Falling Ever So Fast

• Hayley Vuzem, Grade 8A
• Short Story
• 2014

"Alice!" my mum shrieked in the the far distance as I ran like I never had before. Why couldn't she see I didn't want to marry some stuck up posh stranger I had never meet before? I felt like I was running towards nothing until I thought of a plan. My secret hideaway. You see no one knew that this place even existed except me. It was just 100 metres north then 200 metres east from my house yet no one else seemed to know. I sprinted so fast towards my enchanted spot that everything around me seemed to go blurry. I could only see straight ahead and I quickly glanced back to check if anyone was following me. Whoosh! Suddenly everything was sinking and I fell down ever so fast into the pit of darkness below me.

Ow! My head ached and my whole body was in excruciating pain. What happened? I must of blacked out or fell asleep when I was resting against the trees but I can't really remember. My vision was all blurry so I felt my surroundings. Weird, this doesn't feel right at all. I slowly open my eyes and try to scream but I'm stunned in fear. I'm not in the forrest! My dad once told me when I was little that if I pinch myself I'll wake up from any nightmare so I try with all my might. I try and try in desperation but nothing happens. So if this isn't a dream what could it be? Suddenly I had a flashback and it all seemed like déjà vu. Images of smirking cats, ruby red roses, playing cards and massive mushrooms started racing through my mind with flying speed, it seemed like it was never going to end. Almost out of breath in terror realisation washed over me, I was in Wonderland.

When I was about six years old I had these recurring nightmares, all set in the same place but with a different plot. Wonderland seemed like golden sunshine and enchanted rainbows on the surfaces but underneath if you dared to look beyond the pretty flowers and sparkles it was darker than the sky at midnight. It could get scary, one day you could be happily painting roses red all day long then the nest you could be in fear of getting beheaded by a twisted evil queen. Nothing was ever as it seemed. Then on my tenth birthday it suddenly just stopped... Now on my eighteenth birthday I was stuck in this creepy fairy tale gone wrong again.

Cautiously, I carefully got up from the ground dusting my self off. This time I knew what to expect, or so I thought. I was going to beat this demon once and for all.