Chapter 1 - The Hollow Forest (Introduction)
Alice didn't dream anymore. Not the way she used to. She lives in a dreamlike state now, half asleep, half devoured.
These woods are unfamiliar to her, every branch curling like fingers around her throat. She's moving quickly with panic and confusion. The crunch of leaves is too loud in the silence. It's too real to be a dream. Too wrong to be Wonderland.
A voice slid between the trees, slick and familiar. "Long way from Wonderland, aren't we, Alice?"
She froze. It wasn't just any demon. It was her demon, the thing that wore her laugh like a mask that whispered from mirrors when she was alone. It wanted her, wanted her body, her smile, her place in the waking world. And it wanted Alice buried here, locked in the void where shadows grew teeth.
She was shocked and ran. After a few minutes, she was out of breath and stumbled past a tree with something carved deep into the bark. Letters raw, still bleeding sap. She traced the grooves with trembling fingers.
"You'll be replaced. I will become you."
Her throat went dry.
This wasn't Wonderland anymore. This was a trap. A sadistic stage. And the demon was hunting her. It was circling, lusting, waiting to crawl inside her skin.
The thought of becoming Alice made it fanatic. Alice could feel its hunger pressing in, hot as breath on the back of her neck.
Alice's knees buckled. She wanted to scream, but the sound stuck in her throat.
Then, in the distance, a familiar face. A friend.
"Cheshire?" she whispered.
The mouth didn't move, but the smile trembled with something deeper. A voice spilled out, not his voice. Rough, jagged, a guttural rasp that scraped like claws on stone.
"I've always hated you, Alice."
Her chest tightened. No... not him. Not Cheshire.
"You're an ignorant little brat," the corpse hissed, the stitched grin trembling with malice. "I died here because of you. Wonderland has fallen, and you were its downfall."
Alice staggered back, shaking her head, tears burning at the corners of her eyes.
"No.."
But the voice only grew stronger, darker.
"You don't belong here. You never did. And soon, she will take your place."
The grin stretched wider, tearing at the stitches. A bead of stuffing drifted loose like smoke.
From deep inside, the laughter rose again sharp, cruel, echoing through the forest until it felt like the trees themselves were mocking her.
