Project:Wonderland

 I have definitely questioned why I remain here....here in this twisted simulation where nothing is ever the same...and yet never changes.  This place of death and horror...where I'm forever alone. My companions are doomed to a never ending cycle of meeting me...then dying some horrible death at the hands of the enemy. When I meet them again I just pretend its all new...so as not to confuse them. For that would in turn confuse the program...and they wouldn't want me doing that.

 

  I suppose, though, I should tell you....this invisible person I've made up in hopes of keeping my sanity in tact....who I am. My name is Test Subject 225967....but before all that I was known as something else.  A considerably simple name....one that I would forget we're in not permanently scarred into my wrist to help me remember.   Alice.    I don't recall when it appeared there...perhaps a long time ago...when I was young. When I had first come to the asylum and its labs.  Perhaps in an unstable state of mind I branded myself...anything to help me not forget who I was. That was the most important thing of all. I couldn't forget myself. If I did...it meant they won....and if they won...it would mean my own personal hell..and even my death.

 

  For now I have a goal...and it stared at me from across a long valley riddled with things most human minds could never think up on their own. They call this place Wonderland. I could never see why though....there is nothing wonderful about it.  Every time I turn around something is attempting to disembowel me. I was only grateful that in my journey to reach the spiral tower at the edge of the land that I had been granted enough good grace to find a weapon. A blade in fact. The Vorpal blade. It was a rather sarcastic bit of weaponry in my opinion....and it grew the more blood I fed it....so far it had gone from being a small pocket blade I had rescued out of rock inside a cave to practically a sword.

   "Im getting bored standing here while you reminisce Alice."

I glanced at the aforementioned blade then smiled. "We're going....I was just...reminding myself." I could feel its sigh go through me as a slight vibration along my back where I had strapped it. "Your Alice....you know that. No need to stop and remind yourself every five minutes..." "Vorpal...you know if I forget..." "Yes yes, all is doomed...boo fucking hoo...lets GO!" Smiling faintly, I nodded and started off down the rocky slope in front of me. "You know with an attitude like that, its no wonder you were left to rust away in a rock." The sword snorted. "I was left there because that idiot Jabberwocky freed itself...find and dandy for him but guess what? The idiot moron who jabbed me into him had long ago died...I am merely thankful you came along when you did."

   Still smiling, I listened to him..yes...I think its a male...comment on how lucky he had been. In truth...it was another companion that had driven me into the cave to begin with. Sad as it seemed, I was not the only human stuck here. Others before me...trapped...having lost sight of who they were....turned from humans to animals....had all fallen prey to Wonderlands greed. Accept one. A man...he had long ago forgotten his real name, but in order to cope had given himself a new one.  Otto. He had told me that so long as you thought of yourself as someone...rather than a nobody..it was much harder for it to take you. I believe him. But I didn't want to forget myself at all...I wanted to be Alice....forever Alice.

 Sliding down the rocky face, I landed at the bottom lightly then turned...and felt myself go cold. The forest was not but a few feet away. By this time I shouldn't have been so scared. In fact I wasn't even scared of the woods themselves. No...if anything I was scared of what I knew lived in them. On my back, Vorpal trembled some, indicating he picking up on my unease. "Alice...you know we have no choice but to go through.....if we want to reach the tower....besides...we need his help." I nodded, feeling some what numb. "I know...but the battle seems to get harder every time it happens. How do you keep explaining to your friend that you've met before....and that he keeps dying to save your life only to end up back at square one..."

"Oh come on kid...he doesn't even remember any of that shit. Now lets go find the big pussy..." I sighed softly then stole myself and started forward. "Thats just it....you don't find Chesh....he finds you...and he's bigger everytime he does...."

"Poor little gazelle....so lost in her own unease and thoughts she doesn't even realize that the predator is so close to pouncing upon its prey....such a pretty thing too....almost a pity Im going to gut her like a fish. Ah but wait...what's that upon her back? A flash of light...no...a sword. Hmm...oh ho! Can it be? The legendary Vorpal Blade that goes snicker snack and cut unto the flesh of the beast...interesting....perhaps I should tread lightly. Though...in a small way...I can not shake the sense of possibly knowing this little morsel....like we have met before....and not just once. But multiple times....no...I think I would recall devouring an ass like that. “