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a bit shall we?
     
    Alice started walking. She had no idea where The Mad Hater was taking her, but something told her it was going to be terrible, no matter where it was.
     

 
     
    Chapter 4
     
    Coming up out of the Rabbit hole was a lot like being deep underwater and quickly running out of oxygen; Alice had the feeling that no matter how fast she moved, she wasn’t going to make it. The world was a black void behind her, ahead of her lay reality, murky and emerald. It was quiet. Pink, ambient light through her eyelids. She could hear the rise and fall of a respirator somewhere. Smells of alcohol and industrial cleaner; her own cigarette breath caught in her nostrils. Someone was crying nearby. Something about rabbits …
     
    Alice focused on her breathing. Her lungs were sluggish, slow to react to her demands. She could feel a stitch deep in her chest, as though she had been sleeping with a weight on her chest. Her muscles ached. Her head ached. Her eyes were glued shut. Pain, everywhere, nerves stretched and singing. There was something in her mouth. Alice moaned, unable to speak.
     
    Playing cards .
     
    She’d been wrong. They weren’t simply a pack of playing cards. That bitch queen and her idiot husband had somehow managed to knock her out. Maybe she’d tripped over something when the cards flew up into her face, struck her head…
     
    Alice moaned again. She flexed her arms, and succeeded in sending shooting pains up into her shoulders. Whatever the Queen of Hearts had done, Alice was in a bad spot. She imagined herself tied to a medieval torture device, and any moment the ropes holding her down would tighten, pulling her limb from limb.
     
    “Well hello,” a woman’s tired voice said. “Back from the dead, are we?”
     
    Alice tipped her head toward the sound of the woman’s voice but didn’t say anything. She was like a goldfish flopping on linoleum; exposed, injured, and unable to defend herself. Whatever this woman was going to do to her, she was free to do as she wished and there wasn’t a thing Alice could do about it.
     
    “I’m going to take the tape off your eyes first,” the woman said. “But I need you to keep your eyes shut until I’m finished, alright?”
     
    Alice nodded.
     
    “Let’s turn this overhead —,” a soft click, and the ambient light dimmed under Alice’s eyelids.
     
    “Just don’t want you looking up into a fluorescent strip,” The woman said. “It’s a terrible thing to have to wake up to.”
     
    There was a moment of silence. Then a cool, dry hand was placed on Alice’s forehead.
     
    “This will just take a moment,” the woman said.
     
    Alice felt the skin around her eye tighten as the tape was removed, and the woman placed a hand over her eye at the same instant. Alice moved her head slightly.
     
    “One more, just like that,” The woman said. The skin tightened around Alice’s other eye. “ Perfect . That should be a lot better.”
     
    Alice opened her eyes. They were thick and gummy. There were spots in them. She blinked rapidly a few times, and the world came back into focus. There was a middle aged woman standing over her smiling pleasantly. Dark hair. Nurses smock. Flowers and pink blotches. A stethoscope. When she was a kid, her kindergarten teacher looked a little like this woman standing over her. Same soft face and dark eyes. Waking up from nap time was like this. Not as good as when your mom woke you up, but these kind looking women were a close second.
     
    “I’m going to remove your respirator now,” the woman said. “And then maybe you can tell me who you are and how your feeling.”
     
    Alice nodded. She was still half expecting the Queen of Hearts to appear, shrieking about her execution. Her mind flooded with blood and Alice shuddered at the thought...
     
    “Easy now,” the nurse was saying. “I had to tape this on. You were unconscious, and I didn’t want you to pull it out when you started to detox.”
     
    Alice