Alice.

Chapter I

-Before-

The streets were empty as I walked home from the diner. I pulled my phone from the small pocket of my satchel, checking the time. It was just after nine at night and I could feel that the already crisp air would only get colder as the night went on.

Twelve blocks in the dark can be a very long walk when you’re alone, but I liked to talk to the breeze as it blew tendrils of my blonde hair across my face.

“You think you’re so clever don’t you? Getting colder only on the nights I have to walk home… which is most nights these days… Why can’t you just be a warm night every now and then? And would you please stop blowing my hair across my face! It’s hard enough to see in the dark as it is!” I huffed, not expecting a reply.

I could feel my nose and cheeks turning to ice and I held my hands that I had pulled into my sleeves, up to my face to try and defrost it. I stopped for a moment closing my eyes to take in the bliss of the temporary warmth on my face. Taking a deep breath I opened them and took a step.

“REEOOOWWWW!!!” I jumped backward as a fat white cat scampered under a car, parked on the side of the road. I knelt down to see it licking it’s tale intently, before looking at me and letting out a hiss, teeth bared, whiskers back. Obviously I had trod on it’s tale and boy did I feel bad about it!

“Come on puss, puss! Come on!” I reached my hand under the car toward the poor wounded creature. “Puss, come on!”

“I wouldn’t bother,” I whacked my head on the bottom of the car, startled by the voice from behind me. “I swear he purposely walks in front of people on the footpath, wanting to be stepped on.”

I looked up at the boy standing in front of me. He was tall with a purple beanie with earflaps that had bits of rope attached to them with pompoms sewn to the ends. His red hair poked out here and there from underneath it and his green, penetrating eyes, rimmed with an abundance of black lashes were looking down at me, still on the ground, rubbing my head. A smile tickled the edges of his lips but he didn’t laugh, trying to be polite perhaps?

“I, uh… He’s your cat?”

“Yes, his name is Chester. He is very old, stubborn and easily offended. In fact, he probably won’t ever like you now that you’ve stepped on his tail.” I stood abruptly and began to walk.

“I suppose not.” I stated, hoping the wind would carry my voice back to the boy. My pace quickened slightly as I crossed the road. Six blocks down, six to go.

Just as I calculated the trip ahead, I felt a small wet drop hit my nose. Then my cheek. My eyebrow, my hand and my lips before finally the downpour began.

“REALLY MOTHER NATURE, REALLY? YOU HAD TO PICK NOW?” I sighed and pulled my jacket tight around my body.

“Thought you might need this.” I fell backward landing on someone’s fence and just when I thought I was safe, I tumbled backward into their now not-so-perfect garden bed. I mentally slapped myself as I regained my feet and climbed back onto the footpath. I scowled as I took in the fact that the boy who had once again scared me into hurting myself, was standing there with an umbrella, big enough for two people to comfortably stand under. Smoothly, he strode over to me and held it so the droplets were no longer reaching either of us. I gave him a sideward glance as we walked in silence, rain pouring heavily down around us.

We reached the end of the road and turned down my street continuing until we were standing on the wet grass of my front lawn. The now-storm had failed to relent and I gestured to the building, small and sad looking in the weather.

“This is me.” I said a little louder than usual so he would hear me over the water slamming into the umbrella.

“No need to yell” He said, quite seriously.

“Right. Well bye.” I ‘yelled’ and ran to the front door. I fumbled around in my bag for my key and just as I shoved it in the lock, I turned around to wave him off as an ‘I’m safe, you can go now’ kind of thing, but the lawn was empty.

“Odd.” I said to the wind, but my voice was carried away by the sound of the rain.

Seeing as no one was home I stripped off my drenched clothes in the bathroom, wrapping a towel around me and headed up stairs to my room. The wind rattled the awnings outside and the tall, dark tree outside scratched its claws down the window. Shivering, I pulled the curtains closed and rugged up. Instead of turning on the red, heart shaped lamp by my bed, I decided to light the opium-scented candles that my father had bought back from Indonesia last year before he passed. I hadn’t wanted to light them before tonight because he only used to light candles on the nights that the power was out or the nights he feared this would happen.

“Never trust the dark, Alice.” He would warn.

“What about in my imagination?”

“Especially not in your imagination.”

I never quite understood what he meant, but ever since that night, I would never venture into the dark without light of some kind, I even attached a battery powered torch to my keychain in case I somehow became trapped in the dark.

The sound of the front door slamming startled out of my nostalgia. Mum’s home.

“Alice! Alice won’t you come and take my coat?” What an odd request… “I have my hands full!” What could she have possibly brought home for her not to be able to put it down and remove her own coat? I sighed.

“Alice, please can you- don’t worry it’s gone now!” She yelled up the stairs. Wait… ‘it’s gone now’? What could she mean?

“What’s gone?” I yelled half running, half skipping to the top of the stairs.

“Well I was walking home from near where the red car was parked on the side of the road down the street, I’m sure you would have passed it coming home?” The car the cat, Chester, flew under after I had stepped on him.

“Hang on a second, why were you walking home? Didn’t you have the car today? I thought that Ray only needed it on Tuesdays to get the groceries for Mrs Heart.”

“Car troubles, I’ll get to that in a second. Anyway, you know the car?” I nodded. “Well as I was walking past the car when this big, old, fat cat ran straight under my feet! Would you believe it?” I mightn’t have believed it any other day except that he has done the same to me.

“Oh yes, I can believe it! The same happened to-“

“Oh Alice, won’t you let me finish before butting in!” I bowed to her, my hand extended.

“Yes your majesty.” She just shook her head, rolling her eyes.

“Well long story short, I picked up the ball of fluff, hissing and all and brought him home. Thought he’d be grateful to have a warm home and a big bowl of food for the night but apparently he wants nothing of the sort!” She shrugged and pointed to the fat, white thing sitting on the rug at the back door looking rather sorry for himself.

“Oh Mum, this is someone’s cat! He walked me home tonight in the rain!”

“Who walked you home?”

“Umbrella troubles, I’ll get to that in a second.” I sneered at her. “His name is Chester.”

“Who? The boy?”

“No Mum, the cat. The cat’s name is Chester and he’s…” How did the boy put it? “He’s old, stubborn and easily offended.” Yes, I think that was it.

“Oh please! He’s just a hungry kitty who wants a tummy wub!” Mum’s voice turned to a goo-goo ga-ga voice as she carefully snuck over to Chester and attempted to give him a pat. He reared back on his hind legs and hissed, his ears flat against his head, his fur in a mohawk down his back. Mum jumped back with a small yelp.

“Bad kitty!” She yelled and then turned to me. “Well we can’t take him back now. He will just have to wait until the morning and then you can take him back.”

“Me? And how do you suppose I will carry him?”