Alice Kingsley stared out the enormous second-story window at the bland landscape and sighed.
Why did I leave?
She yawned.
Just back from her business venture to China, which turned out to be more or less a success, she finally had time to settle down again… at home.
No… this is not my real home… I belong with them…
She closed her eyes and remembered all she could of Underland. This time, her memories were surprisingly less vague. Her battle with the Jabberwocky flashed before her eyes. She near felt its scorching, putrid breath, heard its angered inflection as it danced tauntingly around her, Vorpal sword in hand. She remembered the rage burning her lungs as she screamed in the bitter air, "Off with your head!" and sliced through the thick flesh of the beast's, long, serpent-like neck.
Submerged further into her memories, she squinted her eyes shut more and crafted a likeness of the Hatter in her mind. In her imagination, it was clear as when it had happened in actuality, the scent of musty lumber in the air, the sky a fiery orange, she sat on his shoulder, near three inches tall after drinking a bit too much pishalver for her taste. He breathed heavily, the faintest hints of speech carried from his lips by the humid wind. His Scottish brogue set in as he spoke, pausing often and emphasizing the Outlandish speak as if the words themselves were pure emotion…
"The Jabberwock, with eyes a-flame, Jaws that bait and claws that catch, Beware the Jabberwock, my son, The frumious Bandersnatch… He took his vorpal sword in hand… The vorpal blade went snicker-snack … He left it dead, and with its head …. He went galumphing back…. Its all about you, you know."
She shuddered. She didn't want to remember the rest of the conversation…. For sometimes, upsetting a friend as good to one as the hatter was to her hurt herself nearly as much it did him…
"You don't slay? Do you have any idea what the Red Queen has done? You don't slay."
She shifted uncomfortably, but the hurt in his voice still echoed in her mind even when she opened her eyes for a brief moment, as she had been submerged so deep into Memory she was feeling short of breath. She glanced out the window. It was pouring. How long had she been daydreaming, now? She shivered and pulled her light blue, hand knit blanket over her shoulders like a shawl to keep out the cold, stood up and shuffled to the door.
She peeked out into the hall. Her mother was downstairs in the parlor…
She tiptoed back into her bedroom and flung open the enormous, iron-paned windows, hesitantly letting the rain drip onto her pale face. A rather familiar blue butterfly struggled through the pouring rain and landed on her nose. Ignoring the fact she still had her face to the rain, she smiled.
"Hello, Absolem."
"Alice. Would you mind?"
He coughed, nodding at his sopping wings that were only getting wetter.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
She let him fly onto her index finger, closed the window and sat back down again, the bright blue insect still perched on her index finger.
"How are things in Underland?" she asked him eagerly, smiling from ear to ear at the encounter of her old friend.
"Not exactly… excellent." He drawled, in his usual tone.
"What do you mean?
"The Queen… the White Queen, of course, Mirana, bless her soul, she's… missing."
Alice gaped at him in horror.
"Wh-what??!"
The indigo insect shook his head.
"Worse thing is… the guards surveying the area to which her sister and the Knave were banned… were killed. Most likely by the big head. Not a trace of her since. She must've gone after her sister…" He shook his head once more.
"I understand you have business to tend to here, Alice… but… someone else in Underland needs you as well…"
She frowned, concern creasing her pretty face.
"What do you mean? Whom?"
Absolem sighed. "Tarrant… he's raving mad with grief…"
"The Hatter?" she asked, with even greater concern.
The butterfly nodded. "Ever since you left, he's been growing more and more… mad. He's… dangerous now. No one can speak to him without getting hurt…."
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Dun dun DUHH!! More to come. ;D