Lily Staricha
Don’t jump down the rabbit hole. You don’t want to go there. Alice did, and she never came back. Not the Alice you know with her blonde hair and blue bell dress. The Alice you don’t know. Alice was small, petite, and smart. She always had a creative mind. Soon she disappeared. No one understood how she did, but I knew. She went down the rabbit hole. Though the rabbit hole is not in the woods, it is in your homes. There is always one place you can find the rabbit hole, the basement if you have one. If not the rabbit hole will find you.
Beware though the rabbit hole may not like you. If you fall through, you will hear.
“Tick tock, Tick tock. Time has stopped. Tick tock, Tick tock. Your sanity is about to drop.”
Look around and you may understand why. Hazel tree walls threaded with gold. Chestnut and Pine grandfather clocks. Large and small. Silver and gold. The hands of the clock make no sounds. The chimes don’t chime, they whine. Time never changes. The clocks are frozen, on what time you can never tell. The hole will remain for a minute, and then drop you into a colorful abyss.
Eventually the colors will become a world. A world of wonder. You will be lying a large chessboard. Black and white figures stand tall. They never move. They sing:
“8 Pawns, 2 knights, 2 Bishops, 2 Rooks, 1 King, and 1 Queen. Pawns are to die. Knights, the silver warriors, will also die. Bishops wave the flags. Rooks are the castle towers left to crumble. The King isn’t the ruler, he is the slave. The Queen looks over everything, and remain safe. Or at least until she is checked.”
Their song will make no sense. Try to ignore it. Flip over onto your back, and look up. A sky of blue and white fluffy clouds will stare back at you. Roll to either side and you will see an endless field of bright yellow sunflowers. All of them will be staring back at you. Roll to your left and you will see a small object. It will be sitting near the end of the chessboard.
Go closer and take a look. Bend down and pick it up. Soon you will hold a purple velvet and black thread hat. Around the hat wraps a orange ribbon. On the inside of the ribbon will be yellow flowers. On the left edge will a multitude of things. A piece of paper with 10/6. Five pins ret in front of the paper. One is blue, one is red and gold, one is gold with a red tip, one is a gold circle, and finally one is purple bead.
Place it on your head. Then turn around. The white squares and pieces will bleed red. The black squares and pieces will thread with white webs. The yellow sunflowers dye black, and glisten purple. The blue sky will paint grey. Instead of a song you will hear a chant.
“Welcome to your new land. Your sanity has gone. Welcome to your new land. Where everything is gone. Welcome to your new land. Where the moon has eaten the dawn. Welcome to your new land. Where you are now insanity’s pawn. Welcome to your new land.”
Indeed. Welcome to your new land… Mad Hatter.