Now I understood why that revelation had sent the Duchess screaming.
I raced after her and Theodore, sprinting faster than I ever had during any high-school gym lesson, as fast as my legs could carry me. Sweat dripped down my forehead, but slowly, I was catching up to them.
“It’s everywhere!” the Duchess screeched. “Everywhere!”
“Keep on running!” the rabbit shouted. “We’re almost at the House!”
The ground in front of me suddenly shot upward, and I had to jump over it to avoid falling. The grass cut against my legs, giving tiny lacerations that hurt like hell. I winced when the grass cut me again, and gritted my teeth as the House came nearer and nearer.
I couldn’t give up now. I had to keep going.
Pushing myself to the limit, I took the lead, before the Duchess and the rabbit. The closer I came to the House, the bigger it became, towering out over me like a mansion in a horror movie. The NeverEver House was quite a creepy name, now I thought about it, but nothing could be as creepy as a field of grass with every blade of grass set out to kill you.
I slammed against the door of the NeverEver House. The door was extremely heavy, and I almost dislocated my shoulder. Taking a step backward, I pushed against it again, this time with both my hands, and the door budged.
“Hurry up!” I opened the door further, squeezing in past the narrow doorway. Why couldn’t I push that bloody door open further?
Once I was inside, I saw why. Someone had pushed a grandfather clock against the door, which kept the door from opening completely.
I narrowed my eyes at the strange scene, but there was no time to think about it. Instead, I put my back between the door and the grandfather clock, and tried to keep the door open so that the Duchess and Theodore could squeeze through.
Sweat gushed down my back. The Duchess appeared in the doorway first. “Oh no, I can’t fit!” she screamed.
That stupid, forsaken dress.
“It’s your dress!” I shouted at her. “You won’t fit as long as you have your dress on.”
“Well, what do you suggest?” she asked haughtily. “That I take it off?”
“Yes!”
“No!” she yelled back at me. “Now, take my hands and pull! Rabbit, you push.”
“Hurry up, please!” Theodore screamed from somewhere behind the Duchess. “They’re catching up. I think. I don’t know, it’s hard to see, with them being grass and all!”
“I curse your stupid dress,” I told the Duchess, but I still took her hands in mine, and pulled as hard as I could.
She budged forward, but that only made her get stuck inside the doorway even further. I pulled again, but this time around, she didn’t move an inch.
“That stupid clock.” I glanced at the grandfather clock pushed against the door, wondering who had put it there and why, and more importantly, how I could shove it out of the way. Was I strong enough to move it on my own?
“Let me try something.” I let go of the Duchess and moved to the clock. Putting my shoulder against it, I gritted my teeth and pushed with all my might.
I was starting to see stars, but eventually, the clock moved, albeit just a little. It tumbled to the side, and the door opened a few more inches, allowing the Duchess to fall through, dragging Theodore along.
They both landed in a heap on the floor, and I quickly shut the door behind them. Even if the Mysterabobs were blades of grass, that didn’t mean they couldn’t try to get in here, and I rather they stay firmly outside the House.
Now my two companions had made it safely inside, I had some time to look around. The room downstairs was illuminated by a sparse number of candleholders randomly placed around the room. The entrance was enormous, with a double stairs leading to the first floor, each stairs wide enough that a carriage could pass through. A gigantic chandelier swung from the ceiling.
If Oscar Wilde or Edgar Allen Poe came walking down the stairs, I wouldn’t be surprised. This house seemed perfect for an author of horror mystery novels. It reeked of history, of secrets.
“Was that clock barricading the door when we came in?” Theodore asked, gesturing at the grandfather clock.
“Yes,” I replied. “Why?”
The rabbit looked thoughtful. “No, nothing. It’s nothing. Just that… Well, I don’t remember it being there, that’s all. I remember it being further down in the House.”
“Someone moved it there then?” I shrugged. “Is the House occupied?”
“Occupied? Yes. But it’s not inhabited, if that’s what you mean,” the Duchess said. She seemed to have recovered from her not-so-gracious tumble inside of the House, and was now straightening up her skirts. Again, her answer was about as useful as no answer at all.
The rabbit took a candle from one of the candleholders standing across the house, and lit it.
“Where do we start?” I asked my companions. “Where do we need to go?”
“Well, I don’t know about you,” the rabbit said, “but if I were you, I’d start by taking a good look at that.” He gestured at the painting on the wall opposite us, positioning the candle so that it cast the largest possible glow on the painting.
I was about to open my mouth and ask “what is it”, when the words died in my throat. Suddenly, my lips felt as dry as sandy paper, and all the thoughts evaporated from my mind.
“I…” I struggled to find the right words. Swallowing hard, I tried to understand what was going on.
The painting showed a face that was all too familiar to me. Some dimples, straight nose, blue eyes, blonde hair, slightly puffy cheeks. A face I had seen staring back at me from the mirror every single day of my life.
“Why is there a picture of me hanging here?” I asked no one in particular.
The Duchess sighed. “Because, as we’ve been telling you, you’re Alice-who-isn’t-Alice, and you’ve been here before.”
“In another timeline,” the rabbit explained. “In another life. But you’re still you even if you aren’t you.”
I shook my head. “None of this makes sense. How can I be me if I’m not me? Why is my picture here?” I lowered the candle to illuminate the words underneath the painting.
Alice of Wonderland, it said.
I let my fingers glide over the golden letters. If I had been here before, did it mean that… Wonderland wasn’t just all in my mind? Did it mean Wonderland was real?
Or was my imagination just so messed up that it allowed me to travel to the same place twice, and leave marks so the second time around, I would know I had been there before? I couldn’t believe my mind would be messed up enough to do that.
“You are our only hope,” Theodore said. “Our only hope of defeating the Queen of Hearts. Every time you came here, you have fought the Queen, and won.”
“This time, you’ll fight and win too,” the Duchess said. “You’ll save Wonderland, like you’ve done countless times before, and you’ll do countless times after this.”
“I did?” I couldn’t believe it, not even now I was confronted with this picture of myself in a house in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a forest terrorized by Mysterabobs. “How… I saved Wonderland?”
“Yes.” The Duchess put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re Alice of Wonderland, and you’ll save us all.”
Coming soon
End of Part One
Find out what happens next in
THE HEIR TO WONDERLAND
RELEASING IN 2020
About Majanka
Author Bio
Majanka Verstraete studied law and criminology, and now works as Legal Counsel. Writing is her passion ever since she learned how to read.
She writes about all things supernatural, her books ranging from children’s picture books to young adult novels, all the way to new adult academy and reverse harem books.
Check out her website for more information about her current series and her upcoming projects: http://majankaverstraete.com
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Laura Greenwood et al., Kingdom of Crowns and Glory
Kingdom of Crowns and Glory Page 62