Alice has always been a lost child. She would wander around her own neighborhood, lost in thought… soon enough, she would find herself lost.

She wanders familiar trails through the woods near her aging home and step off to a random beaten path when something would catch her short spanned attention, and she would find herself in a part of the woods she wouldn’t recognize.

“But mummy,” she would whine. “There was a rabbit… and it looked so soft! I just HAD to pet it” she used to cry to her mother before she would be beat for being late home, once again.

The beatings were a regular occurrence, considering she gets lost often. And, for days after, she would wear long sleeves with her long hair down to hide the new healing bruises. She had few friends, and those who claimed to be her “friends” more often than not ignored her.

In a way, she was alone.

She was alone, lost, and broken.

Every night she would stare at her blank walls in her attic bedroom, tears sliding across her cheeks until her eyes shut from exhaustion. She couldn’t move easily many mornings. As she grew older, she learned to not go off of the familiar paths.

Yet, her mother would still find things to beat her for, and then send her to her room. Less than an hour later, her mother would send for her. She would hide her face as she follows the maid in silence, avoiding the young girl’s sympathetic looks.

“Come in; come in my dear, Alice.” Her mother would hum in a sweet voice, a wide friendly smile tugging at her features. She winces, recognizing that smile. Hesitantly, she steps closer to her mother. To be quite honest, her mother scares her. She is the wife of a gang leader, and this isn’t just any kind of gang. This is the gang that everyone knows about, but no one knows who leads it, or who is in it.

Her day job is playing politician to hide her husband’s activity.

Alice winces a bit, away from her mother’s cool fingers as they gingerly touch your cheek. She clicks her tongue softly, cooing over her “beloved” daughter.

“Oh, my beautiful baby… you need to learn to stop being so… foolish. We have an image to uphold!” she says, smiling sweetly. Alice doesn’t look her in the eye, nodding slightly.

Yes, an image. If the daughter of such a powerful woman were to mess up any, they look down upon her mother, and she wasn’t going to have that!

Her mother hated being looked down upon so much, few people even knew she had a child.

“Oh, she’s with her real father right now.” She would tell people.

That may be true, if her real father wasn’t living with her. By day, your father was the typical, supportive husband that did everything with his AMAZING, BELOVED wife. By night, he was a feared gang leader, who ran his “family” of gang members like that of the mafia.

None of the gang’s activities could ever be linked to him. After all, half of the “activities” were done while he was by his wife’s side, in front of the camera.

“Please, learn my Alice.” Her mother coos. “You know how I hate having to leave such… ugly marks on my beautiful daughter.” Again, she winces away from her touch.

Her mother frowns.

“Leave.”

Without another word, Alice hurries from the room, back to yours.

The attic is her sanctuary. It is peaceful, it is quiet, and it is free of her mother’s wrath. Her father has never laid a hand on her, in fact, he pities her. He often takes her out and spoils her.

He buys her new clothes, new makeup; he even took her to get her hair cut last week.

She enjoys her time with her father, but her time with him is becoming fewer and further between. Her mother isn’t having her “foolish” daughter being spoiled. Yet, he still sneaks her presents, items that he has picked up here and there from one place or another when he travels.

 

Sighing, Alice goes and sits on her home made window seat. Her mother bought her the wood to make it in hopes that it would keep her “out of her way” more. Well, it worked. She almost never leaves her room now.

She has everything she needs up here, thanks to her father. Her mother has never actually been into her room to notice.

Looking around her room, she takes inventory of the things he has given her. She has a huge walk in closet that he built her when she was 10. A few feet away, she has an old vanity table, with a large mirror that had belonged to his mother. He had even gone out and had a brand new bed set made for her. No, she is no “Cinderella”… not exactly.

She isn’t made to clean everything and run a house hold by herself. No, there are too many people who come through their home for her mother to risk someone seeing Alice, and connecting the dots. After all, she looks like a carbon copy of her stunning mother.

Alice stares at a picture of her and her mother, together, when she was younger… before she was too much of a foolish girl who was just in her mother’s way. Before she was “sent away to live with her father…”

They both looked very happy in the picture; her mother was actually smiling, the real smile that she used to know. Blowing air up, she watches as her bangs gingerly flutter above her forehead.

She needs clean, fresh air.

Standing up, she slides down the latter to her “room”, walking down the hall to her secret passage out to the back yard. The maids stop and bow to her, trying to hide their looks of sympathy. She notices, but only smiles to them.

“Mia, please leave the door unlocked for me tonight?” Alice asks her maid, whom is her only friend in the house. “I don’t know when I will be home tonight.” Mia giggles a bit, her knowing that her best friend was just a little bit of a scatter brain.

“Of course, miss.” She whispers, walking her out.

 

Silently, Alice walks through the arch of the trees opening to her favorite trail, leading directly through the forest. It also leads her through the most scenic parts of the forest.

Looking above her, she watches autumn leaves detach and flutter down to the forest floor, butterflies and birds skimming through the crisp chilled air. Looking around, Alice smiles, feeling like she is walking down the aisle to her groom, the brilliant reds and oranges lining her path, the chocolate browns mixing in perfectly. The light sifts down through the branches, giving the colors a heavenly glow. Sighing softly she closes her eyes, imagining that she is walking down the aisle to her prince charming.

She walks for several feet before there is a soft snap in the back ground. Spinning around, Alice searches desperately for the culprit.

There is no one.

Frowning, she slowly walks off of the path, looking around. So far, there is nothing. The wind floats by, rustling the leaves and toys with her hair. With the rustle of the wind is the soft sound of movement, just past some trees.

Curiosity taking control, Alice doesn’t think before just walking toward the sounds. Who is out here?

Looking ahead of her, she looks for the source of the sounds. There is a flash of brown ahead. It is too high to be a rabbit or even a deer, too low to be a bird. A buck? Maybe. It would have to be a huge buck. Could it be SOMEONE?

Hurriedly, excited like a child chasing a rabbit, she picks up her pace, circling around the cluster of trees standing in her view.

Standing there is not someone; it’s not even a large buck. Sitting there is a rather thin, but fluffy, caramel colored rabbit. It just sits there; staring at her, its giant black eyes filled with… curiosity? She shakes it off, bending to the rabbit. She is surprised when it doesn’t run.

“Hello little rabbit.” She coos, it rubs into her hand happily, showing no fear. Alice grins gently picking it up, playing with it.

“My, my, your cute.” She hums. It cuddles to her happily, tensing up, looking out to the trees fearfully.  Alice frowns, looking up. She meets deep chocolate eyes, staring right at her. She starts to move, surprised. She should be scared, but for some reason, the look in the eyes makes all of her fear melt away.

“Who-“she begins to call out, jumping when a darkened figure runs deep into the shadows, away from her and into the forest. From her placement, it kind of looked like a deer. Maybe it could be a small buck?

Slowly, she shakes it off, trying to forget about it.

That night, she eventually finds her way back to her house around midnight, with the rabbit from the woods. Like she said she would, Mia had left the door open for her. Not to mention, all of the lights in the house are off.

Thank goodness.

Silently, she sneaks to the kitchen, getting some lettuce and carrots for her new friend before silently climbing up to her room.

Sighing, she sets the small bunny on the floor, giving it the plain salad. It nibbles at it happily, staying put. Smiling to herself, she goes and peers in the mirror of her vanity. In the low light of her room, her bruises look even worse than usual. She winces, looking closer. Not only are there bruises, but now there are scraps, cuts and slashes across her milky skin from stumbling through bushes of thorns.

“I guess I’m not going to school tomorrow…” she whispers to the bunny, going and flopping down face first onto her bed. She whimpers at the pain that shoots through her body at the bruises that are pushed when she lands.

Thinking to herself, she watches her new friend eat.

Mother may notice me being home…amused with herself, she snorts a laugh. What am I thinking? She never notices. Plus, they never call…

After he finishes eating, the bunny hopes over to her, letting her lift it onto the bed. As she drifts off to sleep, she thinks about who would miss her if she were to simply… disappear one day.

No one would miss me…

Little to her knowledge, someone would in fact miss her… but he will also be the reason why she disappears.