All hail Alice, Queen of Hearts!
These were words spoken to Alice five times. This is the story of those six short words.
The first time she heard those words they mocked her. The mocked her as the true Queen of Hearts had her arrested and taken to prison. The words spilled, ever so quietly, out of one mouth. The mouth, and the person attached to the mouth, next to the first mouth picked up the words. The words did not spread like wildfire. The words spread slower than that. But the words did not burn themselves out from the lips, and mouths and people, behind it. The words grew and grew until Alice felt that they were being screamed at her.
The second and next time Alice heard those words they were prophetic. She had escaped from one Card Queen's clutches without hearing the words. Only to be told that she was still entrapped by a Card Queen, herself. She learnt of the many futures that could befall her. Only to be told that the most likely to happen was her as a Queen.
She heard the words a third time, and they were a rousing battle cry – only she was not in a battle. At least, not in the traditional sense of the word. She was battling against the old Queen for followers. She was winning the fight and she was not sure if what had been become her catchphrase was helping. At home she would have thought it odd that something she had never said had become so heavily associated with her, but she was in Wonderland and she had become oddly desensitised to its madness.
The next time the words were spoken to her they were a plea, and a desperate one, to live. Alice almost listened. She paused her sword. But she did not listen and the blade came down upon the bare neck. The sword was already covered with the blood of the jabberwocky. The White Queen had offered her said blood but Alice had declined as she had a kingdom to run now. Alice did not think of home much anyway. Not anymore.
The words were not spoken to her again for a long, long, long time. When they were again spoken it was by none other than the Mad Hatter. They were both old now but he held his pin as strongly as ever. The warm blood and the pain pooling at, on and around her neck woke Alice from her sleep. No, she was not Alice. She had not been Alice for a long time. Not since she took her first human life. Not since her hair and eyes and lips stained as black as death and her skin bleached as white as bone. Not since she was crowned as the Queen of Clubs. Not since she had become more tyrannical than the old Queen.
"Names are important" would have been her last words. If she was not choking her own blood. As it was she could but think upon them. She did not consider that words are also important.
AN: Apparently I suck at updating pre-existing stories. This story is dedicated to my sisters and particularly to Smelly who starts a new school today. I love reviews more than life itself but I sincerely appreciate other things.