Alice

The moment I meet Alice, I knew we would be friends forever. I remember the day I first met Alice. It was the first day of freshman year, about three years ago. I was a shy,quite kid so making friends was difficult. On that very first day at my huge highschool of 3,000 students, I was basically sitting all alone in a cornor waiting for class to start. Then, she came walking up to me. She was so beautiful, that at first I thought I was seeing things. She was tall, with milky white skin, long raven hair, and she had  brighitest emareld eyes I have ever seen. At first, I assumed she was comming towards me to make fun of me, like all the other popular girls had in the past. So I was shocked when she came up to me and introdced herself.

"Hello! My name is Alice Spellman! Why are you all alone?" she asked in a honey sweet voice.

I was caught off guard by her sudden friendly behavior. but I managed to choke out my name.

"A-Ally. Ally Carson." I stammered.

"Well Ally, you seem to be a nice girl, and since I am new in this neat little town, do you mind showing me around the school. And, if you arent busy after school, maybe you could show me around town?" she asked.

"No, I don't mind at all." I replied, still a bit suprised at her fowardness.

" YEA! Thank you so much! I just know we will be the best of friends Little Lady!" she said, giving me a huge, akaward hug.

From that moment on, Alice and I were like two peas in a pod. We sat together at lunch, we studied together in Study Hall, we even walked home together. She was my best friend. (Well, my only friend, but that isn't the point.) However, as you well know, when you are best friends with a person, you tend to know them pretty well. As the months passed, I began to notice things about Alice. For example, she didn't eat lunch. She just sat with me while I ate. I offered her some of my food everyday, but she always refused. Another weird thing, I never was allowed to go to her house. I asked about that once, and was shocked when she got angry and screamed at me that it was none of my buisness where her house was and I shouldn't be nosy. I was so suprised. We didn't talk the rest of that day, but the next day her was back to normal. I just dismissed her sudden outburst as the result of a rough day at school. There was one other thing I noticed. Alice was getting thinner and....older. Not all at once of course, but slowly. Every day she was a little bit thinner and a little bit older. It was like she was aging a year instead of a day!By the time spring break came around, Alice looked 40 pounds lighter and 30 yeard older! I was so worried about my friend, but when I asked her if she was ok, she said she was and acted as if nothing was wrong. Nobody else seemed to notice Alice's sudden decline in health either, only I saw it. But, if she said she was ok, I couldn't do anything aout it, could I?

During spring break, I hadn't heard from Alice. That is, til I recived a phone call from a restricted number.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Hey Lady, it's Alice! How are you?"

"Alice! Yea, I'm fine, but so bored!"

"Well, I have the perfect solution! SLEEPOVER!"

"Yea! That sound's perfect! Is tonight ok? My parent's are out of town, so we don't have to worry about them messing with us!"

"Perfect! I'll come right over! Oh, and Lady, I have a big suprise for you!"

I didn't like the way she said that, but i just thought i was being childish because I had been home alone all day.

"Ok, but hurry, it is getting dark outside!"

"Ok, see you later Little Lady!"

Alice had called me Little Lady since the day we meet. I assume it is because it am about eight inches shorter than she is. I liked the nickname, it suited me.

By the time I heard the doorbell ring, it was already dark outside. But it was a warm spring night, and the full moon lit up the night. When I answered the door, I was shocked at the person before me. She had to be at least 80 years old, with stark white hair, wrinkled skin, and the brightest green eyes I have ever seen.

"A-A-Alice?" I asked, though, I already knew the answer. The old woman didn't respond,  but just walked into the house. I didn't know what else to do, so I just closed the door behind myself. Then I felt a stinging sensation on the back of my neck, and every thing slowed down. I tried to turn to around, but I found myself frozen in place. I tried and tried, but I just couldn't move. At this point, I was starting to panic. Why couldn't I move? My answer came in the form of a question.

"Do you like my little spell Lady? It still works like a dream, even after such a long time."

I felt a hand turn me around, and I came face to face with Alice, who has a demonic grin on her shrivled face. Behind her I saw a large circle of six black candles, and in the center of that circle, a huge book. Around me I could see three more candles, and I assumed that there were three more behind me. I was so scared at this point that I didn't even see the carving knife in her hand till have picked up my limp hand and cut the palm of my hand, letting the bright red liquid spill from my hand into a cup she was holding in her other hand.

"Well, now that that is out of the way, let's got started shall we?"

"Alice, why?" I choked out

" Oh, poor innocent Little Lady, if only you had caught on sooner, you may not be in this situation. But, like the girlls before you, you are too late. Of course, I don't blame you for blindly trusting me, I have had 400 years of practice at fooling people. And you were the perfect person to fool, Lady. I was just drawn to you when I first saw you. You look so much like I did in the 1600's, before those villagers burned me away. They though they could get rid of me, HA!"

Sudden realization hit me like a speeding train. I struggled, inwardly of course, trying to find any why to escape my invisible chains, but it was hopeless. She had me, and there was no escape.

" Well, it had been fun Lady, but now it is time to get started, I don't have much time left in this body. Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit. It will fee like going to sleep. "

"N-No..." I said weakly. I knew I was trapped, but I couldn't give up. I watched as the old hag that was once my friend pour my blood on each of the six candles and then on the candles around me. Then, she lit each one. Finally, she sat down in the circle across from me and began to chant some odd thing that was obivously from the spell book. I felt my eyes growing heavier with each word. I knew, if I gave up, I would die, so I struggled to keep my eyes open. I heard Alice's voice grow lowder and lowder, and it became harder and harder to stay awake...

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...

I felt my body relax, and i fell to the floor. I sat up and blinked. I wa alive! I couldn't believe it, but the witch had failed! I didn't see any sign of Alice, but I did see a pile of dust in the circle of candles. She had run out of time. I was still shaken, but I managed to wrap up my hand, clean up the witch's supplies and despose of them (I burned them in my fire place, book and all.), and get up to bed. I sleep like a baby, the magic having drained my energy. The next day I had almost gotten over my brush with death, till I heard a voice, not behind me, but inside me.

"Well, did you miss me Little Lady?"

All I could do was scream.