Wonderland

Desperate Souls

Nothing in this world makes sense

And few things left feel holy

Lying in valleys with the dead

Alice kept running; she was too terrified to stop. Her skirts tangled up in her feet and she tumbled to the ground. Was that bird back for her? Or did the bander-thing catch up to her? What about those card-shaped soldiers? Why were they attacking her and her companions? The swirl of questions almost made her as dizzy as the aimless run into the dark forest to escape her would-be captors. She turned back to look behind her, breath heaving and heart thundering loudly in her chest. Had she finally lost them?

"There's nothing after you if that's what you're worried about," There was a voice, but nobody stood before her and Alice looked around her surroundings, sure she had heard someone.

She finally looked up to see the face of a grinning cat, yet the body was unseen. The head seemed to hover over a tree branch, and Alice stared, she couldn't believe her eyes. She had seen many strange things so far, but the floating head of a cat and no body? She wasn't sure if she should be horrified at the prospect of a floating head or just add it to the growing list of peculiarities in this "Underland."

"I must be going mad," She breathed, gaze unwavering and eyes wide as saucers.

"Then you should feel right at home. We're all mad here," The Cheshire Cat responded, a sickening grin on his face.

Alice winced, the adrenaline from her attack finally wearing down. Her stomach clenched looking down at her arm. Upon inspection, she could see the gashes were deeper than she had initially assumed and winced again at the state of her arm. Her governess would have a right fit if she saw such a thing. Alice may not have been as proper of a lady as society expected, but she had never tried to fight a wild animal before. She'd surely be locked in a Mad-House for the injury alone for no excuse could really explain it and the truth was undeniably insane.

"I thought I was dreaming, but this couldn't happen in a dream," She said, staring at her arm defeated, she had been so sure it was all a dream. How could all of this possibly be real?

"It looks like you ran afoul of something with wicked claws," The Cat mused, looking at Alice with unusually deep eyes.

"The benner or banner..." Alice tried, but the word was just so strange, she couldn't possibly remember it among all the other weird terms she had heard so far that day.

"Bandersnatch? You're lucky to be alive," The Cat seemed almost impressed, "I'd better have a look at that."

The Cheshire Cat's head disappeared, before reappearing suddenly next to her as a whole cat. The cat was donned in a waistcoat and Alice couldn't help but find it utterly absurd. Yet, the entire situation itself was ridiculous. The grin that adorned the cat's face was seductive as he inspected the wound.

"The slightest scratch made by the frumious Bandersnatch will fester and putrify unless it's purified by someone with evaporating skills, like myself," He said proudly before lifting the girl's arm, attempting to clean the wound. Alice however, was having none of it.

"What are you doing?"

"It needs cleaning out."

"I'd rather you didn't," Alice said, making a face. This situation was odd enough without a cat licking her cuts.