Once, I visited the strangest restaurant. But it was not a normal restaurant, and I am not normal anymore either, since that fateful encounter with a cook called Alice. It was back during my college days when a friend from high school introduced me to the place. My friend, let’s call him Sam, noticed me when I was shopping, browsing the aisle in search of new shoes to replace the pair that broke. At first I didn’t recognize him because he looked so different. Sam was a lot thinner than he was before. Like, super thin, and I thought to ask if he had been dieting or had an operation, but was afraid of offending him with such a question.
We had some catching up to do. He invited me to dinner to this place I had never heard of before, called the “Wonderland.” As we stepped into the restaurant, I noticed it was fairly normal at first glance. The walls had pictures of the various meals served there, such as oysters, cheeseburger sliders and shrimp cocktails, among other things, and they weren’t very eye catching. But the thing that set me on edge immediately were the employees who worked there. They all wore bunny masks. I didn’t feel good about that. It was as though I was in the twilight zone, or some kind of horror flick. I was just expecting some crazy killer with a chainsaw or a shotgun to jump out from behind one of those doors, and mow all of the patrons down.
The restaurant wasn’t busy at all. I wasn’t sure why but maybe it was because people didn’t feel like they wanted to eat food being prepared by some creepy looking people dressed in rabbit masks.
Sam looked to be quite at ease, almost too much at ease as though he were used to this sort of thing. I could tell there was a lot on Sam’s mind, and a whole lot of stories. We talked for a few moments, catching up and whatnot.
Sam pointed at the menu and said, “What’s great about this place is you can even order stuff not on the menu. Anything you want! And the prices are so cheap!”
I looked down at the menu. The prices really were quite low, and I hadn’t even considered ordering anything not listed on the menu. Why should I when they have such delicious sounding dishes such as the “Mad Hatter’s Special Surprise”, or the “March Hare’s Honey Toast”? I mean who the heck came up with this? I decided I’d play it safe, and just order some soup.
I thought of asking more questions about Sam, but before I did a young woman wearing a chef apron and hat approached our table. I had no idea who the girl was or what to make of her. Her long hair was pink, her skin was pale, her unsettling eyes were purple and her arms and legs were wrapped in bandages. She looked like one of those girls you’d see at an anime convention or one of those weird underground night clubs, that much I was certain of. Unlike the others, she was not wearing a mask, and was the first person to actually speak since we arrived.
“Hi, I’m Alice the owner and cook here. Have you guys decided yet?” She asked, pulling out a notebook and a pen from one pocket of her apron. I stared at her as if she was some kind of alien. To say that she stuck out in a room like the one in which we were seated was a serious understatement, and she didn’t even seem to care.
“Sure, I will get a bowl of your special soup. What’s in it? It sounds interesting.” I said, pointing at the item on the menu. I was pretty hungry.
“Well,” She started to speak, “Today’s special is our Wonderland Vegetable stew. It is a hearty soup, full of all sorts of different vegetables, a few secret spices and a hint of wonderland.”
“Wonderland?”
“Yeah, a hint of wonderland. That’s the best part. Gives a whole different flavor to it. So a bowl of that for you and do you want anything else with it?”
I paused for a moment and looked back down at the menu. There were a ton of different options to choose from, including many types of drinks and pastries, but I didn’t feel very thirsty.
“I’ll pass for the rest.” I replied, setting the menu down, feeling her stare burn a hole into my head.
“And what about you, Sam?” Alice asked, looking over towards him.
“I’ll be having your house special. With some tea please.”
“Of course. We will be right back with your orders!” The pink haired woman spoke and walked back behind the counter and through the door to the kitchen.
We continued to wait and eventually, Alice came back to us with a large platter holding our orders.
“I brought the food for you! Hope it’s as good as it looks. Your bill is included. Take your time and enjoy yourselves!” The young chef cheerfully set the tray in front of us before walking away, disappearing through the doorway.
As we ate our meal I began to feel a bit strange. Lately, I had been stressed out about the girl I was dating cheating on me, but as I ate this amazing tasting soup my thoughts and the feelings I felt seemed to melt away and disappear from my thoughts, leaving a calm sense of peace within my mind.
After we finished eating our food, Sam and I started to speak to one another once again, talking about our daily lives.
“You know,” Sam started, looking at me, “I had been depressed about being fat and alone for so long. But after started eating here I just feel really happy now and I’m losing a ton of weight.”
“Yeah. That is so strange,” I responded, feeling a deep sense of calm within myself. “I feel so relaxed now.”
We sat there, speaking for awhile, just chatting away about our lives and how wonderful this restaurant is. I’m not sure if it was my imagination or not but I swore Sam seemed a bit thinner than before.
We finished eating our dinner and, after saying goodbye to Sam, I headed home. After returning home, I sat down on my bed, closed my eyes and went to sleep.
A day later, after classes at school had finished, I went back to the restaurant, and I felt I should’ve been more worried but my feelings of depression had completely disappeared and now there was only an odd sense of relief. Walking into the restaurant, which now had an even less busy feel, I headed up towards one of the tables by a wall decorated with a bunch of different posters of various foods. Sitting at one of the booths I picked up the menu, noticing a bunch of dishes I had never heard of before.
Looking around, I saw Alice approaching my booth, carrying her usual notebook.
“Are you back again for the meal of the day?”
“Yeah,” I replied, smiling up at the cheerful pink-haired woman.
The pink haired girl looked at the menu and then said “You’ll want the ‘Shrimp Surprise’ I guarantee it. This dish has been made by me using a secret blend of spices that has the most surprising tastes.”
“That sounds amazing, I’d like it.”
“Perfect,” she answered, writing down my order. I smiled back at her, happy that I’d have another great dish to enjoy this night.
After I ate, I got out of the restaurant and walked home. It was a short trip home and I arrived at about an hour and a half past when I left the school. Walking up the steps and opening my home’s door I stepped inside. I headed upstairs and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I noticed my appearance and was shocked that, in only a couple days, my appearance had changed slightly. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw I had somehow become skinnier.
The next morning, I was getting ready to walk to my classes at the university, and I saw Sam heading my way. We talked as we walked to our classrooms, but I noticed he appeared even thinner now and looked like he’s lost some of his muscles. Not only that but, his face seemed to have gained a slightly gaunt look. He was still smiling and talking, so maybe he had been dieting too much lately? Maybe it was stress related to school?
“Hey Sam, is everything alright? You’re looking thinner and even a little paler.”
“Huh?” he looked puzzled at me. “Of course I’m fine! Maybe it’s all these late nights studying. You know how it is, I can barely focus when the teacher drones on and on.”
I shrugged, thinking that Sam seemed fine.
A few days later, Sam stopped showing up on my walks to class, I figured he must’ve been sick or something. A couple of days after that the police showed up to ask about him. They showed a missing person report on him and his parents were apparently really worried. I answered their questions but was feeling very concerned. After they left I had to wonder, what had happened to Sam? Maybe he just ran away?
I sat in class thinking over things in my mind, hoping for some answers. I felt bad for Sam’s family. After a while, the class ended, and I was feeling hungry. I decided to head to the “Wonderland” to get something to eat and ask Alice when she had last seen Sam. I went inside and found a seat.
“Hey there, how are things with you?” Alice asked when she brought my menu to me.
“Things have been kind of weird actually. My friend Sam disappeared and it has had me wondering a bunch of crazy things, it’s making my mind feel so foggy and unfocused.”
“Oh yeah? Do you mean Sam Jones?” She put her hand to her mouth in concern, and I could see that she was trying to hide her smile. Her expression didn’t change as she spoke “That is sooo sad!”
“I know right, his disappearance is just too unreal! Have you seen him around recently?” As I spoke, she began to giggle a bit. I could swear her eyes were turning red.
She stopped and her tone became serious for a moment. “No, I haven’t.”
“Are you OK, Alice?” The way she giggled before and then got so serious seemed weird to me. And now her pupils seemed a brighter red. Maybe she hadn’t gotten much sleep or something… I was getting really creeped out and I could tell I must’ve looked the same as Alice gave me an unconvincing laugh.
“Yeah! Yeah! I’m totally cool! No problem!”
“Uh… Okay then.”
I looked down and examined the menu. “Hmmm.. well I suppose I’ll take one cheese pizza and some orange juice to start.” Alice took the menu and her expression started to turn back into the cheery one she had before and she smiled at me.
“Oh, of course. You’ll enjoy the pizza I am sure. I’ve got a very special recipe for that.”
“Awesome! Well that sounds good and I can’t wait to try it!” I smiled at her, even though it sounded just too strange for me to not feel a sense of unease about her behavior.
“Good! I am so very happy you’re excited for your order! I will be right back to take your meal to you!” Alice, the cook and owner of Wonderland restaurant skipped away and headed to the kitchen.
I was beginning to get the feeling that something wasn’t right about this place. Everything I had seen so far, every weird little thing that has occurred has left a lingering sense of dread, a lingering fear of something lurking here beneath this restaurant. Looking around there didn’t seem to be anyone else around at the moment and there weren’t even many employees to be seen either.
I got up and headed towards the door to the kitchen, which was partially cracked open. Peering inside I saw an extremely odd looking sight. Alice was cutting something out of her cookbook with a butcher knife while humming some strange and creepy melody. As I watched in shock she pulled out of it what looked like the figure of a human leg, a big and meaty leg and placed it into the oven. Then, turning around for just a second I could have sworn I saw her face shift and change and it looked like the face of a monster. Then, in an instant she had returned to normal, but I could’ve sworn that a pair of horns briefly sprouted from her head. It didn’t look real. I was so scared at this sight I started to run away.
But then Alice turned towards the door and started shouting in an inhuman voice.
“Where do you think you’re going? You haven’t paid the price for your meal yet!”
One of the bunny masked employees blocked the exit of the building.
“Get away from me! I’m calling the cops!” I yelled as I tried to push the bunny masked man out of my way. There was a struggle and I ended up grabbing his mask and pulling it off. What I saw was a skull, the skull of a dead human.
“Jesus Christ!”
The employee reached for his mask and as he put it back in place, Alice was already in front of us, holding a bloody meat clever in one of her hands.
“There’s no Jesus, there’s no God or anyone else for that matter here, boy,” the demonic voice spoke.
More of the bunny masked workers were arriving to the room with all types of kitchen weapons. They forced me back into my seat at the table.
Alice set the pizza and orange juice in front of me with an insane grin on her face.
“Eat, drink, and be merry for soon you shall die,” Alice giggled. Then they all left and let me eat.
I stared at the food and my stomach turned at the thought of what was inside it. I didn’t care. I was gonna die here, so it was time to enjoy life. I started eating my pizza and the orange juice and surprisingly, both tasted like heaven itself, far better than any food I’ve had before.
A short time later Alice was at the door, grinning, with her cleaver ready.
“Enjoying our pizza and juice, eh?”
“Are they drugged or something, or am I going nuts?”
“No, you’re not going crazy. The meat is real, the orange is fresh squeezed from the body, the cheese is made from pureed human body fat, and the pepperoni is also pureed fat. All made from YOUR body.”
I looked at Alice. It didn’t make any sense. No. She couldn’t be real! She has got be on something!
“But how? You can’t possibly get away with making such vile food, the police will find out and then you and everyone in this place will pay.”
“The police will never come to Wonderland.”
I was dumbfounded. She is clearly nuts! This had to be some insane prank! There is no way this could be real!
“No, that’s bullshit,” I shouted at her, and stood up to grab a butter knife off of the table.
“Oh no! I’m terrified,” Alice mocked me, waving her cleaver at me in the process.
“Well fuck you!” I shouted throwing the knife as hard as I could at Alice.
She raised up her arm to block it, but as she did I made a run for it out the door of the restaurant, hoping I was fast enough to outrun Alice or her goons in the white bunny masks. As I was running one of the masked men grabbed me, pulling off his mask to reveal a skull. He then proceeded to bite me in the shoulder, and as I screamed I threw him to the ground, his jaw ripped right through the muscle.
“Oh shit. This can’t be happening,” I was saying, “It has to be a trick.”
A moment later another of those things tried to attack, but this time I dodged it. I ran for what I believed to be an emergency exit at the far end of the restaurant. I ran out the emergency door. To my disbelief, it actually let to the streets. I ran from the horror show I was just trapped in. Glancing back I saw Alice stopped at the exit grinning at me. She had that cleaver in her hand and I didn’t want to find out if she was going to follow me home. I kept running down the sidewalk.
After getting far away from that place I found a police officer who would help. He called an ambulance which I needed desperately at this point, since I had a chunk missing out of my shoulder and it was bleeding heavily. They helped me patch up, then questioned what happened. When it came time to mention what the hell was in the restaurant, and about the insane bitch, Alice, they just stared at me as if I had grown an extra nose on my face and a few more heads.
Later the police told me they had searched the building, and nothing inside. No corpses, or human meat, or anything of the sort. And of course Alice, that pink haired bitch was nowhere to be seen. She was long gone along with any evidence there ever being a problem inside. The building was supposedly long abandoned.
They believed the whole thing to be caused by some crazy homeless person and they decided to leave the matter as that. I was devastated to think about what could have happened if I didn’t escape. If I didn’t have the strength I had in order to run from them all and find help… that would’ve been the end of my life right there and I wouldn’t even be around to tell the story!
The whole thing seemed so surreal that I thought it was all just one big nightmare. However, the fact my body had been changing and I had felt the sensation of having my skin removed by teeth and the gaping wounds that were being stitched together was a reminder of how very, very real everything had truly been that day.
The worst part of it though, was not being believed by the police, and it still being considered unsolved. And no justice brought upon those monsters at Wonderland. Maybe she will return. I just have the strangest hunch.
And now that all has been told in my story I need some rest, dear readers. Thanks for taking this time with me, now I’ll leave you with some nice words of wisdom:
If you’re ever walking on a city street, looking at restaurants or food trucks or any food related places that seem a little too interesting for their own good, don’t bother stepping inside. Because Alice’s restaurant just may pop up, looking to devour those brave enough to walk through those doors.
