The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Alice Has Wonderland
by K.R. Morrison

Alice fingered her lace collar as she gazed through a window into her realm.

No one had believed her when she’d returned to this land and had claimed the throne right from under the Card Queen’s fat butt. Many eyebrows had been lifted, but they’d all been brought down—about six inches lower. Those doubters now took up space in a large burial mound, which served as the flooring for her garden.

She had to laugh. They all had thought that the previous Queen was eccentric with her rose garden. No one dared to say that about Alice, though.

That time in the Land of the Wizard had served her well. She’d found out who really wore the pants in that place beyond the clouds and had quickly gotten apprenticed to the nastiest witch in the land. Of course, she had to defend that right against those flying gorillas or whatever they were. Weren’t they surprised when they’d tried to carry her off.

Alice smiled at the memory. They were pretty tasty, those critters.

While at the beck and call of that old green-faced hag, Alice had learned a great deal of magic, mostly surreptitiously. It wasn’t hard to get to the books the witch had thought she had hidden well. But there was no way to stop Alice from getting what she wanted. She’d spied on the old pile of crust and had spirited them off at the end of the day. Most of Alice’s nights were spent poring over those tomes and she had come away with more elemental power than a girl should have.

But then again, Alice was no girl…

Her quest for the wizard-land throne was trashed, however, when that foursome had gotten into the castle and had destroyed her mistress.

With water! Who knew? Alice had always wondered why the old biddy smelled so horrible.

She had headed for the hills, and the portal back to this land, as fast as her feet could carry her. There was no way she’d wanted to be caught by the merry crew that had done in the Witch. Besides, pickings were much better in her more familiar digs.

By this time, Alice’s musings had brought her to the entry to her private garden. She’d really done wonders in here, after slicing the old Queen and her circle into bits and taking the throne. After the coup, she had called the more important denizens of the Land to a tea party to celebrate her ascendancy.

No one got to leave, though…

Her thoughts came to a crashing stop when she got to her prize heartflowers, and she screamed in rage.

“Cat!” Alice glared around her, as if he might have been sleeping in the greenery.

“CHESHIRE! Get in here immediately!”

She rushed to the heartflowers and stared at the damage. Many of them had been mangled to the point where the hearts were no longer beating. Something had licked the crystals off, and the hearts had died out, one by one.

A movement caught her eye. Well, two movements.

The first was one of a particular dormouse attempting to crawl up a wall, a coating of crystals still on its lips. It didn’t get much further than the first thought of escaping; Alice was on it like a shot, and it didn’t have a chance.

The other was the Cheshire Cat peering nervously around the doorframe. He no longer wore the smirk that he’d had when he had first met Alice; instead, a rictus of fear graced his countenance at all times.

Alice was just about to pull the dormouse’s heart from its chest when she realized she was being watched.

“Ah, Cat.” She looked round at him. “See what this naughty mousy has done.”

Cheshire looked at the garden, then back at Alice. “Miss?”

Alice’s face went black with rage. “’Miss’? Excuse me??”

The Cat quaked. “Um…sorry…your maj..er, your Aliceness. What can I do for you?”

“I need to replenish my heartflowers. Get hold of the Mad Hatman. Have him round up the usual suspects.”

Alice smiled, and her fangs shone in the sunlight.

“We’re going to have another tea party!”

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Fiction © Copyright K.R. Morrison
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.