I just went back and read my work on the site, and I noticed a couple of grammatical errors that I somehow missed and they are driving me insane. Can someone please message me and tell me how I can fix it? Thanks. ~Static
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4. Damaged Nerves
That's it, Alice thought to herself, I'm going to kill Boris. And in that moment, she'd have gladly shot him with his own gun and smiled about it. She'd have danced on his corpse and laughed. When his body disappeared, she'd track down Ace and gleefully present him with Boris's clock and she would have felt absolutely no regret. This is just how angry the Outsider was, and the Cheshire Cat had no idea.
As for what had happened to upset the 17-year-old so much, that was easy. She'd been sound asleep. She was comfortably wrapped up in her blankets in the infirmary and for the first time since she'd been dropped into this insane place, she slept well. No nightmares, no Nightmare, not even a dream. For the first time, she'd been completely at peace, and then Boris just had to go and wake her up. Now this offense, she could forgive, however just as she was about to ask why he woke her up, he blindfolded her, bound her hands and feet, and threw her over his shoulder announcing that he was taking her somewhere. All she could do at this point was blindly scream profanities at him while trying to get her momentary fear under control.
"Dang Alice, where'd you hear that word? There is no way you know what it means." He laughed as he pulled her away from the comfort of the Amusement Park Infirmary.
"I'll tell you what it means!" She snarled back and continued calling him names.
"Whoa," a young-sounding voice interrupted, "I didn't know onee-san said things like that." It stated in shocked awe,
"What did you do?" Another asked reverently. Boris had brought her to see the twins. And they'd heard her yelling swear words at the cat. There was no way they'd ever let her live this down.
"Nothing. I woke her up and threw her over my shoulder, next thing I know she's calling me a–"
"For the love of whatever you think is holy SHUT! UP!" the girl wailed, struggling to be let down,
"Alice, no offense, but I probably shouldn't put you down yet." She could hear the smile in Boris's voice. That's right; her ankle still wasn't fully healed. For a brief moment, she wondered what was actually happening right now up in the real world, but soon forgot to care when another voice – the absolute last one she wanted to hear right now – spoke up.
"Well what do we have here?" The voice sounded amused, and she half expected it to make some lewd comment backhandedly calling her a slut.
"I hate my life." She whimpered into the cat's back, and then louder, "Hey Blood? If I ask really nicely, will you kill Boris?" The perpetrator in question laughed,
"But you seem to be having fun." He definitely sounded entertained.
"I hate all of you!" She yelled, "What makes you think it's a good idea to kidnap an injured person?!"
"But you said you didn't want to be bored!" The cat objected,
"I think that you and I have very different definitions of bored, Boris! Sleeping is not bored and being abducted against my will is not fun!" She retorted, "Now take me back to the infirmary so I can heal!"
"Make me." Was his answer, and it got deathly quiet. Having been unable to see for almost half an hour, Alice's other senses had started to kick in. She could hear the twins draw in a breath, waiting for her next mental explosion. She could hear Blood muffling his laughter, and she could feel herself starting to slip. You know what? She thought to herself, If I'm honestly crazy. I might as well play the part.
"Boris," she said very calmly, "If you don't take me back right now, I will personally steal your favorite knife and vivisect you. I'll make stew out of your organs and I will feed it to the dogs. I'll personally deliver your clock to Julius and I will feel no remorse." And for a moment it was quiet. Then Blood started laughing.
"You must've infuriated her to no end, cat," he stated, "Such a threat over nothing more than lost sleep." There it was, that familiar condescending tone she'd become so accustomed to hearing from him alone, "How childish." She was going to say something, but then it occurred to her. There was absolutely no point in fighting with him, in defending herself to him. He's not real; she thought to herself, he doesn't exist. His opinion doesn't matter. For the first time since she'd met him, she didn't rise to the bait. She got the feeling he didn't like that. "Hmm? Nothing to say for yourself, young miss?" Still she remained quiet, "Now you're going to sulk too? Wow, this is a new low for you." She wanted to stay silent; she really did, but that word 'sulk', that had struck a nerve.
Alice could hear her sisters' voice in that word, telling her to grow up. "Now please stop sulking and be happy for me!" Her sister told her that it didn't matter. She could hear the woman saying that her disgrace didn't matter, that it was childish for Alice to feel such horror over her shame. She said this even though in any other family, Lorina and her lover would have been shunned for what they did. However, Alice was different. It didn't matter if she was hurt, even by something so socially taboo, there'd be no consequences for those who'd done the damage. She'd been a pawn in his game, and nothing more, and no one had cared. The word that Blood had used reminded her of that. She threw Ace's advice to the wind, and let the words escape,
"You behave as if your opinion matters." She said softly, calmly, and she knew she'd caught him by surprise,
"What?" He hissed dangerously. At this point, both Boris and the twins had stopped laughing and were hardly breathing. They recognized the tone of voice that the Hatter was using, and it usually meant that someone wouldn't be breathing much longer.
"I said," Alice enunciated slowly, "You behave as if your opinion matters."
"It doesn't?" He asked, deceptively calm,
"Nope," she answered without missing a beat, "Because you're not real." That one phrase surprised everyone, the Hatter laughed,
"You can't possibly think you're still dreaming? How quaint."
"I know that I'm not dreaming." She said as he started walking away, "I've simply gone mad." Her voice had lost all the emotion. "I'm probably sitting in the asylum, right now, talking to thin air…" She trailed off, so quiet that even Boris's ear strained to hear. There was a moment of silence.
"…We're all mad here." And that was all the Hatter said before he ordered the twins away, threatening to dock their pay if they took too long. Boris was left with the duty of getting a mentally rattled Alice all the way back to the Amusement Park.
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I didn't mean for this chapter to end that...sad. Nonetheless, I feel quite happy with it. Now that Alice has started alienating her friends, the real action can begin. Maybe now I can put some time into inventing my own back story explaining what happened with Alice, Blood's look-alike and Lorina, since it's never really been specified. (They never even said what the guy's name was.) Could be interesting, anyway R&R! :3
