Alice In Onederland

To say the castle Niall took me to was gorgeous was an understatement. It was a white structure with stairs and windows I only read about in fairy tales. The front doors and flying buttresses were adorned with black and red banners proudly displaying a mechanical heart for a crest. The lawns were nearly trimmed with a variety of roses spotting intricately cut animals in decorative patterns. “Brilliant”, I murmured, following Niall up the shallow steps.

“Isn’t it?” Niall asked. “The palace is almost as beautiful as you.”

I shrugged him off as we entered the front hall, evidently the throne room. Like the exterior, the walls were white and illuminated with high windows by a heart shaped throne. The same banners from outside boasted their crests in here as well, standing guard behind carefully placed bouquets of colourful roses. From the gallery above us and its dome to the shining marble tile holding the red runway rug, everything was magnificent. Nothing in here could compare to the woman sitting in the throne though.

Silk blonde curls fell down to her perfect chin which featured a pair of rose petal lips. Bored blue eyes glanced carelessly at her own dress like she was wondering why it was so bleak (with the beading and embroidery, it was anything but dull) though I’d never seen such carefully threaded lace on such a high collar. She stood when she saw me and beamed. “You are Alice”, she greeted in a smooth voice. “The people welcome you to the Kingdom of Hearts, dear.”

“Alice of Other Worlds, I present to you our Lady of the Lands, Queen Taylor of Hearts”, Niall recited proudly, bowing before her. I curtseyed and she giggled.

“There is no need to be formal”, she stated. “The people should be bowing to you.”

I stared into her radiant face. I couldn’t even be jealous of her looks, only awed. Never had I seen someone so artistically sculpted. “I-I don’t know what to say”, I answered truthfully. In her presence, even if I did know, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to put the words together.

“The people insist you have tea with them!” Queen Taylor exclaimed girlishly. “Come, Alice! White, send someone to bring Alice and the people cakes. You like cakes, correct Alice?”

“Of course”, I said hastily. “That sounds wonderful.”

“The people thought so too”, the Queen replied. She stepped down from her throne in such fluid motions, I wasn’t even sure she was walking. She seemed to glide like a spirit. Queen Taylor reached out a hand for me which I carefully accepted, making sure I wouldn’t break her if she was real. She was. Her hand was made of flesh like mine but I couldn’t fathom how someone who looked like a painting subject could be so real. “Let the people escort you to the gardens”, Queen Taylor said. I nodded awkwardly and walked clumsily with her down a long corridor. A servant walked past us and with a sudden horror, I recoiled.

“Is something wrong, Alice?” she wondered.

“Where is her face?!” I gasped, freezing as the maid walked into a separate room. The woman had no face. What was this? And how did she know where she was going? It was-

“Alice, only those of us with roles have faces”, Queen Taylor informed brightly. “It would be quite silly if unimportant people also had faces. How would the people know who was a leader and who was a simple person?”

“She’s a person too, isn’t she?” I demanded.

Queen Taylor thought. “Well, yes. The maid is a person but the maid has no role. Thus she has no face so she is not confused with being someone important. Again, it would confuse the people.”

“She’s a maid. That’s a role”, I insisted.

“No, it is not”, Queen Taylor giggled. “Here, dear. The people will show you that she is not important. Servant?” The maid came out of the room and bowed to Queen Taylor. I couldn’t look the poor woman in the...blank space that should’ve had human features.

“Our Lady”, the maid said politely. Her voice came from no mouth but seemed to be coming out of the whole of her body. I felt it with my being but I didn’t exactly hear it. No, I didn’t hear it. But how could I understand what she’d said if she said nothing?

“Please remain in position”, Queen Taylor instructed. The faceless woman remained with her torso in a perfect 90 degrees angle from her body. Queen Taylor pulled a small silver and black pistol from her flowing sleeves and pointed it directly at the back of the woman’s head.

“What are you doing?!” I questioned, pushing the Queen aside. Queen Taylor stumbled but pulled the trigger and shot the woman in the leg. The maid fell on the floor with a black liquid coming out of the hole in her calf.

“Alice! Show the servant mercy!” pleaded Queen Taylor.

“You were going to kill her!”

“Is that wrong?”

Her tone caught me off guard as I dropped to help the maid. The Queen sounded curious of all things. Like killing people should be normal and I’d just told her she had broken a rule she was unaware of. “Yes, it’s wrong!” I wailed. “You can’t just kill people.” Another shot went off and I looked to see the maid’s black blood splatter all over my dress.

“What would you like us to do?” asked Niall almost as curious as the Queen. “Do you not kill people in your world?”

He was holding a revolver and I nearly gagged. “N-no”, I coughed. “They have lives!”

“Alice, dear, the people live in a different world than you”, Queen Taylor explained calmly. “Things are quite different here.”

“No kidding”, I muttered.

“You know who could explain it? Much more easily than I ever could”, Queen Taylor beamed brightly. “Liam! He lives just at-”

“Our Lady!” Niall gasped. “Oh you could never send my Alice away like that! Not to him!”

“White, if Alice wishes to understand the Kingdom then why shouldn’t she be entitled to?” the Queen demanded, smacking him across the cheek. “The people should have you executed-”

“Don’t kill him”, I argued. “He just…” What was he trying to do? I didn’t know anything about this Liam fellow other than that he was a warlock. “Just let him go.”

“You wish that the people let him go?” Queen Taylor mused.

“That maid was killed over nothing. Don’t kill him over nothing too.”

Queen Taylor seemed to pause for thought before bowing her head to me. “The people suppose you’re right”, she said finally. “After all, White has much too much work that’s overdue on his desk. Alice of Other Lands, the people will show you the road to Liam’s. When you come back, the people insist you have tea.”

“Alice, my dear Alice saved me!” Niall squealed, hugging me. I pushed him away but Queen Taylor cleared her throat.

“White, return to your desk.”

“But Our Lady! I want to spend the remainder of the day with Alice-”

“Desk.” With such a sharp word, her honey voice turned sour and Niall’s ears wilted.

“Very well”, he grumbled. “Alice my dear, I’ll see you shortly, no?!”

“Sure”, I muttered, grabbing the Queen’s outstretched hand. I followed her to the entrance of the castle and waited. She pointed her free hand to a set of sky blue cobble stone that led into a forest.

“This is the road to Liam’s in the city”, Queen Taylor stated. “Do be careful going through the woods. There are suspicious things that linger. The people would hate to see our Alice butchered in there.”

“Can’t you come with me?” I pleaded.

“The people rely on their Queen to remain at her post at all times. The people would be lost if the Queen abandoned such a place with no rhyme or reason.”

I wanted to kick and scream. If I was already being introduced to the Queen, was I not important enough for an escort? But after the maid, I decided the best thing to do would be keep my lips sealed. I thanked her and started heading down the sullen path. “Thank you, your worship”, I said, curtseying. “I’ll be sure to remember our tea date.”

“The people would be honoured.” She seemed to watch more for a flicker of a moment before retreating into her castle. Thanks for watching out for me I thought bitterly. Dour thoughts wouldn’t help me arrive at Liam’s any sooner though so I tried my best to keep my eyes ahead of me and my feet moving as I followed the path to the warlock’s

Notes

(Hopeuflly the spacing takes)

Thank you to everyone who's already supporting this little idea of mine :D I wasn't even sure people would be that interested