He smiled. “So many questions, so curious. But let’s start off with your first one. Alice, this is Wonderland. You are in Wonderland.”
I wrinkled my nose, thinking that he was just making fun of me. I glanced over at the others but they didn’t seem to be laughing. “You mean... like in the kids book?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“But that is just a story. That isn’t real. There’s no way.”
“It’s real Alice,” Chase repeated. “It’s all real.”
I shook my head. It had to be some elaborate prank. Everyone liked pulling pranks on me since I was so gullible. I wouldn’t let them have the pleasure this time. “No, this is just some weird dream. I will wake up and it will all be over.”
“No, Alice, this isn’t a dream. Alice Liddell was a real person. She told everything to a certain Lewis Carroll and he wrote the story down. He warped quite a few things but this place is real. This is Wonderland.”
I shoved him away and stood up. I didn’t like people that tried and pranked me. I was pretty gullible at times but not this gullible. “This is just some trick. You are lying. Tell me the truth!”
“We aren’t lying,” Melvin added. “And we need your help.”
“My help?” That seemed strange. I was just some random girl they grabbed from school. How could they say such a thing? “What would you need my help for?”
Malcolm held out his hand. “It’s hard to understand. We have to take you to someone who can explain all of this.”
I stomped my foot on the ground. It seemed childish, I knew, but I wanted my answers given to me. This was all just so confusing. “I’m not going anywhere until I understand what’s going on.”
“Come on Alice, don’t you want an adventure? Don’t you dream of such things? I see you reading all those fantasy and sci-fi novels and manga. Now you can live this one out.” Chase smiled widely.
I stared at him and that is when I remembered. “Your eyes! What’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Can’t you tell?” He disappeared from where he was standing and appeared next to me. “I’m the Cheshire Cat.”
I jumped away from him. “What the hell? How did you do that?”
“Chase, did you really have to tell her that?” Melvin looked annoyed. “You could have scared her out the door.”
“Well she’s going to wonder why I look like a cat anyway. Might as well tell her now.”
I examined Melvin a little closer. That was when I noticed part of his orange hair seemed off. “Melvin, are those… Bunny ears?”
He sighed. “They are rabbit ears. Not bunny ears.”
Not able to help myself, I reached over and squeezed them.
Melvin jumped back, out of my reach and rubbed them. “Ouch! Every time a human comes here they do that! Why? It’s annoying! You don’t see me touching your ears all the time.”
“But you are human.” I kept staring at him, feeling a little bad that I had violated him like that. I just couldn’t help myself.
“Nothing is what it is in Wonderland, Alice.” Chase motioned around him. “Nothing is what it is and everything is what it isn’t.”
I looked at all four of them with their suits and at the rest of the room. Old wooden desks, leather chairs and couches, bookcases, it was like something straight out of a storybook. It couldn’t be possible, someone had to have been pulling a trick on me. “You’re all crazy.”
“Well, he is.” Malcolm nodded to Chase. “The rest of us are quite sane.”
“Ha!” Chase belted. “There is a reason they call you the Mad Hatter, is there not?”
Malcolm sighed and rubbed his temple. “No one has called me that in a long time. They just call me The Hatter.”
“The what?” There was no way he could be the Mad Hatter, Malcolm was way too young and not to mention sane.
“Have you not read the story?” Chase asked. “Because you seem surprised by a lot of this.”
“I have, but that was written over a century ago. You can’t be them. Not to mention it is a work of fiction”
“Oh, but we are.” Chase disappeared and reappeared on the bookcase. “Time means nothing here. We still play our parts one way or another.”
I turned to Davis and Melvin. “Then who are these two?” I looked a little closer at Davis. “And Davis has some weird ears… like a mouse.”
“The March Hare and the Dormouse of course,” Chase answered, appearing next to Dormouse, and leaned against him. “Can’t you tell a pathetic mouse when you see one?”
Davis’ eyes narrowed. “Watch it, Cat.”
Chase stepped back. “Oh, I’m so scared. What are you going to do? Throw cheese at me?”
“You two need to knock it off. Alice here is confused and you two are just making fun of each other,” Melvin exclaimed.
Davis turned to Melvin and pointed at Chase. “I’m not the problem here, he is! I haven’t done anything wrong so don’t blame me.”
Chase wrapped his arm around Davis’ shoulder. “Oh, stop being such a baby.”
They started arguing again, and Malcolm stepped forward, away from the cat-mouse fight, holding out his hand. “Let’s go, we will take you to someone who can explain everything more clearly.”
I looked down at his hand and back to his eyes. Malcolm had honest eyes, I could tell he was someone I could trust, along with everyone else here. I had nothing to lose, really, as I was stuck in this place anyway at least. If I left them I would be completely lost.
“Okay, I will go with you. But first can I get a change of clothes?” I looked down at my pajamas. “I don’t want
