2Three shadowy figures looked out at a strange world through three large looking glasses arranged in a triangle. The world they watched tirelessly was a very strange one indeed, covered with fields of pink and red checked grass with a large, heart-covered castle and a vast expanse of dark woods.
"You know, the third is coming." Spoke one with purple glowing eyes.
"But the second hasn't even taken his place yet!" Cried one with glowing yellow eyes.
"It doesn't matter now." Muttered the final one, with glowing white eyes, "We cannot stop what is to come, only know and observe it."
"And occasionally meddle a little." Stated the one with purple eyes.
"Of course," The one with yellow eyes replied, grinning, "It's our world. We can meddle, if we like."
"So BORING!" Cried 16-year-old Alice Nacke, walking out her school's front doors. Actually, she wasn't going to be 16 for very long. Today was her birthday. By the time she had arrived at home she would be 17. Waving goodbye to her friends she headed off slowly to her house, which was only just down the street from her school. Alice walked slowly to her house, looking around and admiring the scenery. A warm breeze blew past, ruffling her dirty blonde hair and the oversized sweatshirt she was wearing. The bright sun shone in her content brown eyes, and glinted off her pale skin. It was winter, but today had been oddly warm and sunny. She was a little more than halfway home when she heard the sound of bare feet running somewhere nearby, and claws clicking on concrete.
"I don't remember anyone around here having a dog..." Alice muttered, turning around just in time to see a quickly moving flash of white run past. Blinking in surprise a few times, she looked after the strange person who ran past her. Then, she growled and began to run after the figure.
"YOU COULD'VE SAID 'EXCUSE ME'!" she roared as she sprinted after the flash of white. She followed the figure through the woods that ran behind the school for about 10 minutes before it finally slowed down. Peering through some bushes at the entrance to a clearing where the figure had stopped, Alice managed to catch a glimpse of who it was.
"My god..." she gasped, eyes widening. Standing at the entrance to a large hole in the ground was a rather large rabbit. It was pure white with black tips on its ears. But the strangest thing was that it was wearing a dark blue vest and a pair of silver reading glasses. It pulled a paw in front of its face and Alice could see it was looking at a watch. The moment it looked at the time, its light blue eyes widened and it jumped up in the air.
"I'M LATE!" it cried unhappily, jumping feet first down into the hole. After a few seconds, Alice regained her sense from the shock of having a rabbit talk and crept up to the side of the hole. Peering in she craned her neck, narrowing her eyes to try to see where the rabbit could have gone. Suddenly the spot at the edge of the hole that her hand was gripping gave way and she tumbled headfirst down into the hole. Screaming, she plummeted into the dark abyss of the rabbit hole.
Alice had been falling for what seemed like hours and had grown quite bored of it when she suddenly heard a loud ticking noise growing closer and closer. Looking around to find the source of the sound, she noticed that she was now falling past several clocks, each reading a different time and seemingly suspended in midair. Trying to read each clock became harder as her falling speed began to increase and quite soon she found herself having landed on a large pile of pillows.
"I'M LATE!" she heard from further down the hall and, jumping up quickly, she ran to follow. Once again she caught up with the rabbit, but this time she was very surprised to see that it wasn't a rabbit anymore. Well...not completely anyway. He looked quite a bit human. He had pale skin and white curly hair. He was also dressed in the same dark blue vest and silver reading glasses over his bright blue eyes, but he had a dress shirt underneath with one sleeve stopping at the shoulder and the other continuing to the wrist. He also wore a pair of black pants that ended a few inches above his ankle. In fact, he now looked so human that the only things that hinted at his being a rabbit were two large, white rabbit ears with black tips that stood up from the top of his head, a small fluffy tail that sprouted from the seat of his pants, and the fact that he still had large feet and, like a rabbit, he was running on paws.
He stopped in front of a large, wooden door and turned around to look and see if anyone was following. Alice hid behind a wall, peering out to see him sniff the air a little, his nose twitching just like a rabbit's. Suddenly he reached up and pulled something hanging off one of his ears.
"His watch is attached to his ear?" Alice muttered, for sure enough, his pocket watch was attached to his ear by a seemingly adjustable-length chain. Looking at it again he nodded and began to hurriedly open the doors. What surprised Alice most was that, once the wooden doors were open, there were at least 5 more pairs of doors behind it, each one smaller than the last until they had shrunk to the size of a normal door on a house. Throwing open this last pair of doors, he darted through. Alice followed as soon as he had passed from her sight.
"Where is he going in such a hurry?" She wondered aloud. Walking through the doors she was blinded for a few seconds by a bright light. Once that had passed she looked around, realizing that she was in another forest. But this forest was unlike any she had ever seen. The tree trunks were bright green, while the leaves were almost every shade of blue imaginable. Outlandish, multicolored birds with saw-tooth bills flitted from branch to branch and odd lizards and mammals moved through the undergrowth. She peered around in wonder at the strange creatures and plants that surrounded her for quite some time before she heard voices somewhere to her right.
"I'm sorry I'm late!" Spoke a voice that she recognized as the White Rabbit. There was a loud groan, coming from several voices, and someone got off a very creaky tree branch.
"You're always late, Willian." Said a strange, almost melodious, female voice, "We've come to accept it by now." Alice crept closer, peering through the bright aquamarine bushes into a clearing. There she saw a very strange group indeed.
Sitting against a large tree was the White Rabbit, panting lightly from having run so far. On his right was a man in the strangest outfit she had ever seen. He wore a bright copper-orange trench coat and black pants. Under the trench coat was a pinstriped, dark grey vest from under which a white dress shirt's collar peeked. He had shiny, black shoes and appeared to be wearing fishnet, finger-less style gloves. Perched on his head was an oversized top hat with a slightly floppy brim, around which was wound a piece of red velvet covered in black lace. Sticking out of this were two pieces of paper, one being an Ace of Spades from a card deck, the other was covered by the Ace so much that she could only see a '0', part of a '/', and what appeared to be part of a '6'. He had messy black hair that contrasted starkly with his pale skin. He also had a wooden cane with brass on the top and bottom, which he obviously didn't need as it was being held over his shoulder, more like a person would carry a fishing rod than a cane.
In the middle of the group, sitting on top of a mushroom was a very strange person. From the waist up she looked relatively normal, having tan skin and wearing a bright blue tank top with green spots down the sides. But from the waist down she had the body of a bright blue caterpillar with bright yellow and green spots. She had long hair, the same color as her caterpillar half, and had a pair of antennae coming out of the top of her head. Her eyes were huge and glassy, being completely black and looking somewhat lens-covered, like those of a fly or beetle.
To the right of the caterpillar was another rabbit-person. He had large, floppy, brown ears and dusty-brown hair that went in every direction. His large eyes were a honey color and his skin was very tan. He wore a light green tank-top with a large 'H' on the front and around his neck, attached to a black velvet ribbon, was a small, ceramic teacup. His pants were a dark grey to his knees, where they suddenly became a patchwork of fabrics that were almost all of the colors of the rainbow and looked very much like stained glass. Alice also noticed that his feet were paws and that he had a spade earring and two studs in one ear.
Sitting on the ground at their feet were three small children. One looked to be only about 10 years old. He had grey-ish, messy hair and two mouse-like ears coming out of his head. He wore a white tuxedo shirt and a pair of slightly ragged dark grey pants. He looked very tired, eyes almost completely closed as he watched the adults speaking. The two next to him looked almost exactly the same as each other, so they were probably twins. They both wore matching jester costumes, but one had vertical stripes of black, red and yellow, while the other had horizontal stripes of black, blue, and turquoise. The one with vertical stripes looked male, and had red-orange hair with stripes of bright red and orange held back in a small ponytail. The one with horizontal stripes was obviously female as she had pigtails of black hair with stripes of blue and purple. She also had bells hanging off almost everywhere on her costume, while her brother had stars hanging off his costume. These two looked to be a few years older than the boy with mouse ears.
"We've just received news from Moira that Griffin has been taken by the Queen." The caterpillar woman announced, bringing Alice's focus back on her. Suddenly the brown rabbit started sniffing the air intently.
"I think you brought a spy back with you." He told the White Rabbit. The caterpillar woman nodded and began scanning the bushes along the edge of the clearing. Her eyes stopped exactly where Alice was hiding. She pointed at that spot. The man with the top hat stepped forward.
"Whoever you are, show yourself by order of the Resistance." He ordered. Alice didn't move, frozen in fear.
"If you don't come out, we will have no choice but to come in after you." Called the man with the top hat, in an even more frustrated and demanding voice. Alice still didn't move, deciding that if they came in after her, she could still run and evade them.
"I wouldn't try that if I were you." Came a soft, purring voice from right next to her left ear, "Running would be a very BAD idea." Alice turned around quickly, with a scared squeak.
Behind her stood another man, his bright green and yellow eyes glowing, and half-lidded as though he had just woken up. His mouth curved up in an evil grin, revealing slightly yellowed fangs that Alice also noticed were lightly bloodstained. She couldn't see more of the mysterious man as she promptly screamed and fainted dead away.