Connor stood in his neat suit and tie. Church service was nearly over and it bored him, horribly. His mother took his hand and walked him out of the church, though he was perfectly capable of walking alone. He was, after all, fourteen and going into highschool.
When they finally broke out of the miserable church and into the sunlight Connor finally released his breath, about time.
"Connor, I need to finish up some things inside, would you wait by the car please?" His mother said, giving him the puppydog eyes she always did. Her gentle demeanor and beautiful features hid a manipulative fox.
"Yes mother." Connor sighed, watching his mother retreat in her light blue dress back into the room.
Connor's eyes slid around the empty parking lot boredly. What on Earth was his mother doing in there? Wait, scratch that, he'd rather not know. He raked shaggy blonde hair away from chocolate eyes and immediately saw a hazy figure in the distance. He squinted after the figure, unable to make it felt it beckoning. And, unconsciously, he followed it. When he finally saw the figure he couldn't decide out if it was a boy or a girl. Based on the facial features he decided it was a boy, with bunny ears and a tail in a bright blue waist coat. When the bunny-thing saw him it let out a small yelp and darted into the trees that surrounded the church.
"Hey! Wait! Hold on!"
"No time to wait, no time to wait, gotta go gotta go going to be late!" He heard it chanting quietly.
"Wait up! Late for what?!" Connor yelled after it, following it as quickly as he could but he still couldn't keep up with the swift rabbit.
Finally the rabbit stopped, Connor caught up to it completely out of breath. He looked at the rabbit but it suddenly wasn't there.
"Curiosity," a soothing voice purred in his ear, "killed the cat…"
Suddenly he was falling, a feeling of pure cold lingering behind.
Dark flowers were what greeted Conner as he awoke on the ground of some forest. Each flower towered over him and each seemed like it was focussed intently on him. He flinched away as one flower, a daisy, opened eyes and looked at him.
"Curious little beastie isn't he."
A rose opened eyes this time and stared at him with a cold emotionless glare, "quite ugly isn't it."
A little flower, a small tulip and by the comparison to the others it was a baby, "I think it's kind of cute."
"Would all of you stop scaring him!" A commanding voice said over the crowd and another rose, a bright red one, rose above the others. The other flowers immediately fell silent, "we should report him. Remember what happened last time one of these beasties fell down here, the red lady ripped out her heart and swallowed it whole!"
Connor flinched at the red rose's words. Ripped out a heart and swallowed it? What creature on Earth did that? HE coughed tentatively, "Uh, hate to be rude but, uh, could you possibly
A small, slightly masculine voice breathed next to him, "they have no choice. If they don't they're roots will be ripped from the ground."
He jerked away and saw the rabbit boy crouching beside him. The rabbit looked at him with absolutely no emotion in it's black-eyed gaze.
"Who is this, 'red lady' anyways?" He asked quietly, moving slowly away from the rabbit.
"She is the queen of here."
"Where is here?"
"Here is here, here is everywhere. We are here, we are everywhere."
"Say what?"
The rabbit rolled his eyes, " we are here, here is here."
Connor massaged his temples, "that still makes no sense."
"Well, maybe if you go to the red lady willingly she won't kill you. That might explain a few things."
"Through the dark wood, I can take you to the border but theres its up to the CHeshire. If she'll help you."
"Why wouldn't she?"
"She's kind of… mean to say the least." The rabbit said, "come on this way."
He followed the rabbit, thankful to be leaving the giant flower patch behind. When he glanced back the patch was gone, concealed in a thick wall of fog.
"So, uh what's this 'Cheshire' like?" Connor said after hours of walking. He was trying to strike up a conversation.
"She's the only one who matches the red lady in strength. That's why her forest borders the red lady's castle."
"Is she pretty?"
The rabbit rolled its eyes at the pure annoyance this human boy was. He thought like all others, on the term of outside looks. Not inner.
"Some say so, though most don't live to tell the tale. Here, the dart forest."
The rabbit stopped and the fog cleared showing tall dark trees with blackish leaves and dark green brambles in the shadows beneath the trees.
"Uh, changed my mind, don't want to go in there." Connor said, turning to face the rabbit. Or, well, where the rabbit had been. It was now gone.
Chapter 2: The Cheshire Cat
"Scared, little human?" A voice purred. His head whipped around but he saw no one. Then, above him, appeared out of thin air a girl. She looked around his age with fiery brown hair and smoldering amber eyes that seemed to look into his soul. She lounged on a tree branch, holding a red lollipop and licking it with loud popping sounds. Connor then notices her ears, and her tail. Her ears were pointed and Catlike and perched atop her head and colored an odd shade of pink. Her tail, cat like, trailed down in red and purple stripes. She wore a black leather jacket and cropped red shirt and baggy black pants.
She smirked as she felt him stare at her body. She knew what effect she had on men. She took another lick of the lollipop
"Wh-who are you?" Connor said, taking a step away from the girl. In an instant she vanished and appeared behind him, reting a clawed hand on his shoulder.
"I think you were just talking about me to that little rabbit friend of yours."
"You're the Cheshire?!" Connor gaped at her. She smirked and suddenly, vanished.
An instant later Conner felt a hand run across his neck and someone (three guesses who) whispered in his ear, " So, little human. Answer your question, am I pretty?"
"Uh." Connor felt his face heat up and the hand vanished, the girl appearing in front of him with a hand on her hip and her lollipop gone.
"So, what brings a little human like yourself to my forest?" The Cheshire purred, tongue rolling over each syllable in a lazy sort of fashion.
Connor felt his heart beat speed up. The girl was within touching distance and he suddenly felt an overwhelming want to touch her tail which swayed by her feet, or her ears which twitched at every noise. The Cheshire knew what desires were entering the little man's brain and smirked.
Connor suddenly snapped back to reality and reminded himself she was a monster, and couldn't be trusted nor gentle, "I want to see the red lady."
"Oh? I suppose she'd want to see you. It's been so long since she's had a little human all to herself." The cheshire replied in a purr, she vanishes and appeared closer in front of him, holding his chin and looking over him, "though, you wouldn't make much game, or much of a meal."
Connor felt his heart beat race at her closeness. She vanished and appeared in the tree line, "Well, are you coming little boy?"
"Uh," Connor replied. He felt a bit of drool at the corner of his lips and wiped it away quickly and walked up to her, she turned without a word and walked (more like glided) deeper into the dark wood.
Connor, being the clumsy human he was, walked behind the cat and tripped over everything from roots to pebbled. Or so it seemed to Cheshire. She rolled her eyes as she heard another thud from behind her and a swift moan. He quickly scrambled to his feet again.
"So, uh, the rabbit said you're powerful. Well, if you are why do you serve the, uh, red lady? I mean, she seems abusive."
"Each of us who has power enough to rival her serves her because she has something we don't. She has control, and she can help us control the parts of ourselves which remain off limits. Take the white rabbit who guided you here. He has power beyond it, but if he attempts to use it… lets just say it uses him. Or the flowers, the red queen keeps weeds from their garden."
"You can't control yourself? I mean, you're strong. You seem like you can do anything. What on Earth could get the better of you? You even guard the red lady's home." Connor spoke the words without thinking. The moment they left his lips he regretted them. The Cheshire stopped in front of him, "I'm sorry," he said, "you don't have to an-"
"I suppose if, by some miracle, you are allowed to live with the rest of us you would need to know."
"No, if you don't want to talk about it-"
"The red lady helps me control my memories." The Cheshire spoke it softly. In an instant Connor felt thousands more questions enter his mind. He also felt like something had been bridged between them. Suddenly she seemed… fragile. She seemed like a passing breeze would break her.
What, Connor wondered, could have been so horrible in her memories that she needed help controlling it? Connor reached out to touch her shoulder but before he could the Cheshire had continued her trek through the forest. Connor's hand recoiled back to him and he clutched his wrist, wondering what had come over him to want to touch something like that? By what he had heard, she was a monster. He suddenly felt it getting harder to view her as an evil, heartless monster.
It's probably a trick, Connor told himself, to make me let my guard down. She's probably going to lure me in and kill me.
Connor walked a little ways distance behind her.
The sun was ducking behind the horizon and the forest was getting darker since its only source of light was gone.
"Uh, shouldn't we stop to make camp?" Connor asked, tripping over a root he hadn't seen.
The Cheshire turned to face him, realizing he was a sloppy human who couldn't see in the dark. She nodded. Her amber eyes sparkled
They walked to a small clearing where the Cheshire made a fire for the sake of the delicate human. She walked to a tree an vanished up in its branched.
Connor curled in a ball next to the fire, wondering why he had trouble believing the Cheshire was evil. It might have been her looks. Right, her looks.
He sighed and layed his head back on a small log. He pictured her as she had looked after telling him of what she couldn't control about herself. Her hair gliding across the tanned skin and her slight frame. Her tail swaying gently in the breeze… her beautiful face twisted in sorrow like a weeping angel… her amber eyes staring at the ground only completing the image of her perfect body, doubled over in sadness. He wanted just to reach out, to comfort her.
He shook himself. He was being stupid, he couldn't go weak because she batted her eyelashes at him. But what if she wasn't acting…. what i she really was as lonely and lost as she seemed? Who could blame him for wanting to help her.
Suddenly a large hand closed over his head, blotting out a yell.
"Lookee here a little human."
He was suddenly lifted off the ground and came face to face with an eight foot tall bear with a leathery hide and featured more human-like than bear. He immediately felt fear surge through him and he bucked and kicked.
"Oh, its a fighter…. they always taste the best… less fat more muscle."
He tried to yell out for Cheshire but he couldn't talk. He could barely breath. Suddenly he felt the bear pulling his head toward it to bit it off and then, like Connor assumed, the rest of his body. If he was going to die, let it be quick.
Suddenly he felt a jolt and he fell on his butt on the ground. The bear let out a loud bellow of pain. Cheshire dropped in front of him, landing in a crouch. Her right hand was covered in blood and bits of bone. The bear staggered back and Connor saw its hand, the one that had been holding his head, gone.
Cheshire stood, "this belongs the red lady. He is off limits. Leave in peace and you keep your life."
"The red lady hogs! She deserves not another human and neither do you! You can't stop me little girl!" The bear bellowed and charged at Cheshire.
Cheshire's amber eyes narrowed and she lowered her left foot behind her in a ready stance. The bear took two lumbering steps forward and Cheshire pushes off the ground, bringing her clawed hand in a diagonal ark that separated the bear's top half from its bottom. It fell in two pieces, blood and gore pouring out of the gaping wounds. Cheshire land in a crouch beyond it and stood, her right hand coated in a liquidy blood with things that looked like parts of the bear's intestines and bones poking out of the red ooze.
Bits of bone and gut and blood had splattered on Connor's dirty and ripped Sunday suit. Some even graced his face. Connor had to keep from gagging.
Cheshire turned, her eyes sparkling dangerously and saw how Connor was fighting to keep puke inside his throat. Purely for effect Cheshire ran her tongue through the blood and gore on her finger. Where she licked the blood vanished, showing her skin. Connor gagged.
Cheshire smiled, the look made her beautiful face turn rabid. Her features contorted and suddenly she no longer looked like a gentle angel, but a fallen one, a wild and uncontrollable angel who reveled in blood. Connor was suddenly reminded why he should not get a soft spot for this creature.
Chapter 3: The Mad Hatter
The next day they walked for several hours before Cheshire stopped. She glanced at the sy, frowned and turned to Connor, "I am taking you to the hatter. Tonight, remain with him or you may be killed."
"Killed by what?" Connor asked, trying to keep the shaking out of his voice.
"Me."
Cheshire turned and started heading west. Connor followed in silence. Ever since the incident with the bear…. thing…. Connor hadn't spoken to her. He had been forcefully reminded she was an evil monster, though he once again was having trouble believing it.
"Um, why would you kill me?"
She stopped and looked down, "tonight's my birthday… I don't… act nice on my birthday."
"Why?"
She didn't reply, just kept walking.
"I'm sorry! Wait, Cheshire I'm sorry! I pushed! I shouldn't have tried to make you tell me."
"It's alright Connor."
It was the first time she'd called him by his name. He felt his resolve vanish at the simple words and he followed her.
They came upon a clearing and immediately Connor heard laughing. Mad laughing.
"Why! If it isn't everyone's favorite Kitty cat come to play and her newest boy toy here also! How cute!" A man said laughing his head off. He wore a black tattered top hat that looked as if it had dried blood on it. He also wore a black tuxedo in much the same condition. A man who looked extremely bored and had a mouse tail and ears sat next to him on the long table littered with tea pots and tea cups and little pastries.
"Hatter, dormouse, good to see my favorite lunatics!" Cheshire returned, joining in on a chorus of raucous laughter.
"Who's the kid?" The mouse said, not even glancing at Connor. In fact, the mouse's eyes were closed. How had it seen him?
"The queen's newest prey."
"Wonderful! At least we can make your last days a blast!" The hatter yelled, he vanished and appeared next to Connor, goodnaturedly throwing an arm over his shoulder and letting out another bark of laughter before falling quiet and solemn, like he had suddenly entered a funeral home, "It's getting to be night time. Night time Night time Night time, Ravens fly in the night and in the night the night time flies. Night time… Raven and a writing desk…"
"Uh," Connor whispered to Cheshire, "Is he alright?"
"Haven't you figured it out little boy? None of us are what you would consider 'alright'."
Connor shuddered.
"Now, I best be off. Don't scare your guest too much hatter. Mousey." Cheshire said, nodding to each. Without another word she turned and vanished completely in a small puff of fog.
"You know," the hatter said, twining a finger through his black hair, "its obvious you think she isn't evil."
"But she isn't, she's just…" Connor replied.
"You need to remember, she is hundreds of years old. She isn't some gentle loving creature, she has lots of experience deceiving the minds of beings far greater than you. Did it ever occur to you, she might be letting on this because her past lives want her to kill you?"
"Past lives?"
"Ah, she didn't tell you." The hatter said thoughtfully, "she is a descendant of the original Cheshire Cat and as a result she can perfectly remember every instant of each of her past lives. Every Cheshire Cat that has been brought into existence on her birthday, today that is. And on her birthday the memories gang up on her and all shreds of humanity she has left vanish. She turns into a killing machine. Because the queen can not control her indefinitely, she made the compromise on every day but her birthday Cheshire will have complete control over herself, however on her birthday she will lose it for a total of twenty four hours."
"Oh."
"She can even imagine how her ancestors would think, feel, or want. She is not her ancestors, but she knows them like they are herself."
"That would make someone…"
"Insane." The hatter finished, "but to be honest, none of us have ever really been on the cliff side of sanity in the first place." Suddenly he started laughing.
"He's lost it." Connor murmured to himself, following the cackling hatter back to the table and taking a seat.
"So without further adieu! It's showtime!" The hatter yelled and the teapots moved. They began hovering and floated around, filling each and every glass to the brim. To Connor astonishment, and slight terror, the glasses filled quickly unfilled themselves.
Connor couldn't help but stare as the hatter's hat, his
hat,
floated off his head and landed hovering above a chair. The hatter gulped down tea and connor then saw the color of the substance. It was a pure, untainted, bloody red. Connor gulped and tried to smile at the hatter, "Um, I think I'm fine. I just want to go to bed."
"Alright little human." The hatter said happily, motioning behind him to a cottage, "bed in there. No one will disturb you."
He stood, thanking the hatter, and walked inside the cottage. When he got inside he closed the door and bolted to throw himself onto the bed. It seemed like it had been years since he'd slept on a bed.
"Oh," a rabid voice that seemed a bit familiar purred, "pretty little human boy would make a good meal."
He turned and saw the Cheshire, her eyes glowing blood red with tiny black pupils. She cocked her head, her eyes and smile turning more insane. Her face was coated in what looked like dried blood along with her brown hair. Her nails were sharp claws that glistened in a liquidy blood. She crouched in the doorway like a cat about to pounce.
Connor felt himself freeze with fear as he saw her teeth had sharpened to fangs. She let out a purring growl and jumped down off the window cill, taking a few stalking steps towards him.
"This will be fun." He thought he heard her purr.
"Caristara Kasai Cheshire stop where you are. You go against the queen if you so much as touch that boy." A voice boomed. Connor looked up and saw the hatter standing in the doorway, a long black scythe in his hands.
"Oh, what queen?" The Cheshire purred, turning her insane and rabid gaze to the hatter's brown eyes.
"You do not belong here Caristara. You belong in the forest. Leave here if you value your life."
"Make me!" She snarled and leapt towards the hatter. He brought the staff of his scythe up to block her attack but she had so much force both of them went tumbling out of the cottage end over end.
Cheshire slid back, nails digging into the dirt as the hatter woozily stood to face her.
"Remember the last time we fought dearie?" Her voice was no longer hers, it was too insane, "wasn't it fun! Oh it was so fun."
"Caristara you belong in the forest." A new voice entered the fight. The dormouse, eyes still closed, stood to face her also and drew a pair of wickedly sharp swords.
"Don't be like that, all I want is a midnight snack." her gaze turned to Connor and something seemed to snap. She launched forward, all restraint gone and came within a hair's breath of cutting Connor's throat. He jerked back but too late, her claws cut three long slashes on his shoulder.
The hatter slammed the pole into her elbow, gaining a sickening crack from her arm, which fell limp. She turned with a raged howl and drew her other set of claws across his cheek but the hatter had already leapt back, only having a few cuts.
The dormouse darted in, quicker than Connor believed, and slashed both swords at her but the Cheshire dodged. She swept a foot at his knees and caused him to fall.
Preoccupied with the dormouse, Cheshire didn't see the hatter coming up behind her and slam the end of his scythe into her back then whip around and draw a long line of red across her stomach. She staggered back, the bloody cut dripping in bits of flesh. The hatter stood, resting the end of his scythe against his foot. The blade of his staff gleamed in moonlight with the Cheshire's crimson blood.
"Don't make me kill you Caristara. We were friends since we were children, I do not wish to have to do this but I will."
"Friends!? Friends?!" Cheshire laughed, "You think we were friends! We all know you would kill me to have the queen's favor! We all know you are filled to the brim with jealousy!"
"I do not deny that in my early years I would take any chance I got to gain favor with the Queen, but killing you wouldn't be the way to do it. Caristara, please. You are like my sister, you've shared memories with me you've never told anyone. Please."
A flicker of sanity passed through Cheshire's eyes. Her stance became slightly less threatening. The sun peeked over the horizon and Cheshire's eyes turned slightly more amber.
She howled, putting hands on her forehead and screaming in what seemed like pure agony. She turned from the clearing and fled into the forest.
"My God." Connor breathed.
"That is why you should not allow a soft spot for the Cheshire." The hatter said, turning to look at Connor. The dormouse was back on his feet and looked like the battle had done nothing to relieve his boredom.
Connor touched his shoulder, wincing as his hand came away bloody.
"Go to bed." The hatter said, not looking at him. Connor turned and walked back into the room and collapsed on the bed.
"Did I," he heard a wavering voice outside, "did I hurt anyone?"
"Caristara, don't do this to yourself. You know you aren't you in that form."
To be continued...