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Five
"Whoa! It’s a wonderland, Alice!"
I was frozen, slightly delusional. Her blinking into the room didn’t seem real; I wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t a hallucination. She looked like a dream. The 6x6 room, illuminated by strange orange lighting strips at the ceiling, provided just enough light to prevent total insanity. Though, honestly, it was enough to drive me a little mad.
Time was difficult to keep track of. In my mind, it had been about 10-12 hours, but I wasn’t certain. The hours blurred together as I jumped between identical 6x6 rooms, all lit by orange lights.
"Oh, Alice, you’re definitely lost!" The woman looked just like Lila—same clothes, same voice, same face. "Here you go."
She shoved a bottle of water into my hands. Water! Real water! No hallucination could do that.
I started drinking, trying not to lose sight of her. Lila placed a hand on the wall and began running around the square cage, singing "The Unbirthday Song."
“You’re here,” I finally said, realizing how parched I had been for the last five hours.
“I… am. You know you… should have listened… when I told you to wait for me and not go into the rabbit’s hole,” she finally stopped, breathless, and stepped closer.
I looked at her suspiciously, sensing that something was wrong.
“It’s Alice chasing after the White Rabbit, not the other way around,” she booped my nose with her finger.
“Lila,” I said, grabbing her shoulders to keep her still and meet her gaze. “You… you’re high!”
“Oh, yes I am!” she exclaimed. “Those guys we saw near the station? Oh, you didn’t want to meet them. Well, I did. After spending five hours trying to crawl into this wonderland. They’re such nice people. They had a tea party! They always have tea parties!”
“Shrooms,” I whispered.
“They told me that to get to Wonderland—and to get OUT of Wonderland—you need to get a little mad. Because everyone here is mad. So, here I am!”
She spun around in a twirl, almost falling to the floor. I had so much to tell her—how dangerous it was, how she could get hurt, how this maze was inescapable, and now she’d be stuck here with me. But it would have been useless. She was usually a little crazy and impulsive. Now, she was crazy, impulsive, and high.
“Let’s blink, Alice! I’ve seen everything in this ballroom,” she announced happily, grabbing my hand.
“No!” I yelled, but it was no use.
We blinked.
The moment our eyes opened, I collapsed to the floor. We had entered the same room—well, technically a different one, but it looked exactly the same. My whole body ached, and I was exhausted already. I had blinked so many times over the past ten hours.
“Fascinating!” Lila said, looking around with a grin.
“Lila, you’re going to kill me…” I grunted, trying to get into a sitting position. “I’ve jumped too many times. I can’t do it anymore.”
“Alice, what are you saying? You’re just doing it wrong. Why are you using your potion when you can use mine?”
“What…” She didn't make sense.
She growled in irritation, as if I was too slow to catch up with her. Momentarily on her feet, she started jumping. It went on for a minute. Then she dropped to her knees next to me again.
“Alice, you don’t need to jump. I will jump. I am the rabbit! I will jump!”
“Okay. I’m trying to understand… Are you saying that I’m not powering up—you're doing it? You’ll blink instead of me?”
She started jumping again.
“It won’t help. You’ll just blink from room to room like I did. You’ll exhaust yourself, and we’ll both die here from dehydration. You don’t even know where you’re going.”
“Alice, silly Alice,” she said, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
“Cheshire Cat?” I asked, wondering if that was a quote.
“Oh, look! A teapot!” she exclaimed, pointing somewhere.
I turned to see what she was pointing at, but she grabbed me and blinked again.
I screamed when we landed. It felt like a seizure, and I was hyperventilating on the floor.
“Alice, you’re such a control freak. How do such little girls obsess over keeping it all together…? Oh! Right—society, patriarchy!” she paused. “Do you think I can do a car wheel here?”
I didn’t try to stand up. It was too hard even to look at her. The pulse was ringing in my ears. I turned my head to the side, and suddenly she was there, lying next to me.
“Lila, I don’t know… how not to do it… I blink… jump,” I said breathlessly.
“Alice, white rabbits jump. That’s what we do, silly!” she leaned toward me, pressing her forehead to mine. I closed my eyes instinctively.
She had such cool skin and very hot breath. It was terrible and strangely pleasant at the same time. She took my hand and intertwined our fingers.
“I will jump through Wonderland. You just need to trust me. Okay?” she whispered. “Look—like little blue caterpillars.”
I opened my eyes. She was glowing with blue flames, holding our intertwined hands up, covered in blue flames too. She was powering up.
“And… jump...” she whispered.
We jumped—no, we were jumping for minutes, hours, days, months, or even years. All of eternity felt like it was falling into the rabbit’s hole.
She didn’t stop, and I was simply carried away with her until something changed.
“Wow… that’s a strange ceiling…” she said.
“That’s… that’s the sky, rabbit…” I mumbled, squeezing her hand.
Lila
Five was insufferable. He declared me the sickest person and ordered me around for two days. Except for bathroom breaks and sitting during meals, I was bedridden.
The only saving grace was that he would bring me books. I was puzzled about where he was getting them, but since I was napping several times a day, he had plenty of time for scavenger hunts.
To be fair, I was exhausted. Apparently, I slept for fifteen hours after we returned. I didn’t even wake up when he managed to get me into the subway camp.
I didn't remember much. Well, I remembered things—insane things. I was fairly sure I met a little blonde girl who was stuck in a room, and we had to jump until the ceiling broke and let us out.
Five shared his version, but mine was much more fun.
He was also impressed with my mimicking ability, which was very flattering. I blinked through the building wall, feeling …him (he had no idea), and then I blinked us some crazy number of items until the maze spat us out. I even suggested blinking us somewhere else while he was telling me this. He looked at me so sternly that I decided to pretend I wanted to nap again. I eventually did nap.
On the third day, he decided to let me walk on the platform. Obviously, he walked beside me like a nurse.
“Have you seen those guys with the bonfire?”
“I've seen them. I didn’t approach. Too risky.”
“Good thing I did.”
“I honestly don’t know how I’m not angry about it. They could have murdered you on the spot.”
“True, but it worked out. I got us out. You’re welcome!”
He didn’t say anything, just watched my pace as if ready to catch me if I stumbled.
“Oh, relax… I’m doing fine,” I said.
As I spoke, I stumbled on the phrase, and he caught me, helping me regain my balance.
“Thank you,” I muttered, still holding onto him.
“I wish you didn’t have to do that,” he said.
“Falling?” I laughed.
“No, with the maze. I know why you did it, but it could have ended badly. That was so reckless.”
It was strange standing so close to him, looking at his serious, anxious face.
“Hey, you just need to trust me, okay?” I said, ruffling his hair to try to ease the growing tension between us.
“I do. More than I’d care to admit,” he confessed.
I smiled, took a step back, and felt self-conscious about this increasing honesty.
“Oh, I got you something,” he dove into the pocket of his coat.
“Alice!” I exclaimed with full excitement, taking the book from his hands. “Rabbit, Wonderland—oh, it all makes sense now…”
“Except I am not a little blonde girl,” he commented.
“Well, nobody’s perfect!”
He rolled his eyes and offered his elbow to escort me back to the camp. I was giggling the whole way.