Chapter 5 ~ The Burnt Meadow

"Oh, Alice!" Mary Ann covered her mouth with her dainty hand, "I never knew. No one believed you about Wonderland? No one at all? What about your mother?" Alice sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose she believed me, but she couldn't say anything. Maybe out of fear. I don't know." It was silent for a while. Both girls sat in quiet contemplation. Possibly thinking about Wonderland, or their mothers, or . . . cats. "Alice?" Mary Ann twiddled her fingers. "Hm?" Mary Ann stood up, "I want to show you something. It might come as a shock, but you deserve to see it." Mary Ann took Alice's hand and they ran down the stairs.

In a few minutes, the two girls sat side by side on the ground of the garden. "Is somebody…weeping?" Mary Ann sighed. "The flowers. Look." Mary Ann pointed slowly towards the meadow. "I'll wait here Alice. You go ahead. It's…too hard for me."

The weeping grew louder as Alice cautiously stepped into the tall grass. Charred petals scattered across the dirt as an unknown wind blew her hair in front of her eyes. "What happened here?" She whispered, her throat closing up with a familiar choking feel, and her skin becoming flushed. "The Diamonds," a voice said lazily. Alice looked around. Then came another, "Their fires spread strangely. We did not expect to be expected." "Where are you?" Alice asked, "What are you?" What looked to be delicate black snowflakes swirled around her head. "We Ashes come when the Diamond Fires call. We cannot be kept away. Or swept away. We cannot be stopped from littering the sky and the floors. We bring tears." Alice only then noticed that she was crying as well. The wailing of the flowers grew louder and louder, overwhelming Alice's poor heart. "No!" She shouted, and began swatting at the chanting Ash. "We cannot be kept away. We cannot be swept away. We cannot be kept away." The shaking girl knelt down and tried frantically to find the flowers. To stop their weeping. To comfort them. But she was met by torn faces and scarred petals. Ripped stems. Black and crumbling. No, no, no, she thought, "No." The dead lips on the dead flowers chanted with the ash.

They cannot be kept away.

They cannot be swept away.

Leave us to our weeping.

Leave us.

Alice ran. She ran and ran and ran. "I have to get away!" She bumped into something soft. "Shhh, Alice. It's all right. They're gone. They're gone." Alice looked up and in her voice, reduced to the trembling words of a child, whispered, "No Mary Ann. They're not."

They cannot be kept away.

They cannot be swept away.

Leave us to our weeping.

Leave us.

Thanks for reading! Sorry that it's so short.

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