The Fall (Camren)

Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice: How long is forever?

White Rabbit: Sometimes just a second.

The world slips away, quick and sharp, like someone pulling the rug from under her feet. It is a curious sensation, discombobulating and obscure.

Her first though is of Alice falling down the rabbit hole, tumbling into the void. Not knowing which way is up or down.

Time has stilled, the seconds elongate and spread out slowly like black ink dripping into water.

The vacuum of nothingness that surrounds her is oxymoronic, it is a heartbeats length and unending, it is soundless in a way that is deafening.

She remains suspended, the moment of impact stretching on, seemingly forever, until she is no longer floating in the overlap of reality. The thick molasses of her mind starts to clear and thunder back into real time with the collision of her body against the side of the bus. She hits solidness in a sickening thud that knock her so hard bells start ringing in her ears. It is strange that there is no pain.

As the white rabbits pocket-watch ticked back into motion and the hands of time trip back over, the loose threads of time begin to stitch back together and Lauren crumbles under the impact. She expected pain, she expected it to hurt but she feels nothing.

It has been only seconds, five at the most, since the crunch of metal against metal but those seconds were elastic and pulled taut and long until her body slumped on the floor and the elasticity of the moment snapped back into place.

The blackness that had been surrounding her breaks into light with the blink of an eye. Lauren gulped in her first breath since oblivion.

Some obscure part of her expects to see Wonderland when her eyes open, surprisingly, it's almost what she gets.

The world around her is not quite right; it is upended, skewed sideways. The table in front of her is coming out of the wall. Her foggy mind can't figure out why the wall is the ceiling or why the floor is the wall.

Lauren loses focus and the Wonderland in her head grows fuzzier and blurs around the edges as she squints at the oddness around her. The Hatter in her mind stands in front of her blurred and smudged, he raises a hand, clicks his fingers and lucidity returns.

She remembers, she understands. The bus crashed, another vehicle slammed into the side of it and threw her. The bus had toppled at the impact and now rested on its side. Her next thought is Camila. Where is Camila?

There is a sharp buzzing sound in her head that won't clear even as she shakes her head and struggles for purchase on the floor. Lauren desperately struggles to sit up, her hands push against broken glass as she attempts to look around. It's dark and startlingly still, heavy with the weight of destruction.

Shouting echoes in the distance, girl's voices. It occurs to her that it is her friends yelling, they sound panicked but all Lauren can focus on is finding Camila.

Crawling painfully through the rubble and glass Lauren looks frantically for the other girl. The lights flicker back on for a second and then cut out again. She thinks she hears a scream from somewhere behind her. Something is dripping from above her.

She can hardly see, only the sporadic flash of lights and sparks from an electrical appliance illuminated the area intermittently.

Crawling over the sideways sink and the sideways cupboards a white cable draws her attention. It's an iPhone charger. Camila was looking for one just before the crash. It's so odd and ridiculous that she should find one in the aftermath, in all the rubble and destruction. Lauren realises she must be in shock when the bizarreness of it draws out a hysterical laugh that bubbled up loudly. She pushed the cord away and her laughs dissolved into sobs, harsh and unrelenting.