And here it is. The very last chapter to Alyce. I am really gong to miss all of you, and look forward to hearing your feedback. Thank you all so much for supporting me. Now, prepare yourselves, because this is where it all goes to hell :o) God Speed, my friends.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

It was the only constant thing Alyce heard anymore. Just a constant dripping as she remained chained up in the Queen of Heart's dungeon.

Alyce whimpered as the heavy metal door opened, casting a harsh light into the dark, damp prison. She immediately recognized Valentina, with her long pink hair and revealing red and black dress. She strode over to the teen, her metallic pink eyes practically glowed with menace as an (extremely fake) innocent smile played on her lips. Alyce lowered her head, mentally preparing herself for the next round of torture. The Queen of Hearts stood before the beaten girl. She, ever so gently, placed her index finger under the girl's chin and raised Alyce's head till their eyes met.

"What's the matter, dearie," she asked, her tone sickeningly sweet. "You look positively dreadful!" She removed her hand and watched Alyce's head fall back down.

Alyce let out a yelp as Valentina backhanded her and grunted as she was punched in the head. Blood flowed from an older wound, and she heard the Queen laugh. Alyce had no idea how long she'd been there, months at the very least. She had long given up on the hope that someone would save her.

When Alyce had first woken up, she was confident that the Queen of Hearts couldn't possibly be worse than the Mad Hatter. She was horribly, horribly wrong. Valentina was not afraid to use torture devices, like whips, chains, and knives. Alyce was thoroughly covered in cuts, sores and bruises. Some old, some new. The first thing Valentina ever did to her, however, was slash the mark on Alyce's cheek several times, destroying the image of the tattoo.

As Alyce became lost in her mind, she failed to see the scowl that formed on Valentina's face. The Queen wrapped her hand in the teen's umber hair and yanked her head back harshly. The teen screamed in pain and tears streamed down her face. She had stopped trying to be brave, for there was no one left to fight against.

"You stupid brat! You should pay attention when your betters are addressing you! At least, after today, you won't be a problem any longer." Alyce whimpered, looking at the Queen of Hearts in confusion and intense fear. Valentina smirked, and dragged Alyce to her feet and over to the heavy metal door. She hadn't noticed the chains had been removed from her wrists. She roughly pulled Alyce from the cellar and up a flight of stairs, ignoring the pained cries from the girl.

The Queen of Hearts brought Alyce into a large courtyard, the sunlight burning the poor girl's eyes from lack of exposure. She was barely given time to adjust to the harsh light before Valentina threw the girl into a stone block centered in the courtyard. Alyce yelped as her back connected with the stone.

"Shut up," Valentina snapped. The pink haired woman walked over to a set of large wooden doors. "God, you are just as irritating as she was. I can't believe I have to go through all of this again." Alyce looked over towards the psychotic queen.

"What are you talking about?"

The Queen paused, and turned to face the teen.

"You haven't figured it out yet, you stupid girl? I'm going to kill you, just like I did with that stupid fiancée of the Mad Hatter's. Honestly, you may look like her but she was loads smarter than you are." Valentina turned away from the teen and threw the large wooden doors open. It was too dark to see into. The Queen of Hearts disappeared inside.

"You killed her," Alyce asked, bewildered. It hadn't registered that she too would die at the hands of this crazy bitch. "Why would you kill her?"

"Oh for the love of God!" Apparently Valentina wasn't in the mood for a questioning teenager. "You really are dense. I killed her so I could have Jack all to myself! It was working too! The Hatter would come to me and we were going to be together forever and rule Wonderland! But then he found you, and everything went to hell!"

Valentina walked out of the doors, holding a giant axe in her hands. Alyce gulped, and tried to back away from the fast approaching queen. She screamed when two strong hands gripped her upper arms and brought her to a stand. Alyce screamed and cried as she was bent over the stone slab, struggling as best she could to get away.

"Now, now, honey," Valentina soothed, "it won't hurt too much. Why it'll be over before you know it." Alyce cried harder as she felt a needle insert itself into her arm. Her limbs grew heavy, and within minutes she couldn't move. "There, now. Isn't that better? Now, let's get this over with before the medicine knocks you out."

Valentina focused her metallic eyes on the girl below her. She was still crying and screaming, but she was no longer moving. The Queen snickered and bent down to whisper in Alyce's ear.

"Off with your head."

Alyce shrieked just as a gunshot went off. Something warm and sticky splattered on the side of Alyce's face and the Queen of Hearts flew away from her.

"I told you I should have just killed her when we first met her, Jack!"

"I really don't think that's important right now, Kaleb!"

Jack? Alyce thought. Oh my God! Jack! And Kaleb! They found me! Alyce tried to call out to them, only to realize that the drug had spread further through her system and she started to feel drowsy.

The first thing Alyce registered was a constant, steady beeping that was quickly irritating the girl. It continued on and on, pulling Alyce further and further from her comforting, numbing sleep.

The second thing was the dull murmuring that was barely heard over the incessant beeping.

Alyce whined, fully conscious and quite unhappy about it. She opened her eyes, only to shut them fast as she was blinded by a bright, white light. Her head was throbbing, and the frantic woman that was now crying wasn't helping.

"Alyce! Alyce oh my goodness honey, are you awake? Oh, sweetie please wake up!" Alyce shifted towards the familiar sound of her mother, still unwilling to face the blinding light.

"Mom," Alyce whimpered, her voice unusually raspy. "Where am I? What's going on?" The beeping started to go faster. She tried opening her eyes again, this time proving to be successful. Alyce was greeted with the sight of two very worried parents. Her mother had tears running down her face and her father looked as if he would join in at any moment. Her mother breathed a sigh of relief as Alyce opened her eyes.

"Oh, sweetie," her mother cried, "thank goodness you're okay. The doctor said he didn't know when you'd wake up!" Doctor? What doctor? What the hell is going on? Alyce's father must have seen the confusion written on his daughter's face, and decided to speak up.

"Alyce, honey," he said slowly, as if not to startle her. "Do you remember anything about how you got here? Anything at all?" Alyce shook her head, anxiety growing in the pit of her stomach. Her father opened his mouth to explain, but was swiftly cut off by her frantic mother.

"Oh it's just awful! Apparently, in the middle of the night, you started sleepwalking. Sleepwalking! You've never done that in your life! Anyway, you walked right out of the house, and made it all the way into the city! The police say you must have wandered down some alley and that you were attacked! But no one saw anything, and doctors say that you never woke up! Can you imagine that? Being attacked and not even being awake for it! Why what is the world coming to where..." This continued for another forty-five minutes.

Alyce tuned her mother out, and tried to make sense of events that seemed impossible to comprehend. How did I get here? What happened to Wonderland? The Hatter? Alyce vaguely heard her mother pause, and used it to her advantage.

"How long have I been here?"Her father smiled sadly.

"Not long," he said, "no more than three days, really. The doctor was surprised at how well you were doing considering your injuries."

Shock crossed the teen's face. Three days?! That's it? But I was in Wonderland for months! How is this even possible?! Did any of it...even happen? Alyce was pulled abruptly from her thoughts when her father's concerned voice reached her ears.

"Sorry, Dad, what did you say?" Her father looked extremely worried.

"I asked you if something was wrong. You looked really upset there, hon." Her mother looked at her husband incredulously.

"Well of course she's really upset, Howard! Our poor baby's just found out that she's been attacked and has been unconscious for three days! How did you want her to react?"

"Now, Lucy, you know that's not what I meant-"

"Well what did you mean?!"

As her parents bickered, a nurse came into the room, briefly stopping to observe the quarreling couple before walking over to Alyce. She reminded Alyce of someone. The nurse carefully bent down next to Alyce, and placed a very familiar black rabbit plush in her arms. She looked back to the nurse, her anxiety increasing rapidly, when it hit her. Sophia! Sophia smiled, and put her finger to her lips, silently telling the girl to be quiet. She stood, and walked right out of the room, pausing at the door to look back and smile at the teen one last time. Then, she was gone. Her parents never even noticed.

Alyce looked down at the familiar stuffed rabbit that she found in her kitchen all that time ago. Once again, it was holding something, only this time it wasn't a golden pocket watch. It was a playing card. She carefully plucked the card from the stuffed rabbits grasp and examined it. It was and Ace of Spades, with a very distinguishably spade. It even had the 'MH' in the center of it. Alyce flipped the card over, and her breath caught in her throat. On the back was a message written in black ink.

I'll be back, my dear.

-MH

Thanks again everyone! I hope to see you all soon with some other piece of fiction! Until then!

~Rachel