Part One: Mad As A Hatter

I'm in the middle of a forest, it's dark at first, but then I can see the sun rising through the trees thick branches. It's brighter now, but my vision is covered by a thin haze that gives everything a white tint. I suddenly realize that I know this place, that this is the woods near my house.

I start to walk deeper into it, but decide to turn around when I reach the tree that my father would always stop me and Kevin passing. Apparently the deeper parts of the woods were too dangerous. I'm about to turn around, when I look up and see Alice sitting in the tree, which is odd because I know for a fact that she can't climb, she is laughing, and smiles when she sees me.

I shout to her, and she jumps down and takes off into a run. I follow her into parts of the forest that I'm not familiar with. I keep calling out to her, but she only laughs and beckons me to go further. Finally she stops in front of a large hole, that goes deeper than I can see. She looks at me and looks at the hole, then I realize what she's thinking.

"No!" I scream, but she doesn't realize how serious this is.

"Come on," she motions for me to come closer, and I take one step.

"Don't do it, Alice, you don't understand!" I scream, but she just laughs again.

"Come on, Ave, it's an adventure." She holds out her hand, and I'm about to take it, but she looses her footing, and gracefully slips through the hole.

"Goodbye!" is the last thing that I hear my best friend say.


"Aven?" My therapists voice cuts through my thoughts, bringing me back to reality.

"Yes?" I asked, trying not to sound irritated.

"Did you have the dream again last night?" Her voice is like glass, smooth, but you can tell that it will shatter if you're not careful.

"Yeah," I said, staring out the window.

"Would you like to discuss it?" She asks, and I know that means 'talk about it.'

"It always the same. In the end, I'm watching her fall, and she's saying 'goodbye'." My tone was dry, but I know that she sees through it.

"Do you think that's because she didn't get the chance to say goodbye before she..?"

"Before what?" I snapped. I knew that if I lost my tempter here it would only result in another long lecture when I got home, but I can't help it. "Before she disappeared?"

"Before she passed on."

"That's what everyone's calling it," I was talking more to myself than to her. I waited a moment, but she didn't say anything. "Go ahead, ask me. That's the reason I'm here, right? Because they can't face it themselves so they're getting someone else to."

"Aven-"

"I'm not crazy!" I exclaimed, defensively.

"No one said that you were crazy. It's perfectly natural, when loosing a loved one, to not want to believe that they're gone, but in order to move on you're going to have to let go.

"I can't let go of someone who's not gone," I whispered. She looked like she was about to say something more, but I stood up and walked out of the room, not wanting anyone to see the tears that were threatening to spill down my face.


"You can't keep doing this Ave," I gritted my teeth, untangling the mix of emotions I heard in my father's voice.

"No understands," my voice sounded colder than I had meant it to.

"You don't give anyone the chance to," my mother said sadly.

"I don't want to talk about it." The anger in my voice didn't seem to surprise them. "I don't want to tell people what they don't believe."

Kevin made a whimpering sound from the seat next to me, I knew how much he hated to listen to us argue. I gave my little brother a week smile, that he returned with the innocent look that seven-year-olds are so good at giving.

"Honey, it's been six mouths since Alice passed away." I closed my eyes and pictured the hole that she fell into, then I try to think of an argument to support that.

"I just know that she's alive. I can feel it." I whispered, tugging at my dark red hair.


My thoughts remained on the hole, and I let them drown out my parents telling me that it was time to move on. Believing that my dream was real would make me as crazy as everyone thought I was, but it was the only thing that felt right. The worst thing that could happen was there not being a hole, so I decided that trying to find it was wroth a shot. That moment was when my adventure really began.


I am standing in the middle of a clearing, I don't know how I know that it is a clearing, because everything around me is pitch black. I hear something a few feet away from me, and I realize that I'm not alone. There's something long and hard in my hand, and I suddenly thrust it towards the area that had heard the sound a moment ago. There is a cry of pain, then I feel my weapon being ripped from my grasps.

That is when the light comes, and I see a man standing a few feet away from me. His arm is covered in blood and I see a knife in his hand. He is glaring at me with cold eyes that seem to stare right into my soul. The light around us becomes stronger, and the heat becomes unbearable.


I woke up with a start, and looked at my alarm clock, it was three o'clock in the mourning. I pulled myself out of my bed, and quickly got dressed. Before sneaking out, I grabbed two coils of firm rope from my father's workshop and my brother's bow with quiver of ten arrows. My father had started teaching him how to shoot it a few months ago, and, although I missed more than half the time I tried to use it, I thought that it would be good to have it with me.

When I was just about to walk out the door, I noticed the black and red top hat that I'd had when I was younger. For some reason, looking at it reminded me of the dream that I had just had and the one that I'd been having for the past few months. Without thinking much more of it, I placed the hat on my head and quietly opened to front door.

As I walked in the direction of the woods, my thoughts took me back to the dream that I had just woken up from. This was the first time that I had a different dream from the one about Alice, yet, they felt somehow connected. The weirdest part was that it didn't feel like it was a dream, when I woke up I didn't get the cool sensation that it was all in my head, it felt like it had really happened. It felt like a memory.

My pace didn't slow when I reached the tall trees that I knew very well. It took about five minutes to reach the tree that I wasn't allowed to pass. My mind's eye could see Alice sitting in it, the way that she did every time that I had the dream. Taking a deep breath, I bolted past the tree, running in the direction that she always did.

I came to a stop, panting for breath, and looked around me. Nothing looked familiar, and I realized what a bad idea this was. I was lost.

I looked up at the trees, wondering which direction to go. I turned around, deciding to go in the direction that my back was facing, and quickly stumbled backwards to avoid taking a step forward. For, literally inches away from where I was just standing, was a large hole.

I sunk to my knees to examine the hole, that looked exactly like the one I had seen in my dream. It looked like an unusually large rabbit hole, although I had never seen a single rabbit in these woods. Standing up, I pulled the coils l of rope out of my pocket and tied it to the branch of a tree about two feet away from the hole, setting the other one next to the tree. I gingerly placed the bow and arrows next to the rabbit hole, and dropped one end of the long rope down it. Taking a deep breath, I positioned myself above it, and began to climb down.

I was never very good at rock climbing, but I had enough control not to drop myself or slip down into the darkness. I wished that I had thought to bring a flashlight, although I didn't know how I would be able to hold it. The further down that I went, the harder it was to see the rope in front of me.

I was about five feet down, when I heard a loud cracking sound that I recognized as the sound of a branch breaking. I froze, thinking that I should try to climb up as fast as I could, but my arms wouldn't work. I was barley able to catch my breath, when the terrifying sensation of falling took over.


My eyes flickered open, and I looked around me. I was siting in the middle of a large field covered with brightly colored flowers under a bright blue sky. I stood up and brushed grass and flower petals off of me. Next to the spot where I had been lying was my bow and quiver of arrows, and the tree branch that had given way, my rope was still securely tied to it.

I rubbed my head, wondering if I was dreaming. This couldn't be the bottom of the rabbit hole. That was when everything hit me. I fell back onto the ground as almost a lifetime's worth of memories crammed themselves in to my head. I knew where I was, and I knew how I had arrived, but most importantly I knew who I was, or at least who I used to be. I wasn't just Aven Jennings. I was The Mad Hatter.


Hello who ever is reading this! I'm really excited to finally be posting this story, after putting it aside for far too long.

This is more than slightly based on The Syfy Channel's Tin Man, so part of the plot isn't necessarily mine. If you want to know what part PM me and I'll let you know when I reach that part, but I won't want to give away spoilers for Tin Man if you haven't already seen it (you should it's fantastic!). Elements from The Syfy Channel's Alice are also in here, which is another outstanding show that I would recommend to anyone.

I think that's all of now. Thanks for reading, please review!