"C’mon, let's go," he said, grinning joyfully from ear to ear. "Remember, just hold your breath, imagine home, and I'll pull you through." The laughter that stained his voice put Alice at ease. She confidently grabbed ahold of his hand, took a deep breath and let it out once more before inhaling again. Holding it deep within her lungs, she cradled that breath as if it were the last one she ever would take. To release it felt like it would reprieve her body of the magic needed for the task at hand. She took a heavy leap, anticipated, expected and waited to feel the wrapping of the energy grasp at her waist—the nostalgic familiarity of portal travel from a lifetime ago.

Instead, her feet hit the ground. The warmth of the portal recoiled from her body, and with a THUMP! Alice fell face first into the ground.

"What the fuck!?" Alice pushed herself half off the ground. "Why didn't that work?" she asked both Mad and herself.

Mad poked his head out the other side, his face contorted as he struggled to hold back his laughter.

"It used to work before," she mumbled more to herself, embarrassed and pissed at his obvious enjoyment.

"How curious," Mad said, removing the smirk from his face, replacing it quickly with a deep look of contemplation. He held his chin in his hand, mimicking a great philosopher as he traced every bit of knowledge he had on the topic of portal travel.

"Oh!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm. He gravitated towards the fallen woman, stepping out of the portal with a long and graceful gait. It wasn’t a problem for him at all to meld the distance between portal and earth. With that same fluid  movement, he picked Alice off the ground with ease.

 "It's your imagination, I'm sure of it!"

"My imagination?" she asked nervously. “Wait!” Her voice broke as the words came out as a high pitched shrill, the situation she was in suddenly sharpened with clarity. She shook her hands and head in unison, as if she were shaking the nonsense away from her body. “We can’t worry about this, Mad, we really need to go. Either make this work or we need to run." Her voice shook slightly, panicked. He wasn’t grasping the seriousness of the situation as those things came crashing towards them!

"Ah~, no.” He pursed his lips into a pucker. “Running won't work, we can't outrun those.” He juxtaposed to the monsters closing the distance between the two. His other hand rested on his hip as if he were talking about some minor inconvenience.

"Mad! We need to hurry otherwise -" BANG! The sound of a gunshot exploded in the air! The trajectory of the bullet whizzed right past Alice, barely missing the back of her head. Her heart stopped. All the color drained from her face. Her blood ran cold, heated only by the searing burn from on her ear. The chemical smell of singed hair mixed with the smokey taste of gunpowder accentuated the close call. Mad grabbed her hand tightly and a jolt of adrenaline dropped into her stomach, and for a split moment, the look of complete seriousness stole away Mad’s grin. He pulled her at full force, dashing away from the shooter and the beasts.

"Remember," Mad spoke loudly, his grin back as he pulled her along through the forest. "Wonderland is a dream. And what do dreams run off of?" he asked, stopping to assist her over a fallen tree hindering their escape. It was broken and uneven, split by natural means, its body deep into decay. Smooth, a methodical sense of calm enveloped the two as Mad lifted her over the cumbersome obstacle. 

Her stomach fluttered and twisted, a strange combination of fear and flirtation metamorphosed inside her body. "What, Mad? What does this have to—" the shouts from the forest grow louder, cutting her off mid-sentence. 

"Get them, they're over there!" one of the voices called. Growling, howling screams of the beast grew nearer, closer, closer, her heartbeat raced harder and faster.

Quicker and quicker, they ran in response!

Mad eyes flashed once more with seriousness as they focused on that fast-approaching danger behind them. They softened once they cascaded across Alice who was struggling to breathe. Her body slowed, sluggish and overexerted as they tried to keep ahead of danger. She looked up at him panicked, desperate for a response, yet his eyes whispered sweet words of encouragement, “Things will be alright, don’t worry. Trust me.”

The words he chose to speak were much different.

“Dreams runoff imagination. Everything that we use is powered by it in some shape or form. Portals, that's all they are. It’s imagination that I can pull from and lead us to wherever I want to go. You have to picture it strongly with every sense that you’ve got. I believe in you! You can do it!"

"I don't remember it being so difficult before," Alice wheezed between each word as panic really settled uncomfortably over their encroaching doom. Her lungs were giving out, she couldn’t catch her breath and it became harder and harder to breathe–let alone think. The warm glow of encouragement etched between instructions quickly began to fade as the screaming, yelping creatures grew closer and closer.

"You're just out of practice! 

I'm guessing you've been back in the mortal world. Imagination feeds your world. It’s not created in it. It’s not used every day. You've just grown weak from not using it the same as here." The beast's growls grew louder as they continued to run forward. Alice, out of breath, tried to catch whatever Mad was saying, filling in the gaps as the wheezing and burning of her lungs held captive her attention.

"But Mad!" She panted, needing clarification.

"You need to stretch it out like a muscle and with little extra help from me, I believe you can do it." Mad looked back at her, an enigmatic smile pulled at his attractive lips, completely and utterly unphased by the life-threatening danger closing in on them. In contrast, Alice struggled with each breath, her face was a contorted, sweaty mess. Her calves screamed! Daggers of pain cut deep into her flesh and bone and the cool forest haze stung her lungs rather than provided the relief of life it normally promised. Above all, she dared not look back!  Her eyes locked forward only to recognize a new danger was approaching quickly, they were running towards a seemingly endless cliff!

"Mad where are we going!?"

"Trust me and think of where you want to be!" Mad brilliantly uttered without clarification, an unwavering smile planted across his cheeks, pulled upwards with joy.

Mad! He was crazy!

They reached the cliff; they weren’t going to stop! She wanted to stop 

But she didn’t.

"Trust me!"

"Mad!?"

"Jump!" Mad joyfully called with  hand intertwined within Alice’s cold clammy ones.

She could pull away, use the slickness of the sweat and pull back. Drag her feet into the mud. Ground herself and stay put. Find another way, any other way but that. Drop her weight, let him fall and she could stay. Then what? Run the other direction towards those beasts? Resist death with death? She could jump now and hope it worked; trust that Mad would keep her safe even if the plan didn’t work. How could he ask such an asinine task from her, he pulled her into danger, led her to death. Would he let her fall? 

Resist all instincts; trust, then jump.

She closed her eyes, held her breath, if it didn’t work, it would be over quickly at least. Her legs were shaky, heavy and her upper body was pulled by such strength she was weightless once more.

“Imagine where she wanted to be,” his instructions rang through her brain as the world seemed to move in slow motion.  Anywhere but here, she thought and dared not open her eyes. The stench of rotting flesh and the sound of hellish hounds snapped at her back and then it was gone.

The flow of air pushed her hair up; they were falling now, the world moved fast again! Think, imagine, think, anywhere but here! She thought to herself and tried to imagine where she wanted to be.

Silence.

Cold.

Silence.

She opened her eyes and was welcomed by darkness once more.

 But she was  awake. She was alive. 

The air was damp around her skin, she stretched her eyelids, like making them larger would expunge the black void and allow her to see once more; a futile attempt. There was nothing but darkness, not a speck of light. She leaned ever so slightly back, losing her balance in the process. Her hand caught the side of a cold hard surface, instantly slipping against the moisture while simultaneously something pulled her forward.

Warmth.

 A pounding heartbeat.

Heat.

Her face pressed against Mad's chest, his heart was beating frantically, playing a song in sync with her own as the two of them caught their breaths to a rhythm only they knew.

“What did you think of?” his voice teased against her ear. Soft, a warm, broken whisper against her skin.

“I just wanted someplace quiet,” her face grew warm where his breath tickled.

Smothered voices and footsteps sounded, distant and disjointed, it was impossible to trace where they emanated from. “Where did they go?” The two of them managed to make out the words. Distorted, muffled and crackling steps continued with no discernible direction; the voices came in broken waves. Words were spoken but their meaning was lost to the two hiding in the darkness. “They just disappeared- find-off with your heads,” was all they could distinguish.

“Where are we?” Alice questioned, puzzled and alarmed, turning to look around fruitlessly. At least they were safe. Their pursuers were unable to find them, yet, it was still too close for comfort. Mad quickly cupped his hand over her lips. The warmth of his hand migrated into her cheek. His long, elegant fingers, calloused slightly at the hinges, wrapped completely across her face. 

They were close, there was no space to spare as their bodies pressed up along with one another. Alice’s back pressed against a hard, cold surface while her chest was glued to his heated one. The drastic difference in temperature went unnoticed, the pleasant warmth of his body aroused her own and kept the coldness away. The heavy drumming of her heart began to fall back to regularity, a sound that was still too loud that it echoed inside her skull, pulsating with her ragged breath. The heat of it made the hand clasped against her mouth wet with condensation. When the demand for air became unbearable, she ripped his hand away, turning and gasping desperately for the coolness of the air to soothe her lungs. Her other cheek hit something hard and warm, the sound of a boisterous heartbeat filled her senses, she was nestled once more against his chest. 

The two stayed like that for a moment, heavy sounds of footfall and muted voices began to dissipate, becoming harder and harder to track.

“Shhh," he whispered between pursed lips. “I think they’re leaving.”  Alice managed to put the pieces together.

“They were above us?” Alice asked as the faint sound of pounding footsteps dissipated for good.

“Good job Jellybean.” She couldn’t see his face, but she could hear the smile plastered across it. She felt his hands lift off her body, and the scratching sounds of rock against rock filled the small chamber. “Just gotta find - Ah ha!” Mad exclaimed as the sound of stones tumbling down from their once infinitely stationary position of their tomb. A small gleam of light came in, piercing the darkness; its suddenness blinded her. Mad continued to work that damp, cold wall. The sound consumed the cavern until Alice’s eyes accepted the light. She opened them slowly, embarrassed when she realized how intimately stuffed they were. Impossibly close. It had really only been big enough for one person. Mad had most of his body turned towards her in an awkward, back breaking position, his hands pushed and wiggled out the stone. He was slouched over as much as he could, at full height, the space would have had him knocking his head against the cavern wall. No wonder she felt his breath so close to her face. Warmth spread across her in places she wasn’t interested in now.

Mad was pressed up fully against her, giving his back a small break, as he pushed and reangled himself just enough past her to continue his assault against the wall of stone. She glanced up, watching his face slightly distort as he stretched and  wiggled past her. She scooted away as much as she could but only landed herself in a position that wedged the two closer together. “Just a little more,” Mad grunted without noticing as he pushed his hand a little harder and the wall gave way, tumbling down enough that he could now extend his whole arm through.

“Sorry, let me -” Alice said, trying to adjust and landed her in a position where her hands pressed flatly against his chest. He was still slightly sweaty from the running.

“Don’t apologize, you can keep your body pressed against me like we used to.” Mad said with joyful flirtation as he pulled himself forward, two arms now freed, while Alice tried to shrink away. He angled himself enough to move his leg above the hole. “Okay, one more push!” He huffed and kicked his leg out enough to cause a small avalanche of pebbles and stones to fall, creating a crawl space-sized hollow in the rocky surface. Mad took a step out, easily bypassing the ledge with his long legs. Once outside he turned to Alice, who quickly turned her face away, his flirtatious remark had set her nerves on fire.

“Looks like you took us someplace underground,” Mad remarked, reaching into the hole, requesting her hand once more. His other hand grabbed her waist and helped her through. Alice–who was much shorter than him–looked much more of a spectacle as she struggled to pull herself over the ledge. 

“I just wanted some peace and quiet,” Alice commented as she looked around. There was a stream running by; its sound was calm and soothing. The rocky wall was part of the cliff that stretched high into the trees. It was the same ledge Mad had led her to jump from. Realizing just how tall it was, Alice felt dread drop into her stomach as an alternative scenario flashed in her mind. What if she hadn't imagined a place that gave her peace and quiet?  

“I would have died for sure,” she said out loud. She shook the thought from her head and gazed back over to Mad who either didn't hear what she said, or pretended not to.

“Well, it looks like it worked. I don’t see or hear them anymore. Good job,” Mad said, standing akimbo with his hands on his waist as he looked around. “They must have gone back. Thank you, they were chasing me all over the woods today. Let's go this way,” he said, pointing down the river and began to follow its downstream flow.