Remember Alys

“It’s this a bit… conspicuous?” Alys asked, starting skeptically up at the ivy covered stone manor. It was a castle in it’s own right, a grand looking entry with an ornate door and beautiful sconces mounted on either side and lamp post lining the path. It was amazing to behold, but looked to be a little too over the top for a hide away.

Oliver glanced at Alys over his shoulder, the brim of his deep plum, velvet top hat casting a soft shadow over his face. “We’ll be safe here, the Queen refuses to step foot on these grounds. This was her mothers preferred home, from what I understand. And Seraphina has all but erased her mother from existence. She let this stay, but refused to send anyone out to keep up with the maintenance, happy to let the Wood reclaim it.” He walked up to the wooden door, which Alys saw have intricate carvings of flowers and trees. Oliver laid a hand on the door knob and looked back again, meeting Alys’s eyes. “Your grandmother was loved by all of Wonderland. I’ve heard every kind of story, and no one has ever had a bad word to say about her. When she passed, your grandfather had workers here weekly to take care of the grounds and keep the rooms clean. When your mother stepped into her role as Queen, she made a proclamation that forbid anyone working for the crown from coming out here.” He gave Alys a sad smile and pushed the door open. “But there were plenty of people who didn’t have to follow that rule.”

Alys’s breath caught in her throat as she walked through the door. Right in the entry was a grand staircase that split in to on the left and right, coming together again at the top. The cherry wood gleamed, freshly polished with gold accents glinting in the light. A large chandelier hung above, shades of blue, teal, and green crystals casting hues of light that had the entry looking like you were standing at the bottom of the ocean. It smelled like lemons and citrus in one direction and lilac and rose in the other.

Alys expected complete disarray, not something as opulent as this. It was the kind of thing she’d only ever see in the historic manor houses she would tour in Boston.

“This… this is not a place that has been left to be swallowed up by a forest and forgotten.”

Oliver watched Alys take everything in with a small smile. “No. Because those who adored the late Queen, your grandmother, have stepped in and taken care of everything inside these walls for the last 20 something years.”

Alys turned to Oliver, standing at the bottom of the stairs. “But… the outside.”

“We let the ivy and weeds grow within reason just in case. She’s sent guards out before to makes sure the house has fallen into disrepair, I imagine she’d find someone to punish if it looked habitable. So, the outside does not resemble the inside.”

Alys nods, her gaze sweeping over the space. She turns toward the hallway to her left, looking at the pieces of art decorating the walls. Paintings of beautiful floral arrangements and horses running free, castle like buildings and a village straight out of a fairytale. She comes to a stop at one. It’s a portrait of a regal looking woman with a soft smile and kind eyes sitting on a lush soft and a flowy white dress trimmed with silver and a teal gem at the center of the collar. He deep auburn hair is swept up high on her head with curls coming loose. Alys’s hand reaches up to her own hair, curling a strand around her finger. The color matches her, the brilliant green eyes looking back at her are the same ones she sees in the mirror every day, even her nose looks familiar.

“Your look like her.”

Alys jumps, pressing her hand to her chest startled at Oliver’s voice, breaking through her spiraling thoughts. “Christ! Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

Oliver ducked his head, hiding his amused smile. “Sorry.”

Alys rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s fine, just... don’t do it again.”

Olive holds his hands up in surrender. “I will loudly announce my presence at all times from here on out, you have my word.”

“Right.”

Olive snorts, shaking his head. “Come on, I want to show you something.” He makes a move to take her hand but pauses, stuffing his outstretched hand into his coat pocket instead and moves back toward the staircase. He doesn’t look back to check that Alys is following him, he just takes the stairs two at a time as if he’s right at home here.

At the top of the stairs, Oliver heads to the right and goes to the last set of doors on the left. He opens the double doors with a wide dramatic gesture that Alys has only seen done in movies. She follows him into the room and is struck by how large it is, with a massive 4 poster bed with canopy and jewel tone bedding.

“Wow.” Alys walks around the bed, her hand gliding over the soft velvet duvet. She drags her fingers over the hanging beads of the beautiful seafoam green glass Tiffany lamp.

Oliver walks over to the large picture window, pulling back the curtains. “This room over looks the gardens, well... what would have been the gardens.”

Alys steps up beside Oliver and looks out onto the over growth taking over the grounds. There are small pops of color fighting their way through the brush, trying to climb it’s way back to the surface again. “It must have been something in its prime.”

Oliver nodded, taking a small step back so Alys can step closer. He gazes at her, silently pleading for her to remember something about this house, about her time here, about him. “There’s paintings of it from this very window in the library, it has the best view. At least that’s the story.”

Alys presses close to the window, looking out at the lost garden. She can almost see it, the rows of flowers in all colors, full peonies and bushes of the most perfect roses, an ivy-covered trestle with wisteria hanging from the archway. It’s so clear to her that she almost feels as if it’s a memory and not her imagination.

“Do you want to see how it used to look?” Oliver asks. Alys turns to him, finding his eyes. She nods. Oliver smile and cocks his head to the open door. “Come on.” He leads her out of the room and back down the stairs. They go left and Oliver opens another set of doors, letting them into a massive room with floor to ceiling shelves lining the walls filled with books.

“Holy... geez, I think there’s more books here than the bookstore around the corner from my apartment.” Alys marvels at the sight, walking slowly along the walls and reading all the unfamiliar titles.

Oliver chuckles, walking to the other side of the room and pulling a large, black, unmarked book from the shelf and bringing it over to the desk at the center of the room. “The late Queen loved art of every kind, that included the written word. She wrote poetry and read everything that she came across. She even sketched and painted, this is one of her books.” He opened the large portfolio book, show Alys watercolor paintings and charcoal drawings.

Alys stepped up next to him and looked down at the book, carefully turning the pages. “These are beautiful, she really had some talent.”

Oliver reached over and turned few pages until he landed on a watercolor painting of back garden. It was trimmed and neat, a labyrinth show off to the left side and blooming shades of pink and purple just below the window. Alys could identify some spots that she saw that are more overgrown, the arches of the trestles. Ivy crawled up them with spot of soft purple, the wisteria like she’d envisioned. The whole painting looked like a lot like what she’d envisioned, only it was like she was seeing it through warped glass that had the colors rippling and blurring.

“This... this is the garden that is below that bedroom?”

Oliver nodded. “Your grandmother would sit in the window and paint it.”

Alys squeezed her eyes shut and turned away from the book, shaking her head. “You need to stop calling her my grandmother.”

“She is though.” Oliver said gently. “I get it, it’s strange to think that this was your life or think about what could have been your life but, Alys this is the truth. You can try and deny it all you want but I know that you can feel something here, I can see it. The way you looked out that window like you recognized something, the shock I saw in your eyes when you looked at that painting in the hall of your grandmother. You saw the similarities, didn’t you?”

“Stop.”

“Alys please.” Oliver stepped forward, reaching for her. Alys pulled away before he could touch her. “You have to remember something about your time here, glimpses of the past in the form of dreams, a feeling of belonging.”

“There’s nothing to remember!” Alys bit out.

Oliver clenched his jaw, looking around the room for something to help him. His eyes landed on a small wooden jewelry box with roses carved into it. He walked over to it and snatched it off the shelf, opening the lid and looking inside. “Will you look at one more thing?”

“Oliver...” Alys started to protest.

Olive snapped the lid shut and looked up at Alys. “Please. One more thing, I’ll drop everything and try to get you back home if you still don’t believe me. But please.”

Alys stared at him for a moment, before sighing, her shoulders dropping. “Fine.” She said reluctantly and met Oliver in the middle of the room.

“Thank you.” Oliver whispers, turning the box around and opening the lid again.

Alys looks at Oliver skeptically with a raise eyebrow, then her eyes drop down into the wooden box. The inside is lines with velvet and nestled on top is a shining silver rose pendant with a connected crescent moon and a diamond at the top point of the moon. Alys gently picked up the pendant, it’s silver chain dangling freely, and ran her thumb over the intricate petals of the rose. It felt warm in her hand and as her thumb stroked over the flower and passed over the diamond she felt a jolt of something. Alys sucked in a breath and closed her eyes, imagines flashing in her mind.

There was a long stone corridor and she was running and laughing with a young boy and there was a room with desks where she sat with the same young boy and twin boys. She say in a library, different than the one she was in now, and read on a lounge with her companion drew in a large sketchbook and a woman sat at a table smiling and humming while she worked on a hat. A man called for her, called her Alyssandra and she ran to him with a laugh and jumped into his waiting arms. There was a moment of pain, fear. She felt cold and wet in this dark place then she was pulled onto the side of a river, coughing and crying, clinging to the boy.

Alys choked back a sob, gasping and dropping the necklace to the floor.

“Alys?” Oliver stepped closer, his hand hovering inches from Alys’s arm, a look of concern etched on his face.

Alys picked her head up and found Oliver’s eyes, something shifting in the way she looked at him. Tears sprung up in her eyes and she fell into him, wrapping her arms around him and holding onto him. “Oliver!” She said his name with relief and recognition, affection and love.

The jewelry box clattered to the floor as Oliver embraced her, his arms winding around her waist and holding her close. He smiled, letting out a wet laugh. “Alys, god I’ve missed you.”

“I’m sorry.” Alys said, crying into his neck. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to forget or get lost.”

“Sh, it’s okay.” Oliver rubbed a comforting hand up and down her back. “It’s okay, you’ve found your way back. I knew you would.”

Alys’s mind is a scamble of her past and her present, the reality of her being back home in Wonderland. Things are still hazy, things slowly start to come into focus as her memories piece themselves together but she remembers Oliver clearly.

After a few more moments, Alys pulls away, wiping at her eyes. “Okay.” She says, pulling herself together and standing straighter. “I we need a plan.”

“Alys, you can take a minute to let yourself settle back into this.”

Alys shook her head. “We don’t have the time for me to take a minute, you know that. I’ve been seeing you get more and more worried by the day. When was the last time you heard from Shade?” She asked. Oliver chewed the inside of his cheek and dropped her gaze. “Exactly. If he can’t get in contact with you, that means it’s getting more difficult to move without getting found out. With Gen being MIA, I’m sure my mother knows that I’m here.” Alys’s heart clenched at the thought, mixed emotions swirling inside at the thought of the women she believed she was going to spend her life with just a week ago. It was odd to not have those same feelings now that she remembered the life she had and the people who were in it. She looks at Oliver now and there’s a flutter of nervousness that wasn’t there before.

“Gen... you know she was only doing what she had to for the twins. Seraphina is holding them hostage to control her, I’m not happy with her but... but I know I can forgive her.”

“She betrayed you, Oli. Betrayed me.”

“To protect what’s left of her family.”

Alys was surprised by Oliver’s defense of their old friend, especially when he was cursing her just days ago as they ran from the Queens Hearts. “Maybe.” She said, not willing to think too much about it. “It doesn’t matter, she’s not our focus. I’m back, I’m remembering my old life. We need to come up with a plan to stop my mother for good.”