A/N- Hello! This story is actually a gift to Seth the Inu, who wrote a really good story called Answers Answered. Seth the Inu was kind enough to allow me to write a run off for his story. Here's hoping it's even half as good as what he wrote! If you haven't read that story yet, you really should, other wise this will make no sense at all. I do not own Alice in Wonderland or any of it's characters.
That bitch! That damnable bitch! As if having humiliated him the first time in front of the whole world had not been enough, now this! Granted, he knew his actions were not the most gallant, but all things considered, he deserved what he had taken! Hadn't he? It had been a wonderful and dare he say, therapeutic event for him. It had been his first time ever and he had no idea that those kinds of actions could be so…pleasurable to say the least. But even that had not come without a price.
He had lost her again. When he woke up, feeling satisfied in a way he never had before, he looked around to the space in the bed next to him expecting his future wife to be there, only to find it and the whole room itself, empty. Of course that didn't please him as he had woke up very aroused and ready for another round with Alice. But perhaps she was downstairs preparing breakfast like a good house wife should. But searching the whole house had proven unproductive. Not only was Alice gone, but even the servants were missing from the house.
It never occurred to Hamish that his entire house hold had turned against him. While they had done nothing to stop the abuse of the young woman as they should have, having stayed in the mansion that night, sleep had not come to them as they had hoped. Shame hovered over them like a thick fog and closing their eyes each time only served to bring fresh visions of the young woman begging them for help. And while she had been odd to say the least, no one could deny that she was kind to everyone. They should have said something or stepped in to stop it as it was clear that the Lord of the house was too intoxicated to understand the cruelty of his actions.
The maids had locked their doors that night for an entirely different reason than usual. What if Hamish Ascot looked to them the same way? The idea of being violated in such a manner frightened them to no end. To be beaten in front of people and dragged away…everyone knew what had happened upstairs when the door had closed. The humiliation at having just witnessed the beginnings of such abuse left a vile taste in their mouths, leaving nothing to the imagination of what the act itself would have felt like to them.
As for the men, they had a harder time thinking of themselves as such, after having left that poor woman to such a horrific fate. A man was defined by his strength of character, his courage and his willingness to do the right thing even in the face of unimaginable hardship. All the men in the house that night had no choice but to acknowledge their failure in all that made a man a man. It was emasculating to say the least. Their eyes closed to sleep and her face swam in front of them, the sadness in her eyes, the pleading and begging, breaking their hearts as they watched the nights events replay over and over again. They had failed as men in one night and the knowledge that nothing they did would ever change that or make them whole again, became a heavy burden on their shoulders, forcing their heads down in soul crushing shame.
As if the shame of their failures that night had not been punishment enough, it seemed fate had chosen to seek vengeance upon them for their acts of cowardice as well. Though none of them would ever admit it out loud and barely could do so in the perceived safety of their own minds, they each heard voices that night, calling them out for their cruelty, mocking them for their cowardice and taunting them with the possibilities of their own fate.
As the maids each retired to their own rooms that night, sleep was nowhere to be found for either of them. Both women lie in bed hearing a small voice mock them for having allowed a fellow woman to suffer so, for not having the strength to protect one of their own, taunting them with the knowledge that when the time came for them to suffer the same fate, there would be no one to save them either. They tried to calm themselves, thinking that it would all go away in time. The younger maid, Roberta, would hear a voice coming from everywhere in her rooms, laughing a high pitched giggle that sounded to her so demented, that only a raving lunatic could have created such a sound.
"You're not sleeping are you? How can you close your eyes after what you let happen? Did you get your jollies from it? Now who is the sick and twisted one?" Suddenly, Roberta felt something scurry across her forehead and she shot up out of bed with a cry. Roberta was across the room in a flash, searching every inch of the room frantically for whatever had ran across her face. The sound of tiny feet running across the wooden floor boards caught Roberta's attention. They were coming from every direction, the sound of the maniacal giggling returning once again.
Roberta ran for the bedroom door, trying desperately to open it and escape. But the door was locked tight; from the outside. Roberta had locked the door; she remembered that, leaving the key to the door on her dresser table. But when she ran to the dresser, the key was missing. She was trapped in her bedroom with something she couldn't see. More scurrying across the floor boards and more giggling sounded around the room. "Missing something, wretch?" Roberta heard what sounded like a key scrapping the wooden floor. Looking down Roberta saw the key lying in the middle of the floor. Before she could even move to get the key, it slowly began to move across the floor before it rose up and turned, as though someone or something of short stature was examining it completely. When Roberta moved to grab the key from the air, it flew across the air and straight under the door, disappearing completely on the other side. Roberta couldn't even begin to scream at this point. Her fear was too great for words to form, for as far as she was concerned it must be a ghost!
The mad giggling returned only this time she could hear distinctly where it was coming from. In fact she could see WHAT it was coming from! Standing on the post of her bed, still laughing manically was a small white mouse in a pink dress. The creature stared at her while giggling that sickening sound, before turning around and scurrying down to the floor. It turned to look at her, the moonlight from the bedroom window casting an eerie glow on the little thing, adding a frightening gleam to its eyes. "You're not frightened are you? Of a tiny little helpless thing like me? Do you think Alice was afraid? Do you wonder if she ran for the door like you just did? Just to find it locked? Like you just did?" Roberta grabbed a shoe from the corner of the room and turned to throw it only to find the little creature gone. Before Roberta could move towards the door again, a sharp pain stabbed right into the back of her heel, causing her to crash to the floor in agony. She tried to crawl her way to the door but heard more scurrying around her. "PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!" Another sharp pain came, this time in her back. Roberta rolled over onto her stomach as she reached for her back only to come face to face with the creature. "AHHH!" Roberta tried to scramble away but the evil creature pulled out what looked like a small sword and stabbed Roberta in the eye. Roberta screamed again and began writhing on the floor in agony, holding her hand to her eye in a fruitless effort to save it. "Perhaps I should take the other eye! It's not like you use them." Roberta was beyond terrified, she was trapped in the room with a monster and no one was coming at the sound of her screams. To be blinded or murdered by this monster. "Please, please don't hurt me anymore! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Roberta pleaded with the creature, hoping to appeal to whatever sense of compassion and mercy it may have. The creature did not seem moved. It moved closer to Roberta with it's long sword pointed at her. "Sorry? Do you feel sorry for yourself or for Alice? You left her to suffer all alone. You didn't care about her at all and you want me to care for your suffering? You turned a blind eye to her suffering. It seems only fit that you should keep that eye blind." Though Roberta did not want to suffer the wrath of this creature any more, she knew it was right. She had turned a blind eye to the suffering of another human being, had even tried to sleep afterwards. And yet she asked for mercy herself. It was selfish, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She wanted to live.