DESCENDING INTO MADNESS

by Brown, Stacey Marie

  Trapped.

  What happened to Mr. Rudolph Man? Didn’t he come this way? Did he know a secret way out?

  I walked along the perimeter, running my hands over the cracked, dry walls, trying to find some hidden escape. This place felt like it could fall at any moment. In life I was extremely clumsy and overly curious, but never did I imagine death by gingerbread would be my end. If I pushed at the walls, the house might collapse on me. Normally I’d relish the idea of being buried in gingerbread, but only if I had spiked hot chocolate to dip the pieces in.

  Oh! That sounded good. I needed a drink about now. Maybe then something would make sense.

  Sighing, I gazed around the room, trying to find anything that might get me out of here. My eyes landed on the table, a new object catching my attention, causing me to gasp in fright.

  “Holy-fuckin-night.” My attention narrowed in on the steaming mug now sitting on the table. A chill covered my skin, knowing it wasn’t there a moment ago. My pulse thumped in my ears as I tiptoed closer, my gaze darting around, expecting something to jump out at me. The mug was red-and-green striped with something written on the side. I peered down into the dark liquid, smelling a mix of peppermint schnapps and chocolate.

  Spiked hot chocolate!

  I tried to keep my breath even, knowing I had wished for it a moment ago and now it was sitting on the table, as if I conjured it up. My mouth watered at the aroma, my parched throat aching for liquid. Slowly, I picked up the mug, turning the scripted text on the side to me.

  “Drink me.” I read the words curling over the side of the cup. A tiny warning bell went off in my head, telling me not to follow the instructions. I had no idea what was in it. Poison? A sleeping drug?

  Staring around the room, a chunk of cookie fell to the floor from high up on the wall. I jumped, spilling some of the hot drink. The cookie splintered into tiny pieces like wood chunks, a slice cutting across my cheek.

  “Ow!” My fingers went to my face. Blood covered my hand. “Shit.” I stared up at the walls, realizing I was in more trouble than I thought. This was real. You didn’t feel pain in dreams. The stinging ache and blood told me whatever world I was in right now could kill me.

  A crackling moan rang out, and a piece the size of a coffee table hit the ground, fracturing across the floor. Debris cut through my striped tights, slicing my legs.

  “Shit!” I screamed. “Okay, I was half joking when I said death by gingerbread.” I could feel panic swirl in my stomach.

  Crash!

  A portion equal to a small car hit the floor near me, tossing me into the air, ripping the cup from my hand. The contents splashed everywhere as my spine slammed onto the ground, a groan of pain spouting from my lungs.

  “That’s the way the cookie crumbles” was taking on a whole new meaning.

  I had to get out of here. No different from any house falling down on you, the gingerbread would kill me. I had nowhere to hide except under a small table.

  Move, Alice!

  Bones aching, I pushed myself up as smaller chunks crashed around me. I dove under the table just as another part of the house tumbled straight down, collapsing onto the table, sharp slivers slicing at my exposed skin. The table groaned under the weight. It would not hold for long.

  “Think, Alice,” I berated myself. Dinah was good at solving problems and figuring her way out of situations. I would think of crazy things, but not the steps to achieve them. My parents always said I was the big idea person, while Dinah was analytical one. Basically, my head was in the clouds, and I loved living in my fantasy world. But right now I wished I were more similar to Dinah.

  Haze billowed from the debris, getting caught in my throat, coating my tongue with stale gingerbread. The inner wall seemed to be collapsing, giving me no way out.

  A loud creak echoed down from above, the roof swaying on the decrepit structure. Dread swelled in my throat, my body pulsing with adrenaline. I needed a way out of here, now, and to be strong enough to push through the walls without getting pulverized.

  I peered out from under the table as cookie rained down in chucks the size of large hail. Big crumbs covered the floor like rocks and boulders. My gaze searched around, landing on something right by my hand, my eyebrows furrowing.

  A fully decorated gingerbread man cookie lay next to my thumb, the words “Eat Me” written on his green-and-red-striped sweatshirt.

  Again, I glanced around, knowing it wasn’t there before, but I saw no one place it there either. It appeared, like magic. I read about magical lands and fae beasts, and I always preferred them to real life, but I completely understood the difference between reality and books. In this moment the truth of this place was slamming fear into my stomach and down my limbs. Reality did not hold real magic. But I couldn’t think of any other explanation. The drink and cookie appeared out of nowhere.

  Bang! Crack! The table covering me fractured down the middle, only one strip of wood holding it together.

  “Shit!” I screamed, covering the back of my neck and head. I had no idea what would happen if I ate the treat, but I had few options. It must have been there for a reason. The gingerbread house was going to fold like a house of cards, flattening me under it anyway.

  “Fuck it.” I grabbed the sweet. It was still warm, the frosting perfect on the little man, his face painted into a smile, his dark beady eyes staring at me. “If you scream or come to life, I swear…” I closed my eyes, biting down on the spiced treat.

  “Ooooohmygod.” I groaned as the warm sweetness covered my tongue. I had never tasted a gingerbread cookie this good. And it wasn’t even my favorite type of cookie. “Crap, it might be worth getting squashed over.”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, the table screeched, fragments tearing through the last bit that was held together, splitting it open and exposing me. Terror overwhelmed me as I crouched close to the ground, looking around for a place to hide. I darted and zigzagged as portions rained down. I felt like I was in some warped version of a war zone.

  The floor shuddered and I froze in place. The entire wall in front of me swayed, ready to come down. I had no place else I could go. It was going to crush me.

  A loud noise tore through the space as the wall ripped away from the frosting, the section falling toward me. A scream bubbled in my throat, and I dropped to my knees covering myself, bracing, my mind screaming, my thoughts hoping for a way out of this. Energy buzzed around me, coating my skin.

  My eyelashes pinched together, and I curled into a ball. I waited and waited, hearing the ground groan around me. It shook as the wall collapsed, but not a speck touched my skin.

  Huh?

  Lifting my head, it took me a moment to register what happened. The large wall was in shards about me, but where I lay was untouched. I could see an electrical charge, like an energy field, buzz around me. It protected me by cutting through the thick wall as if it were paper, pouring pieces all around me.

  Curious and curiouser.

  Slowly I stood up and brushed myself off, watching the electricity hum a foot around my body.

  “What the hell was in that cookie?” I looked back at the shattered table. If the rest of the cookie was still there, it was buried deep below the rubble. Debris still tumbled down from one wall that had yet to fall. Nothing touched me, sliding over the protective bubble I was in. “Okay, this is pretty badass.”

  The tweeting of a bird pulled my attention past the wrecked house. I stared out into what looked like a Christmas tree farm, but the trees felt dark and twisted, evil coiling their branches.

  Moonlight streamed through the trees, lighting a path. Climbing over the remains, I noticed several huge gumdrops on the ground. They were tall enough to reach my waist and wide enough to be a loveseat. Dried, discolored, and wrinkled as though they had sat out for years. I turned, staring back at what was left of the house, the final wall barely standing. Then it groaned, toppling forward, bursting my eardrums as it crashed to the ground, sending out mushroom
ing clouds of frosting, cookie, snow, and dirt. I jumped back, covering my face, but once again not a single thing touched me. Instead everything hit the magic bubble I was in, falling or skating over me.

  “Crap on mistletoe.” I shook my head, still not able to grasp what was happening.

  The sound of thumping feet had me swiveling around. Going on guard, my heart spiked in my chest. A red light glowed in the dark forest, and my mouth let out a hiccupped gasp. The deer man stood a dozen yards from me, moving into the woods.

  “Wait!” I screamed, my legs running for him. “Mr. Deer Man, wait!”

  He looked over his shoulder, his black eyes rolling over me. “Very late.” His deep voice responded before he bounced away. In a blink, his body transformed from a shirtless man to a four-legged deer, the red light he was holding morphing into his nose.

  “Tinsel shit.” My feet came to a halt, my mouth parting with shock as I watched the deer leap through the forest, the red light gradually disappearing into the darkness. “Holy. White. Christmas. It’s actually Rudolph…”

  Gingerbread houses. Magic. Rudolph.

  I was certainly no longer in my own realm. I was in some twisted version of Christmasland.

  Chapter 3

  The crash of limbs and needles brushing together caused me to peer back, my eyes staring up at the tree I stood next to. They were definitely the same various kinds of Christmas trees we had in our lot, but these were enormous, rising into the dark sky like redwood trees.

  High up on the balsam fir trunk, two yellow eyes stared down at me. The tree tilted forward, bark snapping and crumbling off as it bent over, a limb swiping out at me like a hand.

  “Ahhhh!” I screamed, backing away as another one came to life. Its golden eyes narrowed in on me, and a branch reached out.

  “You don’t belong here,” an old crackled voice boomed from the Douglas fir tree, a mouth opened where a huge knot formed on the trunk, causing me to stumble back, terror exploding in my throat. “You come to chop us down? Is that why you are here? Kill us and then prop us up in a corner and decorate us as tarts?”

  “N-N-Noooo.” I waggled my head, my mind trying to wrap around the fact an oversized Douglas fir was talking to me. The trees were alive. Actually fuckin’ alive.

  “Sure,” another voice boomed from a noble fir, behind the Douglas. “That’s what they all say. I’ll bet she has an axe on her. Look at the way she’s dressed. Already defying the laws.” Faster than I could move, a limb pinched the bottom of my short elf costume, pulling it up. The tree craned its huge honey-colored eyes, inspecting me.

  “Hey!” I slapped at the twigs he used as fingers. “You can’t lift up a girl’s skirt like that.”

  “Who says?” the Douglas fir asked.

  “Yeah! Who says?” the noble mimicked.

  “The laws.”

  “You’re silly. There are no laws like that.” Balsam reached for me again.

  “Then I do.” I whapped at the tree as it grabbed for my long, dark hair, trying to peer under it.

  “And who are yoooou?” The Douglas yanked at the tulle under my elf costume. “You are not the Queen. So… who are you to say so?”

  “Stop!” I hit at the Douglas as Balsam tugged at my hair again. “Stop, both of you!” I shoved back, knowing I was still not out of their grip.

  “Why should we listen to you? Who. Are. You?”

  “Nobody important,” Noble spoke, leaning through the other two trees to grab for me.

  I peered down at my body and noticed the energy bubbling over me earlier was gone. It had been there, right? I didn’t dream it? I was probably imagining this whole thing.

  “Wake up,” I demanded myself, knocking at my head. “Now!” I twisted and moved, and the trees kept grabbing for me, but the nightmare did not alter. I turned to retreat toward the gingerbread house, but it was no longer there. Trees surrounded me. Burning yellow eyes stared, and limbs stretched for me.

  How did that happen? It made no sense. I hadn’t moved more than a few yards from the house.

  “Stop!” I shouted and pushed with all my might through the limbs, hearing the snapping of branches and yelps from the trees. I bolted forward, ducking and weaving as more and more trees came to life, grasping for my costume or my long hair. The bells on my shoes chimed as my feet pounded the earth. My breath puffed in front of me, and snow covered the ground, but I didn’t feel chilly. My exposed skin felt neither warmth nor cold, as if weather didn’t mean anything here, even though snow was all around.

  Curiouser.

  Reaching the end of the forest, I let myself pause for a moment to catch my breath. Hands on my knees, I bent over, inhaling deeply.

  “This place is mad,” I mumbled to myself.

  “Maybe it is you who are mad,” a voice replied, jolting me back with a cry. My mouth and eyes opened wide. Before me stood a six-foot, three-tiered snowman. Coal mouth and eyes, a large button for a nose, with a scarf and top hat, a corncob pipe in his mouth, his branch arms crossed. He leaned against a monster-sized poinsettia plant that stretched over his head. “What makes you mad might be normal. And normal might be mad.”

  Frosty? Frosty, the fuckin’ snowman, was talking to me right now? I had to be going mad… or already was. Please say I’m asleep and this is all some strange dream I’ll wake from. I stared down at my torn tights and costume, dried blood painting the tights a deeper red. Unfortunately, it felt way too real.

  “Clearly you are the crazy one for wearing such an outfit.” Frosty’s voice drew my attention back to him, his coal-lined mouth curving into a huge creepy grin. “Only the insane go against the Queen.”

  “The Queen?” The trees had mentioned her too. Who was this Queen?

  “Yes. The ruler of our land. The maddest of all.” Frosty’s smile coiled at the end like the tail of a snake. “Christmas is not allowed here. Hasn’t been for a very long time.” He nodded to my costume. “Ms.—?”

  “Alice.”

  “Greetings, Ms. Alice.” He tipped his top hat at me, making me feel I needed to curtsy or something.

  “What do you mean Christmas isn’t allowed here?” I snorted, staring at one of the symbols of the season. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Crazy ones don’t need to joke because we are mad. The sane ones joke to feel insane, and the insane joke to feel sane. Or is it the other way around?” He straightened and moved away from the tree, closer to me. He had no legs but seemed to roll over the snow.

  “You don’t make sense.”

  “Who says?” He inclined until his face was even with mine. “You?”

  “Yes.”

  “And who are you to say so? Think yourself the boss of the land? Now which one of us is crazy? I can’t trust a mad person.”

  “My head hurts.” I couldn’t keep up with him. With this whole night. Why didn’t I stay in the warm cottage and not go after Rudolph? Damn my curiosity. “Please, tell me how to get out of here.”

  “It depends what you mean by out of here.”

  “Out of here.” I motioned around. “Out of this place. Home!” I felt my temper rising. I had my fill of this ridiculous night.

  “But home means different things to people.”

  “My home.”

  “How would I know? Have I ever been to your home?”

  “No.”

  “Then how would I know how to get there? Shouldn’t you know?” He tsked. “Really, girl, I think you are the maddest of all.”

  “I’m done.” I shook my head, stepping away from him. I noticed on either side of the poinsettia there were paths splitting off. “Which way do I go?”

  “Depends on where you want to go.” Frosty circled to me, his coal smile widening. Crap, he was creepy. “Adventure is a state of mind. Not the path.”

  “You know what?” I gritted my teeth. “I’m better off without your assistance.” I continued down the trail I was on. “Thanks for the help, Snowman.”

  “You are very welcome,�
� he replied sincerely.

  I twisted to glower at him. The spot was empty, as if he had vanished… or melted away. I faced forward, rolling back my shoulders. It appeared I had no other choice but to continue on.

  “Come on, Alice.” I marched forward, trying to pretend I wasn’t nervous about what lay in front of me. “Let’s go home.”

  Chapter 4

  The moonlight bouncing off the snow was the only glow guiding me on the trail. Thick holly bushes lined the cobble path. Broken and rusting twinkle lights dripped on the shrubs like melted icing. No question it had been years since they were used.

  The lane broke off into a maze, paths winding around trees, leading nowhere, changing in a blink, or going right back to the beginning. It took me three times, hours of going in circles, to realize I was in some twisted labyrinth that was taking me to the point where I started. A maze set to make me lose my mind.

  “Dammit!” I gritted my teeth, turning around to return the way I came, only to find a dead end. “This makes no sense. It was open a moment ago.” I rubbed my head, my stomach growling, my feet aching. For someone who loved fantasy, I was longing for some logic, for something to abide by the rules.

  “How do I get out of here if nothing stays the same or makes any sense?” I plopped down on the cobblestone road, burying my head in my arms, wishing I had never followed the stupid deer with smoking-hot abs. I mean, it was his fault. He was so hot. So what if he had antlers? After my last relationship and trying to date in the city, a man turning into a deer would be considered an upgrade. He’d be great to take out (I’d always have a coatrack) … well, except kids’ birthdays. He might become a pincushion, which would confuse children trying to pin the tail on the donkey.

  “Wow.” I snorted and chuckled at myself for seriously contemplating dating a deer. Okay, I might have reached a new low. I sighed, tucking my head deeper into my arms.

  So softly I thought I was imagining it, music glided over the air, and my head popped up, and I twisted my ear to the sound. The harmony increased as though it was calling me to it.