This had to be illegal. It was completely dark, and Brooke just climbed over two chain-link fences. That’s two more than she ever climbed over in her life. Surely people only did that on television. But here she was with a flashlight in her hand, following a white rabbit. Who was she? Alice?
No, she wasn’t Alice, and this definitely wasn’t wonderland. Unless everyone who lost the head to the queen of hearts was buried here. The small rabbit darted across the graveyard. It bounced between headstones, nibbling flowers left for loved ones, only to stop in front of the mausoleum.
“Where are you going, little bunny?” Brooke asked, peeking from behind a tree.
The steps glowed as the rabbit hopped up to the door, each paw glowing the same color. Scared to move, Brooke kept still as possible. She had been following the rabbit for the last six hours after it escaped from her professor’s laboratory. Until this magic moment, she did not know why her professor was so under that it escaped. All it did was poop all over the lab and eat power cords. If anything, the rabbit’s escape was a blessing. At least it was to this broke college student. Who could afford to replace 80 dollar cables every other week?
With at least a decade’s worth of grime encrusted on the track, the door of the mausoleum creaked open. Silently, Brooke prayed the door wouldn’t shut before she got there. She couldn’t see a handle or a lock from where she stood. From all appearances, the mausoleum seemed sealed.
As if the universe heard her prayer, the door became stuck in the grime as it tried to close. Brooke raced from her hiding spot. Her heart pounded. She could hear the door almost freeing itself. Brooke slid in just in time as the door slammed shut.
The years of dust overpowered Brooke’s need for stealth. She coughed and gagged trying to catch her breath. And to make things worse… Her flashlight died.
Thankfully, whoever designed this house of the dead loved the moon. A rich glow poured in from the constellation windows that lined the ceiling. Brooke looked all over for the rabbit, but only found a large marble pedestal holding a black onyx coffin. Creeping around the coffin, Brooke saw tracks in the dust swooping out in a crescent pattern. However, there was no way a five-pound bunny would have been able to move the heavy coffin.
Brooke dropped to the ground. If the rabbit could activate whatever trip device moved the coffin, it would have to be on the floor. Brooke looked around for any sign of an unlevel tile, a button, a clue of some kind.
“Nothing better eat me,” she muttered to herself as her hand traced along the foot of the pedestal. “I don’t get paid enough for this.”
As she stood, her foot slipped on the dust, and she kicked the pedestal. Brooke desperately grasped for something to soften her fall, but there was nothing, not even the floor. The title had disappeared. Brooke plummeted into the darkness. Her screams echoing against the walls.
“What a horrible way to die.” Brooke thought. “Alone, afraid, body mangled, where no one will ever find me.”
But the sounds of crashing waves drowned her fears, replacing them with new ones. Brooke’s arms waved wildly by her side. Water meant she had to get her body in the correct position. If she wanted to avoid breaking any bones or knock herself out, Brooke had to enter the water with her toes pointed at a 45-degree angle, legs closed, and arms secured to her side. Drown was not the way she planned on dying. But Brooke was in the dark in more ways than one. She didn’t know how much time she had.
The sound grew closer. Brooke had stopped screaming long ago. She didn’t need her mouth hanging open to catch a mouth full of water. But that didn’t stop her from thinking how dead that rabbit was if it survived the fall. The salty mist stuck to her face. Quickly, she drew her arms to her side and pointed her toes. A wave crashed over head dragging her deeper under the water. Brooke tumbled under wave after wave, unable to tell which way was up. Her lungs burned from lack of oxygen and her eyes stung. She wanted to shut them to make the pain go away. As her vision blurred, four bright lights darted through the water. The rabbit.
Brooke kicked after the vexing bunny, finally breaking the surface, only to be smacked in the face by another wave. But a breath of soggy air was better than death. Brooked gasped, treading water. Every muscle burned, but that meant she was alive. A wave pushed her forward. Or where she thought forward would be. Where did she fall? Maybe this was wonderland after all.
The sky, or ground covering, wherever she was, was still dark. However, there was a faint glow in the distance. With a bit of salt oxygen in her lungs, Brooke paddled forward, hoping she was heading in the same direction as the phosphorescent rabbit.
Waves crashed harder as the horizon came into view. A sharp and dangerous reef was under Brooke. She protected her head as she dove with the waves. She felt like a dolphin, only there was no joy in her dives, only survival. A few times, panic set in her when kelp wrapped around her ankles. Brooke thought maybe a giant squid or octopus had attacked her. Only she had seen no living creature in the water aside from the troublesome bunny here and there.
At last her feet met the sea floor. Exhausted, she wasn’t sure if she should try standing, fearful that once she stopped swimming, she’d be unable to start again. Brooke was having a hard time making out the land ahead of her. She could see trees, but the waves still swallowed the beach. Finally, she stood. Waves broke on shore and gently receded. Satisfied that the shore wasn’t covered in rocks, she rode in the waves instead of swimming.
The final wave brought Brooke ashore. Laying in the shore break, Brooke started laughing. What had her life become? All she wanted to do was earn extra credit by finding the stupid rabbit. Not go on some wild adventure where the sand glistened.
Brooke rolled over. With her face close to the sand, she discovered it wasn’t the typical sand she had spent a lifetime looking at. Instead of being tan and white, these were particles of black, green, red, purple and blues. Sitting up, she scooped a handful of sand and let it run through her fingers. They felt like tiny little gem stones. But why didn’t they scratch her more than the sand at home did?
A vine trailed down the beach from the dunes, ending in front of Brooke. She trudged her way to the plant, only to find that it, too, was not normal. It possessed the flexibility of a plant, yet the strength of emeralds. Brooke stranded her eyes towards the forest ahead of her. That’s when she saw all the palms on the palm trees glistened like the sand. A breeze floated from the sea and into the forest. All the trees sounded like delicate wind chimes.
Another breeze blew, this time it caressed her face and whispered. “We’ve been waiting for you Brooke.”
Brooke’s eyes widened. There at the edge of the forest were a group of soldiers clad in gleaming armor. And in the arms of the leader was the illuminated rabbit.