Strangely enough she has ever got connected with one person, an FBI agent who was conducting her case, Norman Jayden. He would come into her room and they would talk for hours after which she fell silent for days and weeks until his next visit. At first, agent Jayden asked simple and protocolish questions, like ‘what’s your name?’ or ‘what’ve you been doing on…?’, but later being encouraged by doctors and staff he started engaging in less impartial conversations.

‘How’re you today?’

‘Fine.’ Her voice’s a bit husky from keeping silence for too long. ‘You?’

‘Me, too.’ He lies. ‘So, tell me, Ariel…’

‘IT’S ALICE!’ She suddenly snaps at him and then in a split second changes back to her normal self. ‘What did you want to hear?’

She smiles and it looks terrible, like a fresh open wound on her pale face. Her eyes are dark, her lips are red, her skin is white. He flinches, but she does not notice – she never does, because she’s never actually there in this room with him, she’s in her Wonderland and he’s probably just one of the residents.

‘I—I wanned to hear more stories of your Wonderland if you don’t mind?’

‘They are not ‘stories’’. She says in a childlike voice. Ariel Linton is 22, schizophrenic, OCPD, liar, pyromaniac. She’s completely nuts and by some sick coincidence she trusts Jayden. He tries really hard to convince himself that this is by no chance connected with a little obsession of his own.

He secretly reaches to the pocket of his jacket where he carries the ARI-glasses and wishes that this little compulsive motion did not get caught on tape, because lately it feels like someone has been watching over his every single move. Studying. Waiting. Waiting to caught him on something and—

‘Off with your head!’ Exclaims Ariel and Norman jumps on his chair. She starts laughing so hard that it seems like she’s choking. Then after a minute or so she just stops.

‘Got you, didn’t I?’ Ariel asks. She never needs any answers to her questions so he does not give her one, but she continues anyway with and light chuckle. ‘Do not worry, sir Knight, you’re safe as long as you please me.’

He’s damn sure he’ll continue to, because her Wonderland, the creation of a rotten mind of an insane girl, is now haunting him in his dreams and considering the fact that he’s always so tired that he’s never really awake – Jayden’s fucked if he pisses the Queen of Hearts off.