Editor's Note:

This story takes place between season four and season five. It is meant to serve as a conclusion to the unfinished storylines from season four. It is based on the webseries Wonderland.

 

ST. LAURENT
Diamond Dolls Gentleman's Club

A squeaky almost high-pitched voice erupted in the dimly lit club. "If you're looking for trouble...you came to the right place. If you're looking for trouble...look right in my face."

The blonde bombshell, owner of the questionable singing voice, outstretched her right leg and wrapped it around the metallic pole resting in the center of the stage. She slowly grinded against the pole and then maneuvered her body to spin with both feet off the ground.

"Every time they turn the — wait a second, hold up," an exotic dancer named Pooh said angrily, stopping mid-performance. "Mike, turn off the music!"

She angrily stalked off the stage and rushed toward

Erin Emery, who stood in the doorway. The club itself was empty, no customers had arrived yet while Pooh was practicing her set. But the sudden appearance of an enemy was enough to draw her out of a performance.

"What in the hell are you doing here? Come to finish the job?"

"I've come for forgiveness," Erin said, her voice trembling. "I've come for solace."

Pooh folded her arms in defiance. "I have none to offer you. Get thee to a nunnery, you hag!"

"But I —"

"You murderous hag!" Pooh cried, headbutting Erin. "You killed Monique! And for that, you'll get the Choo!"

"The what?"

"The Jimmy Choo!" Pooh said, whipping off one of her heels and plunging it into Erin's neck.

Erin shrieked in agony as she fell to the floor, blood gushing from her wound. Her eyes rolled back in her head and the doors to the club blew open from the raging snowstorm outside.

While the snow fell onto Erin's now lifeless body, the faint sound of Christmas carols could be heard in the distance.

"What in the fuck is this?"

 

CHICAGO
Sunshine Talent Agency

"What in the fuck is this?" Marcus Lindsey demanded, angrily peering up from the pages he'd just finished reading. "I can't print this shit. Who's gonna read that?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Tom King stared at his agent with bewilderment. "This is hot stuff, Marcus!"

"You know what's hot, Tom? Finishing something you've written," Marcus said. "Christ, it feels like you've been working on this St. Laurent story of yours for nearly three years."

"But these characters, they've just come alive to me," Tom said.

"I don't care," Marcus said. "Finish where you left off. What am I going to explain to a publisher? The author just skipped ahead three years in time? Right in the middle of the novel? Give me a fucking break."

"I'm not going to be bossed around by some suit," Tom insisted.

He rose to his feet and snatched the manuscript back from Marcus. Tom tucked it underneath his arm and reached for his jacket.

"Don't even bother to say good day," Tom snapped. "There are plenty of other people in town who want a piece of me."

Marcus lowered his voice and calmly stared at Tom. "Please do not mistake my demeanor for that of a pushover, Tom. You're a crap-ass writer, but there a movie deals in the works and I am not missing out on a payday. If you test me, you will learn that I can be ghetto as hell, do you understand me?"

"I — I'm sorry," Tom stammered.

"Don't play me small, King," Marcus said. "Don't play me small. You finish that damn story where you last left off, and you finish it fucking quick."

Tom muttered an inaudible "yes" and turned with his tail between his legs, shuffling out of the office.

"ST. LAURENT"
Diamond Dolls Gentleman's Club

"Vince isn't waking up," Kelli Anderson said, staring at directly at her former boyfriend. They were both being held prisoner, along with ten others.

Joel Kincaid. Duncan Kincaid. Lori Racine. Melissa Maddock. Sean Moore. Derek Moore. Samantha Clark. Kelly Crane. Tyler. Erin Maddock.

The room, the main area of a classed up strip joint, was covered in ice. Penguins waddled on the floor. A blonde, bikini-clad woman paced back and forth, smoking a long menthol cigarette.

"Who are you?" Kelli asked. This wasn't the first time she'd asked the question in the past twenty minutes.

"You'll find out soon enough," the woman said.

"You keep saying that," Melissa said. "But we've been held prisoner in a hotel resort —"

"Pretty cushy lifestyle for a prisoner," the woman said.

Melissa didn't like being interrupted. "At any rate, we're now handcuffed to stripper poles. Are we not owed an explanation?"

"I'll give you one."

The prisoners looked toward the entrance where Michael Thomas had just entered.

"But you might not like it," he said.

 

MARQUETTE COVE
Emerald Square

Vince stared at the young man seated across from him. Moments earlier he was outside the Emerald Café, drinking a latte. Now he was staring at the spitting image of himself.

Vince reached out to touch the doppelganger, unsure as to whether or not it was his imagination. When his hand passed through his mirror image, he realized that he wasn't imagining things. His hand was freezing. This thing was cold.

"What is this?" Vince asked. "Who are you?"

The Vince staring at him didn't respond audibly. But he did open his mouth in an attempt to say something. "Help." It was clear that it was mouthing the word "help."

"What's going on?"

Startled, Vince knocked over his latte. He spun around to find Julia Mitchell standing behind him, a wide grin on her face.

"You owe me a latte," Vince said.

"Sorry," Julia said. "What's wrong with you? You look pale...or, as pale as a black person can get, I guess?"

"I'm Michael Jackson now?"

"What's wrong?"

"I've been...I've been seeing me," Vince said.

"Like, getting closer to yourself?" Julia asked. "Is this a self-help thing?"

"No," Vince said. "This is...I've been seeing myself. And it's not like I've been seeing Discourse or anything."

"That creepy alternate reality version of yourself," Julia said. "Wow, that sounds so weird saying that out loud. Especially considering that I dabble in the — what in the hell?"

"Do you see him too?" Vince asked, realizing that the mirror image of himself was still in front of them.

"That'd be a yes," Julia said.

 

Emerald Heart

Tom stumbled out of his motel's bathroom, wiping the dripping water from his mouth. Splashing water on his face every half hour was all Tom could do to combat his creeping insomnia. He had pages to finish, pages that would determine the future of his career.

Book deals. Movie deals. Any kind of deal. It was something he needed to get out of the dead end life he had in Marquette Cove. A hop skip and a jump from Chicago, a hard-boiled city that didn't make dreams, it crushed them.

He belonged in Los Angeles lounging on the beach. Or in a club in Manhattan, surrounded by smoking hot socialites sipping cosmopolitans. Not in this Midwestern hell.

Tom grabbed the bottle of Cuervo on the edge of his desk and took a swig from it. "Alright, time to get down to...down to work."

He picked up his laptop and looked at the last page he'd written.

"I'll give you one," Tom said, reading aloud. "Fuck. I don't even know what to have Thomas say right now…and why the hell is Vince asleep? I didn't write that."

Tom angrily threw his laptop across the room.

"I can't take this shit anymore!"

He sank to his knees, crying. "I can't do this. I can't write for shit."

He crawled toward the fallen laptop and began typing quickly, changing the setting, not even bothering with his previous pages.

"A revolver appears in Tom's motel room," Tom said, reading aloud as he typed.

Once he finished typing, Tom turned to find a revolver lying on the carpet next to him. Without a moment's hesitation, he reached for it.

 

Marquette Cove High School
Library

"Our school has books on the occult?" Vince asked, following Julia into the closed library.

Her work-study position was working in the library, so she had a key to open it in the mornings when her shift started. Fortunately, that came in use during times like this when she needed to sneak in on the weekend.

"No," Julia said. "But I have books on the occult at the library. I had them delivered from Loyola Chicago."

"Loyola Chicago has books on the occult?"

"It's a Catholic university," Julia said. "They all do."

Confused, Vince frowned and stood in front of the front desk as Julia went behind the counter and removed one of the books she had stashed away. Slamming it down on the counter, Vince leaned forward and tried blowing dust off the cover.

"Vince...this book is new," Julia said.

"Oh."

"I think I may know what's going on," Julia said. "I've been seeing people all over too. I didn't want to bother you until I figured things out on my own. But remember that odd series of accidents that happened at the end of the summer? When you, Kelli, Melissa...you all ended up in the hospital?"

"Yes," Julia said.

"Well, I did a spell to find some type of connection, and I came across this," Julia said, removing another book from underneath the counter.

Vince picked up the book. "Revelations?"

"I was led to this book. Which makes me think that the author, Tom King, might have something to do with the visions you're having," Julia said. "He's from Marquette Cove. I broke into my dad's computer at work and figured out that he used to live in New York, where Revelations was set. All the people in the book are real, and their lives mirror everything that happened in the book."

"So...he wrote a non-fiction book?"

"No, it's fiction," Julia said. "And it was published months before any of its events happened to the people the characters are based on."

Vince clenched his jaw and stared at the cover. "Do we know where Tom is now?"

"I got a forwarding address," Julia said. "He's staying at the Emerald Heart."

"You didn't tell me any of this before?" Vince asked.

"Well, I was coming to tell you," Julia said. "But you were having a Haley Joel moment. Anyway, can we go now? All of this expositioning is tiring."

 

Emerald Heart

Tom placed the barrel of his revolver in his mouth and firmly gripped the trigger. He stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. His eyes were red, drooping. Lack of sleep and a hangover were taking their toll on him.

"Goodbye cruel world," Tom said, ready to pull the trigger. "Whether 'tis nobler to be...wait...suicide letter! I need to write a suicide letter!"

He dropped the revolver onto the floor and hurried out of the bathroom. As he did, he scrambled for a sheet of paper and a pen. He sat on the edge of the bed, accidentally sitting on the television remote control.

The television came on, revealing the porn flick he'd been watching earlier. "Huh."

Figuring he only had a few minutes left in his miserable life, he saw no reason not to get off before he went. Tom reached for the lighter next to the dresser and lit the candle he'd been using to set the mood during his previous solo sessions.

Tom slid back on the bed and loosened his jeans. As he went to work, he heard a loud knocking at the door. A woman was calling out his name. Caught by surprise, Tom tried to regain his composure, kicking the candle as he did so.

Tom didn't notice, however, as he buttoned his jeans and went to the door. When he opened it he found two teenagers standing outside the door. Two teenagers he recognized very well. But before Tom could even speak, one of the teens pushed open the door in shock.

"Your motel room is on fire!"

"ST. LAURENT"
Diamond Dolls Gentleman's Club

"I'll give you one," Thomas said.

"You've already said that," Melissa said. "You keep repeating it, in fact."

"I know," Thomas said, scratching his head. "I'm not quite sure why. But, um, as you may recall, I was saying that I will give you an explanation."

"Good grief," a tall, dark-haired woman said, storming into the building. "You're all being held prisoner by Tom King, a writer in Marquette Cove. He's using your souls to craft a story because he's an extraordinarily bad writer."

"How does he know so much about us?" Melissa asked, glaring at the woman.

"He actually doesn't," the woman said. "He's just taken bits of your lives that he's spied on and created realities. And most of you are actually dead. Sorry. It just seemed like it would create more drama involving dead family members or lovers from your past."

"Who are you?" Joel demanded.

"Isoke," the woman said. "I'm the woman who's made all of this possible. You see, once this book was published, I'd be in control of all of your souls."

Witnessing the horrified and confused faces on the prisoners, Isoke smirked and shrugged her shoulders.

"But Tom is a bit of a nut, and I don't really have the constitution for all of this, so I'm just going to leave well enough alone," Isoke said.

"So...we get our lives back?" Kelly asked.

"No, you're dead," Isoke said. "Don't you listen?"

"But we get our lives back, right?" Thomas asked.

"If you leave with me, you will," Isoke said. "I've taken a liking to you, I suppose. Everyone else…well, it's kind of warm in here."

Isoke glanced up at the icy ceiling, which was dripping water. The ice was melting quickly.

"Whatever Tom's doing, this place won't be here for much longer," Isoke said. "So we're leaving."

"I can't leave without Kelli," Thomas said.

Isoke rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Before Thomas could continue arguing his case, she vanished from the building.

"My hotel room isn't —" Tom turned around to see that the room was, in fact, in flames. "Shit!"

Julia and Vince watched, bewildered, as Tom raced to stop the flames that were engulfing in his room.

"All of this shit can't catch on fire!" Tom cried. "All of my work! How are people going to remember me when I'm dead?"

"Vince, go find a fire extinguisher!" Julia said.

Vince nodded and hurried out of the motel room. Julia stepped forward grabbed Tom's arm.

"Once this fire is over, you're going to need to stop what you've been doing to my friends," Julia said.

"You have no idea what you're talking about, little girl," Tom said.

Julia punched Tom in the face. "Don't call me a little girl."

Reacting quickly, he grabbed Julia by her hair and slammed her into the door. The blow knocked her unconscious. As Tom tried to close the door before Vince could return, Isoke appeared in the doorway.

"This ends now, Tom," Isoke said, barging in. "You have truly made a mess of things."

"Stay away from me!" Tom cried.

He raced into the bathroom and picked up the revolver from the floor. He aimed it at Isoke.

"Is that supposed to hurt someone?" Isoke asked, laughing. "That thing looks like it's from 1942."

Tom groaned and lowered the gun. "I knew I should have specified a make and model..."

Isoke lunged after Tom, wresting the gun from him. "I should very well put you out of your misery."

"Before you do, I'll take that!"

Taken by surprise, Isoke hadn't noticed Julia behind her. Julia had managed to quickly come to and snatch the pendant from around Isoke's neck.

"You're a demon, right? So your power's probably in this," Julia said, clutching the pendant.

"You stupid bitch," Isoke said, snarling. "Give that back!"

Julia closed her eyes and concentrated, pressing the pendant against her own chest. Within seconds, she vanished from the room.

"She can't leave me here!" Thomas cried. "I don't deserve this!"

"And we do, you little punk?" Joel demanded. "Help us out of these handcuffs!"

"Are you kidding?" Thomas asked, with even more water dripping from the ceiling. The ice on the floor had begun to melt as well. Soon enough, they'd be swimming in water.

"I think they ran out of stripper poles," Kelli said, whispering to Melissa. "Because I'm handcuffed to an ice pole."

"How much longer until it melts?" Melissa asked.

"I don't know," Kelli said.

"What's all this whispering?" Thomas asked loudly. "Kelli, I want to help you, okay? I want to get you out of this."

"You tried to rape me, Thomas," Kelli said.

"I've been...look, you don't know what I've been through, okay?" Thomas said. "Everything that's happened here has not been of my own doing. And the only reason I'm alive...well, my brother did a lot more harm to me than good."

"That's no excuse!"

Thomas opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a flash of blinding light. Julia suddenly appeared in the middle of the building.

"Another one?" The blond stripper demanded.

"Huh?" Julia asked.

"You another prisoner or another stripper?"

"Yeah," Julia said, sarcastically. "My stripper name is Pooh."

"Hey! That's my name."

Julia grimaced. "Oh."

"Julia!" Joel cried, noticing his daughter.

"Dad?" Julia asked. "Uncle Duncan? I'm here to help all of you!"

"You can get us out of here?" Thomas asked.

"Yes, I can," Julia said, nodding. "Blake?"

"No," Thomas said, grabbing Julia and gripping her neck. "But that's not important right now. What's important is that you get me out of this place. Now."

"Julia, I've got it!" Vince said, hurrying back into the room carrying a fire extinguisher. "Julia?"

Isoke quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and hit Vince in the face, knocking him out. Tom tried lunging at her, but she knocked him out as well.

"This is a waste of my time!" Isoke said, angrily. "That bitch needs to bring me back my pendant!"

"Let go of my daughter!" Joel shouted.

Julia struggled to escape from Thomas' grasp. He pushed her onto the ground and tried snatching the pendant from her, but before he could, something connected with his head and knocked him unconscious.

Kelli stood over Thomas' body, holding a penguin. She dropped the penguin onto the ground and helped Julia to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Julia asked.

"Yeah," Kelli said. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Julia climbed onto the stage where the others were still handcuffed to stripper poles.

"Okay, this is going to be weird, but some of you are dead," Julia said. "So...everyone should say their goodbyes to whoever you need to say goodbye to."

A small wave of water rushed into the building from the front doors.

"And let's do it quickly."

"Vincent is still unconscious," Sean said. "It'd be better for you to do send him back now, before he wakes up. I can't...I can't say goodbye to him again."

Julia nodded solemnly and pressed the pendant against Vince's chest. A flash of light erupted in the building, and he vanished from his handcuffs.

Joel leaned forward and kissed Kelly on her cheek. As Julia came across them, she was taken aback.

"Dad, is this..."

"Yeah, it's my first wife," Joel said. "And just know that you're uncle and I? Family comes first now."

Julia wiped away a tear from her face. "That's good to hear."

"Send them back," Kelly said. "And it's very nice to meet you, Julia."

Julia nodded and pressed the pendant against the three of them, soon moving on to everyone else. The last pair handcuffed were Melissa, Erin, and Tyler. Tears streamed down Melissa's face.

"The dreams I've been having about a missing son, have to be about you," Melissa said to Tyler. "I'm gonna find you, Tyler. Okay? I'm going to find you."

"Promise me you will," Tyler said.

Melissa nodded. "I've already lost one child...my Erin. I won't lose another one."

Julia kept quiet, knowing very well that part of the spell returning everyone home would affect their memory of anything that had happened in St. Laurent. She proceeded to send the three of them back, and then she turned to find Kelli still standing over Thomas.

"I'm ready," Kelli said. "But can we at least send him back? At least his soul shouldn't be so —"

Kelli screamed as Thomas awoke and grabbed her arm, pulling her closer.

"Kelli, I'm so sorry," Thomas said. "I didn't mean to hurt Blake again."

"You didn't try to rape Blake, Thomas," Kelli said, jerking her arm back.

"No, but after everything he did...I was just so angry," Thomas said. "I just couldn't take it. He put me through so much pain...I wasn't in hell, Kelli. I was happy, and he just...so when Tom offered to help me, I took him up on it."

"What did you do?" Kelli demanded as Julia stood over Thomas with her.

Instead of responding, Thomas gripped the pendant in Julia's hands. Julia quickly grabbed Kelli to make sure she'd go back with her, and in a flash, they each vanished from the Diamond Doll.

Nearly half an hour had passed since everyone returned to their rightful place in Marquette Cove. Julia and Vince stood outside the seedy motel, watching as the paramedics and fire department attended to the damage they weren't able to contain.

Upon returning, Isoke took her pendant back from Julia and vanished, leaving them alone. Julia dragged Vince out of the motel room and called 911. He finally came to as Tom was wheeled out of his room on a gurney.

"You okay?" Julia asked.

"I'm fine," Vince said. "I'm feeling kinda weird, though."

"Do you remember anything?"

"Some?" Vince said. "But not a lot...but I think I may remember more than anyone else."

"Well, let's hope so," Julia said.

Vince tried to fight back tears. "At least I got to see my Dad, right? If only in some far off fantasy."

Marcus strode toward the ambulance with a lanky young man following him. He snapped his fingers to get the attention of the paramedic pushing Tom into the ambulance.

"What's going on?" Marcus demanded. "This man is my client. I'm his agent."

"He's suffered some pretty severe burns," the paramedic said. "We're taking him to Memorial."

"Can I ride with him?" Kev, the young man with Marcus said.

Marcus rolled his eyes. "What, are you his lover?"

"No, he's gonna write me into into his book," Kev said, grinning. "He...um...he didn't say anything about a sex trade to you, did he?"

"You fucking idiot," Marcus said. "Christ! His pages! Did his laptop get burned in the fire?"

Marcus hurried into the motel room. Nothing seemed to be salvageable. Tom's laptop rested on the floor, charred.

"Fuck," Marcus said, walking over to it.

He picked up the laptop, fiddling with it. A disc slid out of it. It was clearly labeled — "Blake Thomas."

"Well, well, well...what's this?"