet dressed queen manifested laughing unnervinly wicked. She stopped abruptly, and when at last, Alice dared open her eyes, unnatural silence descended on the twisted woods. And in that silence, Alice heard the beating of her own heart as she layed eyes on the face of the blood queen standing in her midst with a face of her own except a few extra characteristics such as a top hat and cat eyes with the Cheshire grin to match.

"Who are you?" Alice asked, rising to her feet.

The doppleganger let out a chuckled sigh, snapping its head to the side with a disgusting bone crunch. "I am the Red Queen," she walked slowly towards her, Alice noticed not once did this creature blink. Her voice was as if three people spoke in perfect harmony. She conjured a black rose handing it to Alice, and as she grabbed it, a thorn pricked her finger. She winced, dropping the flower, and it cascaded quickly in between her shoes. She looked at the wound, it bled but the blood turned to a tar black liquid that started consuming her hand like a hastily growing fungus. She clawed at it, but it just made it spread. The more it grew, the more an overwhelming sense of death flooded Alice head as she saw flashes of her life play reels in her mind. The Doppleganger knelt down, peering at her as if scanning her facial features as she convulsed on the ground like a dying leech. "The question is who are you and why do you look like me!?"

The screams echoing in Alice's mind jerked her back to reality with a start. She found herself on her feet, chest heaving as she stared unseeing around the courtroom. The crowd had fallen deathly silent, all eyes fixed on her with a mixture of fear and revulsion. Slowly, Alice became aware of the judge regarding her from the bench, his brow furrowed deeply.

As their eyes met, he shook his head sadly and lifted the gavel. "This court has no choice but to declare Alice Liddell criminally insane," he boomed. "She is hereby committed to Rutledge Asylum indefinitely." At his pronouncement, Alice snapped. Memories of Wonderland's decay melded with the present, twisting the courtroom into a hellish vision. She saw not the judge but the Red Queen, condemning her with gleeful malice.

"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!" Alice shrieked, lunging at the bench with hands curled into claws. Before she could reach her target, orderlies tackled her from both sides, bearing her struggling to the floor.

Chaos erupted in the courtroom as Alice thrashed and shrieked against her restraints. It took four large orderlies to subdue her flailing limbs and force her into submission. Her crazed laughter echoed off the high ceilings, mingling with the shouts and screams of the panicked onlookers. Benches were overturned as the crowd surged away from the deranged woman, mothers shielding children's eyes. The judge pounded his gavel furiously to restore order, but his cries went unheeded amid the pandemonium.

Alice writhed on the floor, her eyes rolling wildly as she was pinned in place. Frothing at the mouth, she snapped and snarled like a rabid animal at any who dared approach. Two orderlies gripped her ankles while another straddled her legs, pinning her thighs down with his weight.

The last guard struggled to wrap the straitjacket tightly around Alice's thrashing torso, working quickly to bind her arms to hersides. With a final yank of the buckles, she was immobilized. Her screams dissolved to muffled howls as the guards hoisted her limp body from the floor. Dragging and lifting the bucking, spitting form between them, the orderlies fought their way through the chaos towards the exit. Alice's crazed laughter followed in their wake as she was hauled away.

The courtroom faded into darkness, another lost memory as Alice slipped into an exhausted stupor. When she awoke, she found herself sitting alone on a hard wooden bench, her limbs still bound tightly in the straitjacket.

Through the small barred window, she saw only empty fields rolling by as the police carriage rattled down the barren road. Alice sat numb and unmoving, her mind as blank as the desolate landscape outside. All traces of the former woman she knew herself to be had been erased, leaving only a hollow shell. As the carriage wheels crunched over the gravel, Alice gazed, unseeing at the gathering clouds. Her breath fogged the small windowpane, but she made no move to wipe away the condensation. Inside, a deep emptiness had opened up, swallowing her memories and dreams into an abyss.

In the distance, a forbidding structure of dark stone loomed into view through the mist. Alice watched impassively as the carriage rolled to a creaking halt before the ominous iron gates of Rutledge Asylum. Her journey into madness had reached its destination, and Wonderland's hold on her soul was now complete. The carriage door swung open with a rusty squeal, jolting Alice from her numb stupor. A burly guard leaned in, his face set in a grim expression.

"End of the line, girl," he grunted, unbuckling her restraints.

Alice slid limply from the bench and allowed herself to be led without protest. Her bare feet dragged through the gravel as the guard half-carried her exhausted form. Before them, the iron gates stood open like a maw, beckoning her into the depths of Rutledge Asylum.

As they crossed the threshold, Alice gazed up at the towering edifice looming above. It was as if a great stone monster crouched upon the cliffs, its shadow engulfing the grounds. Narrow windows like eyes peered down, observing her every move. Somewhere within those walls, her fate awaited.

The guard hauled Alice onwards, paying no heed as she stumbled and fell upon the steps. Her hands, still bound, scraped raw upon the stone. With a grunt, he hoisted her upright once more and shoved her through the massive oak doors. They closed with a resounding boom, sealing Alice in the gloom of Rutledge's corridors.

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