‘I’ve heard that, if one pinches oneself whilst dreaming, they will awaken,’ Alice thought to herself. Putting words into deeds, she did just that, pinching her thigh as she took the last step. Alas, all that happened was she left a tiny red mark upon her thigh, one that began to fade almost as quickly as it appeared.
‘Bloody hell,’ she thought with a disappointed sigh. Not that she had truly expected it to work, only that she had hoped it might as Sargeant-Major Dumpty led her into a small room in which there was but a single wooden chair in the center, next to which stood a small wooden table, leaves carved upon its pedestal stand. Set upon the tabletop were a pair of manacles, a short chain linking them.
“It’s very red,” Alice remarked, for, indeed, it was. The walls and ceiling were painted blood red and the floor was carpeted in crimson.
“It’s called the red room, my dear. Why don’t you take a seat.”
“It would have been strange to have called it the blue room, Daddy,” she quipped, trying to keep her humor up, for a feeling of dread was weighing heavily upon her as she sat daintily, the wood hard beneath her bottom. She swallowed nervously as she watched Dumpty remove a dagger from his waistband.
“Give me your hand, Alice,” he told her, waiting patiently, his hand out, until her palm was resting lighting upon his, his fingers stroking her wrist.
“And the other.”
Again, she did as he said, watching his face the entire time, blushing as he smiled down at her. ‘He has a nice smile. And lovely eyes. In fact, he is quite pleasant to look upon.’
“Sims! Sandor!” he called out suddenly, startling Alice so much that she tried to pull her hands back, only to find his fingers gripping her wrists tightly.
“You’re hurting me!” she cried out as he dug his fingers cruelly into her flesh.
“And I intend to hurt you much more before the night is over, my dear.”
“This has stopped being fun,” she retorted, her heart pounding in her chest as a pair of bare chested men with skin the color of chocolate entered though a door. They both wore fancy masks, giving one the appearance of fearsome wolves. At least, Alice hoped they were masks, for they seemed to her quite real.
“You are quite naïve if you believe life is merely innocent laughter and fun,” Dumpty declared, menace in his voice, his eyes glittering dangerously.
“I would like to believe that is a virtue,” she retorted as the pair of masked men took positions to either side of her.
“I would neither agree, nor disagree, with you,” he said, attaching the manacles to her wrists, his chuckle making her shiver, for it was devoid of warmth. “Now, hold still, lest I have a mishap and mar your pretty white skin.
Brandishing the dagger, he proceeded to slice Alice’s pretty from her until she was quite naked, save for the steel restraints around her wrists during which she heeded his words, remaining perfectly still, although she could hardly keep from trembling until it was over.
“I find women so much more attractive when they are vulnerable and helpless,” he leered, sheathing his dagger once more.
“I thought that you were a gentleman. It seems I have been deceived! You are no gentleman at all!” Alice said, stamping her foot for emphasis, for, although she was frightened, she was also quite vexed, both at herself and at the Sargeant-Major.
“Willingly deceived, I should think, for, while I am not a true gentleman, neither are you a true lady. Sims. Sandor. Please prepare Miss Alice. She is to be our main attraction for the evening. I must depart and make sure all the players are in their place.”
He paused briefly, bending over so as to kiss Alice softly upon the lips, a knowing smile upon his lips when she did not rebuke him.
“I must bid adieu for now. Remember, my dear, this was your choice.”
As he strode from the room, Sims and Sandor (she wasn’t really sure who was whom, for they looked quite alike from head to toe) lifted her from her seat and set her on her feet, the chain connecting her wrists together clanking softly as they guided her from the room, her steps reluctant as she contemplated her fate whilst recalling the enormous prick of the horse headed man, from which she had saved her sister.
‘I suppose it can’t be too bad,’ she told herself half-heartedly. ‘At least I have saved Lorina from this fate, for which she had best be quite thankful.’
They dragged her out onto the stage where she could hear the audience beyond the closed curtains. From the sound of it, the theatre was filling up quickly. Alice, resigned to her fate, didn’t put up a struggle and, instead, drank in her surroundings. Apparently, someone had taken great pains to lavishly decorate the set for her performance.
‘It very much resembles the garden outside Father’s window, only the colors are more vibrant.’ For, indeed, it was the splitting image of their quiet little garden right down to the oak towering oak whose branches cast welcome shade upon a hot summer’s day. The floor itself was covered in grass, a small cobbled path leading to a slightly raised platform upon which she stood. Around the edges stood a wall which was only slightly taller than the hedges that it overlooked. Flowers bloomed along the pathway, familiar save for their overly bright colours. She could almost imagine the buzzing of bees and the twitter of birds as she let her gaze drift over the familiar, yet strange, landscape, and she began to relax, barely noticing, at least at first, as one of the wolf-headed men tossed a thick rope of an especially thick branch just above her head, the end dangling down just above her.
And then, it was impossible not to notice as the other expertly (making her wonder if he had, at one time, been a pirate, for he used a knot that she recalled from her time on Captain Foxtrot’s ship) tied it to the chain connecting her manacles.
‘It seems so long ago,’ she mused, only slightly alarmed as the rope began to rise, pulling her arms up with it. ‘and yet, it can’t have been more than a handful of days! So much has happened since then and I’ve had so many adventures. I wonder if I’ll ever find my way back home or if I even wish to. While not all of my adventures have been as enjoyable as others, I am quite sure that I am much richer for having had them than I would be to simply waste away at home and long for them. In truth, I would not trade a single one, even this one, for a day out in our garden, dreaming of being ravished and knowing it likely that I might never be!’
With that thought, Alice smiled, although it was a secretive smile, meant only for herself, and no one else, and began to ponder what the Sargeant-Major might have planned for her as her arms were drawn above her head until only her big toe touched the carefully laid planks of the patio.
Beyond the thick curtain, she could hear the crowd growing restless. And then, there was a sudden silence, followed by a trumpet fanfare and the roll of a snare followed by a shout of ‘Hizzah!’
“Ladies and gentlemen!” Sargeant-Major Dumpty called out, his voice ringing throughout the theatre. “Welcome one and all to our grand finale!”
Alice could hear applause and raucous shouts (many of which were rude enough to make her blush), followed by laughter and much shushing.
“Tonight, we have a special performance by a young lady that many of you may have heard of and, perhaps, even know!”
Again, his pronouncement was followed by applause. ‘Know?’ Alice wondered, thinking of everyone she’d met whilst in Wonderland. ‘Oh, I do hope that Yum and Yee are in the audience. Or even Dum and Dee! Perhaps Captain Honeyglass has come to see me. Or the caterpillar. If so, I hope he has a spare moment or three after the show, for I have so many unanswered questions for him.’ She paused, closing her eyes and losing herself in memory, concentrating very hard. Finally, she was rewarded with a sensation so subtle that she had to wonder if she was imagining it. Deep within she thought that, perhaps, she felt a stirring, as if the smallest of butterflies was unfolding its wings. So hard was she concentrating that she failed to hear the remainder of Dumpty’s announcement, which she only realized when the curtains began to slowly open.
‘Dash and bother. Now I am left with no idea of what is about to happen. I hope I don’t have any lines, for if I do, how am I supposed to remember them when I’ve never been given them? I don’t even know who I am expected to play, unless I am not expected to play anyone at all and simply be Alice, and yet, that begs the question of which Alice? Certainly not That Alice. This Alice would be more appropriate. But then, at what point does This Alice become That Alice and will I even know? Perhaps it was already happened and I am no longer This Alice and yet, I suppose, I will always be This Alice, regardless of who This Alice might be. Oh, it makes my head spin to even think of, so perhaps I will stop. Thinking, that is. After all, thinking often gets one into all sorts of predicaments and yet, so does not thinking, so perhaps the wisest course is to do neither!’