Disclaimer: I don't own American McGee's characters, nor I don't own the games, they belong to American McGee, EA Games and Spicy Horse studios.
Cheshire's POV. (Point of View)
Just a little oneshot about Cheshire Cat and Alice's friendship. Inspiration striked when I got dragged to the beach with my mom and just had my Kindle Fire.
An afternoon in the land of madness
Tick, tock, there goes the clock. Spinning all the way 'till dawn~.
Ah, why hello there, fellow reader. Interested in reading my tale, I suppose?
That's nice, wonderful indeed. Sadly, not everything's as wonderful as it should be, especially Wonderland...
Ever since the Dollmaker was defeated, I haven't seen my dear Alice. I hope she's alright. She's supposedly "regaining her sanity", quite silly, if you would dare to ask me, yet no one seems to care about old Cheshire's opinion.
I'm just a mangy, scraggy cat anyway.
This place has been so silent for the past few months. If I had sense of time, I'd say it's been years! I'm not exactly sure. Hold on...
What am I talking about? Oh, right. I forgot this happened a while ago...
It used to be silent, until one lonely, quiet day, something changed inside me.
As I walked throughout the Vale of Tears, I heard a scream coming from the sky. It was silent at first, until it got louder and louder and...
That's when I saw her. A blue dress with a bloodstained not-so-white apron hovering down, of course, with it's wielder.
Dark brown hair wildly riding the wind, sparkling emerald eyes with shadows underneath them, just like they hadn't been closed for so long, waiting impatiently during the night, perhaps years of unbearable pain made them look like that, and last but not least, that oh-so-familiar amulet hanging loosely from her fragile neck. The Omega symbol, if my memory doesn't fail me.
I could feel a wide grin spreading across my face, wider than others I've had. I decided I should go to her right away, but with my signature entrance. Slowly dissapearing from where I was and appearing behind her, I prepared my welcome speech.
"Alice. My dear, you haven't forgotten me, now have you?" I inmediatly asked her in a cryptic way.
She flinched, just as she didn't even notice me when I appeared next to her. She turned around quickly, just to give a sigh of relief.
"Hello, Cat. If I had forgotten you, I wouldn't be here."
"I'm quite aware of that, I just wanted to test your memories."
"Don't try to bully me, you wretched creature! I came to get away from the monotonous London life. I see Wonderland hasn't changed at all." She replied, looking around.
"Wonderland changes as you change, you should already know that by now." I grinned.
"I suppose I'm still as mad as the hatter? For, there's absolutely nothing different in here. Except for the absence of the Ruins and other monstrous beings caused by Dr. Bumby's 'rehabilitation'."
I chuckled at her innocence, she shot me a glare with those beautiful killer eyes.
"Oh, Alice, my sweet Alice. I reckon I've told you that you can't help that. We're all mad here."
"I know, I know..." She shook her head. "But something good should've already happened. I can't let anything happen to Wonderland anymore."
I sat next to her, she was looking straight into her reflection on the river under the shadow of that big crying statue. I rested my big paw on her back and held her close to me. She's about the same height as I when she's sittting.
"Alice, change doesn't denote wheter good or bad, it simply means 'not the same'."
She didn't even dare to respond. She just stared at me with a sorrowful expression.
I tilted my head in confusion, what happened? Did I say something that may have offended her?
"Am I missing anything?" I asked with a serious tone in my voice.
"Nothing at all... I'm fine."
"Insane child, you're everything but fine, now, tell me what's wrong." I smirked.
She just kept staring into my eyes, and then turned her direction to the water once again.
"It's incredible how peaceful the water can be. Specially in such a disturbed mind like mine. Just look at the river, no one here knows what I've been through." She said.
"Don't try to change the conversation." I put my paw in her chin and lifted her head towards me.
"Alice Liddell, I know everything about you and your bloody childhood. I know about that fire caused by the Doctor Angus Bumby, who you wisely pushed onto an incoming train. I know about your quest to kill the Queen of Hearts,and how you killed the Mad Hatter as well. I know about that damnable train who corrupted your Wonderland. Bloody hell, I could be you." My voice was almost perverse and cryptic.
"You didn't fancy it when I faced the Queen of Hearts, did you? Lost your head, as I recall."
The lack of emotion in her tone was boring and fittingly annoying.
"You want to know what's wrong, Cat? I will tell you what's wrong. They're planning to send me back to Rutledge Asylum, that's what's wrong!" She finally blurted it out.
Did you know Cheshire Cats can frown? Yes, they can, because that's exactly what I did when she said that last verse.
"My, my, h-how did that happen...?" It was all I managed to say, trying to recover from the shock those terrible news gave me.
"I accidentally mentioned all my Wonderland adventures out loud and went on a psychopathic rant in public. Everyone would prefer to see me rotten in a room with nurses and doctors, rather than walking around Oxford."
That's pretty rude of them, people are mad these days. Just like us, but still, we're nice lunatics... at least I am.
"And that's why you came? To escape from your reality?"
"Can't we all escape from it sometimes? Is it mad to pray for better hallucinations? I believe not, Cheshire, I need a rest."
"It doesn't make sense, nothing makes sense here though" I sighed. "However, you don't always come whenever you'd like..."
"I must admit that I may have hitted my head with something... and I'm probably laying in the cold floor somewhere, yet it doesn't matter. I'd rather live here, with you and other Wonderlanders, than in such a wicked, sick world like reality."
Crazy girl, anything's better than this twisted alternate universe I call home.
"Society has certainly gone to hell. They're all imbeciles." She cursed.
"Alice, please do not be so rude. Yes, we can't do anything, but not everyone's a fool. I recognize they're total barmpots sometimes, just as we can be, but that's where you belong."
"I don't want to be there!" She pouted.
"Shush it up, Liddell. Don't act like a kid." I reached a claw to her mouth, gesturing her to be quiet.
"...Fine..." She crossed her arms.
She's so childish sometimes, she's a little girl trapped in her own fantasies... yet she's so mature at the same time. She's had a tough life, losing your parents and sister in a fire when you were 7 years old. Blaming yourself for being the only survivor, being sent to a nuthouse just to be threatened by maniacs for 10 years and thinking you were the responsible of your family's deaths.
Only the insane endurence pain as a measure of worth, definitely.
"Alice, come along with me, will you?" I got up and made her a sign to follow me.
"Where are we going?" She got on her feet and started walking towards me.
"Leave it all to me, my dear." A grin crept upon my face as she came closer.
"I'll make you forget about reality, about your problems. Prepare for a journey you shall not reject."
"Journey?" She asked, with a confused look on her face.
"Yes, a journey... or maybe we should just have tea?"
"I prefer the tea right now."
"Purrfect then."
She smiled. A true smile, the one I've been looking for.
How much I love spending time with Alice... even if she thinks I'm just there to annoy her to death.
We were walking together in silence, admiring the beauty of the strange environment we both love, enjoying each others company. A human and a cat, how delightful.
Sadly, I'm just a cat, a fragment of her imagination, and that only depresses me enough to think I'll never have a chance to be her partner, the one to be there with her when she's feeling sad, the one to protect her from the evil that rules her world...
Who says I need to be real to do all that?
I'm her companion, after all. And no one can deny it.
"Cheshire?" She asked, breaking the silence.
"Yes? What is it?"
"Thank you."
Now, that's confusing. 'Thank you'?
I looked up at her, "For what, Alice?"
"For everything."
What happened right now was awfully fast.
I suddenly found myself tightly wrapped in her arms, a warm hug was perhaps all I needed. Without hestitation, I started purring.
"You're very welcome."
We stayed in that position for a couple of minutes and that's when she told me.
"Is that a purr I hear?"
I stopped when she spoke and turned to her.
"Don't forget I am a feline, it is quite difficult for me to control my instincts."
She laughed, "Silly puss, I've always wondered how you became so thin, you know? As far as I remember you, you were a furball without all those tribal tattoo-like markings, and without that gold earring..."
"Wonderland changed when you grew up. And you didn't even visit me for a long while."
She grinned, but then her smile started to fade into a frown.
"Cheshire, I don't want to leave Wonderland again. What will I do without you?
That's a great question.
"You can do what you've always done." I sighed, laying agaisnt a tree behind me.
"I doubt I'd like to spend more time hiding my heart in the shadows, consumed by the insults of those around me." I could tell she was in the edge of crying.
Think Cheshire, think. Hurry up! There's no time to waste, make up something to cheer her up, you fool.
"Dear little Alice, please don't cry... for, it is I who'll guide you through the dark times ahead, the one who will help you keep your head." I winked at her, making a pose that referenced the Queen of Hearts.
Hey, that rhymed.
"If you're feeling sad, scared and alone, remember me, all of us, Wonderland is your home. The Hatter has the Hare and the Dormouse along, the Queen has the Rabbit and he doesn't think it's wrong!"
I dissapeared, then 'teleported' up in the tree behind Alice, sitting in a branch, waving my bony tail with the tuft of hair in top of it.
"Let's not forget about Absolem the caterpillar, wise and odd, those Origami Ants praise him as their God. The Carpenter has the Walrus, he's fat, so slow, but when they perform, fishes run while they bow. The Duchess has her bacon, so alone, she should just move on. Gryphon and Mock Turtle were friends for a time, until the Gryphon died and the Admiral cried, is sadness a crime?"
"Cat..."
"I am not done yet, please don't interrupt me." I jumped off the tree and sat in her lap.
"Here's a small riddle, easy and simple, who's always there with you, sweet little Liddell?"
She didn't even think twice, as for the fact that she inmediatly answered, "You, of course."
Getting off her lap and walking around her like she was a prey, I continued my rhyme.
"You see Alice, you're not alone. What am I trying to say, you ask? Your question for me is just a foolish task. Things will get better, you see, there's no one around who will help you as much as me. I am your partner, your friend, your ally. If you lose hope in humanity and cannot find your way back where you belong, worry not, for you'll find soon, a grin to guide you in the shape of a crescent moon. Have no fear, the end of the madness... is near."
She just sat there in awe, staring at me.
"Wow... Cat, that was quite amazing." She said.
"I don't like to brag, but I recognize I'm not such a bad poet." I proudly exclaimed.
"You know, maybe sanity isn't what I desire. Even if it's what I ought to posses."
"Isn't it what we all ought to?"
"Might as well be true, Cheshire, however I'm certain that one thing's for sure."
"Which is?" I curiously asked, still grinning.
She smiled, "You needn't worry, I am never going to forget you."
With that, she kissed my forehead.
When she did so I closed my eyes, enjoying the few seconds of love she was providing me. After she pulled away, I opened my yellow eyes once again, just to find an empty Vale of Tears in front of me.
She vanished into thin air...
Alice wasn't here with me anymore.
I sighed, slowly getting up from where I was, thinking about this friendly conversation I just had. It had been, after all, a nice day.
A nice afternoon in the land of madness.
Speaking to the lonely scene I've been observing for all these years, I whispered out loud,
"Alice, don't cry. Don't be afraid of the future, you're strong enough to face it. But there's something you mustn't forget, ever."
I paused for a minute.
"In your heart, you'll always be my dearest friend."