Episode 11

Alice Wonderland:

'Every time I wake up its more like I'm just entering the nightmare. There's that short moment where everything's ok. Then it all comes back. It always comes back. . .'


The sun's heat was warm on her face, but the light was not quite so gracious. It irritated her eyes until finally she opened them to find herself out of the forest. In fact, she was out of the wilderness entirely. She hadn't been able to figure it out at first, but now that she had taken in her surroundings she realised that she was on a rooftop.

"Was it a nightmare?" She thought sitting up to get her bearings. "No. The nightmare begins when I wake up."

There was a sense of relief in her that her she was alive, the monstrous images which still remained imprinted in her mind. The snarling jaws, the hate filled, hungry, beady little eyes. She was not likely to forget them soon.

She could feel herself welling up.

"No!" 

She got to her feet and gritted her teeth, pushing the previous night's memories from her head. It did not work.

"Wait." It suddenly occurred to her, "How did I get here?"

She remembered the sound which had seemed almost like music to her ears and yet, at the same time, filled with sickening mystery. The gunshots. She wondered where her saviour was, and why they had brought her here.

"Now I Just have to get . . ." She walked to the edge of the roof and glanced over the edge. "Down."

She shot back like a flash, afraid of falling. "That's a long way"

Again she made her way towards the edge, slower this time. As the horizon expanded out in front of her she found herself admiring the view. The sunrise was begining to turn the sky and the furthest points on the horizon a rich golden colour, spattered with the smallest little flecks of orange and red.

"It's so pretty." 

She clenched her fist. "Not again. I have to escape these thoughts."

Shaking her head she spoke out loud. "Why!? Why can't I think happy thoughts."

The answer was fiery. It burned through her and hurt to hear.

"Because I don't want to fall apart."

She wiped her eyes. It felt like that was all she ever seemed to do these days: Cry.

But the tears stopped when her eyes picked up something on the ground close to her. She stared down trying to make it out, but she couldn't. It was silhouetted, blurred in the golden light. The shadows began to clear as the sun rose higher in the sky and the shape became more discernable.

She gasped.

 It was a shape she recognised, but one she hadn't seen in what felt like forever. A shape she had missed.