Awoken

It wasn’t often Alice awoke in unfamiliar surroundings. He was used to seeing his ceiling, rolling over to see his clock, then throwing his blankets away to get out of his bed and let his feet touch the cool flooring of his bedroom.

Waking up to a stranger ceiling that was higher than he could reach- higher than two of him could reach while standing on the other’s shoulder -a stench much unlike his normal expectations and a cold ground, while similar to the basement floor in the room he slept, he noticed the nuance.

Moving into an upright position, he glanced around. Finding himself in strange places, not being able to remember when or how he got there. It was something he abhorred. He was just happy it wasn’t something that happened often. He was in some kind of… sewer tunnel? If he were honest with himself, he hadn’t ever found himself in stranger places than this…

Alice turned his head and yelped, the noise muffled by a small hand covering his mouth. A girl crouched beside him, long black hair cascading over her shoulders in waves, large green eyes staring at him with intense concentration. She raised a finger to her lips, the universal sign for silence. Slowly, the hand over Alice’s mouth dropped back to the girl’s side. She stood up, gestured for him to do the same, then ran off.

He had two choices here; he could follow, or he could try to find his own way out of here on his own. Both sounded like idiot choices, but the former seemed less idiot than the latter… Getting to his feet, he stumbled after her like the blunderbuss he was. She was a lot faster than him, and it didn’t take her long to realize this. She slowed considerably until she came to a full stop. He opened his mouth, but that finger came back to her lips, demanding he stay quiet. He obeyed, closing his mouth again.

Her finger pointed upward and his eyes followed the direction of her fingertip. Above them was a ladder, out of reach for the both of them. She made some more gestures that were too abstruse for Alice. With a quiet groan of what could only be defined as frustration, the short girl hoisted herself onto his back and climbed onto his shoulders, pushing herself off to grip the ladder and pull herself up, disappearing out of the hatch at the top.

He was alone again. Nothing but a placid silence accompanied his person. He stared blankly where she had gone. “Well then.” He glanced around, contemplating what to do next. Now that he got a better look around, this place was practically a labyrinth; dirty with a plethora amount of tunnels that lead who knew where, ladders too far up to reach leading into similar hatches at the tall ceiling. A loud clanking sound came from above, resonating through the stone walled tunnel. He looked up to see the ladder plummeting towards his face.

It connected with his head painfully and he crumbled to the ground.

“Dammit, Iris.” Someone snapped, a male voice, followed by muffled noises then a girl’s voice,

“How was I supposed to know he’d be standing there?”

“You could have looked.”

Alice moaned, trying to make sense of what was happening. He opened his eyes, but he could hardly see straight, figures and shapes billowing above him. With another moan, he squeezed his eyes shut again, the pain of the blow making him cringe and making his senses lackluster.

“Shoot, he’s awake.” The man muttered. Pain shot through his cranium once more as something connected with his forehead, and consciousness escaped him.