I'm Going Slightly Mad — writing piece

Instructions

The girl couldn't remember her name. She could remember falling down an endless hole, tearing her dress on brambles that she could have sworn whispered to her as she passed. She could remember a wide, twisted grin watching her from the corners of her vision. She could even remember a snow-white rabbit that ran as if being chased—though there was no hunter in sight. But she couldn't remember her name, who she was, or where she was from. A plume of smoke drifted into the air, and she followed it, until her gaze landed upon an old man smoking a sort of cigarette. His eyes were cloudy, and his breath wheezed, a terrible rattling sound. "Want a puff?" he asked her, in a raspy, ragged voice. The girl just shook her head, backing away. The old man laughed, though it quickly turned into a hacking cough. Smoke wreathed around him, and when the girl blinked, he was gone. She carefully continued her path through the trees, and gradually became aware of a presence walking next to her. At first it seemed to be a scraggly grey cat, but the next moment it was only the shadow of one gliding over the ground, its steps in sync with her own. After a few paces, the cat spoke. Its voice was not its own, rather a voice that came from the sky, and the trees, and the ground. *"It's been a long time since Wonderland has had any visitors."* The girl looked in surprise at the cat. Not because it was talking—that seemed quite normal, really—but because of how its voice sounded like it didn't exactly fit the strange creature. It sounded almost human. It sounded very old. And it sounded—tired. She had no response to the comment, and it didn't seem like the cat was looking for a response. They walked on in silence for a while longer. Then, the cat said, *"I don't suppose you know where we're going, do you?"* "No, I'm feeling I rather do not," the girl said, thinking herself a bit foolish. *"I do."* The sky had grown dark, though no stars could be seen. The two continued on their way, until the girl stopped at a huge mound. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to resemble a skeleton, half-sunk in the ground and covered in moss. "What's that?" she asked, tilting her head. *"Ancient bones, my dear. This was once a great beast. Time has starved it. We all had thought it would live much longer, but..."* The cat went suddenly still, its eyes glinting. *"It was one of the first."* The girl realized she did not like the turn the journey had taken. "Are we almost to wherever it is we're going?" The cat glanced at her. *"Yes."* As they continued, the ground itself became covered in the same moss that was growing on the skeleton, causing their feet to sink ever so slightly. The tree trunks were no longer solid, rather strands of wood-like material billowing in an undetectable breeze. Things seemed to move in the corners of the girl's vision, darkening into inky blackness when she turned to look. The cat stopped, suddenly. It stared into the darkness, its face almost reluctant. Then it turned to the girl, and said, in a voice close to mournful, *"We're unraveling fast here, you see. But, my dear,"* the cat shifted its gaze back to the darkness, *"how about you?"* The girl found she could see through the darkness, and gradually a table was lit a few yards away. When she looked towards the cat for an explanation, there was only empty space where it had been. Looking back at the table, a figure in a top hat was seated at the head. The rest of the chairs were coated in some kind of dust, a few even having cobwebs. "Take a seat, why don't you?" said the figure, giving a wide smile. Her hair may have had been blonde at one point, but it was so tangled and dirty that it had faded to a lifeless grey. The girl nervously sat in the chair nearest to her, listening to it creak. Her breath blew pieces of tablecloth up in the air, as they flaked off like eerie snow. "I hope you'll last longer than the others." The figure maintained her grin, but her eyes had changed, no longer focused on the girl. "Once people know they're trapped, they tend to... drift away." The girl's blood turned cold. What was this place? "But you won't be like them. You won't leave me! You won't, right?" the figure said. Then she laughed. It may have been the worst sound the girl had ever heard. "Who are you?" the girl asked, shaking a little. Her hands instinctively gripped the tablecloth, but it disintegrated as soon as she touched it. "Me? Oh, I'm a lot of people. Maybe not anymore, though. I used to make hats, but they all died." She laughed again. "It's funny, you see? I couldn't even wear them myself. You need a head for a hat, and I've lost mine." The figure's gaze suddenly snapped up, staring straight at the girl. She slowly lifted her hand, tracing something in the air with a long nail. "That's it. Alice. That's what they called me." Then, as if she was seeing the girl for the first time, smiled brightly. "Tea?"