Almost Alice - additional

Alice. Alice. Aaaaallllllliiiiicccccccceeeee! The voice inside her head shreeked. Alice awoke from the dream and looked around the room panting. The door to her closet was barely cracked. It hadn't been when she closed her eyes. Alice, Alice open the door. Let me in. I won't bite. Hard. The voice seemed to laugh, wildly insane peels of laughter. She flung her hands up over her ears and covered them, curling up in a ball. Go away! Please! She thought back desperately, on the verge of tears. The voices never stopped, always whispering to her at night when she awoke from vivid dreams of a beautiful castle garden. She never told anyone about it, she knew she was insane and therefore no one else should know. She figured if she thought that enough and believed it, it would come true.

A new voice started whispering to her, a calm and innocent voice, almost motherly where the other had be a harsh mockery of a male. Darling, close the door. Go back to sleep. He won't come back tonight. It's ok . Then almost as an after thought; Alice we aren't here to scare you or hurt you. You aren't crazy. You're special, Alice. With that both voices receded and she knew she was alone in her mind. Her thoughts were her own. Alice whimpered once and dropped her hands, sitting up shakily. She glanced at her closet door. On the floor was a single black rose. Not true black of coarse, but such a deep red swirled with purple in looked black. Especially in the darkness.

She couldn't help it. She slid out of her bed and tip-toed across the cold floor to where it layed. She picked it up, carefully not pricking her fingers on the thorns, and lifted it towards her nose. A spicy, almost forbidden smell lingered on the petals. She smiled and shook her head as she rose from the floor, shutting the closet door tightly. Beams of sunlight had just began to seep through her thick curtains. She bit her lip and drew the curtain back, wincing as the light hit her eyes. She cracked the window with her free hand and dropped the rose out with the other. Before it fell the short three stories it crumbled in the light and disappeared completely. Yes, she had truely lost her mind.

And hour later she had pushed the incident to the back of her mind and was rushing out the door. Her dark hair lung in thick , volumous blue-black curls down her spine almost to her tailbone. Wind whipped at it cruely, the cold seeping through her thin layers of clothing. Her shoes were thick black leather with daring heels that evaded the snow covering the sidewalks. Her legs were covered by thin creamy tights and the short stripe of a dark jeaned mini skirt. Her arms where covered in a black cable knit sweater and furry cream jacket. Around her neck a scarlet scarf hung past her thighs. Despite the cold sun still poured down into her eyes. She fished her sunglasses out of her bag and slid them into place across her saphire eyes. She grinned. Yes, she might be insane but she was going to look good while losing it.

Alice Milace. All dressed up withhhh no whhhhhere to go. Come play in Wonderland , little girl. Her steps faltered. The voice never spoke to her during the day. I have class. Go away. She didn't sound confident in her mind anymore, she sounded scared and defensive. Why won't you accept us? Don't you know you're Ki- He dropped off in the middle of the sentence. Go to class, dear. Don't worry about him or me for that matter. Don't open the closet. Alice was confused, she had just reached the main hallways of her school. Was she not suppose to open her closet door at home? She was no where near it.... Her thought trailed off. In front of her was a janitor's closet. Pinned to the door was a single black rose imprinted with a scarlet
A. A for Alice.

I'm crazy. Completely insane. No point in denying it Alice. She thought bitterly. She had shrugged off her coat and scarf, leaving all of her creamy tights and thin sweater visible. She hadn't removed the glasses though. Her teacher, Mr. Karena, watched her along with all of her fellow senior boys and even some girls. She smirked.

"You're late again, Miss Martin."

"Sorry Mr. K, my mom isn't here to wake me up."

"You know I wasn't..."

"Don't, sir. Either give me a slip or continue. Please."

He swallowed heavily and shook his head, shuffling the papers on his desk. Her mother had been dating him when she died three years ago. He, like her, hadn't moved on. She didn't mind throwing it up in his face, she was upset. She looked down at her books in front of her and gasped. Before her the blank page bloomed into a single black rose, a scarlet
A on the petal. The room disappeared and her thoughts clouded. How was this happening? How...

"Alice? Alice, can you share your copy of Jane Eyre with Mr. Romanov here?" Mr. Karena motioned to a dark figure in the door.

"Huh?" Alice sounded like she had just woken up.

"Have you not payed any attention to what's going on around you? We have a new student, Mr. Andreas Romanov. He needs a copy of the book but I can't get him one now. Will you share with him since you'll be sitting beside each other? " He now motioned to the only empty seat which was between her and a wall.

She watched as the boy stepped forward. Long, jagged spikes of white-blond hair spilled into his eyes.... eyes that where pure purple fire. Literally purple. Sarcastic smile revealing perfect white teeth, a tall, lithe-y frame. He looked directly into her eyes, nevermind the darkest possible tint of her glasses. "I hope it's not a problem, Alice. " He grinned, but Alice felt ice slide down her spine. The Voice. He was the boy inside her head.

She froze and felt all the color drain from her face. It seemed to make him happy; seeing her panic as her brain realized the impossible. She hated that smirk on his perfectly full lips. Hello, Alice. Nice to see you, face-to-face. `His voice was heavily laddened with the amusement of a tormentor catching its prey. She became furious, so furious her fright and amazement dimmed and nearly went away. "Sure, Mr. K I don't mind. He can have it, I have my own." She shrugged and did the one thing no expected, took her glasses off and looked the boy dead in the eye. " It's no problem of mine." Her voice was colder than her eyes, which drilled into him. You haven't won, anything. She thought venomously. He just laughed silently and made his way towards his seat.

She shook out her hair and flipped it down over her shoulder, making a silky curtain between them. She stared down at the notebook paper that had been a rose. It was back to normal, only a scarlet
A at the top made her believe it was real. How.... how was this even possible? He was real! And she wasn't crazy. Little girl, you really got to learn how to shield your thoughts. I could hear you a mile away.