Queen Catherine Pinkerton of Hearts knelt on the harsh cobblestones of the castle courtyard. Her hands were bound and her wrists were chafed by heavy rope. Her own courtyard, a place where she had decreed and overseen so many beheadings- today, she was ready for the last execution. Per her law, made once upon a wonderland curse so many whispers ago, there were no white roses in view. Only red. Bright red, the color of Peter's blood, deep red, the color of the rubies on her crown, dark red, that shimmered like her broken heart in the hands of Elsie, Tillie, and Lacie.
Alice Liddell stood above her, her shining white armor glimmering brightly as the wonderland light cast rainbows upon the metal. It blinded Cath, so white and pure. The girl, perhaps as young as she had been. Perhaps as hopeful. Just like her and yet so different, for Alice would get what Catherine didn't: A happily ever after. The sword Alice wielded was one of Catherine's old acquaintances, one she had pushed aside and forgotten, until it's memory had become rusted beyond recognition. The Vorpal Sword, calling out to her in heartbeats of power that pulsed through her skin, hungry for her blood. She smiled wide, her cracked red lips peeling back from her bright white teeth. It had come for her.
She knew that around them, there was an audience, and looking up she found Hatta's toxic green eyes in the crowd. She gazed into them, the green brimming with madness. He seemed to sober, the madness slipping away as he gazed deep into Catherine's own eyes, and she heard his soft voice through the crowds commotion.
"I'm sorry, love. It can't be helped."
Catherine could feel the hot tears as they trickled down her face, brushing against her sunken eyes and paper-thin skin with familiarity. She stuck her tongue out at Hatta, biting down on the appendage, still smiling. She bit hard, as hard as she could, relishing in the metalic taste of blood that filled her mouth and overflowed, dribbling from the corner of her mouth and joining the trail of tears, splattering in a pink mess upon the stone below her.
Catherine had been overthrown, she knew. She had been beat, she knew. Alice strolled around her kneeling form, saying symbolic words for the benefit of the crowd, and Catherine couldn't be bothered to listen until finally the girl turned to address her.
"Too long have you held Wonderland in your tyrannical grasp. Tonight, Wonderland shall be free! Prepare for death, a death you wished on so many others." Alice raised the sword, ready to drop it upon the monarch's slender neck. Catherine laughed. She tilted her head up and giggled with hysteria, the sound bubbling from her bloody lips.
"You aren't the first one to try and kill me, Alice Liddell, and you won't be the last." Looking around the clearing, she laughed again, her grin growing wide, too wide. "Ah so many here have climbed into my quarters and dosed my meals, so many here have tried and failed." Hazel and emerald clashed, and her laughter died. "Even my friends. Mary Ann thought arsenic would be strong enough, but she was wrong. Even Hatta. Even you tried to slit this pretty little pale throat of mine, didn't you?" The hatter watched her sadly as she tore her eyes away and continued her tirade. "Even I did, Alice Liddell. Even I've tried to end the Monarch's life, but she had no heart you know, and cannot be killed, for the only one who kills in Hearts is the executioner." She looked up into Alice's blue eyes with terror and hysteria in her gaze.
"See if you can kill me where no one else could, Alice. Kill me and let me be free." The pain couldn't be stopped, could never be stopped, no matter if she had a heart or not. "Kill me and punish me for my mistake." She remembered turning back and condemning him, an innocent, her love and joy and she had killed him. "Kill me and let me return." She wanted death, craved it, for death was were he was and if only she could see him again, listen to that laugh, those bells jingling, gaze into those yellow eyes that she longed for, if only she could, then she could ease the ache in her chest, the emptiness that swelled around her and crushed her mind. She could do nothing but hurt and hurt and if only the hurt wasn't inside, then she could let it happen, relish in the pain she deserved, if only it didn't hurt inside. Her empty heart cavity would throb with emptiness, hurting until she couldn't feel it, forgot it, until her hands were shaking and her wrists where dripping crimson and she had laughed herself hoarse because this, this was her punishment.
"Kill me, Alice."
The sword shone silver as it swung down, and the silence grew absolute in Catherine's ears as she watched the blade fall. But the cawing of a raven rang out, and the silence was gone. The blade had fallen, and Catherine was in the arms of a hooded black figure with the wings of a raven spread out behind him. He hovered, and Catherine turned to Alice, and the crowd assembled around her, gazing up at her with confusion and fury.
"But as I said. Only the executioner can kill in Hearts."
Then they were away, and Catherine gazed up at the sky with eyes glazed with tears. Raven did not speak, only held her.
"I was so close Raven. I'm always so close. I want to see him… Why won't you let me?" She murmured, as her arms, no longer bound, wrapped themselves around the quiet man's neck.
"He wouldn't want it… "
She didn't know where they were going, but she held him. The only one who she could hold. Who'd allow her arms so close to his neck. And so close became too far, as she drifted into her dreams of hell and heaven, of pain and pleasure, of Jest the Jester who died years ago.