“Alice,” Cheshire purred. “Let’s have tea.”
Murmurs spread through the room. I heard a small inhaled gasp and a curse or two. My cheeks burned, unsure what his words meant and wondering what everyone else knew that I didn’t.
Cheshire stepped backwards, breaking our contact. Everyone could see my pebbled nipples and the damp spot his hard cock had left on my dress. A crude display of his attraction.
I didn’t dare look at anyone, though I could feel their eyes burning into me. This was normal for them, I reminded myself. But they could see my cheeks burning in embarrassment and knew this wasn’t normal for me.
My eyes stayed on Cheshire as he backed away, smiling, his green eyes never leaving me.
“Come, little rabbit. Follow me,” he requested, walking backwards. I saw the rabbits on the wallpaper flash in my mind for a moment. White fur and wild, red eyes.
The Den’s patrons parted out of Cheshire’s way as he continued backwards. Their gazes feasted on every inch of him with curiosity and interest. However, a few looked utterly frightened by his transformation. Some looked at me with just as much interest and fear, as if I were someone here in Wonderland and not just Cheshire’s current toy. As if they knew me in some way but how could they? I didn’t know them.
I followed Cheshire through the hundreds of people as he backed into a beaded curtain and disappeared. I pushed through the beads and was faced with an empty hall. There was breath on the back of my neck as an invisible hand brushed across my shoulders.
“Time for tea, Alice,” he said into my ear, appearing behind me, visible once again. He twisted my hair around his fist as he moved his mouth against my neck, growling.
“What’s tea?” I asked, pressing trembling fingers against my thighs to stop their shaking.
“You are,” he purred in amusement before he gripped my hips and gently encouraged me forward. I walked down the hall with his hands guiding me. I felt like his puppet. I imagined him pushing his fingers inside me, making me move just how he wanted.
The doorway we approached had thin wooden doors that slid into the wall to open. The brightness of day had me shielding my eyes as we walked outside.
Wonderland forest was mostly silent, except when it wasn’t.
There were moments when the birds were voracious in their appetite to sing. They trilled, almost too sharply, at this very moment. The tone wasn’t like England’s birds, where one could sit with a smile and relax. The birds here kept you on edge.
Their songs started slow and then built into a crescendo. I didn’t realise they were trilling panic until the panic was a screeching chorus all around us. I inhaled a gasp and leaned backwards into Cheshire.
Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped.
No one had ever seen the birds. One had to assume they lived in the trees and chose to hop about hidden, instead of flying in the sky. Either way, their alarming song always left one feeling as if something were approaching.
“Quickly now,” Cheshire commented. “We’re already running late.” I peered over my shoulder to see him looking up at the sky. Large pink clouds hung above us. They flashed with light and I heard the low groan of something that could be thunder or could be some great beast flying in the sky.
Out in Wonderland there was always something looming far too close. The anticipation the birds caused and the growls in the sky made everyone tense.
But his words,running late, felt so familiar to me. As if he were saying a spell that attempted to unlock a memory. And just like that, I desperately felt like I was running late. That I’d been running late for a while and people were waiting.
“Yes, we must hurry,” I said in agreement. Cheshire looked down at me with a wide smile. Then he held my chin and faced me forward.
There was a long table in front of me, filled with people I hadn’t noticed.
Mad Hatter sat at the end, her purple eyes boring into me as if she could whisper in my head. I could almost hear it too. How Cheshire meant to kill her. How I needed to save her. Her words from the hall hissed in my head.
Was she right? Was this it? Was he about to murder her before my eyes?
I felt as if I owed her. She was my friend.
“So nervous,” Cheshire purred in my ear and my eyes shifted to the figure beside Mad Hatter. I sucked in a breath, my face heating.
“Caterpillar,” I whispered and Shaheen gave me a slow, sinful smile that made all my troubles melt away. That is until Cheshire’s claws dug into my hips and he moved me towards the table.
There were others here too. The Queen of Hearts and the March Hare. The Hare was an actual animal, though four feet tall and bipedal. He had dirt-coloured fur and his nose was always twitching. His black eyes stared at me before swivelling forward to the table. His paws fidgeted in his lap and fiddled with his vest. I wondered if he could turn into a man as well but that seemed unlikely.
Some said he used to be a normal animal but that over time Wonderland twisted him into something else. Wonderland did that to its long-term denizens.
I wondered if I never left, would I too be twisted up? I pressed my hand to my head as if I might feel ears sprouting up.
