Wonderland

I sat in the locked room holding Bethany and trying not to shake or cry as we listened to the screaming go on downstairs helplessly. Bethany shook and cried all she needed to. I was secretly resentful that I had to be the strong one. We heard a loud thump and a cry and we both winced. We knew what was happening, or at least I did. I wished I was stronger. I wish I could've protected Mom.

Mom ran to us from the forest at the edge of the field we were playing on. Her clothes were ripped and she was limping, but worst of all her beautiful face was covered in scratches and dried blood. Still, she ran to us. I knew what was happening. She stopped before Bethany and kneeled down to her level, wincing slightly. I glanced and saw a little dried blood running down her leg. I stood up.

"Bethany," she said softly. "Go up to Carina's room with Annie and Bella, okay? Just stay there, okay? Yes. Good girl." She gave Bethany a kiss on the forehead and helped her manage Annie and Bella, her dollies. Bethany nodded and ran back to the house.

"Alice—" she began.

"No. I'm not leaving you and I'm not going to let him hurt you. Not again," I said, my voice shaking and tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Alice," she said firmly. Seeing my face, she switched her tone and softened. "Alice. I love you and your sister more than anything in this world. I wish I could just take you away from all this right now, just get in the car and drive away, but I am bound to him," she held up her hand to display her ring with shame. "In order to be truly separated from him… You know the plan. I love you—" She was interrupted by a violent shriek of rage and the abrupt exit of all the birds in the forest. "Go, now! Lock the door and the window!" I stood there. "GO!" she screamed. I turned and ran. I don't know why I did, but I ran. Like a coward.

I hate myself for it. Now my mother is going to die because I'm a coward. I heard another thump and a scream. Then he worst. We heard a sickening squishing sound and the screaming stopped abruptly. A squishing sound. Like someone was stabbed. I couldn't take it. I was overwhelmed by grief, cutting into my heart like a sharp knife that will never cut you deep enough to end the pain forever, and hatred like a fire burning within me, for me and my own father, and regret. Deep, deep regret. I screamed my lungs out. I hit the ground and started convulsing. I screeched nonsense into poor, scarred Bethany's ear. Then I began to sink. I sunk through the ground. Bethany's cries faded by the second as I left her behind.

"Alice, come back! Alice, come back, please!" Bethany wailed helplessly. "AAAAAAAAAAALIIIIIIIIIIICE! Don't leave me, don't leave me…" Her cries faded until I could no longer hear them. Goodbye Bethany. I'll always love you. I hit the ground with a loud thud, although the landing itself was actually quite gentle. I stood and dusted off my skirt. I looked around me as curious and exotic plants bloomed about me, their flamboyant (A/N: **air five**) and bright colors pulling me in. I was in Wonderland.

20 years later, Bethany

"So how is she doing, Dr. Moor?" Bethany asked Tiana Moor, Alice's newest doctor in the 3 month rotations, as they walked down Hall 13 at the Judith Pillsbury Mental Hospital. So far, no doctor had been able to get through to Alice, so they'd handed her off over a 3 month rotation. Tiana was so far the longest, at 3½ months, and also the last. After Tiana, Alice would have no hope of getting better. But Tiana was also the most radical, determined, and honestly a little annoying doctor Bethany had ever met. She hoped that if anything Tiana would get through to her.

"Well, I heard from Anna Morris that she was being a meanie," Tiana shrugged. That would be the annoying part.

"You know what I mean."

"So so, I suppose. She seems to be a little more jovial, but otherwise no better than she ever is."

Bethany bit her lip and they walked in silence for a while.

"So, I was wondering, and I've forgotten to ask, but why did she have a nervous breakdown? Trauma? Stress? Depression? It might help me help her."

Bethany raised an eyebrow. "You've been her doctor for 3½ months and you haven't remembered?"

"Dr. Ferris told me that I should ask about it, but you know how things can slip the mind…" she replied defensively. In truth, she had simply been too embarrassed to ask.

"Our mother, Liviana Archatelle, was being abused by our father, RJ Yvonsky. Secretly, me and my sister called ourselves Bethany Archatelle and Alice Archatelle rather than Bethany Yvonsky and Alice Yvonsky. Anyways, because of my mother's religious beliefs, she technically couldn't be separated from him unless one of them died. She planned to kill him in their next fight in self-defense. We were upstairs and we heard a stabbing sound and that's when she collapsed. Mom came up about two seconds later and we escaped before he could take the knife out of his stomach if he even could. We took her here. Had she only stayed strong for a few more seconds, she would've been fine. She's been in Hall 13 Room 13 ever since."