Alice on the Shelf by Bill Gauthier

Author:Bill Gauthier [Bill, Gauthier,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
Publisher: Crossroad Press

OUT OF THE WOODS & THE OLD PEOPLE

Though the woods had reached full night, the western horizon beyond the woods was crimson, and the sky grew darker until it became purple, then black on the farthest reaches of the eastern horizon. Brad, Gretchen, and the Scarecrow stopped on the dirt path just outside the edge of the woods. The land rose in front of them and the path went over the hill.

Gretchen turned and looked into the woods where her brother had died. Tears shimmered in her eyes. She wiped them, mouth trembling but set, unwilling to release the words or sobs that no doubt wanted to come. Brad and the Scarecrow glanced at each other, and Brad put a hand on her shoulder. It rested there only a moment before the girl seemed to remember her tough façade and pulled her shoulder away. She walked quickly up the hill and Brad and the Scarecrow followed her, not allowing Gretchen to get too far ahead.

"Dorothy most assuredly was not like this one," the Scarecrow mumbled. "Oh, no. She was sweet and kind, and she had a big heart and—"

"She just lost her brother," Brad said. "Cut her a break."

The Scarecrow walked silently for a moment before mumbling, "I wasn't the one given a heart."

Gretchen stopped at the top of the hill and gasped. A moment later, Brad and the Scarecrow joined her. Brad didn't gasp (and the Scarecrow couldn't without lungs) but he did feel tingling in his belly and a rising sensation in his heart. Excitement. The hill dropped into a valley and the path became an actual road. By the road, near another, smaller hill with a well at the top, sat a small wood house with one lit window. Much farther away, miles and miles past the small house, was stood a castle.

In the setting sunlight, the castle appeared every bit a fairy tale castle. Triangular flags fluttered in the breeze. A moat ran around the castle with a drawbridge connecting one side to the other. Once this last detail set in, Brad's feet grew cold and his stomach sank. No castle, even one in a fantasy world, left its drawbridge down. Something was terribly wrong with this.

"Are we gonna just stand here all day or are we gonna go to the castle?" Gretchen asked.

Brad opened his mouth to answer but the Scarecrow said, "It's not as close as it looks. It'll take us a few hours to get there and it's getting late."

"So what?" the girl asked.

"So, maybe we should go see if the light in that house means anyone's home. We can see if they'll let us stay on their front porch."

"Waitaminute, straw man," Gretchen said, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "Let me get this straight: you want to go down, knock on some stranger's door, and ask if we can shack up at their place? My brother and I were almost killed because we went to a stranger's house.

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