Little Alice

Poor, beautiful little Alice... She was such a lovely girl, always wearing frilly, blue, pink, and yellow dresses. She was adored for her imagination, and loved by everyone, her parents most of all. Perhaps however, her imaginations was to powerful.

Childhood
At the age of five, Alice was only as cute as a button, and her imagination would run wild. She had the most wild dreams of crazed animals, gigantic flowers, tiny people, and it was all non sense! However, in this fantasy dream world, she felt at home,she felt right. Her parents never had issues getting her to go to sleep, and whenever they asked if her she wanted to stay up for a night, she would always reply with, "No! My hatter is waiting!" and rush off to bed. They would laugh it off, knowing the hatter was a friend she fantasized about in her dreams.

One day though, Alice noticed her dreams began to leak into her waking life. She felt no fear, no worry, only happiness that she could visit her wonderlands whenever she wished. She began telling her parents, friends, and other family of this fantastical non sense world, they would tell her it was only her imagination, and that it wasn't real, but the more they said, the more aggressively she pushed that it was real. Eventually, the family came to the decision to have her evaluated. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and fearing the loss of their daughter, the parents agreed to take in a nurse, one that would act in place of a nanny, but would actually be in charge of watching Alice's development, an extended study of sorts.

Just like the rest, Alice would try and push her fantasies onto the nurse, and at first the nurse would report truthfully, that Alice was still seeing things. However, as time went on, and Alice's parents became more and more distant, the nurse began to love Alice. Having never had a child, out of inability due to being infertile, she would accept Alice's fantasies, but also put her own motherly fantasies onto Alice.

One day however, the nurse reported seeing... things... Shadows, animals with disconnected, yet fully working limbs, and people with long, stretched smiles and pale skin... One in particular, a tall lanky man wearing a suit of patches and tears was always around Alice. When asked about him, Alive would simply say, "He's my hatter." After a few days of these delusions, the nurses reports became more and more nerve racking, she was seeing dead people, families, things she couldn't even describe, or wouldn't. She committed suicide soon after.

After the death, Alice's parents were force to have her admitted to a mental care institution. She was only there for two months, but the doctors said that she had made tremendous progress, and was ready to return home. So she did, and Alice went back to ordinary life. Spending time with school friends, playing games, anything a normal child would do. About a year later, both of her parents committed suicide, the reason is still unknown. Alice was then sent to live in an orphanage, where, until she was grown, nothing happened, but her imagination did once again begin to flourish...

Adulthood
After leaving the orphanage, Alice made a life. She got a job at a local theater, and apartment, she was on track, but her imagination was as powerful as ever. If you were to take a peek through her eyes you might see people as steam power robots, or anthropomorphic animals, maybe even disfigured humans with white, pale skin and long smiles. She would often refer to people as what she saw, like a cashier she called "Rabbit Man" or her neighbor which she called "The Tin Women".

Eventually, Alice found a man who she called her "Hatter", that was his name to her. Over time, the two fell in love and moved in together, sharing a life together, they were happy. Alice still only ever called him her hatter, and never once used his real name, at times even disputing what the mans name was.

When it seemed to go to far, the man finally asked her why she called him her hatter. Alice began to explain her childhood... How she had seen things her whole life, and how she couldn't understand why no one else saw them. After all was said, the man asked, "Well, you know it's only your imagination, right?" This one phrase set off a series of fights, Alice defending her reality, and the man trying to pull her into his reality.

One morning however, the man woke to the same fate as the nurse, so many years ago. He saw things... strange things. he saw all the walls of their apartment covered in hundreds of different wall papers, each with it's own unique design and coloring, the floor beneath their bed had become grass that he could feel between his toes, the mirror in their bathroom had become a painting of a sad clown, and a giant tree grew in their living room! Over time the man saw more and more, strange animals and people... He couldn't explain it. He wondered if Alice's reality was the true reality after all... Deciding to take a look out side, he opened the door to the apartment and stepped outside.

What he saw was a wretched, horrid beast... It was like a cat, with a dogs face, covered in blue fur, and lined with holes that oozed a thick red liquid akin to blood. It bared it's fangs at the man, and a horrible sound echoed from it's mouth, the whimper of a baby that soon became a roaring cry. He ran from the beat, and into the apartment, opening the door to their bedroom, dashing in, and closing it behind him.

Alice was sitting on the bed, wearing the filly blue dress she was famous for, but it was different... It was covered in blood stains all around the bottom. A white apron, which was also covered in blood stains, fit over the front of the dress. Sitting at the edge of the bed, she asked, "What is the matter, my hatter?"

The man explained how he could see things... things that should not exist. Alice became giggly and excited, about how he was finally seeing it, seeing her world. He didn't understand... he couldn't. How was he seeing her delusions? Was it a shared hallucination? What was going on? His mind raced, fearing what might appear before him next. Alice stood and walked towards the man... Without a word more she planted her lips onto his, and took his face into her palms, and feeling her warm red lips, he melted into the kiss, closing his eyes.

Soon, as if triggered by the kiss, the man was confronted with an onslaught of memories... Of how as a child he would see things... fantastical things, the same things he was seeing now. He remembered killing his parents, thinking they were monsters, and being sent to the orphanage, meeting the girl who called him her hatter... Then being bullied so horribly that he locked it all away inside his memories, to never see that world again.

As the man opened his eyes, his clothes had changed, he was now wearing a patch work suit, and holding a long kitchen knife, with circles carved into the blade. On the other end of the blade was Alice, who he plunged the dagger into, and as he looked down, she held a similar dagger into him, together, in each others arms, they collapsed...

About a week later they were found, and the police classified it was a double suicide and moved on... This however, was not the case.

We moved. Not homes, not places, we moved worlds. We went back home. We're here now, in the world of fantastical dreams, and if you ever wish to visit, just close your eyes, and imagine.