White Rabbit (824 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.85 on 14 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Ballare (View user info) at 2007-06-30 03:19:05 EDT
She was sitting in a cloud of smoke, her dangling, skeletal hand wrapped around the hose of a hookah. Her eyes rolling back in her head, she stared sightlessly up at the ceiling and laughed that shrill high-pitched laugh of hers.
There was something in the way she laughed - that sharp, high squeal - that grated on his very soul, as though she were poking her thin little fingers into his ribcage and pinching at his innards. He hated her laugh; he hated her. But here he was, propped against the wall in a darkened room that smelled vaguely of piss and tobacco and sweat, listening to her.
It had been so long now that he'd been sitting there that he wished he could just make her shut up. Shake her until she stopped laughing. Snap her emaciated body into pieces; chuckling, squealing pieces that would never stop with the sharp coughing laugh.
Of course, he couldn't. To him, she was all that was. She was all that ever could be. To break her would be to shatter his own existence into thousands of broken scattered pieces.
But he couldn't stand her fucking laugh.
"Shut up, Alice," he snapped, twisting his head around to fix his wide, yellowed stare on her.
When he spoke, her head suddenly drooped, dangling on her neck as though she were some raggedy ann doll, rolling back and forth. For a moment, he thought she had fallen asleep, until she listlessly pushed her cheek into her shoulder and gazed at him out of the corner of her eye.
She giggled again. Through the ripped cloth of her shirt, he saw her ribs hiccupping with every intake of breath, and when she spoke, her voice was unexpectedly girlish, too high and childlike.
"Kitty, why are you so cruel to me?"
He watched as her thinned lips drew into a facsimile of a pout, a make believe grimace that bared too many stained, jagged teeth.
"Fuck you." Turning his head away, he leaned his brow against the cool wall.
How long had it been, now? He had been here forever, it seemed. As long as he could remember, he had been here, with her. There was once, perhaps, a lifetime ago, a world of light and colour, of shapes and motion and things. A world in which he could come and go as he pleased.
When he made a great effort, meaningless words floated through his mind in an endless parade, words which used to have significance but were now simply words.
Flamingo. Queen of hearts. A looking glass-
"Kitty!"
Her voice was suddenly trembling, hushed, intense. "Kitty, I must know. What time is it? Where is the pocket watch? You must... you must tell me..." These last words quavered unhappily, and her thin shoulders lifted and fell with a faltering moan.
"Fuck you," he repeated, mumbling into the peeling plaster. As she began to whimper, a soft, anguished mewl, he sighed heavily and fumbled around blindly, searching about for the timepiece.
He pawed at it unsteadily, labouring to focus on the round glass face.
"What time is it!"
"It's too late," he replied shakily. "It's always too late. You know that."
The pocket watch clattered noisily to the floor, and Alice moaned again, softly.
"Yes, I know."
User Reviews
Submitted by shitfuck (user info) at 2008-06-29 12:38:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You can write.
Submitted by haikumikoo (user info) at 2007-09-06 12:49:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I find it ridiculous that people complain so god damn much about no good short stories on über, yet people like you have only 13,000 hits.
Whatever...
Submitted by SunnyG (user info) at 2007-08-05 12:54:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
im gonna go get high then read this. i have a feeling it'll make more sense.
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-08-05 12:23:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
A pout, or even a facsimile of one, does not expose teeth.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-07-02 12:19:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by messmind (user info) at 2007-07-01 05:12:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2007-06-30 20:06:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Needs more splooge on Grace Slick's face.
Submitted by Lib (user info) at 2007-06-30 17:11:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by gravitas (user info) at 2007-06-30 12:56:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2007-06-30 10:30:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was quite good.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2007-06-30 09:12:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ICO (user info) at 2007-06-30 06:27:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
American Mcgee-isms always makes my magical fireman come up and see what the fuss is about.
Submitted by sir_cowman (user info) at 2007-06-30 05:24:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Aha! I didn't know this was a Ballare until I crolled back up to rate it. I thought it was lovely, really, except for the very end, when Alice answers. I can't say how exactly to improve it, however, I do think i can be improved, you know?
Submitted by Progr3ss (user info) at 2007-06-30 04:37:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Interesting. Not quite there you know?
Just needed something more to make it shine...