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The next two days were very different, Hatter, Peter, Cheshire and Alice kept wondering who was next, they were terrified.

 

Hatter had decided to take Alice to go and see some of his friends, human ones this time, which Alice was relieved to hear.

 

Hatter stood outside a little cottage covered in wall flowers, they kept hissing at Alice and Hatter. Alice reached out to touch one, it bit her finger, she pulled back, glancing at her bitten finger, she sucked on it to stop the bleeding.

 

Eventually a small girl, maybe ten, opened the door, she looked at Hatter and nodded.

 

"Sandy! Lucas! Hatter is here!" she shouted, I smiled a little. Her bright red hair was tied into two plaits either side of her head and she was wearing a pretty little short white dress.

 

Two people came to the door, the girl about my age. Ut she looked older, she had bright red hair like the little girl and it was tied up in a ponytail, the boy was probably about twenty, roughly Hatter's age. He had scruffy brown hair but bright green eyes like Sandy and the little girl, I guessed they were all related.

 

"Is this the girl you spoke about? Alice?" Sandy asked Hatter, he grinned.

 

"The one and only." he said, but I could tell that he was still sad about what happened a few days ago, who wouldn't be? It was awful.

 

"Oh! It's lovely to meet you! Do you two want to come in for something to drink or something like that?" Sandy asked us.

 

"Sure." Hatter said, we entered their cottage, it was lovely, it looked very homely. There were pictures up on the walls and vases of flowers everywhere.

 

"If I had known you were coming I would have cleaned a bit." she said, shoving a vase with a single sunflower inside a bit further to the middle of a little dresser.

 

"It's fine, it's only us." Hatter said. Sandy nodded.

 

"I suppose so." she said, leading everyone into the kitchen where she opened a little pot that started hissing, it was obviously the flowers from the wall. She placed them inside a teapot and filled it with water then boiled it.

 

"What brings you here then?" she asked, leaning back on the counter and waiting for the kettle to boil.

 

"Well, Alice is going to save Wonderland, and she needs a dress and I don't own any so..." Hatter said slowly.

 

"You were wondering if I could make a dress for you." she prompted, smiling. "Of course! What kind of thing do you want?" she asked.

 

"She would like something lacey." Hatter said. Just then someone put their hand over Alice's mouth and dragged her out of the kitchen. The person turned her around, it was Lucas, and next to him was the little girl.

 

"Wha-?"

"Alice, I'm Aria." the little girl said, smiling a bit. 

"N-nice to meet you..." Alice replied, slightly confused.

"Right, there are a few things we need to tell you, follow us." Lucas told Alice, before walking away, he pulled a book out of one of the many bookshelves in the hall and a secret door opened. 

'Very original.' Alice thought sarcastically, but didn't dare to say it out loud, the moment was too serious.

She followed Lucas and Aria down into a little room. It was pretty bland and cold feeling. The walls were painted grey, and everything was very empty. There was a silver aluminium table in the middle of the room with five plush black chairs around it but other than that, the room was empty. 

"Have a seat." Lucas said, Alice sat down as she was told, Lucas then sat down on the chair opposite Alice and Aria sat neck to him, the chair looking huge while her tiny frame was sitting against it, she was much smaller than Alice.

"We need to talk." he said, tossing something to her, she caught it and stared at it her eyebrows furrowed together. It was a gun. 

"That might help you to kill the Queen." Aria added, smiling. 

"Anyway Alice, here's one fact for you, the Queen's knights, they are catching onto your plan to kill the Queen, they don't know you or what you look like, nor do they know how you will kill her, but they know that Hatter, Peter and Cheshire are in with the plan, they also knew Gordon was helping, they found him and they killed him, you need to keep a low profile, move around a little more, do not stay in the same place longer than a day, the gun will help you, it's a lot better than the knives, sword and bow and arrow, they'll help, but the gun is better. Remember, word gets around quickly in Wonderland." he said. 

Standing up. 

"Come along, Sandy and Hatter will be worried." he said, leading Aria and Alice into the house again.

"How do you know all of this?" Alice asked him curiously. 

"As I said, word gets around quickly in Wonderland." 

---

 

Chapter six - The flower and the wolf.

 

_

 

"Oh! There you are." Sandy said smiling at Alice. "I need to measure you for the dress." she told Alice who nodded.

 

"Alice, are you alright?" Hatter asked. "You look even paler than you did before." he said, Alice laughed a little, putting her gun in her boot.

 

Sandy started measuring Alice, making little 'ummhmm' noises. 

 

"Okay!" she said, tapping Alice's measurements into a little keypad she was holding in her hand. "Lacey...." she said, clicking something. "What colour?" she asked Alice.

 

"Urm, something pinky kind of light brown... Almost white please." Alice replied, trying to explain it.

 

"Okay." Sandy grinned, pressing a button happily. A lovely lacey dress appeared folded up on the floor. It was just as Alice had said. It was just above knee-heigh and it was perfect for Alice.

 

"Wow..." Alice said, picking it up and looking at it. 

 

"How about you try it on?" Hatter and Sandy asked Alice in unison. Alice nodded. 

 

"The bathroom is just over there." Sandy said, pointing over to a little door. Alice went inside and tried the dress on, she walked out of the bathroom. Hatter looked completely gobsmacked while Sandy looked happy with her work. 

 

"Give us a twirl." Sandy said, Alice awkwardly span around. Sandy squealed.

 

Eventually Alice and Hatter left the house.

 

"Alice, what's wrong?" Hatter asked, suddenly stopping while they were walking. 

 

"Huh?" she asked.

 

"I know you know what I'm talking about." he said. Alice sighed. 

 

"I don't know anything." she told him.

 

"Don't lie to me, Alice." Hatter said, Alice turned to him and looked up at him.

 

"I'm not lying!" she said angrily.

 

"What happened there?" he asked.

 

"Nothing."

 

"Stop it Alice!"

 

"Stop what?"

 

"Lying to me!"

 

"I'm not lying!"

 

"JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!" 

 

"Keep it down-"

 

"DONT TELL ME WHAT TO DO, YOU CAN'T CONTROL ME, ALICE!" 

 

Alice bit her bottom lip, trying not to burst into tears there and then. She failed.

 

She burst into tears. She never thought that Hatter would yell at her, she felt awful, because she was lying to him and she was claiming tat she wasn't and then she burst into tears when he got angry at her.

 

"Alice, don't cry... I'm sorry." 

 

"No, I'm sorry Hatter." she said.

 

"What for?"

 

"For everything, alright? For everything I have done and for everything I will do." 

 

"What do you mean, Alice?"

 

"I just can't do this, okay, I can't beat some evil Queen or something, you can, I can't." she sobbed.

 

"Why do you think I brought you here if I could defeat her?" 

 

"I don't know." 

 

"See?" Hatter asked her.

 

"Not really." she admitted, they started walking again, tears still pouring down Alice's cheeks uncontrollably.

 

Hatter pulled Alice into his chest in the hope that it would stop her crying, but it didn't, it made her cry more. She gripped onto his shirt that tightly as she sobbed more.

 

"Shhh..." Hatter said, stroking her head and neck gently. "Maybe we should just stop here for tonight." he said, scooping her up and walking into the forest with her. It was a warm, dry night, so they didn't have to worry about being cold. 

 

Hatter set Alice down on a patch of soft grass then he sat down next to her. She grabbed onto his hand, still crying about everything.

 

"It's all going to be fine, Alice, I promise." Hatter said, lying down so he was facing her, he then wrapped his arms around the delicate girl who was crying her eyes out. She reminded him of a flower. So delicate and tiny but strong and beautiful at the same time.

 

That night the delicate little flower fell asleep in his arms, the rough, scary wolf who could snap at any minute, who was capable of tearing her apart with just one snarl, yet she trusted him, she trusted him with her life, even though she would never say that out loud.