"What do you mean by that?" Alice asked as she turned to look at her friend sat across the bed from her, opening his laptop.
Chuckling, he pulled open his newest novel in the works, featuring one of his most-mysterious side characters from his now completed novel, Alice Hartziene. "It's exactly like it sounds, so please, help me!" He repeated once more.
For the third time it felt like her jaw was dropping within a span of half an hour. First her friend came over and revealed he got a new deal, then revealed it was for this particular side character, then asked for her help?
Swallowing, she tried to think of a way to reject him. "You know, I'm not an author. I'm just your friend, even if she's based off of me, we aren't that alike." She tried to dissuade him from having expectations of her.
"But it has to be you! You're the reason my first book was successful. You gave me the idea, so help!" He begged with puppy dog eyes and clasped his hands together, pulling all the stops.
In truth, she never intended to. She knew he always enjoyed writing, but never to this extent. His first major hit was a book titled "The Bloodborn Prince", which held inspiration from her random comment.
She had mentioned how she liked Alice in Wonderland, due to her name being the same as the protagonist. It ended with a full philosophical discussion between her and her friends between the ideologies of each of their favourite folklore protagonists, and the darker messages in the stories.
As a joke, they all acted out different characters and what they liked, and the talk continued for a few days until they grew bored, except for one person, her friend in question currently begging for inspiration.
"Come on, please? I'll buy you something to eat! I've always loved Alice's character in general and I'm so glad to write about her." He continued, still trying to convince her.
Alice Hartziene was a side-character that held a lot of mysteries. She yielded from the same kingdom where goldilocks came from, even the wise princess ruled, a fantasy set united kingdom, and ends up in the country of Carneline, different than a lot of other kingdoms and is mainly closed off from the world.
This country in particular was purely fantasy based, and perhaps was a reason it intrigued readers. Unlike most stories in the plotline, Carneline is a country set specifically for the tale of Alice in Wonderland, not combining stories of others into one.
Alice herself was a bizarre character. It was never explained what went on in her head, and not much was known about her other than she fell into a magical portal between two countries when chasing after the "white rabbit".
"Do you really see me as someone crazy?" Rolling her eyes, she looked over the draft she was shown and back between him quickly.
The story set place a few years before Alice ever entered the country of Carneline, and still lived back where she came from. Her family life to the magic portal.
Huffing he sprawled himself onto her bed and shoved his face into a pillow. "She's not crazy!" He insisted despite everyone who ever read his novel calling Alice a mysterious madman.
"It does seem interesting…" she muttered as she read it over a few times. He really did put a lot of thought into it, she could tell better than anyone considering how messy his initial drafts typically are.
Alice was a young and docile girl in her childhood years, something you'd of never expected from the character who brought a dragon onto the scene where the prince tries to go to war against the country of Carneline in order to rescue the female lead who he presumed was kidnapped.
The more she read, the more she was engrossed. "So she suffered from an illness?" The actual Alice asked.
Nodding he begun ranting for minutes about her character. "Isn't it sad?" He asked with a pout. Little Alice was the youngest of her family but suffered greatly in daily life with Alice in Wonderland syndrome, an unknown disease in that world.
No matter how much money, doctors could never help her and she stayed in her manor. Her elder sister occasionally watched over her, telling her stories of the kingdom or the outside world as her family was too ashamed to let someone like her who could not tell the proportions of reality outside.
She could not tell time, no ability to tell what object sizes truly were, and had always feared herself or others on certain occasions as they became too big or too small.
It was never her fault and yet her family treated her like an embarrassment. This would explain some things, she thought. In the story, Alice had never talked about homelife even to the child she doted on and taught her stories to. The very girl she'd use a dragon to fight for and she still kept secrets.
"It's a small little thing…" she murmured thinking about how she'd refer to the dragon in the story when arriving on its back, that explained it.
On top of it, she had a lot of problems. As told in the story's side draft she felt as if eating and gaining weight would be an embarrassment to her family. She was constantly anxious, docile, and afraid.
Humming, she thought it must be such a sad life. "So how are you going to continue?" She asked as she scrolled back to the bottom, where the little girl falls into a portal in a part of her yard no one can see.
Excitedly her friend kept up. "Help?" He chuckled. Deadpanned, she knew he hadn't finished it but he seriously didn't think up anything past that point yet.
Sighing, she saw no way out. "Tomorrow, I'll tell you what I come up with then." She stretched as she got out of bed and made her way downstairs to make a fresh cup of coffee. Guess she wasn't sleeping then, she thought.
Alice Hartziene of the Carnelians. The greatest magician of the whole story-. A beauty with great talents but labeled a madman. The one who works as the queen's right hand man, knows everyone within the country and their secrets, along with outside the country, and the one who ultimately kills the female lead that leads to the conclusion, a truly chaotic character.
Thinking about her, she figured it was a little cool to know the author of such a great story and getting to know the story before it happens. So long as he buys her lunch as promise, things would work out good, she thought.
As she was nearly down the stairs her friend yelled from the top as he wanted a cup too. Turning abruptly, she lost her footing on the steps and begun falling unable to even hear the calling of her friend.
As she blinked, it felt like everything was in slow motion. She could see her hair flying into her face and her hand trying to grasp the rail but failing. It seemed so close yet so far, and felt so long but so short.
As her head hit the bottom she felt a shooting pain up and down her body as she blacked out, completely unable to tell her body what to do.
This darkness continued for what felt like days and days but she knew she was alive. She could hear her heart, footsteps, and even the chirping of birds but no voices- not even her own.
As she counted it to be the third day of what felt like nothing, she could finally open her eyes. Blinking ever so softly her eyes strained with tears as they adjusted to the light shining brightly above her.
It was definitely not one's of a hospital, nor her friend. No way he could afford… a chandelier. There was a heavy weight on her chest, and choked sobs came from a woman on top.
A woman with brilliant blue hair and a fancy dress like no others. Who was this dramatic woman on her and what century was she from? She thought.
"Alice…" the woman called after feeling her jerk. The woman in question wiped her tears and golden orbs reached her own and jumped with arms wide open.
"My dear little sister, I'm so glad you're safe." She hiccuped. As far as Alice was concerned though she had no sister… especially not a giant.
The woman had very long arms she noted with a slim waist and pretty big eyes. "Are you hurt?" The lady asked as she shook her.
Wow how not to treat a patient 1O1 even if they were related. As she raised her hand and opened her mouth it all felt abnormal. "Are you…" she muttered but the voice did not belong to her.
Her wrist was thick and fingers like sausages, while her arm was short yet thin and felt wrong. Her body as she looked was all wrong as well and so were the objects around her.
Things defied gravity, things were not safe, objects were close or too far and worst of all a throbbing pain struck her head. As she cried out her strange pain went.
"This can't be true…" she murmured tightly clutching her head. She no longer cared about her voice and body. Not even the stranger shouting help. The only thing on her mind was the memories of the body's owner entering her, Alice Hartziene.