Wonderland

by Sophia, Grade 10

The streets were grey and dreary, fog billowing as people crept along. A never-ending line of gaunt faces flashed in the periphery if one looked close enough. Up ahead, the tinny sound of music rose and fell, and flashes of red and yellow flew by in blurs of garish color. A high-pitched cackle rang around the streets as a hag’s old rheumy eyes came into view. 

“Beware the sound of cunning and fate,” she murmured. 

As clowns dressed in red and yellow flashed past, a voice loud and vast echoed around the grounds. “Welcome to Wonderland, where magic and wonder collide. After this, I can promise you your life will never be the same again.” 

The faces turned to crane necks and stood on tiptoes to search in vain for the source of the sound. Bejeweled horses trotted by the delicate clinking of jewels, a contrast to the gloomy pervading atmosphere of the day. A strong man was sitting on a stool crushing within his palms a piece of thick metal that would seem immovable to any ordinary person.

Further up ahead, a woman dangled from a hoop suspended by her neck in midair. All of these mysterious figures and more roamed the grounds of the fair. Though different in size, height, ability, and countenance, they all had one connecting feature: a tattoo of an ouroboros coiled around their necks, a symbol of eternity and endless return. As the show started and people shuffled to their places, soft, hypnotizing music played, slowly getting louder and more intense. Eyes glazed over, faces slackened, and bodies swayed to the insistent beat of the music. As the music crescendoed, chairs scraped back, screeching on the metal floor. 

The rhythmic sound of feet thudding in unison was the only indication of anything amiss as people walked into a darkened building that opened into a large room with glinting machines. A line formed before each of the five machines and as the people in front sat down, chains, frail in appearance, shot out, wrapping around wrists and ankles, and looping around necks. A gleaming needle emerged from within.

 Two hours later, a group of people walked out, and as they trudged through the dark fairgrounds, the moonlight illuminated for a second the fresh marks on their necks in the shape of a snake swallowing its tail. 

And let the wonder commence.