A/N: You guys are the sweetest! I'm eating up the reviews and favs like a piece of gooey, chocolate cake. Thanks a bunch! Of course I own nothing.
"Now isn't that sweet?" she heard a syrupy voice hiss next to her ear.
Her entire body now paralyzed with fright, Alice's eyes shot open to see Maìri lying easily across the bed next to her. Alice opened her now bone dry mouth to scream when she saw the woman withdraw a dagger from between her full bosom, horrified when she was unable to let out more than a squeak.
'She's going to kill me!' Alice thought desperately. 'She's going to kill me and no one can hear me!'
"You know, Iracebeth and I thought this plan was foolproof, but apparently not since you refuse to leave. Now since you refuse to leave, I'll just have to get rid of you," Maìri continued smoothly, twirling the dagger round in her hand.
Her heart pounding in terror, Alice managed to shakily get out of the bed, furtively searching around for anything to use as a weapon. Like a tiger stalking its prey, Maìri slid off the bed and countered Alice's every move. Fleetingly thinking of the Vorpal sword, Alice knew she didn't have anything remotely close to a knife in her room. Finding the next best thing, she suddenly turned and picked up the teapot from the little table near the window and threw it at Maìri's head and tried to run. Not realizing how fast she was, the woman was hot on Alice's trail and caught her before she could get to the door, grabbing Alice's hair and wrenching it by the roots. Her voice finally returning, Alice screamed and kicked and clawed at the hand that refused to release its hold on her, which enraged Maìri even more.
"Shout all you want, no one can hear you," she hissed in Alice's ear, before fisting a handful of hair and slamming Alice's head against the wall.
Alice's heard a sickening crunch before she realized that her nose met flush against the wall, blood now streaming down her face and into her mouth. "One way or another you're going to die, why fight it Alice? You'll just make it harder on yourself."
Unable to focus on anything except the throbbing pain in her center of her face, Alice felt her heart racing even faster as Maìri then pulled her body against hers, the silver dagger tracing the skin at the base of Alice's throat. "Now where should I cut?" she asked sweetly, while gesturing with the knife. "Left to right? Or from stem to stern? Left to right would be less messy, I'd hate to ruin this pristine white room-"
Maìri suddenly cut off her sentence as she let out a loud scream, her knife slipping and slicing into the skin above Alice's left breast. Roughly shoving the young woman away from her, Alice smashed right into the looking glass that was mounted on the wall. Falling down to the floor, Alice barely registered that her head had broken the glass and shards of it were covering her, some cutting into the back of her head and into her shoulders and arms.
Maìri now paid no mind to Alice; she was too preoccupied with the unmistakable sensation of something stabbing her feet and legs over and over again, however she couldn't see anything through the voluminous gowns of her dress and she was dancing and squirming about, much like a witch being burned at the stake.
Losing blood rapidly and her head swimming, Alice felt herself slipping into unconsciousness when the door suddenly flew open. Tarrant, Mirana and several of her White Knights bombarded the room, immediately rushing at the still writhing Maìri. Tarrant promptly bounded over to a barely coherent Alice, whom was laying in a heap on the floor, blood all over her face, gown and staining her golden curls. Tarrant felt grief tearing at him, thinking Alice was dead, then anger when he knew Maìri was responsible for it. Red with rage, he balled his hands tightly and was set on choking the life from Maìri when Chessur materialized at his shoulder.
"She's not dead Tarrant, but you will need to stop the bleeding," he calmly told Tarrant after surveying the slash across her chest. Feeling slightly relieved, Tarrant pressed his hand palm side down on Alice's chest, pressing firmly onto her wound until she stopped bleeding.
Merely a few feet from them, two of the White Knights were holding a thrashing Maìri firmly by the cuff of her arms. "Open her mouth," Mirana told another Knight, as she withdrew a small bottle from the pocket of her frilly white dress. After dumping the contents of the bottle down her throat, Mirana stood back and waited for the potion to work. After mere seconds, the seams of the gown began to strain and rip as if it was suddenly too small. The nude form of a woman remained, with many branded red hearts emblazoned into the stomach and back. Suddenly the flesh began melting away from the body as the creature screamed and writhed, still unable to escape the grip of the White Knights. The velvet gown now crumpled on the ground, a creature with eyes as dark as cesspools standing in the middle of it remained. Huffing and puffing, its dark wings emerged, talons on the hands and feet scraping against the ground and air trying to find purchase yet failing.
Swearing in Outlandish, Tarrant felt the terror creeping to his bones as he looked at the demonic creature. "What did she give it?" he asked out loud in horror to no one in particular.
"A truth serum, if you might," Chessur answered. "It not only brings your true appearance forth, but the intended is rendered unable to lie."
"Why are you here?" Mirana asked it, firmly standing her ground and looking it straight in the eye.
"I'm here to do the Red Queen's bidding, getting rid of The Alice by any means," it answered in a venomous tone.
"So you were planning on killing our Champion?" Mirana countered.
"Yes!" it answered, growling and futilely trying to yank away from the White Knights.
"Do what you must, please spare me the details," Mirana said, turning to one of the Knights. After nodding their approval, they removed the snarling creature whom was still howling from the room. Hearing its bloodcurdling yells echoing through the halls of the castle,Mirana was still reeling from the terror of the creature, and had to regain her composure before rushing over to Chessur and Mally whom had unearthed herself and was leaning against her hatpin sword and was standing by Tarrant who was kneeling by Alice, his hand still pressed against her chest.
Gasping at all of the broken glass strewn about, Mirana was alarmed by the sight of Alice covered in blood. "How badly hurt is she?" Mirana gasped, gently prying Tarrant's hand back from her chest to see how deep Alice's wound was.
"I'm not sure," Tarrant replied desperately, feeling quite helpless. The three watched as Mirana gently tipped Alice onto her side, gently parting her hair and examining the cuts on her scalp.
"Well she has a nasty bump and it's apparent that the glass cut her, but thankfully not too deep and there's none left behind," Mirana amended. "But we should make haste to the infirmary."
Without a second thought, Tarrant gently slid his arms underneath Alice and picked her up, nearly running after Mirana with Chessur and Mally trailing behind as they hustled to the infirmary.
After shooing Mally and Chessur from the room, Tarrant cut away the bloodied gown that was beginning to stick to Alice's skin. He and Mirana found that she'd suffered a minor nose break, and the gash on her chest had to be sewn shut, but thankfully they'd only found minor scratches and bruises on the rest of her body. Alice never awoke during the entire ordeal, not even when her nose was reset back into place which Tarrant had to do, as Mirana found herself feeling faint at the idea.
Alice was given a double portion of Mirana's sleeping draught, and told Tarrant that she would probably stay asleep throughout the next day or so. Feeling guilty about everything that had transpired, Tarrant refused to leave Alice's side, even after Mirana urged him to get some sleep on the bed adjacent from hers.
"Nae, I'm staying right here," he said stubbornly, picking up one of Alice's small hands between his two. Knowing that it was futile to argue with the Hatter, Mirana told him to send someone to fetch her if she was needed and with that left the infirmary.
For the next day and a half, Tarrant barely left Alice's side. He never changed his clothes, and the lacy cuffs of his shirt still bore Alice's dried blood. Once he fell asleep sitting upright and toppled right off his chair and awoke to find himself on the floor. After that he lay on the bed next to Alice, whom somehow seemed to sense his presence even in her unaware state. A few times Tarrant could have sworn he heard Alice calling his name yet when he loomed over her to see if she was awake he found that her eyes were still tightly shut.