Underland. Underneath the City.

Chapter 2

The ancient music shop on the corner of the main street, sat groaning under the shadows of the skyscrapers that surrounded it. It belonged to ally's uncle and had been there since before the tall buildings that blocked out the light were even in the minds of architects.  It hadn't always been a music shop, it was once a carpenters or something years and years ago, didn't surprise her; it looked older than her great aunt. The concrete walls sagged under the weight of the years of weather it had withstood and slumped slightly forward in shame. No one ever went in, ask anyone in town if they've heard of the 'Adagio' and they'll probably laugh in your face and say 'what?' and walk off going back to their busy lives. Ally's uncle was oblivious to this of course, stating 'if they had good taste then they'd know to go to Adagio!' it was something he always told her when she tried to get him to sell it to the company's that hounded him for the small amount of land. Her mother had tried too, practically begging him, then demanding to know why he keeps it when he doesn't make any money from it, his answer was quiet but full of resolve, "I promised them I would never sell it, that I would protect it. Don't make me break a promise." Shed given up after that, just getting him to give Ally a job and make him promise to let her make any changes she thought would get him money. Ally hadn't managed to think of anything and so the shop went customer-less.
She sat behind the counter resting her head against the old-fashioned cash machine, mentally falling asleep, while her uncle made tea in the little kitchen in the store room above her head. She breathed in the dust of old records and 8o's CDs, sighing, her eyes scanned the little room from the wood panelling to the stacks reaching the beamed ceiling. The singers of those records were most likely all long dead.
She closed her eyes, hoping for a second or two of sleep before her uncle came back down the ancient stairs. The dust smelt familiar, like old smoke from a pipe. Sleep embraced her, and her empty body slumped against the till, the smell of smoke dust fresh in her face.
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The caterpillar's eyebrows arched, "I'm guessing you haven't found him then? Or so I'm guessing since your back to bothering me." Alice frowned, "Found who? Wait, you mean the hatter? Where am I supposed to find him? Nothing looks like it did before." Her sneered, removing the pipe from his now greenish lips, his eyes flashing "Stupid girl, ", He muttered putting the pipe back and saying nothing more. Alice clenched her fists at her side, "You're not helping me! Why won't you help me?! Why is everything here so complicated?" She stopped yelling, realising he had his eyes closed. Suddenly his eyes snapped open, "He's an imbecile. No, he really is mad. That damn hatter." She sighed, fed up of tireless riddles and lose hope for a straight answer, "What?"
The caterpillar sighed, gray smoke slid from his lips, hissing into the atmosphere of Alice's face yet again.  "He has found you, go to him now." She blinked dumbly, just as the leaf she was using as an umbrella was forcefully yanked from her hand by a gust of wind, blowing away the smoke of the caterpillar as they both looked up to the bruised sky, the ink kept on falling, coating her hair and face, it felt...alive. The breaths in her chest became ragged, the black slimy water moving, joining together, smothering her face, her eyes, her mouth. She went to try and pull it from her face, it gripping onto her fingers sticking them to her face; she took a last desperate breath through her nose. The air smelt like warm coffee.