Alice didn’t have time to interrupt before the man ran off. She flicked wide eyes up at Jericho.
His jaw tightened. “You heard the man. I’m afraid the tour ends here.”
“Don’t worry about me, but…is this place safe?” Alice looked around at the crowded room. “Should you evacuate the museum?”
He shook his head. “The graveyard is pretty far from here. So for the time being, I consider the inside of this place safe.”
“I hope you’re right…” Alice wiped her sweaty palms on her skirt.
She suddenly felt nervous in the crowd. A lot of the citizens in that territory probably knew that she lived at Hatter Mansion… Would they think she led the Hatters to attack? Just as she was trying to figure out a way to distance herself from the place, Jericho took her hand.
“You need to get away. I’ll show you a shortcut.”
He led Alice to a space in front of one of the paintings—a busy street scene. The people walking down the street and mingling inside the painting moved as if alive.
“This is the shortcut?” she blurted.
“Yeah. Just do this…and enter the picture.”
He stuck his arm straight out and pushed it inside the living painting. Then he gripped her shoulder and shoved her toward it; she lost her balance and gripped the frame to stay on her feet.
“Listen,” he said quickly from behind her. “Go in and turn right at the big street. Go straight until a T-intersection, then go left. If you run straight on after that, you’ll come out in an area close to the Hatters’ territory—but whatever you do, don’t go in the other direction! It comes out in a totally different place.”
“J-Jericho!” When she righted herself and glanced back, he was already gone. She bit her lip and turned back to the painting.
Half doubting him, she tentatively reached toward the picture as he had done. Her fingers slowly sank into the painting.
“Whoa,” she breathed. “This feels weird!” It wasn’t an uncomfortable sensation, but even in Wonderland, she’d never jumped into a painting. She carefully pushed one arm in, then her other arm, then took a breath and stepped inside entirely.
The world changed around her.
She gasped, suddenly standing in a street lined with market stalls. The people walking down the street looked so alive, she couldn’t believe they were in a picture.
“Vegetables!” a vendor cried from nearby. “Fresh vegetables and fruit here!”
“Come on—you can try before you buy!”
She had so many questions about this…painted?…street, but she didn’t have the time. She ran down the road.
She soon came to a big street, just like Jericho had described. She turned right and kept walking, but saw no incoming, dead-end intersection. After about three blocks, she saw walls, but all of them still left open pathways.
“How far does this go?” she wondered aloud. She trusted Jericho’s advice and kept walking, but the road just stretched on straight before her…never changing.
“This is so weird…”
“What’s the matter, miss?” someone asked from nearby. “Looking for something?”
“She may be lost. It’s a pretty big town.”
Alice stopped, her lips curling into a frown. She felt crazy asking people inside a painting for directions, but eh. Wonderland was crazy.
“I…heard there was a T-intersection if you keep going this way?”
One of the friendly men waved a hand. “Oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about. There used to be one, but it disappeared.”
“Huh?” she blurted. “You mean…the wall vanished?”
“You got it. Somebody painted over it with sky-colored paint. It sure caused problems for us!”
As the men wandered off, Alice ran a hand through her hair. Her eyes flicked back and forth.
If I try to go back now, she thought worriedly, I might get lost, since I don’t know where I am. But I can’t stay here forever, either.
The last thing she wanted was to walk until she collapsed inside a piece of art. With no other options, Alice found a corner in the blind spot of a building and turned down that road.
She proceeded down the narrow road at a trot, her eyes on the ground. She saw light dimly reflecting off of what looked like tiles.
“A picture frame!” she breathed.
She couldn’t see much, but the light spilling up from the ground looked much like the frame she’d seen in the museum. She held her breath and dove in.
Her body’s orientation took another drastic change; it was like gravity itself spun and twisted her around. She slumped to the ground, her mind whirling, and tried not to be sick.
Where am I?!
She swallowed bile and forced her head up. Her eyes widened.
She’d never been to this place in the Country of Diamonds, but she knew it immediately. Grave markers stretched in a solemn row before her, amidst patches of thin, scraggly grass. She saw piles of soil—newly upturned ground.
This was Jericho’s graveyard, in the same territory as the art museum. She cursed her luck for dropping her right where the Hatters were attacking.
In a panic, Alice tried to stand, but her legs turned to jelly beneath her. She gurgled as the world spun again, her senses warping around her.
Not again! Not now!
It was that same dizziness that had plagued her since coming to the Country of Diamonds. And this time, it was stronger than ever; she couldn’t even sit up.
She spilled weakly against the ground, her arms splaying out in front of her. Her palms slid across mud as she collapsed, the raw scent of grass filling her nostrils.
“Who’s there?!”
“Hey, there’s a girl over here!”
The last things she heard were the cries of unfamiliar men.