I wrote this as an exercise in my creative writing class in my senior year. We were instructed to write about a twisted tale, so I chose Alice in Wonderland as it happens to be my favorite book. I chose Manchester, England for my setting and made Alice a bit older.

Alice stepped out into the busy streets of downtown Manchester, just barely dodging a car as it raced through a puddle that splashed onto her dress. She didn’t mind that her dress was wet, she had been too captivated by the way the water looked, almost as if it was slow motion as it came up into the air. Alice took a small capsule out of her coat pocket, threw it into the back of her mouth, swallowed it, and continued on her journey. She walked for a few short moments before she felt dizzy, then her view shifted as if there were two boxes that were separating. She glanced at the nearest street light and tried to regain enough balance to continue walking. Something zipped by under that light and caught her attention, she searched for it in the distance.

Something ran behind her, causing her to turn and look for it. Sure enough, Alice caught something rather frightening staring at her from a short distance. A small child, no more than an eight-year-old boy He was dressed in a black suit, carrying a briefcase, and looked at Alice for a short moment. He then ran off again. Alice chased after the boy, wonderstruck. Her adrenaline was keeping her from fainting. Everywhere she looked was something ghastly, and with every step, she melted more and more into the sidewalk. The child went into a bar and stopped right as Alice came in. Once she was only steps away from him, the boy sprinted off to the exit on the other side of the building. She stared at the clock, but it only stayed for a second, before morphing into something unrecognizable.

Alice then followed the child out of the bar and into the barely lit streets. The moon cast somewhat of a glare in her vision as it appeared to be the most massive, brightly lit orb in the sky. She lost sight of where the child was going and began to give up. Just as she turned away, she noticed a reflection in the grass against a large oak tree. Curiously, she wondered towards it and found that the light was coming from a large hole at the base of the tree. Alice held onto the sides of the opening and leaned in, hoping to see what the light was emitting from. As she searched, she felt something behind her. She turned to see what it was, and before she could catch a glimpse, she was pushed down into the hole.

As Alice fell, her body became weightless, all the fear had left her mind, and she let go of everything. Down, down, down. Alice could not feel an end, she then opened her eyes to check her surroundings. She was falling rather slowly, and the walls of the hole were decorated with askew household decorations. She admired the crooked paintings and grabbed a hold of a beautiful, ancient teapot. There was still steaming tea in the pot, so she searched for a teacup as she fell. Once she found one, she gracefully poured herself a cup of tea and just as she placed the pot carefully on a shelf of a dresser, her bum hit the tile floor.

Tile floor? That was rather odd to be the bottom of a hole. She came to a table that held two bottles and two shot glasses. In admirable calligraphy, the bottles both read “Drink Me”. So which one would be the one? Alice spent but a few seconds deciding and went with the bottle to the right. She didn’t use the shot glass, she simply popped the cap off and chugged the drink. She placed the bottle back down on the table and walked closer to the end of the hallway. There she found a door, one that read a rather cryptic message that she was too influenced to decipher. She grabbed the handle and ripped the door wide open and was greeted with a wave of salt water that swept her off her feet.

The drink she took had begun to take effect as she walked down the hallway before, and she was now but the height of an aluminium can. She swam up to the surface of the water, gasping for breath once she reached the top. Nearby she saw a glass bottle with a rather wide top. Alice swam towards that, and once she reached it, she climbed inside and fell to the bottom. Breathing heavily, rocking back and forth with the bottle, she began to grow fearful of where she was headed.

Alice saw a drop towards the end of the river and became petrified. She saw no exit, the top of the bottle even sealed itself back up. As she gripped onto herself for her life, she fainted from fear as her body began to feel weightless again.

After what felt like decades, Alice came to. She opened her eyes and took note of her surroundings. She had been slumped against a cold brick wall, in the England rain, the whole time. Nothing but an empty bag with a Superman print on it remained with her.