hey all it has been a while...but i have been working really realy really hard on this chapter which is not going to be the end of this story at all...so i realized that this is called Escape the mind...that doesnt necessary have to limit me to Hatter's mind...for this chapter you really have to suspend disbelief, in wonderland you have to do that already so just go easy with this please...i think its really creative but i'd like to hear your feedback...side note: anyone who read my RH story "love leads us home" this might sound slightly similar...but its not...cause its Alice in Wonderland...this starts with alice's POV
Disclaimer: None of this is mine...but i wish hatter was...just for a day..
Chapter Two: Hear me...
She stood inside her spherical prison. She could hear their words perfectly, as if they were standing next to her. Yet none of them could hear her cries.
Alice felt as if she was a child again. As if she was just a child who was forced to watch as others decided her every move. She remained trapped in this round tomb of silence…all that remained in her possession were her thoughts.
Besides the change in her father, which she thought of, and shed many tears over, she thought about him constantly.
Alice bit her lip and closed her eyes. She forced all the threats noises to leave her thoughts so that all her energy focused on one specific thing. And that thing slowly morphed into the shape of a familiar man with a very particular hat and a very infectious smile. Though she was kept like an animal in this cage, and her fate was in the hands of monsters, Alice found herself smiling.
The smile was very small at first, but then it grew. She smiled through the pain of the disappearance of her father's love. She smiled through the torment of Jack's lies and the Queen's treachery.
He was so clear…almost as if he was actually there.
Alice leaned her head against the cage and closed her eyes to better picture Hatter's face.
He smiled at her in her unconscious. Miss me?
She nodded wordlessly.
Hatter bit his lip. Bad time?
Alice shrugged at the fabricated creation of her mind.
I can come back another time,offered the vision.
She shook her head.
Hatter was silent for a bit before he spoke with determination in every word he uttered.
I'm coming for you.
Alice chuckled lightly.
No jokes. I'm going to save you from this. Hatter played with his hat a bit trying to fix it so that it sat just so on his head.
Both the vision of Hatter and Alice were silent for a while. Suddenly Alice felt a tear twirl down her cheek and her eyes blurred.
"I wish you would," she whispered.
As Alice was having this conversation with the man in her mind, the Queen turned to look at her. She, like the rest of the court, could not hear Alice's words, but she knew that the oyster was talking. It sort of worried the Queen of Hearts. Though she admitted to herself that if she were confined to a prison, she might have inclinations to speak when there was no one there. But, at the same time, the fact of the matter was: this was Wonderland. Things were not as simple as they appeared.
The Queen was going to get to the bottom of this.
She made her way to the cage and carefully opened it. The Queen of Hearts, the ruler of Wonderland, looked at the little oyster she had captured. Alice Hamilton looked at the queen.
"What were you saying?" she asked
Alice took a breath. "When?"
"Just now," said the queen.
Don't tell her. She would not look kindly on the mad. Hatter's voice suddenly sprang into her mind as if he was standing beside her. She could almost feel his presence next to her…almost.
"Nothing," said Alice firmly.
Stay calm, said the sweet voice in Alice's mind.
And she did so. She remained calm.
The queen was quite put out by Alice's surprising level headedness during this interrogation. She had not been this way before…everyone could see how she had been pounding at her cage and shouting in silence.
This serenity on the oyster's face…was just spooky. It was near maddening.
You never expected that you could frighten the Queen of Hearts I imagine, said Hatter.
Outwardly, Alice smiled.
The queen was suspicious. "You just smiled."
"When?"
"Just now!" yelled the queen. "I order you to tell me what you are smiling at!"
Alice could not rightly explain it to herself, much less to the queen. This sudden change in behavior was probably due to the current invasion of her mind by the man she loved. She knew that she loved him, well…almost knew. Alice glanced at Jack from inside her cage. He was purposefully not meeting her gaze. His fate was being decided as well right now.
After the pain he had caused her…Alice was not sure she could completely put her faith in another. She was not sure how much of her heart was left for someone else.
I don't mind how much is left,whispered Hatter's voice as if he was telling a secret in her ear.
"He won't be able to save you," said the queen misinterpreting Alice's glance at Jack.
Alice, however, was not thinking of Jack…but of Hatter.
She shrugged.
The queen believed that suddenly she had found the reason for Alice's behavior. She was still in love with Jack! Of course, there was no other cause for it.
"He's going to be killed," said the queen with a smile.
Alice shifted her full attention back to the queen. "What!?"
The queen's smile broadened. "He must be punished for what he's done."
Alice shook her head. "He has nothing to do with this!"
The ruler of Wonderland shook her head. "You little fool. He has everything to do with this!"
"But he—" Alice began.
"Silence!" yelled the queen. "He will be executed in two hours, and you, my dear, shall be banished from Wonderland!"
Alice said nothing. She felt that she couldn't speak, move, or even breathe. She walked backwards into her cage until she felt the strong walls of her cage on her back. Alice slowly sat on the floor of her cage.
The queen closed the door of the cage and smiled. She walked back to the rest of the court and asked them all to leave. She then stepped out of the room herself and began walking through the halls. The queen ran into her lovely doctors Dee and Dum.
"Hello," said Dee.
"Enjoying the day?" asked Dum.
They both appeared nervous. The queen did not notice, she was pretty satisfied with herself and therefore could not see the misery in others.
It was one of her failings.
"Actually yes," replied the queen.
"How did Hatter's examination go?" asked the queen when Dee and Dum said nothing.
"Well," said Dee.
"We found his weakness and planted the poison," said Dum. He then held up a little bottle of liquid in his hand and swished it around.
"He will die," said Dum. "Due to his inability to overcome his self-doubts and insecurities about—"
The queen raised a brow. "Wait. You were supposed to let Mad March finish off that double-crosser, Hatter. Not take matters into your own tricky hands."
Dee shrugged. "It was such an opportune moment…we could not resist such temptation as a weakened man."
Dum looked at the little bottom in his hand lovingly. That little bottle was indeed poison, of a very deadly nature. It did not attack the human system on contact with the body, as some poisons did. Nor did it weaken the body over time and eventually kill the victim—that too, was too simple for the Wonderland madmen.
This little bottle collected and filled with all the self-doubts, misgivings, longings, and unrequited feelings that a body could feel…and then some. Hatter did not know that when the twins were giving him electric shocks they were injecting this into his body. They had used his pain and weakness which they saw from his visions of Alice's torture and mixed it into the potion that rested in the bottle that rested in Dum's loving hand.
Here was how things were: Hatter needed to find Alice. He not only needed to find her and save her from the queen's clutches, but he also had to defeat and break through the poisonous misgivings and uncertainties of Alice's feelings for him. His self doubts were wrapped up in that kiss he saw Alice and Jack share. That kiss represented their bond, their experiences, everything that Hatter had not shared with her.
If Hatter could not, as the twins were certain he never would be able, to tell Alice how he felt about her and if she did not say that she loved him back…then Hatter would die.
The twins knew that Hatter would be able to defeat Mad March, perhaps in their combined evil brains they saw what would come. Besides, the twins enjoyed painful agonizing torture, a kind that Mad March did not use at all, despite much coaxing from the doctors. If Hatter had not escaped then he would have died from the agonizing loss of Alice and the twins' method of torture would be successful. It was a win, win situation for them, no matter what.
The queen studied the bottle in Dum's hand. She forced herself not to shudder as she hated emotions like longing or aching or…well anything bad basically.
She shrugged. "Well done."
The twins did not leave.
The Queen of Hearts raised a brow. "Is there something else you'd like to tell me?"
"We haven't heard back from Mad March," said Dee.
The ruler of Wonderland sighed. "He takes a while, you remember what he was like."
"But he likes to brag," Dum reminded his queen. "It has been longer than you think your majesty."
The queen closed her eyes. "You think he has escaped?"
Dum nodded.
"Are you saying that I have Hatter running loose in here?!" the queen bellowed.
"You said it yourself," said Dee quietly.
Dum kicked his brother for his retort.
"We suggest," said Dee wincing, "that you move the oyster out of the court chambers as soon as possible."
The queen raised a brow. "Why?"
"Kill two birds with one stone," said Dum.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"Hatter is not going to try to leave the palace," said Dee.
The queen let out a deep breath of frustration. "If you don't explain what's going on then I am going to personally chop off both of your heads!"
"He's going to go in there," said Dum pointing to the doors to the chambers were Alice was being kept.
Before the queen could open her mouth Dee continued, "He thinks that she is in there. He's going to try to save her."
"Who?" asked the queen.
"The girl," said Dee. "Alice."
The queen chuckled. "How noble of him." Then she stopped and looked at the twins. "How does he know that she's in there?"
"We told him," said Dum nervously, "so that we could determine his weakness and then exploit it."
"What's the big deal if he comes in and she is there?" asked the queen.
"If he comes in and sees her and potentially saves her then…" began Dum.
"He won't die from the poison," said Dee. "Unless, after he saves her, he is convinced that she does not love him. Then he would still die."
The queen nodded. "That's a very interesting poison. You are right boys, we should move her, and immediately too. I think we'll have a surprise for dear Hatty when he arrives."
As the wicked ones of Wonderland were plotting, Alice sat in her circular cell and thought about Hatter. She closed her eyes to halt the tears in her eyes.
He was dead. Technically, she reminded herself, he wasn't dead now but he would be soon. He was now spending his last moments on earth…probably totally alone. Then again, so was she. Alice remembered how he had looked upon the horse, charging at the dozens of suits as if he was impenetrable. She remembered how he had tried to fight them off bravely and…was overtaken by them.
Please, said the vision returning to her mind, don't remember that part. It wasn't really my finest moment.
Alice smiled as a tear fell from her cheek.
You're crying, said his soothing voice mixed with sorrow and anger.
"You're gone," said Alice speaking to no one. "I miss you."
I miss you too.
Alice opened her eyes. She furrowed her eyebrows and took off her right shoe. She threw it with all her might across the prison to the other side and watched it passively bounce off the wall and fall to the ground.
"I can't believe I'm talking to myself," said Alice to the empty space.
What she did not realize, what the queen and her clever doctors had not realized either, was that this was Wonderland. Things did not happen with order and with rules. Sometimes chaos caused order and order caused chaos. It is strange that in a land, where emotions could be collected and bought as a commodity, the inhabitants believed that things actually made sense.
For example, it made sense to the queen and her minions that the mind could be bent and twisted, as people in the real world know. The queen and her minions also knew that the mind could be crept into and played with as if it was a dollhouse. But the queen and her minions could not have understood what the mind can do, free of any bounds.
It could travel in day dreams, it could cause visions to appear that did not exist, and could connect with another similar mind.
How could the Queen of Hearts possibly understand the mind's connection? If the twins had realized that such a thing was possible in Wonderland, perhaps they would exploit such a discovery. But even with their combined evil genius, they could not fathom such an occurrence.
They were in control of Wonderland and all of its strangeness. Wonderland could not control itself; it had no mystical powers of its own. Such things could not happen in Wonderland.
But such things did happen in Wonderland.
Occasionally.
At that moment, while Alice was sitting in her circular cage, thinking of Hatter, Hatter was thinking of her.
He had broken out of his torture and had begun to run through the palace aimlessly. But then he heard a voice. Hatter, begin open to his madness, decided to hide himself and then sit and listen to the voice.
The reason why he decided to do this was because he recognized the voice in his head. The voice belonged to Alice.
Hatter closed his eyes and leaned his back against the wall and reduced his breathing to a minimum. He was thankful for the boxes which hid him from the people walking along the hallway.
When he closed his eyes he not only heard her voice, but he saw her. It was slightly fuzzy, and skewed but it was definitely her.
He wanted to tell her at that moment that he loved her. He wanted to tell her that he wanted to be with her more than anything. But he was speaking to a voice in his head, a vision due to his longings and not a real person.
Miss me? He thought to the visionary creature.
To his amazement she nodded. Though, since he was controlling this vision she of course would nod as that was would he would want her to do.
The vision was so sad and lonely.
Bad time? Asked Hatter jokingly to the girl he could see but not touch.
Hatter watched as the vision of Alice shrugged but still said nothing.
I can come back another time, he suggested with his mind to the fabricated creation of his mind.
Hatter sighed as the girl shook her head. He could tell that she was crying.
I'm coming for you, he said. Though the more this went on, the more he felt like an idiot for speaking with his mind to the thin air. There was no voice, there was no Alice, there was just Hatter sitting dumbly being covered by a bunch of boxes.
To Hatter's surprise he watched the vision laugh. That was odd…very odd. If this was truly all in his head, she would not have been chuckling at that. This made him doubt himself, and he felt a sharp pain begin to form in his chest.
No jokes, he said to the vision seriously trying to convince her and himself he was not mad, I'm going to save you from this.
Suddenly the vision began to fade. Before she faded away completely Hatter could have sworn that he heard her say, "I wish you would."
Hatter opened his eyes and swallowed. He was not sure what had just happened. Hatter peered to make sure that the coast was clear. Then he stood up and continued running through the hallways of this hell. But he ran with confusion and pain. The pain was still a tight feeling his chest that was now reaching his arms. But the confusion was due to the strange vision…or whatever it was. Hatter wasn't sure.
He couldn't focus on the confusion as the pain began to increase. He was thinking about the torture that the twins had given him. He was seeing Jack and Alice…together in one ugly blur of…something.
Hatter had to stop running because the pain was increasing. The pain was very nearly breaking him. He found a wall and sank down to the floor. Hatter closed his eyes and let the pain completely devour him.
Or at least…it would have devoured him, if not for the sudden rush of memories he was suddenly experiencing one after the other like fireworks. They were all of him…but they were being viewed from a completely different angle. He was watching himself ride a horse towards a swarm of suits and try battling them before they eventually over took him.
He chuckled despite the pain. Don't remember that, please. As he spoke to his mind he saw the vision again. This was truly bizarre. It wasn't my finest moment.
This had to be real. Hatter watched as he saw a tear fall from Alice's cheek. She had been crying, and greatly too because her eyes were red and watery. He couldn't believe that they had broken his strong, beautiful, and courageous Alice.
He wanted to comfort this vision, real or imaginary. He wanted to say something noble to her. And, for this moment his pain which had moments ago, assured him that these were his last minutes on earth, were beginning to evaporate.
Instead he said, You're crying.
Hatter clearly heard her reply this time. You're gone. I miss you.
Despite her words of sadness Hatter felt his heart beat quicken.
I miss you too.
Did anyone see that comming? what do you think? there are lots of things going on and i want to hear your thoughts on them...
