The Mad Ones (A One Direction Fan Fiction)

Chapter Nine - Jabberwocky

            When I opened my eyes I was surprised to find where I was. It hadn’t been a dream after all. I had a sudden need to run my hands over the grass surrounding me, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I was scared and confused. What happened the day before was like a dream. I wasn’t aware of what was happening, and it just happened.

            I was aware now. Sadly, that only made me more afraid.

            “Alice,” a soft voice said, making me avert my eyes to a tree with an unnatural moss growing on it. “I let you sleep in, but we really have to get moving,” Harry said, averting his eyes to the ground, where the green turned to a pale pink.

            “You didn’t need to do that,” I told him, pushing myself off the ground, and wiping the colored grass from my ankles. “I don’t need much sleep,” I said, and Harry smiled and shook his head.

            “You’ve always been stubborn,” he muttered, and my smile vanished from my face. Harry’s smile vanished as well, and before he rushed over to me, I shook my head.

            “I just don’t like not knowing who I am … that’s all.” I ran a hand through my loose hair, getting my fingers caught in a few rubbery stems, and forcing my eyes on the ground. “I-I mean, I fell better than I did yesterday. I don’t feel like I’m in a dream-state anymore. I know how to walk and talk, my mind’s just blank,” I explained. “Yesterday I was a zombie, but today I don’t remember you before I was a zombie.”

            “I guess my hopes for the memory loss to be temporary were in vain,” Harry breathed, leaning back on his heels, and giving me what he thought was a comforting smile.

            “Completely and utterly,” I promised, feeling this awkward air settling in. “But, really, you can wake me up, no matter what you think. I’m stubborn, through and through.”

            “Just don’t pass out on me again,” he said, and I startled at the final word.

            “Again,” I repeated, realizing before the reply passed his lips what he referred to.

            “You just have a tendency to faint,” he explained, and I absorbed this information. “It’s not bad, just something to be aware of,” he noted, as if he was worried that I was.

            “Didn’t you say we needed to get moving?” I thought out loud, making him blink. Once, twice, before answering.

            “Oh right,” he said out loud, taking a breath and motioning me across the small stretch of grass. “We’re on our way to see Doc, and we’ll see if there’s anything that she can do to help you,” he explained, and I moved over to him, trying not to sound discouraged when I asked who Doc was.

            “She’s the best doctor in Wonderland … or at least she’s the best us kids on the run can get,” he further explained, slowly as if talking to a child. “We’re going to have to follow down the Jabberwocky’s path-“ he said, but I didn’t hear the rest of what he said. Utter panic overtook my body at those words.

            “Hey, hey,” he softly said, and I felt arms encircle my shoulders, like vines around an old plant, “it’s okay. He was killed a long time ago, no need to worry.” Confusion rang through his voice, no matter how hard he tried to mask it.

            “Who killed it?” I asked, meekly in a way I hated. I sounded like a damsel, my voice cracking. I felt like a damsel, the knight in raggedy clothes comforting me. I got the feeling I wasn’t the girl who would wait in her tower. Harry didn’t reply for a moment, so I forced myself to meet his eyes.  “Harry,” I tried once more, toughening my voice, “Who killed the … the Jabberwocky.”