Alice in Horrorland

“Alice! Stop reading those atrocious comic books and come pay attention to your lessons!” Alice’s older sister, Margaret, scolded in a snobby voice.
Alice was sitting in her desk reading a “Betty and Veronica” comic book. Her blond hair was pulled back in a blue headband and she was wearing a blue dress with a white apron. Her older sister was dressed almost exactly the same, only her dress and headband were pink.
“Alice, we have school tomorrow and you still haven’t finished your lessons! And it’s almost nine o’ clock. It’s time for bed. Mrs. Horton is going to give you such a whipping!” Margaret warned.
Shrugging off the warning, Alice put away her comic book and walked to the dresser to change into her blue nightgown for bed. She washed her face and hands in the wash basin and climbed into bed.
“Alice, you silly girl. One day you’ll be in some real trouble, and you’ll wish you had done your lessons so you’d know how to escape!” Margaret laughed as she turned off the lights and walked down the hall to her room.1

Three hours later, at exactly twelve midnight, fourteen-year-old Alice crawled out of bed and put on sneakers. Today was the big day. The anniversary of her first trip to Wonderland.
As Alice approached the big tree, where Margaret and Alice had studied when they were younger, she spotted a large white rabbit singing, “We’re late! We’re late! For a very important date!”
You see, Alice had really hit it off with the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum. Alice and the White Rabbit had agreed to come to a tea party every year on the anniversary of when they all first met Alice.
“Hey Mr. Rabbit!” Alice called as she ran up to the panicking rabbit, “I’m sure the Mad Hatter, Dee, and Dum wont mind if we’re a tad bit late.”
“Alice!” The rabbit said, startled, “Wonderland isn’t quite what it used to be.”
“What do you mean?” Alice asked as the two started toward a large rabbit hole near the tree.
“You’ll see…” the rabbit said as he jumped down the hole.2

“Well! after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!” Alice said aloud to herself. That was the same thing Alice had been saying since she started coming to Wonderland. Of course, this wasn’t true. Alice had tumbled down the stairs many a times and every time she cried, “I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time? I must be getting somewhere near the center of the earth! I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth!”
Of course, Alice now knew, she never fell through the earth when visiting wonderland. And she never ended up near the center. The speed at which she fell transported her to another dimension, another universe. Another world- Wonderland!3

Finally, after what seemed like hours of falling, Alice found herself on her feet in a room with a door and a table. Now that she was a regular guest to Wonderland, and she was with the rabbit, she no longer had a need for potions to shrink and enlarge her. She had a key.
Alice looked around the small room and didn’t see the White Rabbit, “he must of gone ahead without me! That silly rabbit! Always nervous about being on time!”
Alice unlocked the large door and stepped onto the dead grass. Dead grass? This can’t be right! Alice looked around. Instead of butter-flies, there were fire-flies with wings blazing fire. The sky was dark and gloomy. Trees had no leafs and were creaking with the wind. The bright and colorful flowers were replaced with black roses containing large thorns.
5 little men, who were dressed in black suits with red heart-o-grams on them, were standing in a line singing. At first it took Alice a moment to understand there song, but soon she heard clearly.
“Welcome to Horrorland, this horrid place, this gothic land. Where everything is quite absurd, it’s even weirder than you heard.”
Next, 5 little woman joined the line in red dressed with black heart-o-grams on them and all 10 people continued singing in perfect harmony.
“Welcome to Horrorland, this horrid place, this gothic land. Where nightmares come true, they really do in…”
Different men or woman in the ghastly chorus stepped forward with each line, singing a small solo’
“Terrible!”
“Gothic!”
“Horroland, this”
“Frightful!”
“Evil filled!”
“Disgusting!”
“Horrorland, Horrorland, Horrorland!” All the people sung as the seemed to… vanish.4

“How curious!” Alice remarked as she continued to look around. Suddenly, she was stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the Cheshire Cat, who had jet black fur with gray stripes instead of the usual shades of purple, “Curiouser and curiouser!”
"But I don't want to go among Goth people," Alice remarked at the cats black fur.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all gothic here. Ever since the new queen arose! I'm gothic. You're gothic."
"How do you know I'm gothic?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't be dressed that way." The Cheshire Cat laughed as he disappeared, all the way besides his grin.
“I’d really like to know how he does that.” Alice said to no one in particular. Suddenly, the Cheshire Cat appeared fully. Holding a mirror this time.
“Take a look.” He said and showed Alice the mirror.
Alice looked into the mirror and was stunned. Her blond hair turned to jet-black and her blue nightgown was now a black leather dress. She had fishnet arm socks and black boots. Around her eyes was smudged with something dark and red and her lips were covered in purple lipstick. When she entered Horrorland, somehow her outfit had been changed. 5

Alice continued to walk on to the tea table to meet her friends, getting more and more frightened by the moment.
As she approached the party, she heard the familiar voices of her friends.
“Did you bring the red bull?” The Mad Hatter asked.
“I put it in the tea pot.” Tweedle Dee responded.
“Well, hurry then- the red bull will get warm!” The Mad Hatter ordered.
“Bull time!” Tweedle Dum called as they all sat down.
“I hope I’m not late!” Alice announced as she sat down. Strangely, the White Rabbit was still not there and The Mad Hatter was pouring them all glasses of a red liquid, “Red Bull?”
“We’re forbidden to have tea under the laws of the new queen!” Tweedle Dee told her.
“And Red Bull gives us the same rush of sugar that tea did!” Tweedle Dum said.
“Oh and have a very happy unbirthday to you all!” Alice commented to the three others.
“I’ll wager that today is your unbirthday, too!” The Mad Hatter said.
“Why yes, I believe it is!” Alice sung and they all laughed.
“And it is mine too! What a small world it is!” The White Rabbit called as he walked over and took a seat at the unbirthday party.
“Would you like some more Red Bull?” Tweedle Dee asked the White Rabbit.
“Well, I haven’t had any yet, so I can’t very well take more.” The rabbit said.
“No, no, no, my dear. You mean you can’t very well take less. You can always take more than nothing!” Alice said, repeating words of wisdom the Mad Hatter told her at her first tea party.6

The four continued to laugh and drink Red Bull. They were having such a marvelous time, that they didn’t even notice as the Queen of Heart-o-Grams, the new queen of Wonder- I mean Horrorland, walked over to the happy group.
“I sensed happy! Who’s this?” She asked.
“Your majesty, this is Alice! She comes down to visit every year. She’s from earth.” The White Rabbit offered.
“Well, I don’t need any stupid earthlings competing for my thrown. Off with her head!” the queen commanded. As she struck out a finger, pointing it at Alice, a cape shook. She was dressed in a short red dress, decorated in heart-o-grams. The queen also wore black fishnets and black Converse high-top sneakers. Her black and red hair was in dreadlocks falling over a heavy black silk cape.
Before anyone could do anything, the 10 little people who created her were there. They all carried large sharp knifes.
“Run Alice! Run!” The Mad Hatter called.
Alice ran and ran and ran, with the little people behind her, all the way back to the door home. As soon as she could fumble the lock open, she ran out of Horrorland and shut the door behind her.
Alice opened the door to earth on the other side of the room and walked threw a black tunnel. Before you could say ‘Horrorland’, she was climbing out a hole in the big tree. Still afraid, Alice ran all the way home and straight to her room. Before hiding in her covers the rest of the night, Alice glanced in the mirror. Her blond hair was sitting neatly on her shoulder against a blue nightgown. She had on no makeup and everything seemed to be in proper order. She crawled into bed and was soon fast asleep.
As Alice slept, a little man in a black suit with a red heart-o-gram on it stepped out of her closet. As he walked closer to the sleeping Alice he began to sing.
“Welcome to Horrorland, this horrid place, this gothic land. Where nightmares come true, they really do in terrible, gothic, Horrorland.”7

The End…
Or Is it?8