Wonderland was such a crowded place.
Even at six 'o clock in the evening, the sun was high and the streets were bustling with people. People shopping, running, laughing, people talking. So very many faces. Too many, almost.
The Mad Hatter looked anxiously down at his pocket watch. Six 'o clock on the dot. He really would rather have been at home enjoying tea time, bit if he didn't have food for when Alice awoke, there would be problems. He was such a troublesome boy, after all.
"Now what's the point of looking at that old thing?" a familiar voice trilled from behind him. "It's broken, isn't it?"
The hatter slid his eyes closed with a sigh. His watch snapped shut in annoyance and he stowed it away.
"Funny," he mused, "I thought I heard something just now. It must have been some pitiful stray meowing for scraps."
Cheshire only laughed at Hatter's gruff insult. He proceeded to flounce over into the hatter's peripheral vision.
"Oh, come now~!" smiled the cat, "How long do you intend to give me the silent treatment?" Cheshire prodded Hatter's arm. "It's so very childish, you know~!"
The Mad Hatter remained silent and steadfast. Refusing to acknowledge the man before him, he merely stared out into the sea of faces, letting them meld together into a hypnotizing mass of shapelessness.
Cheshire was losing his audience. Time for a different tactic.
"Hatter…" cooed Cheshire, "talk to me…" The feline circled slowly around and around the taller man's body, a shoulder-brush here and a hand-stroke there. His eyes eventually locked impishly to Hatter's.
"Did little Alice really mean so much to you?"
A sharp breeze whizzed by Cheshire's face as soon as that sentence was uttered, and the click of a gun made his ears stand straight up. Had the Hatter been able to see his target, the brazen cat would have had a loaded gun pressed between his eyes, ready to fire. Cheshire gave a shaky chuckle.
"So then, you heard that…"
"Quiet." snarled the Hatter.
"Why?" replied Cheshire with a sadistically sweet grin. "The eighty-eighth Alice was a shameful fake who had no right to clutter this already-crowded world with her existence. I did everyone a favor by erasing her from the story."
A silence passed as the predator let his corrosive words sink in. He gazed up into the other's face to see the satisfying result of his handiwork. However, once he saw the look carved into the other's face, his smile fell. The feline sighed, heavy-hearted, and took a step foreword.
"…And yet… You still reject my existence for what I did." He plastered the smile back onto his face. "It sort of hurts, you know."
"It's no fault of mine if I can't see you, tomcat."
"You can't see me? Perhaps you mean to say that you can't perceive me."
The hatter furrowed his brow. "Can't perceive you?"
"Yes." Cheshire stepped airily foreword a few more steps. "To see something is to establish your own interpretation of a thing that exists in the world around you. You make your own opinion of an object that others may have a widely different perception of. So, if you can't see me, then this means that you don't understand me, or even what you yourself think about me. So, for all you know…you might not hate me at all…"
At that moment, he took a sweeping step foreword. His lips aimed for Hatter's, but, at the lightest brush of skin, he passed straight through like a ghost. Once behind the Hatter, Cheshire disappeared completely. Hatter whirled around, looking to and fro in a state of what might be called panic or desperation. The shapeless crowd was empty of who he searched for. Aside from the glances and whispers of strangers, the hatter was only met with a voice lyrically laughing all round him.
"It's so funny. The only time you chase me and try to see me is when no one else can…"
In a moment, even that voice faded and he was left with nothing but the stares of people who had no business trying to understand his burdens.
Wonderland really was such a crowded place.