Hey guys! This story begins on page 440 of the actual book. This chapter uses a lot from the actual book, (although we've integrated parts of our own) but this won't be the case for future chapters. This is just to start it all off. Hope you guys enjoy!
Cath's nostrils flared. "Your fears are correct. Such a heart can't be mended. I hope I won't be tasked with keeping such a useless artifact for much longer."
Raven stared at her for a long moment. With an echoing shriek, he hopped on one leg and Cath watched him as he took wing, soaring through the hall and out the window. A sudden movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Whipping her head around, she scanned the columns with hope for any sign of the Sisters dragging the mangled body of Peter. Her eyes narrowed. The dull aching pain she'd experienced since the time of his death was in perpetuum, wearing her patience dangerously thin.
A giggle to her right caught her attention and she turned to see the King clap gleefully and pull himself back onto his throne.
"Oh don't you just love newlyweds?" His grin disappeared upon seeing the disdain on her face. He paled and nervously twisted his hands on his lap.
"I-I mean they-"
"Ahem!" The White Rabbit cleared his throat. "May we proceed with the cases, Your Majesty?"
The King's face brightened immediately and his shoulders sagged, welcoming the change in subject.
"Ah yes! Proceed, proceed!" For the 1000th time that day, Cath had the sudden urge to strangle the babbling idiot. An unexpected caw caught her attention, pulling it up to Raven, who was perched on the ledge by the windows. His feathers were ruffled and he hopped on one leg, staring at the pillar behind the jury. No-she realized. He was staring at something behind the pillar. She sat up on her throne and leaned forward to see clearly...
The White Rabbit blew his horn, startling her. She flinched. "Next to the court is Sir Milton Mulro-"
The doors at the end of the courtroom slammed open, letting in a gust of chilled air.
An owl swooped in through the double doors, its wings spread to their full span as it glided down the aisle. Three more silhouettes emerged in the doorway. A sleek red fox and a sly raccoon, each of them holding a chain that attached to a bedraggled figure between them.
Cath's heart thumped. She didn't remember standing, but she was on her feet as the arrivals marched down the aisle. Her stomach twisted. Her breaths came faster.
When they reached the from of the courtroom, the creatures deposited their prisoner on the floow. He seemed smaller than Cath remembered - bruised and covered in mud.
Fury throbbed inside her, filling the hollowness she'd grown accustomed to.
Finally. Peter Peter had been found.
As one, his captors reached for their faced and shed their masks and skins like Cath might shed a winter cloak. The Three Sisters stood before her, their small hands, gripping Sir Peter's chains, their black eyes peering up at the Queen.
"We had a bargain," said Tillie.
"We made a deal," said Elsie.
Lacie's pale lips stretched thin. "We have come to take our toll."
"Wh-wh-what is this?" The King stammered, looking at the Sisters like they were a nightmare turned real.
"That is Sir Peter," Catherine answered. He name tasted like iron and filth.
Peter Peter snarled at her.
Mr. Caterpillar, one of the jurors, blew out a ring of smoke that swirled around the Sisters' heads. "And who," he asked, "are you?"
Elsie clasped her hands together, as if she were about to recite a poem. "There were once Three Sisters who lived in a well. They were very ill."
"They were dying," clarified Lacie.
Tillie nodded. "They were dying for a long time."
"But they knew," continued Elsie, "that one day there would be a queen who would have a heart she had no use for. Such a heart could sustain them."
"That queen is here," said Tillie. "That time is now."
In unison, the girls drawled, "We have brought your vengeance, and we shall have your heart in return."
Cath's attention didn't lift from Peter Peter. "Take it. As you said, I have no use for it."
The Sisters giggled as Lacie moved to step forward when Cath raised her hand. "But I will give it to you after my vengeance has been served."
Lacie froze as the Sisters' smirks disappeared and were replaced by scowls.
"That wasn't the deal agreed upon," Tillie growled.
"The deal was you would take my heart when vengeance was served." Cath finally turned to look at the Sisters. Their scowls deepened. Ignoring them, she turned back to Sir Peter. She didn't flinch when she felt Raven swoop down and land on her shoulder, talons digging in.
"Hello, Sir Peter." She spat the name, her anger roiling, bubbling, steaming inside her, filling up all the barren spaces. Her knuckles whitened on the rail. "This man is the murderer of the late joker of Hearts. He cut off his head, then fled into the forest. He is a killer."
When she had imagined this moment, she'd worried that she might cry when faced with Jest's killer again. But her eyes were dry as sifted flour.
"The King hesitantly stood. "That is - yes. Yes, indeed. It's so good of you to join us, Sir Peter. I believe this calls for, uh..." The King scratched beneath his crown. "What happens next?"
"A trial, Your Majesty?" suggested the White Rabbit.
"Yes! A trial. Excellent fun. Good distraction. Yes, yes. Jury, assemble yourselves. Write down the Queen's accusation."
The jury rustled ad pulled out slate tabs onto which they began to scribble notes with white chalk. Peter Peter stayed on his knees, but his head was lifted, his gaze piercing Catherine. She stared back, unafraid, for once. She was filled with the anticipation of seeing his blood spilled across the courtroom floor.
"The jury would like to call a witness, Your Majesty."
"I am your witness," Cath growled. "I was there and I have already told you what happened. He is a murderer and he deserves to be punished."
Everyone tittered, uncomfortable that their new queen was intruding on the court's traditions.
""Perhaps,
Said the Rabbit, "if there are no other witnesses present, the jury might consider a verdict?"
A wave of glee sparkled over the jury box and Catherine heard mutterings of guilty and innocent and in need of a bath, when Peter Petter cleared his throat.
"I got something I'd like to say."
Though his voice was hoarse, it roared through Catherin like a tidal wave. White spots flecked in her vision. She wanted to silence him forever.
The King, ignorant of how Cath's blood was boiling, pounded his gavel.
"The muder-er, the defendant wishes to speak!"
Two guards came forward to grab Peter Peter when Elsie jumped forward, baring her teeth. They stumbled back as the Sisters' malevolent grins spread across their faces.
"I did kill him," he snarled. "But I was defending my wife. These people - the maid, the Joker, and you." He snarled at Catherine. "They trespassed onto my property. I'd asked none of them to come there. Nosy wretches they were, coming to see the 'monster,' the 'beast.'" He spat. "But she was my wife! And you killed her. Right in front of me, you killed her. You're the monsters. Not me. Not her!"
The jury scribbled on their tablets/
"She was the Jabberwock!" Cath screamed.
A gasp rose from the crowd.
"That's what he isn't telling you. The wife he was protecting was the Jabberwock. Mary Ann was to be the creature's next meal/"
"She should not have come to my patch. Trespassers! Murderers!"
THUD.
THUD,
THUD.
The sound of the King's gavel interrupted their argument and Cath sank her head in between her tense shoulders.
"Th-thank you, Sir Peter, for your-er, statement." The King's voice was shaking. "We have now heard the defendant's testimony. Jury, what is your verdict?"
The jury huddled down with their slate tablets and whispers. Catherine heard none of their discussion. Her ears were humming, her brain clouded with visions of Jest in the mud, the ax swinging at his throat, her own heart splitting down the middle.
"We have reached a verdict, Your Majesty." It was a toad who spoke, standing up with a slate in his webbed fingers. On it he had drawn a picture of Peter Peter standing on top of an enormous pumpkin and grinning. "We the jury find Peter Peter not guilty!"
The cheer was deafening. All around her, the people of Hearts embraced on another, hollered ecstatically. Even the King giggled with relief. The Kingdom of Hearts had never seen such a ghastly trial, and everyone was thrilled that it was over.
Except Catherine.
A shrill laugh filled the courtroom. Cath turned slowly, anger boiling in her veins, to face the source - the Sisters. A redness creeped up her neck. Humiliation filled her being as she shook from her barely contained anger.
She snatched the gavel from her husband. "SILENCE!" She screamed, pounding on the railing so hard a crack formed in the polished wood.
The ballyhoo stopped.
A courtroom of faces turned to gape at their Queen. Her reddened face, her livid eyes. A turtle ducked into his shell. An opossum rolled into a ball. An ostrich tried, but failed, to bury its head in the polished quartz floor.
"I reject the jury's verdict," she seethed. "As the Queen of Hearts, I declare this man guilty. Guilty of murder. Guilty of thievery and kidnapping and all the rest, and for his sentence - I call for his head. To be carried out immediately!"
Her words echoed through the courtroom, casting a cloud over the stricken faces and the Sisters' smug ones. No one dared to breathe.
Catherine had eyes only for Sir Peter, whose face was furious beneath streaks of dirt, whose teeth were bared.
The numbness began to settle over her again.
"You deserve no mercy," she said.
Peter spat again. "I want nothin' from you."
"B-b-but, darling," said the King. Soft, patient, terrified. His fingers brushed against her arm, but she ripped it away. "We...we have never...In Hearts, we don't...Why, sweetness, we don't even have an executioner."
The corner of her mouth twitched. Her gaze shifted to Raven. "Yes, we do."
Raven puffed out his chest.
"You were the White Queen's executioner," she said. "And now you will be mine. Serve me dutifully and we shall both have our vengeance.
He remained silent for a long while, still as a statue. A quiet chant started - steadily growing louder - and Cath didn't have to look to know it was the Sisters.
"Murderer, Monarch, Martyr, Mad. Murderer, Monarch, Martyr, Mad."
Raven spread his wings and landed on the ground in front of her, Like an ink splatter on stone he transformed into the hooded figure. His face cast in shadow, his gloved hands gripping the handle of the glinting ax. Now, in the light of the courtroom, Cath could see that his hooded cloak was made from raven feathers.
The Sisters drew back, leaving Peter Peter alone in the center of the room. Though he held fast to his defiance, Cath could see him beginning to shake.
Raven's shadow lengthened across the floow, dwarfing the murderer. He hefted the ax onto his shoulder.
"For the murder of Jest, the court joker of Hearts, I sentence this man to death." It was a new day in Hearts, and she was the Queen.
"Off with his head."
The silence was deafening. Cath stared at the decapitated body of Peter, breathing heavily. Raven stood over his body for a long moment before he transformed back into a raven and flew back to perch on Cath's shoulder.
"Vengeance has been served. It must be paid for."
The Sisters' wretched smiles glinted and Lacie stepped forward, her long white hair swaying against her ankles. She pulled out a jagged knife, from where Cath couldn't tell.
Choking, the King pushed back his throne, putting more space between himself and the child. Bit Cath didn't move. She held Lacie's gaze and listened to the rush of blood in her ears.
"Sweetness." The King's voice shakily interrupted the affair. "Your heart...without it, you could never be who you were." For once, his words actually made sense. Cath responded while keeping her eyes fixated on Lacie.
"It's no use going back to yesterday. I was a different person then."
Lacie climbed up the Queen's box with the grace of a fox. She sat back on her heels, her bare, dirt-crusted toes curled around the wooden rail. Cath smelled the treacle on her skin.
She raised the dagger.
A sudden cloud of smoke appeared, surrounding Cath. She felt a gloved hand in hers, gently pulling her back. She froze. The numbness of Jest's death faded, replaced by a searing pain in her heart. Memories of the Lobster Quadrille flashed through her mind. As the smoke cleared, she whipped around, eyes blazing, to sentence whoever this was to death. Her eyes met yellow lemon ones.
Jest.
She stared in shock. He smiled softly and tugged her gently behind him. He turned to face the Sisters, who snarled at him.
"Hello Tillie, Elsie. Lacie." His voice, still as smooth as chocolate, cascaded over Cath, and filling the courtroom.