leg; and my mother is a housewife, strong enough to drag my father by the leg. I have several aunts and uncles that seem to both live at home with me and live in their own homes nearby, all of whom have won some kind of award for brute strength. There have been several situations where I have seen my cousin break things not meant to be broken. My family is strong and fearless, made up of calloused skin and stubborn hearts. All that being said – as I fell down the rabbit hole, a tumbling tunnel of dirt opening into a void of dark nothingness, I screamed.

Falling nonchalantly next to me was my pale, fluffy friend. White seemed uninterested in the overall lack of surroundings as he checked a pocket watch – why he needed a pocket watch when he had at least 12 wristwatches hidden under his sleeves escaped me, but in all honesty I was a tad preoccupied with falling as opposed to why that man has way too many means of telling time. It was the first time I found myself having to take a short breather in order to continue screaming, and while that may sound funny, it somewhat burns the lungs in a way that makes you feel like someone fisted your throat. I screamed so much, in fact, that I eventually ran out of the energy to do so. Seconds to minutes passed and the falling didn’t stop, so I just stopped screaming – having become desensitised to the whole ordeal by now. If White wasn’t concerned so it was probably somehow safe, right?

“So……” Deciding to fill the now scream-less silence with my hoarse voice, I looked over at White. “You believe that I am the one you’re supposed to be looking for?”

“O-Oh yes. You fit t-t-the description, a-after all, re-rememb-ber?” Nodding almost enthusiastically, White glanced back at me; his glasses almost hovering off his nose. “But…..” I started, leaning back slightly as the cold wind from below rushed up my shorts “Where did you get that name from? Alice….that’s not…. No one calls me that.”

“Ah, w-well, Her Red Majesty has n-n-never been good at r-remembering names. T-That is one of th-the reasons wh-wh-why her staff ty-typically do not p-p-possess them.” I crossed my arms with a sneer to his response, mumbling like an irritated child “She can’t remember my name but she can remember my long eyelashes and plump lips.”

“C-Could you, b-b-b-y any small ch-chance, possibly l-let that g-g-go?” Well, that was probably the most polite way I’ve ever been told to shut up, but no matter how sweet his voice is; my stubborn ass refused to let it go. “I’m going to stop for now but this isn’t that last you’ll hear of it.” I heard White mutter a soft ‘oh bother’.

I crossed my legs mid-air as one shook from nerves “My name is Ace, by the way. Call me Alice and I’ll unload my lungs into your ear again.”

“Y-Y-Yes, Ace. P-P-Please do not do that again.”

Now wanting to move on from the name thing, I decided to change the subject and fill the silence that had once again arisen. “So…..” My knuckles cracked as I pulled at my fingers “How long does this fall take?”

“O-O-Oh, it- uh—it fluctuates. S-Somet-t-times it f-feels like a f-few hours and s-s-s-sometimes y-you land in-instantly. I-It can be very inconvenient b-but i-i-in reality i-it only takes a fe-few seconds.”

I stared at him like I had just walked into the wrong maths class, a visible wave of confusion engulfing my face “I….what……” my voice was soft, but still echoed through the darkness. In response, White seemed almost as confused as I was. “I-I am just a m-m-messenger boy. I d-d-do not know th-those kinds of things.” Wow. He drags me all the way down this bottomless pit and he doesn’t even know the science behind it? For someone with so many watches, he seems to be kind of useless.

More time passed and I started to get the feeling that we were getting closer to the ground. This was mostly because the void was starting to brighten up, revealing what looked like a series of mirrors attached to nothing but the air. I didn’t have much time to register what they showed me, but from the little reflection that I saw I could tell that the images were distorted – not enough to be grotesque but just enough to appear all too realistic, giving the viewer a visceral sense of discomfort. The mirrors disturbed me, so I shifted focus to the only other thing I could – White. His ears flapped in the breeze of the fall, and the fur on his cotton tail twitched impatiently. He just looked so human, but those animalistic features just imbalanced the whole image. They really were real, which I supposed was something I was going to have to get used to once I arrived at wherever.

Just as I thought as if maybe I could get used to my new life of endless falling, the distance beneath me ended. There was no crash, or tumble, or any sensation other than the sudden realisation that my feet had met with a hard surface and a feeling lost time. I was startled by the sudden change to say the least, becoming so disorientated by my surroundings that it took me a few seconds to realise that I was alone. Panic overcame me as I swiveled around, looking for White with an overwhelming sense of urgency “No… no no no—“ There was no way I could be taken to what truly felt like another layer in the earth’s crust only to be abandoned in this new and strange place. My dirty sneakers scampered across the checker-tiled floor as I ran around, looking for any sight of the messenger, but I couldn’t even find a hair. There was no sign of that hare. How could I possibly lose an entire nerd within seconds of looking at him?

The room looked like a dentist waiting room if your dentist was the Phantom of the Opera. It was cylindrical with crushed velvet curtains covering the walls while looking up showed that the walls just continued. It didn’t appear as if they went on forever, but instead, it looked like the end just didn’t exist – fading into the void that I had fallen from. I approached a curtain and peeked behind it, finding an immaculately carved door. It was locked, and jiggling the handle made it feel as if it wasn’t made to be opened. Moving on to behind the next curtain revealed another door; however, this one didn’t even have a knob. The third door only had a letter slot at the very top, but it was way too tall to reach let alone look though. The series of doors continued; each one somehow more useless as the previous – that is, until I found the largest door. Light streamed through the cracks paired with a cool breeze that could only be felt if you stood inches away. This was the door, but it was featureless with no handle or even any hinges. I pounded it with my palms, on the verge of giving up until a heard a faint voice.

“Hello?” The voice sounded nervous, but curious – much like that of a shy little girl. Looking down, I noticed a smaller door at the base of the large one, so I knelt down to study it. This door was the most detailed by far with flakes of gold and a distinct scent of cinnamon and honey. I could smell grass through the keyhole, but twisting the knob had no effect “It’s locked silly! You need the key”

“Who are you?” I looked through the hole, but I could only see foliage. “Where are you?”

“I’m behind the door! You need the key” Her voice faint, but it was definitely coming from beyond the wood. She seemed willing to help, but I was still suspicious.

“Have you seen a white rabbit?”

“I haven’t seen anything, miss” Her response made me frown, but she sounded like a child so I didn’t want to argue – my voice could be described as soft after all. Taking a step away from the door, I glanced to the middle of the room to see an intricate glass stand - How could I have missed that before? As I cautiously approached it, I found a small handbag. It looked like it belonged to a small child – red vinyl in the shape of a heart and only a few inches in size. In fact, it was almost too small to be for a child, and yet too large to be for a doll. I opened it up and dumped its contents onto the glass surface of the stand only to find loose heart candies, craft vials filled with that looked like bubble mixture, and a plastic key that you’d expect would open a child’s Disney brand diary. Was this the key that the voice told me about? It looked cheap and nasty, and was smaller than half my thumb, but it was the only key I could see. I ran the tiny item through my fingers, feeling the hard plastic before shifting my attention to the other goodies. Poking a heart candy proved them to be spongy like a cake despite being brightly coloured, reading short phrases such as ‘eat me’, ‘hungry?’, and ‘big and sweet’. They did look appetizing, and while mum did always tell me off for eating candy without permission, I have a habit of being quite the nervous eater with little impulse control. Without even thinking I popped a blue sweet in my mouth. It tasted like a blueberry with the texture of a cake as opposed to a blueberry flavoured cake, however, the aftertaste was powdery much like a real heart candy. As I prepared to eat another, my hand was stopped by a tingling sensation as if pins and needles were overtaking my extremities - shortly followed by the discomfort of bloating. It originated in my stomach before spreading outward, bringing with it a tightness that I couldn’t explain until I looked down. Across my chest, the worn denim started to stretch as my chest became unbearably tight. For just a second before the panic settled in, I thought my clothes were shrinking. Only when the checks on the floor started to get smaller did I realise that it wasn’t my clothes that were shrinking, but it was me that was growing. The crushing sensation coming across my chest was both physical and mental, preventing me from thinking straight as I merely clawed at the fraying fabric – torn easily from years’ worth of sun damage and wear. The buttons popped, causing the pale denim to fall and revealing the once loose shirt to become taught to the point that its buttons followed suit. My breathing became laboured, eventually completely unable to breathe until all clasps and buttons gave in. I gasped, the weight off my chest giving me momentary relief until I realised that I still had some growing to do.