Why you? Because...you are "Alice".

Patrick had always liked the wondrous worlds found in the books better than the one he lived in. Also because of the adventures and magic, but most of all because there the bonds formed between people were true. Family. Friendship. Love. It all actually meant something.

Then, one day, one of those worlds had become reality. He had been skipping the mandatory "socializing time" – other boys just bullied him anyway, so he wanted nothing to do with them outside classes – in the boarding school and had hidden in an old storage room. There he had found a large mirror that...whispered to him.

A girl had appeared in the mirror when he had touched it. A girl with snowy white skin and raven black hair, looking fragile like a little bird.

The next moment he had been pulled into the smooth surface and, after falling through white emptiness for what had felt like forever, had landed straight in the middle of a gigantic flower.

~*~*~

The Wonderland beyond the mirror was as bizarre as always, although never in exactly same way as during his previous visits. Today the sky was a faint shade of pink and a blue moon shone softly down on the moss-covered rocky terrain with mushrooms at least twice as tall as he was growing here and there.

Patrick looked over his shoulder. He could have sworn he saw something, but there was nothing there. It was funny really that he jumped at shadows even here. Nothing would ever harm him in Wonderland, not with-

"NYA!"

He was tackled to the ground – which turned out to be softer than the best mattress he had ever encountered – and fiercely attacked with a coarse tongue licking every inch of his face.

"Cheshire, that tickles!" he protested, laughing.

The cat-boy nuzzled his cheek, purring loudly. "I missed you! You've been gone so long, nya~!"

"Now, now, I believe our esteemed guest would appreciate a more...refined welcome," another voice interrupted.

Patrick's smile widened as he saw the elegantly – even extravagantly – dressed man, old-fashioned top hat and all. "Hatter!"

Cheshire sat back on his haunches and started grooming himself by licking the fur on the back of his hand.

Hatter took Patrick's hand and pulled him back to his feet, assisted by a twirling gust of wind. Then he dropped to one knee and kissed the boy's hand. "So long indeed. It felt like an eternity without your company."

"Sorry about that...The school was closed for a month when the dormitory roof started leaking. I had to go back to my parents."

"No apologies needed. I am simply overjoyed to see you again."

Cheshire and Hatter were his best friends since his first visit to beyond the mirror five years ago. Although since he had turned fourteen, both had become interested in being...something more.

Cheshire had always appeared as a tabby-colored cat-boy the same age as he was. They had grown up together, exploring all the strange places found in this world. Other than climbing and squeezing himself to the most impossible places, he liked naps and riddles – especially the ones from Patrick's world since he had never heard them before. And, being a cat, he absolutely loved being petted.

Hatter, on the other hand, was a mature adult. Charming. Composed. Mysterious. With a weird fashion sense, though. And always ready with some tea and snacks when he had worn himself out playing with Cheshire. For a long time, he had been more like a father figure, but as he grew closer to adulthood himself, Patrick found himself drawn to the enigmatic man.

"So, what are we doing today?" Patrick asked eagerly as Hatter straightened and watched him with that curious look he often had lately.

The man tapped his chin with one finger, like deep in thought, for a moment. "Since it is your 15th birthday today, I believe that warrants for something very special."

"You remembered?" He had been certain that nobody would. His parents never did.

"Why, of course! How could I ever forget?" Hatter bowed with flourish. "The Queen of Hearts awaits you."

He had never actually met the Queen of Hearts. They had even enjoyed their tea in the Queen's rose garden, full of red roses blooming the year round, but Her Majesty had been nowhere to be seen. Truth to be told, he had preferred it that way.

"The one...who wants to cut off people's heads?" he asked nervously.

"No, no!" Hatter hurried to assure him. "The real Queen of Hearts lives deep in the heart of Wonderland. Only select few have ever gazed at her beauty. Her regent may be a little...overzealous sometimes, but rest assured, I will never let any harm come to you."

"Neither will I!" Cheshire piped in and latched to his arm. "You're way too important!"

Hatter leveled a stern stare at him. "Hush, cat! This is not your concern."

Uh...They were at it again. It was sort of flattering that they'd be at odds over him, but at the same time it was pretty awkward. He liked them both. He didn't know which one he liked more "that way", but whoever he would choose, he wanted to remain friends with the other.

"Let's just all go together, okay?" Patrick suggested quickly.

"Very well." Hatter held out his hand to him. "Shall we?"

~*~*~

The red roses were growing in the corridors they traversed even more abundantly than in the castle garden. How they could thrive on the walls of cold, white marble, he had no idea.

He was a little nervous. Those roses reminded him of fresh blood for some reason.

"Why does the Queen want to see me?" he asked, more to fill the silence with familiar voices instead of the empty echoes of their footsteps than from genuine curiosity.

"Because...you are "Alice"," Hatter replied.

No, he wasn't. The girl who had come to Wonderland in the book was Alice. "What do you mean?"

"You'll see." He stopped in front of double doors made of deep brown wood and engraved in gold. "We're there."

Like acknowledging their presence, the doors slowly opened. On the other side was a throne made of roses. Someone sat on it, a figure dressed in red robes. She slowly stood and walked towards them.

But it was not her that drew Patrick's gaze. There was another person in the room, held in the air by rotting vines. As the Queen passed by close to her, there was a faint splash as she stepped in the crimson puddle pooled on the floor under the figure.

It was the girl who had first pulled him through the mirror and shown him this world. But there was a maniacal grin on her face as she stared at him with empty, black eyes way too big for the rest of her features. Huge thorns pierced her bloodless body. But somehow, she was still -alive-.

"No!" Patrick screamed and tried to turn away, but strong hands on his shoulders kept him rooted to where he stood. No, not hands. Paws, large like a bear's, but with talons like huge razors!

Hesitantly he turned his head. There was a huge black feline standing on two legs behind him. Blazing bloody red eyes watched him intently. It was Cheshire. He knew it was Cheshire, but at the same time it wasn't. It couldn't be!

"Patrick, please calm down. Everything is alright."

He turned his head to the direction of Hatter's voice, only to come face to face with another grinning monstrosity.

He screamed in terror and tried to look anywhere else than these creatures, but there was nowhere else to look. Even the floor under his feet had turned into a black pool with faces and nightmarish reaching hands.

"Close your eyes," Hatter crooned, his terrifying face close enough that Patrick could feel his breath hit his skin. "Don't be frightened. It is all only an illusion."

His eyelids grew heavy and slowly drifted closed. Familiar hands framed his face and sweet lips touched his mouth.

"I love you. Everyone in Wonderland loves you. And we need you. You are the "Alice" who will restore us."

The beastly paws clutching his shoulders disappeared, replaced by furry arms around his chest and a warm nose nuzzling the crook of his neck, accompanied by faint purring.

Hatter moved Cheshire's arms to release him, much to the cat's apparent annoyance. Then each of them took one of his hands and slowly guided him forward.

"Don't fight it," Hatter continued speaking calmingly. "Let the Queen embrace you. Let yourself fall asleep, and this perfect dream will never end."

He was falling. Down and down, through unbelievably white sky. Then...there was a hat.

He bounced on the ridiculously big top hat like it was the trampoline he'd had as a little kid. When his movement finally stopped, he found that he had landed in a little garden outside a familiar house. The area was surrounded by a hedgerow with deep blue, sparkling roses growing in it. The house looked small, but he knew from experience that it was a lot bigger on the inside.

Cheshire – back to his usual tabby coloration - lay sideways on the large table covered with a pristine white tablecloth, his tail slowly swinging back and forth, and idle-mindedly poked with a stick some ants carrying off the grains of sugar from the tiny mountain he had poured on the ground.

The hat that had broken his fall shrunk to a more regular size and flew to the man sitting at the end of the table.

The man, known in the stories as Mad Hatter, smiled as he caught the hat and placed it next to him on the table. "Ah, our guest has arrived. Would you like some tea?"

"What...? How...?" Patrick stuttered. Nothing made sense even in the usual Wonderland scale. Had someone just hit the restart button on this world or something? Hatter had greeted him with the same words when Cheshire had first brought him here.

Hatter stood up gracefully and walked to him. Then he leaned down to kiss him on the mouth. "I promised you, didn't I? That this perfect dream would never end. And it won't, my love."

Cheshire's tail shot up at Hatter's words, and he hissed loudly. "Your love?! He hasn't chosen you yet!"

Hatter smiled his most charming smile. "Oh, but he will. I am certain of it."

~*~*~

Unknown to Patrick, around the same time one of the teachers in the boarding school found the body of a teenaged boy collapsed in front of an ancient, broken mirror. He had bled to death from countless tiny puncture wounds. How or why, nobody could say.

And the creepiest thing? He was smiling like it was the best thing ever to happen to him.