Chapter 7
The Golden Rain
Alice woke up feeling very solid. Her body was as still as the untouched sand on the sea bed, but her heart was pounding. She hadn't had a dream, let alone one that real, for the longest time. That frightening in a long time.
A crack of light streamed through the barely open door to the Hatter's bedroom. She had gone to sleep alone and woken up alone since the Hatter was supposedly asleep in the front room, after he insisted that Alice have the only bed in the house. But sleeping on the sofa was not without its problems; the most difficult of which being moving a stubborn Cheshire from its centre. Now even though the sofa had a sleeping Hatter on it, it also bore a line of distinct gashes down its back cushions caused by Cheshire's pointed claws.
The sofa was not the only injured party of that evening. When Alice, the Hatter and Chess went to bath the ragged cat she had shown a feeling stronger than reluctance. The three of them seemed to loom over her ominously in the packed bathroom. The Hatter's bathroom was quite small and crowded with multicoloured glass bottles, and so the four of them could only fit with great difficulty. Alice couldn't understand why cats hated water so much, she had been the one who had asked to be cleaned up after all. Didn't she realise that that would entail water? Once Alice managed to run a warm bath and get the feline into the water without it bounding out again, like the counter magnetic force between the wrong side of a magnet, she moved on to the shampoo. But the moment Alice went to apply the soap, the cat's ears flicked back and her expression turned murderous. Before Alice had time to register what was going on, a wet and spiky ball of fury came flying at her with its teeth and claws exposed. Her paws latched onto her face and dug deep into her skin. The claws of her back feet sank painfully into the skin above Alice's collarbones and on the side of her face. Alice's vision blurred as one thick transparent claw caught the corner of eyelid. This all happened within a matter of seconds before the Hatter tore the animal off of Alice and dunked it back in the warm water. Foam and soapy water splashed everywhere as Alice leant against a long wall mirror as she felt her face and chest stinging and prickling. She lifted her hand from her face and saw that it was drenched with dark blood. Her hand pressed on the mirror behind her in an attempt to stay upright, and some of her blood mixed with the condensation, making it look as if the mirror's surface was studded with rubies. Through her shock Alice noticed that the Hatter had been holding the ragged cat under the water for an awfully long time. Then she noticed the crazed look in his eyes and the charcoal blackness that surrounded them; he was trying to drown her. For a moment Alice watched him in utter awe. The strength that came over him when the madness took him seemed to grasp her heart tightly inside of her and cease its beat whenever she glimpsed it. It was something like fear except there was something else to it… something pleasurable.
"Hatter!" she shouted as she and Chess rushed forward to free the ragged soapy cat from his grasp. But as soon as he saw the blood running down Alice's face and chest, the blackness swiftly faded from his eyes, allowing the pale blue and purple to return as the cat emerged from the water coughing and spluttering.
"What the hell was that? You bloody lunatic!" It screeched with a distinct and grating growl at the back of her voice. Cheshire floated over to her and asked her a question, to which she nodded in response.
"Alice, you're bleeding…" said the Hatter quietly as he slowly raised his hands to her lacerations. His face was filled with sincere worry, even guilt.
"My goodness, look at you ." gasped Cheshire after checking that the ragged cat was alright. He glided over to Alice, his eyes wide with concern.
Alice didn't know what to do. Feeling awkward, she looked round the Hatter and at the ragged cat who (to Alice's surprise) looked remorseful for what she had done. "Are you alright?" asked Alice tilting her head to see the cat's face.
"I'm sorry! I just can't control it! I don't go well with water." she blurted out, ignoring Alice's question. The words sounded unnatural but genuine as they came from her mouth.
"Then why didn't you tell me?" asked Alice, concealing the annoyance in her voice well.
"I thought I could handle it." replied the cat hurriedly, realising she had let her guard down.
"Cheshire." said the Hatter oblivious to their conversation. "Could you get some antiseptics please? I'll take Alice through to the front room." Cheshire signalled in agreement and glided through to the kitchen, whilst the Hatter led Alice through to the sitting room, as if she'd just been through a traumatic experience. It was true, he sometimes forgot that this was the girl who had slain the Jabberwocky only a month previous, and not the delicate child from years ago.
"Hatter, there's no need to look so worried." she smiled at him as he sat her down gently. "It's just a couple of scratches."
"The amount of blood all over you says otherwise." he said matter-of-factly as he ripped a clean white handkerchief into strips. "I doubt your body would leak that much blood if you weren't seriously hurt."
"I think I'd know if I was seriously hurt, and my body's been though rather a lot today; it's probably just confused." said Alice, mimicking the Hatter's tone and logic.
Cheshire came in a moment later with a limestone bowl filled with transparent liquid which he then placed on the coffee table next to Alice. The Hatter proceeded to soak the strips of material in the bowl. When he went to dab one of the clothes to Alice's face she raised her had to his and stopped him.
"What's in that solution?" she asked. She didn't want them just putting anything into her wounds.
"Just some antiseptics, and some of my saliva," replied Cheshire. "But it's a wonder I managed to find them; your kitchen is a disaster Tarrant."
"You spat in this…?" said Alice, feeling a little disgusted. But they seemed not to hear her.
"There's nothing wrong with my kitchen." said the Hatter indignantly.
"There's no point in denying it." said Cheshire in a persuasive tone. "If you'd let me tidy it, you'll hear no more complaints from me."
"You will not touch a thing in that kitchen." he said definitely, as if he'd heard this argument before "It'll be impossible for me to locate anything if you do."
"But you can't find anything in there as it is." said Cheshire as if pleading for the Hatter to reconsider.
"And if you tidy it I won't even know where to start." said the Hatter, giving Cheshire a "I will not be swayed by you, cat." kind of look.
"Did you really spit in this Cheshire?" Alice asked, breaking up their little tiff.
"Indeed I did." he replied. When he saw the slightly revolted look on her face he added: "It's a known antiseptic."
The two of them went at it to clean her wounds. Cheshire soaked and cleaned the rags while the Hatter dabbed at her scratches, as gently as the flap of butterfly wings. Alice couldn't help grinning when she saw the careful concentration in his face. The ragged cat sat in front of the fire and watched as they tended to Alice's wounds as her fur dried. To Alice's amazement her scratches were healing incredibly quickly. When Alice asked why that was, the Hatter remarked. "Oh, the magic of cat spit," in an impression of Cheshire's voice.
That night she had retired to the Hatter's bed in a pleasant enough mood, but now Alice stared up at the ceiling with unblinking eyes. The only dream she had had throughout her life was the one of Underland. And that hadn't been a dream. It had been a memory. So what was this dream? An omen? A warning? The future? She was certain that it wasn't another repressed memory. She would have remembered this. Alice pealed herself away from the sheets and got out of bed. Even though she knew it was still night time, she was never going to get back to sleep.
x§x¨x©xªxXxªx©x¨x§x
The Hatter stood on the tiny balcony and gazed up at the stars as his mind played, rewound and paused the events of that day. Alice had only been there for a few hours, but already she'd been shrunk, scratched and stripped. But still she smiled at him; As if it didn't matter that he had brought her down there only to suffer such an ordeal. Or maybe she hadn't realised that it was him, who'd sent Thackery up to Overland to barter with the rabbits of that land, and plant the package in one of the rabbit holes. The hatbox and expertly sewn cocoon should have been a dead giveaway. But maybe he hadn't been at the forefront of her mind when she'd found it.
He knew she wouldn't stay long. She never did. Like a soap bubble; it would glisten and entertain you for a moment, but then it would inevitably pop. And you can't coax a bubble to stay, for fear it would pop earlier than if you hadn't. But still the temptation is always there; to trap it in a cage of your fingers and watch the rainbow lights melt miserably around its surface. The Hatter sighed and watched the moths float about in the light of the moon, moving gracefully but hectically like dust in a ray of sun. He wanted her to stay. He really did. Almost enough to risk her opinion of him, and ask her to stay, and tell her all of the things he'd wished to tell her. But that would be crossing some sort of line. A line that everyone has in their minds. The Hatter wondered where he had acquired his. He certainly hadn't put it there, so someone else must have placed it in his head. He cursed the people who had put the line in his head, and himself for placing it so close to his toes. The Hatter was sure that it was a cat who had placed "The line" in his mind. They seemed to relish in the experience of correcting others. The Hatter rewound back to the tea party of that late afternoon and played the ragged cat's words in his mind: "Him? In case you haven't noticed girl, he's a lunatic. I couldn't deal with his madness every day, even if he was my only hope!" He knew that Alice could deal with his madness on a daily basis, but whether she wanted to was a different matter; and he wasn't about to ask her to either.
Then all of a sudden a rather dazed looking Alice stepped onto the balcony with him. Her skin shone slightly with a cold sweat that covered her face.
"Alice?" said the Hatter, surprised to see her up so late.
"I couldn't sleep." she replied drowsily but brightly. "You?"
"Something like that." he smiled, then asked her: "Why couldn't you sleep? I know that room is rather full, I don't usually have guests you see." (the Hatter thought to himself: "very few people venture into the house of a mad man")
"No, the room was fine." she said quickly as she felt her cheeks turn the slightest shade of pink. The room had been more than fine. Alice had taken great delight in laying in his bed, in his clothes, with his smell surrounding her and his voice echoing in her head. As she lay there she remembered all that time she had spent in the Overland trying to recreate the feeling of Underland; had she been in that scenario then, surrounded by Hatter-ness, then she would have been overjoyed.
"I had a dream." she said after a moment, as she leaned on the edge of the balcony.
"Not a bad one I hope." he asked concernedly and empathetically. He knew what it was to be plagued by nightmares.
"Not exactly…" she said pensively. "I've only ever had one dream, all through my life, and then it stopped when I came back here. So it feels strange to have a different one."
"What happened?" asked the Hatter unable to restrain his curiosity. "In the dream I mean."
"I…" Alice wasn't sure about telling him. Then she thought that she was just being silly; she could confide and trust in him. "We were dancing. At a party in the woods, I think-"
"What kind of dancing?" he asked.
"A slow dance with a lot of twirling and spinning." She laughed, she found his boyish inquisitiveness quite endearing. "And I think it was at night, because there were lanterns in the trees. And the White Queen was there, but she didn't look very happy, and she wouldn't talk to me."
"That's very unlike Mirana." remarked the hatter, his brow creasing.
"I'm sure that it's very unlike you to dance slowly as well." she said looking straight into his face as she watched his expression soften. "And after a while of talking to the other party goers, you danced me closer to the shade and…" This was the part of the dream she hadn't wanted to disclose to the Hatter. In the dream he had danced her up close to a shady tree and kissed her passionately, on her mouth and all down her neck. And she had kissed him back of course, as she held his left hand tightly in hers. And as she looked up to the stars… But he didn't need to know that part. "… and then I looked up at the stars and I felt a sharp pain in my left side. It hurt so much that I sank to my knees on the dance floor."
The Hatter's eyes drifted down to look at her left side, as if checking if there really was something there.
"And then?" he asked quietly.
"And then… people started screaming. And then I saw that there was a dagger in my side and a lot of blood. And you held me in your arms, and said everything would be alright. That I'd be okay." Alice looked up at him and saw that he looked very troubled by what she was saying. His bright amber-green eyes where glistening with tears as he hung on her every word.
"And then, the stars fell from the sky, like golden rain shooting down to the earth and all around us. And you shook your head and I… I closed my eyes."
"Then?" he croaked.
"Then I woke up." she attempted to smile up at him, to reassure him that the dream hadn't affected her; but it had, and she couldn't. As her smile faltered the Hatter moved forward.
"Alice, are you alright?" he asked so quietly she could barely hear him. She could feel tears swelling up behind her eyes. Realising that trying to talk was futile, she threw her arms around him and wept into his chest. The Hatter raised his arms slowly up her back, as if afraid he would hurt her. Then settled his hands on her back as he felt her hand clutching at his jacket.
"Don't worry." he said soothingly as he rubbed his hands up and down her back. "It was only a dream, it can't hurt you."
"You don't understand." she whispered through her tears as she looked up at him. "The only other dream I've ever had was real. It was a memory. What…" she almost felt too afraid to say it "What if this one's real too. What if it's going to…"
"It won't." he said forcefully "I'll protect you."
Alice looked up into his face. She trusted him. She believed him. But what if that wasn't enough? What if he simply couldn't protect her.
"Please stay." he said as if he had read her mind; held her face in his hands and stroked her tears away with thimbled fingers. "I'll try and protect you. I want to…"
He trailed off. He was treading very close to the line. But she was his Alice, and it was only his stupid mental line.
"I've missed you Alice," If he was crossing the line now, he was sure it would be lashing him. "And I didn't want you to come back here only to have nightmares and your face scratched and your body stolen. But I promise I can make it better, if you stay."
Alice was trembling and she was sure he could feel it. She had missed him more than she could say, but she couldn't bring the words out.
"You missed me?" she asked shakily.
"'The first time I'd cried from missing someone." There was something like a laugh in the back of his voce as the two of them began to smile.
"Well in that case," she said, taking both of his hands in hers. "I swear to stay as long as you want me here."
The Hatter brought her hands up towards his heart, as the stars remained firmly fixed in their places in the sky; for the time being.
A/N That was the longest chapter so far, thank you so much for baring with it. I'm especially anxious to hear people's opinions/ reactions to this chapter. So please review, it really does speed up the creative process!
Thanks xxx ^_^
