Once upon a time...oh wait, that's not it.
Four score an seven years ago?
No, that's wrong too.
Damn it...
Oh! I've got it!
Or do I?
Maybe I do and maybe I don't...but I suppose that's completely up to you.
You see I could explain to you the stereotype of Alice in Wonderland ( if it truly is a wonderland, but I must admit it IS a Wonderful land, so maybe that's it), but that would be normal, and as you can see and as you might have heard normal is dreadfully boring.
So, instead I shall tell you a story not yet told.
Til now, of course.
Though, I should warn you, shouldn't I?
Or have you already heard that we're all mad here?
Even you if you can't believe it.
Since believing is all that matters.
" What are you doing, Azazel?" A man asks a girl whose eyes are staring upward.
" I'm staring at the moon." She replied.
" Now why would you do that?" He further questioned.
" I need a reason to look at the moon?"
" No, I don't believe you do, but why the moon?"
" Because it is beautiful and a symbol."
" A symbol?"
" Yes, Ches. A symbol." Ches was what she called him, and Ches is what he answered to and he only seemed to answer to her.
Not to mention question her.
" What, may I ask, is the moon a symbol of, Azazel?" Ches inquired.
" Well, I think I'll be nice and say you may ask. It is a symbol of many things." She smiled.
" Why is it beautiful?" He tried again.
" Simple, because it is bright and comes out at night." She rhymed with a giggle.
" Are you thinking when you look at the moon?" He teased.
" Of course I am, Ches. If I wasn't thinking I wouldn't be able to speak. Now would I?"
" Then what, per chance, are you thinking about?"
" You, me, the moon, the night, and I'm talking."
" I can hear that." He said.
" Not just to you, Ches."
" Who else is there? I don't see anyone."
She smiled at him while still looking at the moon.
" Why, there's myself as well, isn't there? How could you exist if I didn't?"
" I suppose you're right."
" And you're right to suppose it." She said.
" What's the difference to talking to me and talking to yourself?" He asked her.
" We've talked about this before, Ches. I can see you. I have to look in a mirror to see myself."
" Azzy darling!" Made her sigh.
" Yes, Mother?" She called back.
" Who are you always talking to?" Her mother walked in asking.
" To my friend, Ches." She replied, motioning to him.
" Of course, dear. Are you ready to go?"
" It all depends, Mother...where are we going?"
" To talk to some people, honey."
" Why? Ches may be the only one here today, but he is still a guest. You must be courteous. You never even say hello to my friends or even acknowledge them." The girl frowned.
" That's because they don't exist, Azazel."
" Then why can I see them? Why can I talk to them? They see you...hear you. You cannot say someone doesn't exist just because you don't want to see them." Azazel challenged.
Then something went wrong.
Ches frowned at her.
He was very good-looking in with his dark hair and light eyes. His sweet smile ( when he smiled) and his soft voice.
Though this time he was angry again.
" That's right, Azazel. Leave, just like Alice did. You remember her, don't you?"
Of course, Azazel remembered Alice.
Alice was her sister.
" Are we visiting Alice, Mother?"
Her mother stopped and turned to her.
" Yes dear." She smiled sadly.
Why sadly? Didn't she miss Alice?
" But Ches said that Alice is living with the Queen of Hearts." Azazel said sadly.
" What are you talking about, dear? All this nonesense."
" I have nothing nice to wear to the castle of the Queen." Azazel replied.
" Alice was murdered by the Queen, Azazel." Her mother muttered.
" Your mother is lying, Azzy." Ches denied.
" A Queen would not do such that is not Queenly." Azazel declared.
" How do you know what is Queenly when you are not royalty?" Her mother laughed.
" Because Ches said so." The young girl said stubbornly.
" Ches doesn't exist." Her mother insisted.
" Yes, he does. You keep saying that, but he DOES." Azazel cried." Don't think you can say these things to me and have me believe them just because you are my mother! Other people say them to me too, but that's because you've been talking to them about me! You're trying to tell me that Alice was murdered by the Queen of Hearts and that Ches doesn't exist. Well, what if i say you killed Alice? Or that you don't exist?" Azazel turned to her mother angrily with her tiny fists clenched at her sides.
" Just get ready." Her mother glared, and left Azazel with Ches.
" I'm sorry, Ches. She's always so rude to you." Azazel said, letting tears crawl down her pale face.
" It's okay. Do you know what the Queen of Hearts asked me to tell you, Azzy?"
Azazel sniffed.
" What?"
" She heard me talking about your mother and how she's so mean to you, me, and all of our other friends, and she got so mad and ordered you to cut off her head." Ches said convincingly.
" She did? But she's my mother." Azazel tried to make sense of it.
" Queen's orders." He repeated.
Azazel twisted her hair around her finger, deep in thought.
" What about Daddy? Can he keep his head?" Azazel asked hopefully.
" Unless the Queen says otherwise, then, yes." Ches told her with a smile, as he wiped away her tears.
" Well, I suppose that's okay then." Azazel smiled, and gave him a hug.
" And I suppose it's right for you to suppose." He smiled back.
" Did the Queen say when I had to cut off mommy's head?" The young girl asked.
" No, but she's not very patient." Ches told her.
" So, tonight?" Azazel pondered.
" That would make the Queen most proud. She will probably even let you visit and meet her and Alice."
" But I don't have a nice dress to wear to the castle." Azazel said again.
" Why do you love the moon again, Azazel?"
" It is a symbol."
" Exactly. Did you know one of its symbols is madness? The full moon causes people to go mad." He explained.
" Mother's gone mad?" Azazel asked him.
" Yes, and boring is another thing she has become. So, the Queen doesn't like her anymore and is sick of her rudeness. That is another reason why you have been ordered to cut off her head."
" But whatever will I use?"
" Do you have an ax?"
" In this house? No! But we do have swords...Alice used to love fencing."
" She still does." Ches told her.
" Really? Do you think she'll teach me when we visit her?"
" I'm sure she will." Ches smiled.
Time passes by, though it goes unnoticed as the night is still young...Azazel takes a sword from where it lay and sliced her mother's head clean off before she could utter a single word. Then soon blood sputtered like a fountain from the decapitation and it fascinated Azazel how it seemed even her mother's life blood was running away from her. She trotted over and picked up her mother's head.
" I'm sorry, Mother, but the Queen will let me visit Alice if I cut off your head. You wanted to take me to a crazy place just because you think there I'm mad." She explained, kissing her mother's forehead before placing it on the dead woman's stomach.
" Ches, I'm not mad, am I?" She asked him as she turned to look at him.
" No, Azazel, I'm sorry, but you are mad, but don't worry...everybody is mad here."
" Here? Where's here?"
" Good question. Where are you?"
" At home, of course." She smiled.
" You must hide your mother's body, if you don't your father will see and you'll have to cut off his head too, so that he doesn't keep you away from Alice and the Queen of Hearts." Ches whispered in her ear, making her shiver slightly.
She was in her late teens, but her mind was very young and she trusted Ches. Liked him.
But he was rather strange sometimes.
" Where will I hide her?" She asked.
" How about the basement?" He suggested.
" Okay." She said and dragged her mother along the floor as she slowly grew cold.
" She's heavy, Ches." The girl complained.
" That's what you call dead weight, Azzy." He joked, making her giggle a bit.
" Azzy! Have you seen your-" Her father stopped in the living room.
Blood was still on the floor even though her mother was hidden discreetly downstairs.
'Oh no!' She thought as she ran towards the living room.
" Azazel." Ches said.
" But I don't want to kill Daddy. He's nice to me."
" He'll keep you away from Alice. Might even kill her."
" No!" Azazel shrieked, and ran with the foil into the living room, and cried as she cut off her father's head as well. Then the young girl dropped to the ground in a messy fit of tears.
" Why'd he have to come home soon ?Now, who's going to take me to Alice?" Azzy sobbed.
" No one." He told her." Alice is dead. You killed her long ago and hid her near your mother."
" No!"
" You cut her head clean off with the fencing foil you have in your very hand as we speak." Ches grinned.
" No, I didn't!" Alice screamed as she cut off Ches's head, but it didn't seem to work as he just righted his head on the floor, bloodless, clean, and alive.
" Besides, did you really believe that that sword is actually used for fencing? A fencing sword could not be used for cutting off people's heads when the only thing sharp about it is it's tip. If you like cutting off people's head so much, Queen Azzy...why not just cut off your own?" He said, and took a step away from him.
" Like you said to your mother. Maybe YOU don't exist." He laughed mockingly.
She held her head trying to block him out but his voice seemed to be coming from her head.
" Shut up! Shut up!"
" The only way to shut me up is to cut off your head, Azazel. Remember...I don't exist if you don't." He smiled.
So, Azazel took her weapon of choice, and got rid of Ches once and for all.
By slicing a line across her throat. Since she could not see herself.
' Now, he'll shut up, and I will finally be able to see Alice.' She thought before she died watching her blood paint the scenery in front of her before she too died.
The full moon makes people mad.
Even when the night is so beautiful and pure looking.
Madness is beautiful, but only as long as you can keep your head.
