Chapter 1:

As she stood outside, Dawn Harper smoked her third cigarette of the day, watching the light rain fall down from the heavens. She was currently in english class, one of the lower ones. Kids were screaming at eachother, acting more like first graders instead of seniors. The teacher had decided to stop trying to read "Alice in Wonderland" to them and had dismissed the class early. Dawn herself had an "A" in the class, so she didn't really care. She put her long black hair up in a ponytail. She was a pale girl with the bluest eyes you would've ever seen. She was pretty with a heart shaped face and long, lean legs. Everyone teased her, calling her a vampire because of her clothing choices. So what, she wore dark clothes... that didn't mean that she'd burst into flames if she stepped out into the light. Dawn had alwars had an extremely crazy imagination, and as a child it was always causing her problems. As she leaned against the wall of her school, she noticed something quite off. A rabbit was starinng at her through the rain, looking rather off. The rabbit was holding a pocketwatch and was wearing a bllue waistcoat with red trimmings. Blinking a few times, Dawn rubbed them vigourously, then took the cigarette and tossed it on hte ground. "Tony must've laced them with something... I'm hallucinating..." Dawn muttered, staring at the rabbit in disbelief. The rabbit turned it's attention to a blonde girl that was nearby, across the road. It was Dawn's friend Alyssa. Alyssa was always bragging about how she was "related" to the Alice from the book. Dawn never really believed her until now. Alyssa seemed excited, now was her chance! But of course, being the idiotic blonde she was, she ran across the street without looking. Dawn saw the incoming bus even before Alyssa did, and immediately started running. "Alyssa!! Watch out!!: she yelled, but even being as fast as she was, Dawn realised that there was no way her, or the white rabbit, could make it to Alyssa before the worst happened.

Dawn sat in the hospital, worn out and really needing on of Tony's trippy cigarettes. It had been five hours since Alyssa had gotten run over. Just as he had appeared, the rabbit had dissapeared. Dawn dismissed it as a figment of her wild imagination. Another police interview done, and another recall of what had happened, Dawn waws finally free to go. She got up slowly and walked to her car. A slow speed sounded safer, but Dawn's mustang screamed for fast speeds, so Dawn complied. Dawn wanted to forget everything that happened, needed to forget it. She couldn't get the image of her best friend out of her head, or the image of the hysterical busdriver, or the dent Alyssa's body had left on the front of the bus. It was all suddenly whisked away when something ran out in front of her car. She slammed onto her brakes and skidded across the road. When she came to a stop, she immediately got out and looked around. She noticed the rabbit and sighed. "Damn rabbit..." she muttered, then walked over and knelt down next to him. As she stared at it, she heard a soft ticking noise coming from the rabbit's waistcoat. She reached out to grab the clockwatch.

The rabbit's beady eyes suddenly popped open, and in an instant, he leapt up and flipped away from her hand. "O-oh my! My, my, my, my, MY!" he said frantically, patting down his waistcoat with two fluffy white paws. He looked at Dawn then and blinked, his ears laid back in a very scared, deer-in-the-headlights sort of expression. "Oh dear.."

Dawn shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and stared at him. "Dude... you can talk?" she asked. She really needed to find a better source for cigarettes, being only seventeen and not being able to buy them herself. Never again would she trust Tony, thinking the cigarettes were laced with shrooms or something.

The white rabbit blinked back at her, as if just as startled she could talk to him, then pulled out his watch in a swift flit of one paw. He looked down at the screen, then gasped and did a frightened leap, his ears twitching. "We're late! W-we're late! Oh so very late! Follow me, please!" he insisted to her, then turned and bolted from the street, running into the bushes that lined it.

Dawn stood up, looked at her car, then back at the bushes. She sighed. "Fuck it..." she muttered, then ran after the rabbit. Great... now I'm listening to my hallucinations... what's wrong with me? she thought to herself.

The rabbit paused only briefly to look back over his shoulder and make sure she was following him, then continued on quickly. He would stop and wait for her every ten feet or so, then move on. Eventually, he led her to a cave-like hole in the rockwall of a nearby park. It was a fake cave, something put up to entertain the children with their imaginations, but here at night, it looked a little more threatening; a little more looming. He stopped at the entrance and turned to look back at her. "T-this way!" he insisted, pointing at the cave, then hopped inside and utterly disappeared.

Dawn stopped at the mouth of the cave and just stared at it. Her hair was now soaked, and so were her black jeans. The only thing dry was the tank top she was wearing under her favorite leather jacket. She grumbled and zipped the jacket the rest of the way and started walking in. "I can't believe I'm doing this..."

The rabbit opened his watch again and the face of it lit up instantly, glowing with something one would only call ethreal. He studied the face and then looked back at Dawn. "This way! Hurry! We're very late!" he said through the cave, his voice bouncing off the walls. He then hopped on, his watch face still glowing, but growing smaller and smaller from Dawn's view. What she didn't know, was that there was a large hole only a few steps in front of her.

Dawn sighed. "Late for what? A funeral or something?" she called out, and completely slipped into the hole. She couldn't see a thing, and started to grab at the walls. "Shit shit shit shit!!!!" she caught a hold of something, but when the hole suddenly got brighter, she realised it was a rubber snake. She yelped and tossed it to the side, and started to try and avoid things that were flying towards her.

All around her where random things, simpy floating as she fell down the hole. A red light illuminated the tunnel as she fell, revealing things like chairs and pillows, bottles, cans, shoes, and even a fly swatter. Random playing cards whooshed past her head, and a blanket wrapped around her legs from beneath her as she collided with it. The bottom of the red tunnel was coming up fast, but at the bottom of the tunnel was a large pile of pillows and blankets and a mound of feathers.

Dawn got herself loose from the blanket and curled up into a ball, falling though the mush of stuff at the bottom of the hole. She merely bounced off slightly. Uncurling herself, Dawn looked around. "This is just... wierd..." she said. She picked a card that had gotten stuck on her collar and flicked it, embedding it in a door. She got up and looked around. "Hey rabbit... you here?"

The rabbit wriggled himself out from a hole at the base of the doorway in front of her and he tilted his head. "Why are you wasting time? Oh dear! Come, come! In here!" he said and turned around, fitting himself back through the doorway quickly.

Dawn sighed in annoyance and got up with much difficulty. She got to the door and found herself in a circular room full of doors with a table right in the middle. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" she yelled, and turned quickly when the door behind her closed. She started to struggle with it, and finally started kicking it when it didn't open. "Damnit!" she cursed, then went to the other doors and did the same thing. She kicked a tall black one with one final angry kick, then looked back to the table and noticed a key and a small bottle full of a rosy colored liquid. Dawn shook her head. "This can't be right..."

There was some scuffling on the floor beneath the table from behind her, and when she turned back to the table, the labels on the bottle and key ruffled, as if shifted by some wind. On the bottle was the label, "Drink me," and on the key was a note. "I'm short and stout, my nose is also my hand. Shake it, and I'll let you in."

Dawn stared at the bottle and drink. The took the key and tossed it on the floor, then took a sip of the drink. Immediately, when she shrank, she started shaking her head. "No no no!! This is so a hallucination... or I'm dreaming... yeah, I'm so totally dreaming that I'm in a book... okay... so I'm just gonna go along with it until I wake up..." she said. She walked over to the drape that was covering the small door. She couldn't budge it. "Shit..." she sighed. "Now I have to get bigger..." she said, then looked around.

"Hey! Don't be so pushy!" came a voice from behind her. The doorknob was talking to her, and watching her through two eyes that were made of screwheads. "Did you read the note? No one ever reads the note!" he sighed, shaking his head.

Dawn looked over. "... then why the hell would you have a key if you weren't locked... and why the hell am I talking to a doorknob?" she asked herself the question, then shook her head and sighed with annoyance.

"Because that key isn't mine! The White Rabbit left it there for you!" the doorknob insisted with a sigh. "Sheesh! So rude and stupid!" he scoffed. "You need to learn some manners!"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm not fully... correct, right now. Can I 'shake your hand' without you biting me?" she asked.

"Do you just randomly go up to people and shake their hands for no reason?! How rude! I don't even know who you are! I would perhaps shake your hand if you properly introduced yourself to me like a lady! Alice was never this rude... Who are you?"

"My name is Dawn." she said calmly, sitting down in front of the door, just staring at him. "And there is no way in hell that I am anything like 'Alice'. The only girl I knew that was like that just recently got hit and killed by a bus." Dawn said softly. "She was my best friend... and she always talked about how she was related to Alice. I'm nothing like her, but it looks like in this hallucination, the rabbit has chosen me." she shrugged calmly.

The doorknob face stayed silent for a moment, gaping at Dawn, then he shuddered with the rattle of metal on metal. "Y-you're not Alice's heir..? Oh dear.." he whimpered. "This isn't good. But.. The White Rabbit wouldn't have chosen you if he didn't know what you were doing.. Very well. I am Doorman. Very nice to meet you. I will shake your hand now."

Dawn stood up, and shook his... well, 'hand'. "It's nice to meet you." she said with a slight smile. She was usually nicer than what she was being, but due to her believing this was all a hallucination, she was just acting as if it was a dream.

The instant her hand touched his nose and "shook" it, the door opened. He smiled widely with a laugh. "Ooh, that tickles!" he laughed jovially and then nodded. "You may pass! Keep that key close to you too. You'll need it. And the bottle." If Dawn had noticed, the bottle had gotten smaller just like she had.

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. Right." she said and took them, putting them in the pocket of her leather jacket. Immediately she found the cigarettes in the same pocket, and as she walked out, she lit one up.

Ahead of her, there was a jingling sound of metal on metal and the lit up face of a pocket watch. The white rabbit's little rabbit face could be seen in the light of the darkened tunnel and he waved at her. "Hurry, hurry! Come this way!"

Dawn took a drag of the cigarrette, then sighed out the smoke. "Yeah yeah. I'm coming rabbit, just chill a moment. Obviously if we're late, being even more late is better than not showing up at all." she said calmly, walking at a good pace however, thanks in part to having long legs.

The white rabbit shook his head, his ears twitching. "You do not understand how late we are! The Red Queen is most impatient to have me back! If I keep her waiting any longer, she'll see my head removed!"

Dawn sighed. "Right... Alice in Wonderland crap.. you go on ahead rabbit, I'll find my way." she said calmly. "Besides, wouldn't want to see a headless rabbit... that would suck." she said, still walking however.

The rabbit blinked at her, then nodded and turned, heading off. "Find you the Mad Hatter! Beware the caterpillar and be clever with the cat!" he called over his shoulder, disappearing further into the tunnel. At the distant end, there was a shimmering light.

Dawn nodded and sighed. "Find the Hatter... avoid the cat and caterpillar... should be easy." Dawn said, replaying what she remembered of the story in her head. Everything was dead on so far. She walked to the light slowly. "Maybe this isn't a good idea..." she said more to herself, but walked into the light anyway.

On the other side of the tunnel she emerged from, there was a single dirt path, surrounded on all sides by a dark and looming forest. The trees were almost black in the bark, the leaves shades of red and purple, the bugs ranging from as large as Dawn's head to as small as her pinky. 

Dawn also automatically noticed mushrooms that were tall as buildings beyond the trees. "... I must be stoned..." she muttered to herself before walking ahead. "This must be a dream... nothing would ever be this realistic when someone get's f'ed up..." she concluded, nodding as she walked ahead.

Eventually there was the beginning of a fence. A brown picket fence. It was crooked and very poorly made, but there was a single red balloon tied to it, reading, "Tea Party Straight Ahead." The balloon nudged Dawn's arm as she passed, as if urging her in that direction.

Dawn looked at it. "Don't be so pushy dude!" she said, expecting it to answer her back. She shrugged and continued on, looking around and looking at the fence. "I'm getting an extremely bad feeling about this."

Just as quickly as it started, the piece of fence ended. It crumbled towards the end, pointing at a dirt road that led off the path and a sign that pointed towards the dirt road saying, "Tea Party Thatta way! Welcome, Alyssa!"

Dawn saw this and flashbacks immediately went through her head. She hadn't cried in years, not since her father packed up and left when she was five, she wasn't about to start now. She took a sharpie pen out of her pocket and crossed Alyssa's name out, then much to her own dislike, she wrote her own. She pulled back quickly when she felt a sharp pain in her finger. "Fuck... a splinter..." she grumbled. Realising it hurt scared her, it meant that this wasn't a dream. She shook her head. "This legit can't be real... I must be tripping bad..." she said and walked a little faster than before.

Soon, she would start hearing music. Light and fun, but also strange at the same time. It was getting louder and louder the further she walked on the path. At the end of the road was a large house painted in all sorts of colours, and in the front yard was a long table covered in tea pots, cups, biscuits and other teatime items, balloons everywhere, all of them red.

Dawn looked around herself, expecting something to jump out at her. Annoyed, she sighed and continued walking forward. She looked at the red balloons with a bit of annoyance still. Red was always her least favorite color.

The instant Dawn stepped towards the first balloon, the music stopped. Everything fell quiet before there was the sound of soft and slow footsteps. "She's here!" chimed a heartful voice. "Finally she's-" The owner of the voice stopped short, blinking at Dawn. She would have recognized him instantly as the Mad Hatter, just by looking at him. He had red clothes, a card hanging on a hook from his hat and he was watching her with a surprised look on his face. "You're not her."

Dawn looked just as surprised as he did. "Wow... you're way different from what anything describes you... I take it you're the Hatter?" she said with a slight incline of voice. On the contrairy, he was way cuter than what the book or Alyssa had ever described him. It was very surprising, and slightly disturbing to her.

"At your dinner plate!" the Hatter said with a dramatic twirl and bow at the waist. He smiled at her and tipped his hat. "Hold please." He then removed his hat from his head of black hair and tipped it over. The sound of a phone on hold could be heard from inside as he reached inside and dug around a little. He fit his arm all the way up to his elbow, then growled and put his head inside. "RABBIT! Where are you?! This isn't Alyssa!" he called into it and his voice echoed. "I will have you for veggie stew if you don't answer me!" After a moment of nothing but hold ring, he pulled his head out and pouted, replacing his hat on his head. "Blasted creature." he grumbled. He looked at Dawn and tilted his head again. "So who are you anyways?"

Dawn sighed. "Alyssa's friend. Dawn." she said calmly. "I'm sorry, but Alyssa won't be showing up, you're stuck with me." she said. She really didn't want to go into detail about it, so she just lit up another cigarette. Maybe if she got high enough from smoking them, she'd just go into a coma and get out of that world, at least, that's what she was hoping.

The Hatter frowned at Dawn and stepped up, his hand snatching her cigarette from her lips before she could take the first puff. "This is bad for you." he said sternly. "Ask the Caterpillar. He hasn't been the same since. You know why people do this stuff?" he asked with a raise of his eyebrows, shaking the cigarette at her before dropping it to the ground and stomping it out. "It's because they need something to keep their lips busy." He then stepped forward and very close to her, smiling charmingly. "Do you have trouble keeping your lips busy..?"

Dawn would've blushed, if she wasn't fuming. "Are you kidding me?! That was a perfectly good cigarette you just wasted. The caterpillar smokes a hookah. It's a completely different thing." she growled at him. "And no I do not, I was just keeping my voice from saying any more. Obviously that failed." she said, then sighed in annoyance.

"Well aren't you a sheep!" the Hatter said with a laugh, taking a step back and holding up his hands in defense. He shrugged and pointed at the ground. "Want it? There it is." He turned on his heel and started back towards the table, picking up a tea cup and a pot, holding the tea cup on one side of his body and pouring the teapot from the other, and the tea formed a line that went over his head and into the cup in mid-air. "Afterall, it'll be your last."

Dawn looked at him. "And what is that supposed to mean...?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips in a defiant manner.

"I simply mean that Wonderland has a way of changing people." the Hatter said with a clever grin and took a sip of the tea. He then offered her the cup. "Tea?"

Dawn sighed and took it. "Well let me tell you Hatter... I have a way with changing people." she said calmly, taking a sip. "I highly doubt it will change me that much..."

"Do not doubt that which you don't know." the Hatter smirked, sipping from the teapot next. He sighed in satisfaction, then set the teapot down. With a jump he suddenly yelped, "Oh!" He reached into the pocket on his chest and pulled out the watch, looking it over with a small smile. "I suppose we should go find that rabbit and send you back to where you belong."

Dawn shook her head. "You know... I don't feel like going back. You guys wanted Alyssa here for a reason, so I'm going to help." she said. "Alyssa was my best friend, and it's what she would've wanted." she said calmly, taking another sip of tea.

The Hatter looked at her for a moment, then slowly smiled. "I said I'd take you back to where you belong. What makes you think I meant taking you back to your world?" he asked with a grin. "This might just be your kind of place."

Dawn shrugged. "Then what do you mean, oh so confusing one?" she asked, putting the teacup on the table, and dodging one that came flying towards her head. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" she yelled.

The March Hare sat laughing like crazy, then immediately stopped and started shaking like a leaf when she yelled. "Thought you'd like some tea?" he said, then started laughing again.

"Dawn, meet the March Hare." Hatter said calmly with a smile at the rabbit. "He has a thing for tea." He chuckled and looked at Dawn again with raised eyebrows. "He certainly keeps people on their toes, like a ballerina on hot coals."

"Yeah... just a little..." Dawn said, a little creeped out. Having her hand on the table, she didn't notice a mouse come out of one of the teapots. At least, she didn't notice until the mouse stabbed her with a sword. "Take that imposter!" it yelled in a squeaky voice. Dawn pulled her hand back and growled. "Do it again and I swear I will swat you across this table..." she said threateningly, the mouse just swinging it's sword at her.

"Come, come. Let's go meet with the White Rabbit." Hatter said with a smile, wrapping his gloved hand around her elbow and leading her from the table. He looked back over his shoulder at the March Hare with a grin. "Keep the tea warm, Hare. We'll be back soon." He then led Dawn back down the road from the house, heading back towards the stray dirt road that she'd neglected to go down before.

Dawn ducked from another flying tea cup. "Geez..." she muttered, then sighed as she followed after the Hatter.

Hatter laughed and looked back over his shoulder at the Hare, shaking his head and then moving on. "Come, come, before he decides to follow us." he laughed. "I love the Hare, he's like my brother, but he's really a little unstable." He smirked at Dawn and adjusted his vest, then tipped his hat and walked back towards where the fence began, the red balloon shifting towards them. "Why didn't you take this road before?"

Dawn shrugged. "I'm just walking... I don't really know where I'm going." she said. "I sent the rabbit off because he was freaking out. I told him I could make it, and I did. He warned me of a cat and caterpillar though.. I don't know why." she said calmly.

The Hatter laughed, as if at some inside joke, then nodded and shrugged. "And he's right! The cat and the caterpillar are definitely beings to be wary of!" he chuckled. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, checking his pocket watch again. "Oh my... look at the time."

Dawn sighed. "Let me guess... we're late?" she questioned in a sarcastic tone. She walked calmly and tried to remember what she could from the book, but to no avail.

The Hatter looked at her with a raised eyebrow and frowned in confusion. "Late? Late to what?" he asked and tucked his watch away again. "I was just saying look at the time. It's currently flozzernarf and twenty-two seconds. That's a beautiful time." he smiled.

Dawn just stared at him, then shook her head. "I'm not even going to ask..." she muttered, then sighed. "The rabbit was constantly saying that we were 'late', but to what I have no idea."

"That rabbit is always late somewhere. I don't think he really has any concept of time at all." Hatter shrugged, then stroked his chin with a quizzical expression. "Or is it that time has no concept of him? I guess we'll never know." He smiled at her, then sighed. "Unless he was speaking about a visit with the Red Queen. In which case, you're screwed whether you show up on time or late or don't show up at all. She'll behead you either way."

Dawn nodded. "That rings a bell." she said, then sighed. "I hate people who think they're mightier than others... it pisses me off."

"Good. You'll need that piss and vinegar to stand up to her." Hatter nodded and reached into his hat, pulling something out of it. It was roughly square-shaped an wrapped in brown paper with a red ribbon tied around it. "This was supposed to be for Alyssa. But I suppose you should have it. It'll help you during your stay here."

Dawn again nodded, this time only slightly. She hadn't told him yet what happened, and it was obviously bothering her. The took the preasent and opened it slowly.

Inside the brown paper was a very beautifully binded leather copy of Alice in Wonderland, with a ribbon page marker tied to the binding. He smiled proudly at it. "That was Alice's very first copy of the book. She gave it to me before she left. What people don't realize is that this is actually more of a biography than a work of fiction. But people in your world are so close-minded, so there are a lot of details in this book that aren't in the ones in your world." he chuckled. "This will help you when you get lost. And when you REALLY get in trouble and need help, just open it up to your favorite chapter." he smiled.

Dawn nodded. "It's beautiful..." she said, admiring every bit of the book. "I haven't read it in so long... but I remember most of it. It's one of my favorites." she chuckled lightly.

"I'll bet it is." Hatter smiled and tilted his head at her in admiration for a moment. He then sighed and looked ahead again. After a small moment of silence, he sighed again. "Red was her favorite colour, you know. Not any shade either... lucious red. The colour of the apples in spring.. the colour of warm blood, and the colour of her lips when it was cold outside.." he said whistfully.

"Funny. That is one of our many differences. I hate the color red. Purple is my favorite. Color of irises. And lilacs." Dawn found herself chuckling. "To think... such different peope were the best of friends... quite an odd thing." she breathed in, then a thought came to her. "Hey... Hatter? I got a question for you." she said, looking up at him with a comical smirk.

"And I have an answer." Hatter said with a smile back at her, having seemed broken from a trance at first. He folded his hands behind his back pleasantly and tilted his head, waiting for it.

Dawn chuckled lightly, quoting what she heard from the new movie that was scurrying around the real world like crazy. "Have you any idea why a raven is like a writing desk?"

The Hatter blinked at her question, then tilted his head with his eyes on her, his confusion more than apparent in them. "I... No... No, I haven't the faintest idea. Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Dawn laughed lightly. "I don't know, that's why I asked you." she grinned. "The movie doesn't do you justice at all I must say. None of the movies do." she said with a smile, something that she usually only did around Alyssa.

The Hatter paused at her reply, then broke out into a laugh. "Well, I must say, it seems like you'll fit in around here just fine!" he said and shook his head. "But what is a... movie?" he asked quizzically, rubbing his chin in confusion. He then looked at her and smiled. "And you are beautiful when you smile. You should smile more often."

Dawn shrugged. "It surprises me that I actually am... I usually only smiled around Alyssa." she said. "And a movie is... well, pictures moving on a screen... it's like looking at a scene through your own eyes, but it's projected on a flat surface. For example, here. In my world, we can walk through Wonderland, without having to get up off our asses."

Hatter laughed slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. "What a strange concept." he shrugged and smiled at her. "You'll have to show me this... movie one of these days."

Dawn nodded. "Sure." she smiled. "That'd be cool." she said with a chuckle.

Hatter smiled at her and seemed to admire her for a second before a noise up ahead caught his attention. He looked ahead and smiled at the sight of what looked like a young boy trying to get his foot untangled from a thorn bush. "Oh! There you are! We were just looking for you!" Hatter called to him. "Stop playing with the bush." He tapped the thorn bush with a cane that he magically pulled from his hat and then put it up his sleeve, the entire thing disappearing as the vine let go of the boy's ankle.

The small brunette boy grumbled something and stood up, dusting off his pants and shirt. "The bush started it." he mumbled and adjusted his top hat, a pair of snow-white rabbit ears twitching in the rim. He looked at Dawn and frowned. "There you are! Do you have any idea how late you are?! What took you so long?"

Dawn just stood there for a moment, frozen in disbelief. "You're kidding..."

The young boy blinked at Dawn and tilted his head. "Kidding?! Why would I kid about this? This is serious! At least you only ran into the Hatter and not the caterpillar or the cat! Those two would keep you occupied for hours!" he sighed, throwing his hands up in the air. He grabbed up his cane, checked his pocket watch and tucked it away again. "Well. Let's go." he said and turned. As he walked ahead of them, a fluffy white tail could be seen peeking out from under his waistcoat.

The Hatter laughed softly at Dawn's facial expression, shaking his head. "Don't be so shocked. He's usually much more irritated." he said and patted her shoulder, giving her a gentle nudge after the boy.

"I'm not surprised about that..." Dawn muttered, following. "I thought you were a rabbit?!"

The boy looked back over his shoulder at Dawn with a raised eyebrow and a scowl. "I AM a rabbit! Do you not see the ears and tail?" he said angrily, pointing them out. "People! You never trust what you see." he scowled. He tapped his cane against the ground a couple times and it shrunk into a small ball, which he tossed a few times into the air and caught again. "I thought you were smart enough to realize that things in this world are much different than those in yours?"

"Well no shit sherlock.... what, is Hatter going to change into a dog when he goes to my world?" Dawn asked, crossing her arms in a pissed off way.

Hatter broke into a laugh so hard that he had to wipe his eyes, shaking his head with a wide grin. "No! My goodness, how absurd! What would give you that idea?" he laughed, holding his ribs now. "Well... that was pleasant! I haven't laughed that hard in ages!"

The rabbit simply huffed at the Hatter and Dawn, shaking his head and rolling the ball in his hands as he walked. "You think that's funny, just wait until you see what Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum have done."

"Oh... do I have a tongue twister for them..." Dawn grinned from ear to ear. "They won't be able to say it." she nodded, as if she knew they wouldn't be able to do it.

"Impossible. The Tweedle brothers know every tongue twister there is, and are able to say it with perfect diction." The white Rabbit huffed, nodding in finality.

"Oh give her a chance, Auggie." Hatter grinned, walking up beside the boy and smacking his top hat lightly, then shoving it down on his head so it covered his eyes. "She's much more clever than Alice was."

Dawn grinned. "Why thanks." she said with a chuckle. She sighed a bit and walked a little faster. "Hmm... so besides the cat and caterpillar thing.... is there anything else I should worry about..?"

The Hatter and the White Rabbit looked at each other with a shared expression and the Hatter looked at Dawn again with a charming smile. "Perhaps you should read the book? It has all the dangers of this world written." he chuckled. "And how to avoid them."

Dawn sighed. "If I believed that, then I wouldn't believe you that the caterpillar is all that bad. Sure, the cat was a pain in the ass, but the caterpillar just used words to confuse Alice, but to also help her on the right path."

"I've already told you that there are things written in this book that are not in the ones in your world." Hatter warned, tapping the cover of the book in her hands. "There may be something about the caterpillar that you don't know."

Dawn grumbled slightly in annoyance. She opened it up and started reading as she was walking, a talent she was good with. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she read slowly to not miss any details.

The Hatter smiled at her as she read, his head tilted, and the Rabbit rolled his eyes with an annoyed sigh as they walked. "The later chapters are the best ones." the Rabbit mentioned haphasardly.

The Hatter gasped at the Rabbit's words and stepped forward, pushing his hat down over his eyes again. "Hush, Auggie! She'll get to them in time! No need to spoil a good book."

Dawn looked up. "What's the point in hurrying to the end Rabbit? If you read the ending, you never get to know how it all started. For instance, say you skip to the end, and the husband is murdered? Who did it? Why? When? How? All the thick details are in the middle and beginning. The only thing the end has is the resolution. So shut up and let me read it for myself." she said, perfectly calm, then looked back down at her book.

The Hatter and Rabbit both stared at Dawn for a second, then looked at each other and Hatter was grinning widely. "I like her." he said and laughed.

"You would." the Rabbit scoffed and adjusted his hat and coat before tossing the ball in the air again, catching it and tucking it away in his pocket, his ears twitching.

Dawn just shrugged slightly. "I can still hear you two..." she said calmly. She never looked up from what she was doing, and it would make you wonder if she knew where she was going, though she stepped over mushrooms and branches with ease.

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W.M. Chapter 2

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