Alice in Court (Wednesday Words 3.29.17)

Welcome to a piece of Wednesday Word’s flash fiction on Darkling Dreams!

A good friend of mine, P.T. Wyant, is doing a blog post every Wednesday called Wednesday Words with a new prompt for a bit of flash fiction writing, just to get in the habit of writing something, anything. (Even if said flash fiction is complete garbage at the time. Garbage is better than nothing though, right?) If you’re looking for some inspiration yourself or just something to aimlessly write, then go check out her blog for this week’s prompt!

With that being said, I am going to share what I came up with for this week’s flash fiction Shard based off a photo prompt. So here is my very rough around the edges minute of inspiration based off her prompt. I’d love to hear what you guys think of it!

(Please excuse any errors you may see, I said it was rough around the edges.)

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Alice in Court

“You’re late, you’re late, for a very important date!”

Alice tilted her head at the voice filtering through the walls toward her. It was frantic, like someone who had wolfed down way too much sugar and energy drinks. She glanced to the door.

“You’re late, you’re late, for a very important date!”

It was closer this time. Who was late? And who was yelling the phrase? She stepped to the door and crouched, peering out through the keyhole into the woods with one eye. Along the pathway stood a white rabbit with its nose twitching. Red eyes were locked on the door of her cottage. For a brief moment she could have sworn it caught her one-eyed gaze through the keyhole. A cold breeze raced down her spine so fleetingly that she nearly missed it.

The rabbit hopped a step closer to the cottage. “You’re late, you’re late!”

Alice gasped and reeled back in surprise, covering her mouth with her hand. The White Rabbit… It talked. It spoke to her. Just like the one from her dream several nights before. She was late? Late for what important date? After a second she crouched and gazed through the keyhole again. A frown creased her lips when she didn’t see the rabbit anymore. Where had it gone? She straightened.

“You’re late, you’re late!” It was coming from right outside her door now, right on the front stoop by the sound of it.

Her head snapped back to the door and she cautiously peeked once more as best she could to see her front step. Sure enough, the rabbit was standing right on the step, staring up at her with gleaming red eyes.

“You’re late, you’re late,” it cackled. The squeaky, high-pitched tone of the White Rabbit began to deepen into something more sinister.

A strangeness overtook Alice’s limbs like her body was being compacted. The world began to grow bigger and bigger as if she was getting smaller and smaller. The keyhole rose up away from her toward the sky and the door became an impassable mountain. Then the floor suddenly rushed up to meet her shrinking form. It caught her roughly in the knees and tossed her out through the keyhole into the woods. Alice screamed in confused panic, arms flailing as she tumbled through the air. The world enlarged back to normal as she flew and hit the dirt.

“You’re late, you’re late. For a very important date.” The voice of the White Rabbit was now distorted and deep with nails screeching down a chalkboard.

Her surroundings began to darken, bleeding away the light and color like ink on a newspaper left out in the rain. The trees shed their leaves and grew tall and thin, twisting and bending into disfigured shapes. She could hear whispers among the brush. Cackling and screeching sounded in the far off distance. Expect for the eerie cackle of the White Rabbit. That one was right behind her.

Alice whipped her head around and almost screamed, scrambling backwards in a crab walk to get away from the creature that no longer resembled a cute little bunny. The White Rabbit had grown to roughly nine foot tall, standing on hind legs. Dangerous claws flexed on its front paws, half reaching for her then pulling back repeatedly like it was teasing her. Pristine fur had changed to a pitch black coarse pelt, and vicious red eyes glowed at her with a disturbing craze. It smiled, showing off pointed buck teeth.

It wasn’t the White Rabbit anymore. It was a thing of nightmares. It was the Black Rabbit.

“You’re late, you’re late, for a very important date, White Queen.”

“What?” she breathed, still scooting back slowly. “I’m not…”

Alice trailed off as she caught sight of her clothes. Her normal peasant’s dress was now a flowing gown of white silk with gold trim. Something heavy rested on top her head and she reached up to find a tiara nestled among auburn curls.

The Black Rabbit took a half step toward her and she backed up, forgetting about her clothes. “The Black Queen, Queen of Bleeding Hearts, wants her checkmate. Run. Run. As fast as you can, White Queen. The Black Rook is coming for you. It’s your move.”

She scurried to her feet and stumbled back into a tree. Casting her gaze past the Black Rabbit dismay sank into her gut to see her cottage was no longer there. She was on her own.

“Run. Run.” The rabbit cackled again and grinned at her.

Alice stared at the Black Rabbit for a second before gathering her skirts and fleeing into the darkened forest as fast as she could without tripping.

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