Wonderland Chapter Eight

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll already know that I just got back the edits for Wonderland's Chapter Eight. Right now I'm working on the second round of edits, and once I'm done, I'll submit it to Lit. Word of warning: Chapter Eight is divided into two sections due to it's large size, and will be labelled A&B respectively. I'll post the two pieces within a day or two of each other.
Anyway, I'm posting a teaser from Wonderland's Chapter Eight. Enjoy!




WONDERLAND
Chapter Eight

“Hey.”

I looked over at Thatcher, surprised by the croak in his tone. Was he the one getting sick now?

He swallowed and gestured with his chin at something over my head. “The snow stopped falling. Want to take a look around with me?”

I eyed Thatcher carefully, unable to help but wonder if maybe he was trying to make up for his behavior. I followed his gaze and looked out the kitchen windows to find that he was right.

As cold as it was outside, being cooped up in this house any longer was going to drive me insane. Maybe that’s where his thoughts were headed too.

“Let me get my coat,” I told him, undoing the blankets from their python wrap around me and stumbled to the coat peg. I slipped on another sweater and my jacket, hurriedly tugging on my gloves and boots before I followed Thatcher outside.

I smiled up at the iron grey sky as I walked out into my front yard, taking in the silent world around me. It was both unnerving and hauntingly beautiful, a definite contradiction I know.

I watched as Thatcher brushed the snow off his car, revealing the thin layer of ice that covered the windshield.

“Like I thought,” he muttered, turning towards the forest and the hills behind my house now. “We’ll have to be careful,” he told me as he strode on long legs towards the forest.

I chuckled as I followed him, knowing he was just as excited as me to get out of the house. I rushed to catch up with him, scooping up snow every once in awhile as we went. When we reached the edge of the forest and I decided now was as good time as any.

“Thatcher!” I called out when he was a few feet ahead.

He turned – and neatly dodged my snowball.

Pulling his hands out of his coat pockets with a smile, he revealed two rounded handfuls of snow, a smile crossing his lips.

“Oh fudge,” I muttered as he took a step forward.

“NO FAIR!” I yelled over my shoulder as I ran, darting through the trees. One snowball cuffed my shoulder, but the other smacked a tree just beside my head. I swore under my breath as I nearly tumbled trying to get a handful of snow, dropping most of it when another ball of snow hit me smack dab on the right thigh.

I ducked around a tree and ripped the snow from the low-hanging branches before turning and tossing the load right into Thatcher’s face. He gasped and turned away, leaving me an opening. I ran again, picking up more snow, my fingers frozen and stinging through my thick gloves, pulsing in painful stabs in time with my toes.

My lungs begged for a break as I kept going north, the trees growing closer together and providing more cover – and snow – than ever. I looked over my shoulder and saw Thatcher’s coat and scarf in the trees not too far behind. Cursing again, I faced the front and gasped as I jumped last-second over a fallen tree and landed hard on the snow…before the ground fell out from beneath me.

A scream escaped my throat as I tumbled down into the darkness. I threw out my hands to grab something – anything – and had the wind knocked out of me as I landed on something soft and warm and kind of squishy, snow and ice falling around me as I slid off to the side.

Tossing my hair out of my face, I hesitantly looked around me, trying to fill up my lungs with the stale-smelling air as I grew accustomed to the darkness. Looking over my shoulder, another scream built up but I caught it just in time.

I had fallen on the largest rat I had ever seen in my entire life.

Somehow, despite my fall and the crashing snow, the thing stayed asleep. Its heavy snores echoed in the earthy confines of the small burrow, and despite its twitching tail and back feet, it didn’t move.

Slowly, I came to my feet, leaning back against the burrow walls as I did so.

From this angle, I couldn’t see beyond the rat’s stomach and hindquarters, its body so large and out-of-place in the small burrow that it was almost comical. The rat snored again and twitched, though this time its tail thrashed so hard that it knocked into me with a resounding smack.

I collided hard into the muddy wall before collapsing to the ground floor, wheezing for air. I closed my eyes briefly, blinking away white sparkles as I waited for the world around me to stop spinning. A few seconds later, the world righted itself and I slowly sat up…as did the rat.

It slowly shifted its weight, as though injured, its heavy black body rising inch by inch to its full menacing height. I swallowed another scream at the mere size of the thing, unable to believe how a rat could get this huge.

Slowly, the rat turned, and the air whooshed from my lungs for the second time in two minutes.

Glowing red eyes, like those of Thatcher’s, locked onto me.

In that moment, I realized with astounding clarity that this wasn’t an ordinary overgrown sewer rat that I was locking gazes with.

It was a Raspan, evolved and under Fuyher’s complete control.

And hungry.

That should tide you guys over right? ;-)

Check my Twitter for Chapter Eight's submission status.

Xo, LilyArc