Behind Sanity

Chapter Nineteen

                                                                    Behind Sanity

                                                                 Chapter Nineteen

                                                                                1 

                The setting sun was setting.  The blowing wind was blowing through the leaves of the dead trees that were dead and leafless.  The ruined castle, set off nearby in the distance, was ruined, crumbling walls crumbling.

                 Alice read the words of the book she had found, unable to help curling up her lip in disgust.  It was, without doubt, the worst piece of literature she’d ever laid her eyes on.  It was poorly written, it made no sense, and worst of all it had no pictures.

                 “This book is wretched!” she declared, flipping through the pages briskly.  “What is so fantastic about it?”

                 As soon as the words had escaped her mouth and Alice had looked up from the page, she saw a scene that she had not been looking at moments before.  She had been sitting on the floor in the Fortress of Doors, surrounded by doors and doted upon by a strangely green blaze in the hearth.  Now she was in a rocky, barren landscape.  The setting sun was setting.  The blowing wind was blowing through the leaves of the dead trees that were dead and leafless.  And a ruined castle, set off nearby in the distance, was ruined...

                 “With crumbling walls crumbling,” she uttered quietly in disbelief. 

                 Alice tilted her head as a confused animal might, her mouth slightly open, her eyes wide.  Curious indeed.  She’d not understood when she’d read the book, but now she could think of no better way to describe the landscape before her.

                 Odd…

                 She got to her feet, closing the book that was still in her hands.  Alice held it close to her chest as the dust-filled wind tangled her hair.  So this book was some sort of portal?  Into another world? 

                 Yes, right, Alice, she chided herself. As if Wonderland itself is not another world all its own.

                 The sound of a light sneeze gripped her attention, pulling her gaze to the right.  All she could see were rocky obstructions, but was there someone there?  She crept around, hoping her shoes did not make much sound in the gravel.  Moving on down the slope, she saw a figure come into view, sitting on a rock beneath a blanket of wavy, golden hair.  The figure was wrapped in dirty clothes, and until she heard a low cough, she could not tell that it was a man.

                 He did not seem to notice her, and she crept up, holding the book across her chest as if it would protect her.  Truthfully, she did not even remember that she was holding it.  Her head was filled with other thoughts.

                 This is a man.  A human man.  It might be him. 

                 “Are you Victor?”

                 The man shook in surprise at the sound of her voice, jerking his head back to look at her.  She noted that he had no weapon, because if he had he might have tried to attack her with it.  The attractive man looked at her from icy blue eyes, silent for several moments as he focused on her.  He didn’t seem to believe she was truly there.