Chapter Text
Hi my name is Maddie (short for Madaline) Kingsleigh. Here's a bit of info on me:
I live with my mum, never met my dad. It's her last name that I've got. Oh, and my mum's first name is Alice. I have unruly red hair that I must have gotten from my dad because my mum has beautiful blonde hair. I am 17 years old and mum is 34, she had me at a young age. We live in this gorgeous little cottage that was built for her by this man that she gets upset over whenever someone asks who made the house. Honestly, I think that she really liked, maybe even loved this man. But why she gets so sad I don't know, maybe he died. I hope not. I don't like death. Anyway, I've been home-schooled all my life but I'm really quite smart. But it's a good deal that I never went to an actual school because I'm weird, nobody likes me that much, it's probably because I do weird stuff all the time. I think it's cool! I can do this funny little dance that for some reason makes my mum proud and sad about something but I don't have a clue what I did wrong.
I should probably tell you this, but I can do other weird stuff. It mystifies my mum and me. We don't know why I can do it but we won’t go to the doctors because we're scared they'll take me away for being a freak. I think that's why mum is hiding us. She told me that we're not hiding from anybody because that would be silly but I know the truth. I see how she always comes home from shopping breathless because she ran home. I see the way she's always agitated and constantly jumpy around people when we go out. I see all the signs of being scared, my mum is hiding. But from who, I don't know. Maybe mum did something wrong before she got pregnant with me, which could be one reason why she's like this. I don't care if she's a criminal or not because she's my mum, I love her.
We have a good life even though she's hiding us. I get out, I don't have friends but I don't need them to go out do I? Anyway, we're happy. I don't go out often though because it makes mum paranoid most of the time I only go out with her to keep her pleased. I didn't mind as much when I was little. My head was filled with stories that mum would read to me, it still is the only difference is that I read the stories to myself now. My favourite story is one that isn't a book though, my mum made it up. It's about a girl called Alice (yes I know that's her name but she was a little girl when she made it up so obviously she used her own name. 'It just didn't feel right to change it' is what she said when I asked) that was at a party with her mother when she saw a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat. The little girl heard the rabbit say 'I'm late! I'm late! I'm very very late!' over and over again. Then the white rabbit ran off and so the little girl followed. They reached a hole and the rabbit jumped down. Curious, the little girl looked down the hole after it when she stumbled and fell in. The girl was transported to a crazy place filled with wonder, which she then called 'Wonderland'. Little Alice met a cat that had a very large smile, the white rabbit that she had followed, a little mouse that was rather defensive, a hare that seemed to be crazy, and a man with a rather big hat that also seemed to be a bit mad. They quickly became friends. Then little Alice met The Red Queen the next day. Alice was pretty and so this angered the queen. She made Alice into a slave, so the poor girl slaved away for a while until she managed to escape.
Then a few years later, when Alice was 17 she saw the white rabbit again. However, Alice had forgotten her time in Wonderland. Well not forgotten but she thought it was all just a dream. So as she did before, she followed the rabbit again and yet again she fell down the hole that the rabbit went to. She re-met all of her friends from before but still couldn't remember them. Alice was still hated in The Red Queen's eyes but Alice fought against her. She got to know the mad hatted man more and somehow formed a crush on the brave man. They tricked The Red Queen and freed some prisoners with the help of the wide grinned cat. They then went to The White Queen who was the nicer twin of The Red Queen. She helped them all, and after a while Alice started to remember her previous time in Wonderland. There was then a fierce battle between the two queens and each queen had a 'chosen' warrior to fight for them. Of course there was an epic battle between all the queens' people. In the end The White Queens side won because Alice (The White Queen's 'chosen warrior') had slain the beast of a dragon that was The Red Queen's warrior.
I loved this one of my mother’s stories. I could imagine my mum being the Alice from this story; it seems realistic because my mum made it up. She has other Wonderland stories that go thought out all of Alice's adventures. I sometimes get her to tell me them again because I love the sound of wonder in her voice when she talks about them, I love the way her eyes mist as if in memory. It’s as if she actually did all the stuff that she tells me about.
It was three weeks after I turned 17 when my mum came rushing I to my room. I was busy mending my trousers because they had ripped on a thorn from our rosebush. She came running in and said to follow her in a panted whisper, I followed and she led me to the little forest that was surrounding our cottage. We went into the forest and found a big oak tree that had a secret little door. I wondered why it was there but had no time to ask before my mum shoved me into the tree. It was then that I saw the panic and fear on her face, she was honestly scared. Then it clicked. She was hiding me in this tree because whatever she had hidden us from all these years had finally found us. I was about to pull her in with me when she shook her head. 'They don't know about you, only me. You've got to stay safe. This is the only thing I can do to make sure you stay safe, I know you will be worried and you won't know what to do but I'm asking you this; stay safe please and always trust the white rabbit.' I had heard the last line many times in her stories but I wasn't expecting it when she said it this time. But knowing there was nothing I could do I reluctantly agreed to my mother's request. She then closed the trees door and left me in the darkness. I was scared for my mother and myself but I kept to my promise and stayed put.
*****
Days passed and I was still in the cover of darkness. I was hungry and thirsty and tired, I was tired because I wouldn't let myself go to sleep for more than three hours at a time. I was scared that someone might find me and worried for my mother. I had a gut feeling that she wouldn't be the one to come and rescue me from this hole she had put me in. I knew she was still alive; she just wasn't coming for me. A part of me felt abandoned but I knew that this was not the case; she was protecting me by not coming for me, as crazy as it sounds, she really is. If she came for me then there might be a chance that someone follows her and finds us both. And if I were captured then they would have bait to lure my mother in. I couldn't let that happen so I waited patiently for whoever was coming to get me. Hopefully it was someone I could trust and rely on. It was about two and a half days since I had last seen mother when I heard a rustling coming from outside the tree. I was instantly alert and ready for nearly everything. Then the door creaked slowly open to reveal the person to be a white rabbit?
What the hell? It was wearing a little shirt, tie and waistcoat just like in my mother's stories! It motioned to stay quiet and follow it, at first I was like 'hell no! I'm not following a weird little rabbit that wearing clothes!' but then my mother's request popped into my head; 'always trust the white rabbit' she had said. Was it possible that she had sent this strange little creature for me? It was, sorta. So I followed it out of curiosity feeling more and more like little Alice out of the stories. An idea occurred to me and I nearly stopped in my tracks. What if... The white rabbit carried on tugging me along while I was thinking to myself, I snapped back into reality when I heard a twig snap from behind me. I looked down at the rabbit hoping he'd have answers (I know, silly) his response was to stay quiet and carry on following him. I did so and did not get caught up in my thoughts again.
We stopped in front of another big tree that had a funny symbol on. It was rather large eye on it but there was a hat, the one's that you see old men wearing. And on the front of the hat there was a tea cup and a little girls head popping out of the tea cup. The image of the book my mother had wrote her stories in flashed through my mind, it had the same symbol on the front. My mother had said that she had carved it herself with the help of a very special man.
The rabbit tapped on the cup, whispered in the girl’s ear and pushed at the bottom of the hat with his ears, surprisingly the tree opened. It was just like how my mother had opened the door on the big tree apart from more... erm, magical. 'You must go in miss,' said the rabbit, it startled me hearing it talk. 'It is your mother's wish to keep you safe from harm and this is what we are doing. Please go through miss, you need to get to safety. Once you're safe we can start with the plan on how to save your mother.' I had no choice, I had to go. To save mum, I had to. She had said to stay safe because they don't know about me but perhaps that's best, that way I can help save her without them knowing, after all I don't look much like my mother.'
We went down below the tree's roots (you could tell because of the soil that was clinging to the walls) until we got to another little door. 'Miss, miss you must drink this. Not all of it because it may come in use to you again but please just take a sip.' And with that he passed me a little glass bottle with some kind of purple liquid inside that read 'drink me' on the label. I took the bottle warily before asking 'What's is it? What will it do to me?' I had a good idea already because of my mother's stories but I wanted to make sure before I drank out of something that could kill me or seriously harm me.
'It will do nothing harmful miss, you have my word.' Yeah, the word of a talking white rabbit that wore a shirt, tie and waistcoat. 'It will merely shrink you down to a size big enough to fit through this door.' He said with a gesture towards the tiny door.
'OK,' I said reluctantly. 'I'll take a sip. But only a little one, will that be enough?' The rabbit nodded. So I took a gulp of the shrinking potion from my mother's stories. 'Hmmm... Tastes like cherries.'