Follow the White Rabbit (Beautiful Madness, #1) (6 page)

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M
arc
was nothing but a gentleman as the two made their way south towards Lucky’s part of the
forest. He did his best to make conversation as they walked, but he was
continuously pausing and biting the inside of his cheek as though trying to
stop himself from speaking. At first, Lucky thought it was adorable, but the
weight of what they weren’t saying started to grate on her nerves.

“Fine,” Lucky mumbled, kicking a stone
into a nearby tree trunk.

“Hmm?”

“Fine! Ask whatever you want. I can tell
you’re dying to talk about it—Alice, her world, the prophecy.”

Lucky expected him to politely decline,
but instead he jumped right in, endearingly eager. “What’s the craziest thing
you’ve seen on the other side?” Marc asked, offering Lucky his hand for balance
as they climbed over a fallen tree. A small part of Lucky wanted to point out
that she was more capable of maneuvering through this forest than he was, but
she didn’t. Instead, she locked eyes with Marc and felt a small flutter as her
fingers wrapped around his.

“Cars. Definitely cars.” She looked up
at Marc expectantly, wondering how much he and Gwen really knew. He shrugged.
“They’re basically automated carriages. No horses, all technology. And they go
so
fast.”

“Sounds fun. Have you ridden one?”

“You don’t ride them exactly...” Lucky had
no hope of explaining cars to him. She’d quickly figured out to stay out of
their way, and she only knew what they were called due to an overheard
conversation on her third trip. The rest was still a mystery. Admittedly, she
was a little impressed with herself for picking up as much as she had.

Every time she found herself waking up
in some strange new location, it was a little less jarring, and she was
starting to get the hang of things. She should have picked their communication
devices to tell Marc about, but those were nearly impossible to explain, and
Lucky had no idea what they were called. “The driver and passengers all sit
inside together,” she continued, “kind of like—” Marc’s expression was
interested, yet very, very confused,”—oh, never mind!”

“All right, new topic then,” Marc said,
amused at Lucky’s frustration. “What I really don’t understand is why you
aren’t trying to control all this yourself. Why not take command and see what
you can accomplish when you’re at the helm instead of being dragged along for
the ride?”

“Until I met you, I was half convinced I
was imagining all of this. Eaten the wrong side of a magic mushroom—that kind
of thing.”

Marc laughed, throwing his head back.
“Okay, fair enough. And now?”

She had to admit he had a point, but
that didn’t mean she wanted to just dive in and see what happened. Lucky had
spent days trying to avoid exactly the thing he was now suggesting she do on
purpose. “I don’t know. What if I transport myself somewhere I shouldn’t be?
Maybe I should just wait and see where I end up.” Lucky toyed with various
possibilities, letting courage well in the pit of her stomach. Maybe tomorrow
she
would
just try it. It was entirely possible nothing would happen.

“Wouldn’t you rather it happen while
you’ve got someone here to watch your back?”

“Wait, you want me to try it
now?”

Marc stopped walking and gestured
towards a large boulder. “Sure! Right here, right now. Prove that you can do
it, and give me something interesting to report back to Gwen with.”

“Oh, well as long as you benefit from my
temporary displacement, why not?” Lucky shot Marc a wry grin but found herself
walking over to him. “What’s in it for me if this works?”

“Renown throughout Wonderland? Control
of your own destiny? Dinner with me?” As the last words slipped out of his
mouth, Marc’s carefree persona seemed to melt away. His eyes seemed to be
looking everywhere but at Lucky.

With a smirk, Lucky sat herself down on
the ground and pulled Marc after her. Not giving herself a chance to change her
mind, she leaned against the fallen boulder and squeezed her eyes shut. “Wish
me luck.”

“You don’t need it.” Marc’s strong hands
once again wrapped themselves around Lucky’s, offering a gentle squeeze.

At first, Lucky was frozen, both
mentally and physically, terrified that one mental slip would send her tumbling
out of her own body. She was perfectly aware of everything around her, from the
damp stone at her back to the birds sailing through the trees at impossible
speeds.

Inhale
. Lucky took a deep breath,
tasting the earthy forest air.

Exhale
. She pictured walls in her mind
and began to chip away at them.

Inhale
. Stones tumbled to the ground as
the sound of Marc’s steady breathing calmed Lucky’s turbulent mind.

Exhale
. An icy fist wrapped its fingers
around Lucky’s soul.

Inhale
. With one last shuddering
breath, she was yanked away from her body.

For an instant, Lucky found herself
standing in the middle of a dark country road. The moon was high in the sky and
the stars illuminated everything around her. But there was chaos as well.
Everything was too loud.

A car passed zipped past Lucky, its bulk
passing within an inch of her body.

No!
Lucky squeezed her eyes shut,
bracing for impact.

It never came.

Gasping, Lucky opened her eyes and found
herself once again sitting on the forest floor.

“Come on, keep trying,” Marc urged as
soon as she opened her eyes.

“It worked,” Lucky said, hardly
believing the words herself. “I almost died!” she added, trying to repress a
laugh. Because she hadn’t almost died. The small mirror on the side of the car
had passed right through her. Nearly hysterical, laughter bubbled from her
lips.

Marc sat beside her, brows furrowed.
“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Lucky said, catching her
breath. “Great, even. It worked! I was there. Then I thought I was going to
die, and I brought myself back. It all worked perfectly! You were right.”

“That’s incredible! And it was all you.”
His usual grin had returned to his face, but it was interlaced with what Lucky
suspected was pride. “Are you ready to head home?” Marc started to stand up,
but Lucky pulled him back down.

“Not a chance. There’s no stopping me
now. I’m going to give it another try!”

Once
again, Lucky found herself on a road in the middle of the night. This time she
stood at the end of a line of houses. Unwilling to repeat her last experience,
she quickly got off the road and went to stand beside a large sign that read,
“Thank you for visiting Clarkson. Come back again soon.”

Compared to everything she’d seen of
Alice’s world so far, Clarkson seemed somewhat dull. But that wasn’t Lucky’s
main concern.

Where is Alice?

From the other side of the town, two
beams of lights approached. A car was coming.

Was it as simple as all that? Could she
just bring herself to Alice whenever she pleased? Unwilling to test out her
theory quite yet, Lucky ducked down behind some bushes and waited for the
vehicle—and Alice—to go by.

Once the tell-tale rumble of tires had
passed, Lucky pulled herself upright, hoping to get a better look at the car’s
driver.

All she could make out was long, reddish
hair. So the driver was definitely female. Lucky couldn’t make out any more
details as the car pulled away. She willed herself back into her own body and
was delighted when it worked.

“Sooo?” Marc prodded as the two of them
stood up.

“I think I saw her.”

As they walked, Lucky rehashed every
single detail. Marc listened patiently, nodding in the right places and asking
questions when Lucky’s mind couldn’t push any further.

What did it all mean? She couldn’t just
keep following this girl around. Lucky would have to act, but there was still a
long bridge between finding Alice and pulling her through to another world.

Storm clouds had begun to form above
them, and the wind was picking up. Lucky knew she should head home as quickly
as possible, but she no longer wanted to. Something was pulling at her, some
unidentifiable force urging her to act. And this time, Lucky felt inclined to
listen.

“I have to try again.”

“Lucky, no. You’ve done enough for
today. You don’t have to.” Marc glanced up at the swaying branches above them.
“Go home. Rest. You can try again tomorrow.”

“I can’t explain it, but I have to do
this now. You don’t have to stay.”

With an exaggerated eye roll, Marc
sighed. “Of course I’m going to stay.”

Together they found a spot where a small
hill of dirt and rocks protected them from the increasingly uncooperative
weather. Lucky sat herself down while Marc stood protectively beside her. She
willed her soul forward, anxious to see where she ended up this time.

Lucky
stood on a bridge above a still body of water. Two beams of light approached
from the distance, so she ducked behind a support beam. Alice was coming, but
there were still no clues as to what Lucky was supposed to do about that.

Racking her brain, Lucky looked down
into the water below her before doing a double take. The water wasn’t water at
all. At least, it wasn’t reflecting the moon or the stars.

Shimmering on the surface of the lake
was an image Lucky would recognize anywhere—Neverwood Forest. It was a
different part of the forest from where her body was, but she knew it all the
same. The trees were even shifting with the powerful wind, just like how Lucky
herself had left it.

Lucky closed her eyes and opened them
again, careful to make sure excitement and imagination weren’t getting the best
of her. She was in Alice’s world and looking straight into the heart of
Wonderland. But what was she supposed to do?

The car was close. Panic built in
Lucky’s chest. She was going to miss her chance. Wood planks shuddered as the
weight of the car joined Lucky on the bridge.

She could wave Alice down and explain.
Somehow convince her to listen while Lucky figured out how to bring the girl
through the reflection.

Bracing herself, Lucky stepped out from
her hiding spot, just as the car approached. A terrified girl sat behind the
wheel.

Instead of slowing, the girl jerked the
wheel to the side. Sounds of wood cracking filled the night as the car careened
into the railing, breaking through it like a boot on a twig. The car’s horn
went off as its weight tipped downward.

Horrified, Lucky stepped back. Alice was
going to crash right into the water!

But suddenly panic was replaced with
peace, and Lucky felt a weight lifted from her mind.

Things hadn’t gone as planned, but
Alice’s car—at least Lucky hoped that was Alice, and not some poor girl in the
wrong place at the wrong time—was headed straight into the forest.

She’d done it! If it weren’t for those
first few days of chaos and fear, the whole thing might have been easy.

The horn cut off suddenly as Lucky was
reunited with her body.

The
desire to celebrate was cut short as soon as Lucky opened her eyes. The sky had
turned a dusty shade of purple and the dark clouds that had been merely gloomy
before were now nearly black and seemed to be forming an unnatural spiral.

The ground trembled as lightning struck
out from the clouds, hitting a tree elsewhere in the forest with a deafening
clap.

The movement below only increased in
intensity and it took several tries to pull herself onto her feet. Marc was
standing nearby, watching the sky with growing concern.

“What’s happening?” Lucky screamed above
the winds that howled around them.

His response was cut off as a crack
split the ground right under Lucky’s feet. Grabbing her arm, Marc yanked her
away.

The crack continued to grow and expand,
cutting a violent path through the forest. They watched in horror as the rift
formed a circle, meeting up with itself right where it started.

Lucky had to push back both fear and
nausea as the ground fell away, forcing her to grab onto a nearby tree to keep
from being pulled in. Earth and grass alike tumbled forward into a growing
black chasm in the center of the forest.

Marc stumbled backwards, pulling Lucky
with him as more and more debris fell into the abyss. How long it lasted, Lucky
would never be sure—her mind was preoccupied with the gaping fracture in the
ground and the tiny gnawing thought at the back of her mind hinting that
somehow, just maybe, this was
her
fault. The timing couldn’t be a
coincidence

Suddenly, though the storm raged on, the
chasm stopped growing, but it didn’t dissipate. From a few feet away, Marc
rubbed debris from his eyes. Knowing it might be her only chance, Lucky ran.
Away from the danger, away from Marc. Her mind raced, trying to put together
what had happened.

Gwen had told her that bringing Alice
here would change Wonderland, but she had promised it would be for the best.
They clearly had very different ideas about what was good for Wonderland. How
could this be good for anyone?

A part of the forest had been ripped
away, leaving an unnatural space filled with nothing but darkness. What if that
thing continued to grow, swallowing the entire forest? What if these holes had
opened up everywhere? What if wherever Alice went, darkness followed?

Lucky knew this was all happening because
of her, because of what she had done. But she also knew she had been pushed.

She could hear Marc running to catch
her, and let her anger bolster her confidence. “You did this!” Lucky turned on
her heel, ready to confront Marc. “You and Gwen. What’s happening here? The
forest is falling apart. Literally, falling apart!” Lucky screamed, though it
didn’t quell her rage.