Author's Note: You know how I said these little nothings will all be about Alice as a kid and they'll go back and forth between Hatter and Alice telling the story? I take that back. This particular flashback is dedicated to the Mad Hatter and how his… unique appearance came about (basically, the Hatter's back story and a sort of prologue to the prologue of the first chapter of "Nightmares in Wonderland") and this time, it will be hurt/comfort and will not alternate between Alice's and the Hatter's POV's, instead going between Jack and Hatter. Sorry this isn't cute or fluffy like the last two flashbacks, but the next one to come will be back to how the others were written. :)
I work hard on this, so leave me a review and let me know what you'd like to see from these things! Enjoy!
Flashback: Face Paint
"Ugh!" I shouted, hitting the counter as I stumbled backwards from the blow delivered to me face. "Get out of my sight, you damn worthless waste of space!" my father shouted, glaring down at me before storming out of the room. Dazed and disoriented from the blow to my face and head, I staggered to my feet and clumsily made a beeline for the door before he could come back to finish the job.
Staying on my own two feet proved to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be as I finally stopped running altogether and sat down, cradling my head in my hands. "I have to get out of here!" I whispered to myself, taking my time in looking over the damage dealt to my body. My arms and torso were bruised pretty badly and my right leg sported a gash from my knee to a few inches above my ankle. My left eye is blackened and my lip is busted, joining the other minor cuts and gashes I received from the beating. Knowing Dad would come to find me, I started limping in the direction of my friend's house, hoping to get help.
It was well past dark when I reached Jack's home and wasted no time in knocking on the door as hard as I could to gain the attention of the family within. The door swung open unexpectedly, causing me to tumble onto the floor in an unceremonious heap and further injuring myself by landing on my arm and knees.
"Brian! What happened to you?!" Jack's sister, Jane, cried, shocked at my sudden appearance where the door had been moments before. "Don't ask questions now," I moaned, allowing myself to be lifted and carried to one of the many rooms in the household by Jack's father to have my wounds taken care of.
As the night wore on, I laid in the bed listening to the conversation of the Rabbit family in the living room, keeping hushed voices to try and insure I wouldn't hear them. "Mark, we have to do something! Brian's made many appearances with bruises and the like before, but never like this," Julianna, Jack's mom, whispered worriedly. "Julie, you can't make the boy speak if he doesn't want to. Though he doesn't say it out loud, I suspect it's abuse," Mark answered her, making me wince at the word 'abuse', knowing he hit the nail on the head. "What do we do about it, though? Brian may not want us to get involved with it and give him time to figure a way through it on his own," Jack's voice chimed in. "That as it may, the circumstances alone is enough to drive one mad aside from your friend's trade as a hatter," his father replied.
It was a good few minutes later that the conversation they were having ended and I jumped at the sound of someone knocking n the door and relaxed when Jack let himself in. "You wanna talk about it?" he questioned. "Jack, the reason I don't tell you what happened is because I don't want you know what happened, okay? It's bad enough I went through it, it'd be worse if you knew," I sighed, looking away from him.
"You can tell me anything, Brian. You're my best friend and friends look out for each other, right?" he said, leaving me with those words as he left the room, knowing he would have better luck winning a staring contest with a cup of tea.
Waking up before the sun had risen, I clambered out of bed and quietly opened the window and crawled out, headed for the city, knowing if I stayed my father would show up to take me back home with him kicking and screaming. That was one of the least savory things that could possibly happen to me at his hands as I hobbled along the path that led into the city.
Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months as I made myself scarce and resorted to my father's scare tactics and intimidation. In the times that I had gone underground, my one platinum colored hair turned pink, my face is now a deathly white outlined in heavy black makeup, and my eyes had gone from a dazzling shade of emerald to a disturbing bright yellow. All other color that made up my clothes had faded to black and white with yellow trimming. Normally I would've been terrified at the lack of color, but I was too numb to care and accepted the change.
(Jack's POV)
"Excuse me, have you seen our friend?" I asked, stopping a man to show him Brian's picture. At the shake of his head, I thanked him anyway and moved on. As I walked along, I became more and more distraught at Brian's disappearance and looked to my companion in concern, hoping someone would tell us they've seen him.
"Come on, Jack, the guy's only been under the radar for a couple months. He's a big boy, if he wanted us to come find him, he would've told us," Johnny said, taking a seat on the bench to rest a while. "Johnny boy, I doubt if you ran away after coming to someone for help they would shrug it off and wait for you to say, 'I need your help again'," I replied, shaking my head at him.
"You see that?"
"Huh? What?" I mumbled, getting snapped out of my thoughts.
"Ain't that Brian's top hat?" Johnny asked, getting out of his seat to follow it. Not knowing much else to do but follow him, I hoped it was who I thought it was as the hat's wearer dipped in and out of our line of sight as we tailed him.
(Hatter's POV)
Sensing eyes boring into my back, I glanced over my shoulder to see what exactly is invoking that feeling to see Jack and Johnny tailing me and inwardly cursed, not looking forward to the imminent confrontation with the duo.
"Hey, you!" Johnny shouted, the volume of his voice making me pick up my pace and much to my dismay, the duo did, too, and eventually caught up with me.
"Where did you get that?" Jack questioned me, taking my hat off my head and waving it around in my face. "What's it matter to you where I got it? It's mine," I snarked, yanking the hat out of his hands and continued down the street with Jack and Johnny still trailing after me.
"Wait a minute. That voice..." Jack trailed off, stepping in front of me to block my path. Trying to sidestep them, they moved with me, continuing to block my way and after a few more attempts at getting around them, I grew anxious and frustrated with them, sensing Jack's stubborn insistence won't let me leave so easily.
"... Brian? Is that you?"
I froze, wondering if they really did recognize me or if they were just guessing and my silence confirmed their suspicion. "What happened to you?" Johnny asked, eyes wide with disbelief as he looked me over. I looked away, feeling embarrassed for the first time in a while and shrugged my shoulders helplessly, unable to do much else.
Days passed since my friends had found me out and seeing as they wouldn't be able to get me to go back to my father, the three of us went and built me a new home some distance from the city in the woods surrounding it and the Pool of Tears. The only thing interesting that happened since the completion of the house was the tea party in my front yard and my fight with Time and his punishment by making it six o' clock 24/7 for me and the others. Not that I didn't mind it.
Taking a seat at the head of the table, I sighed and poured myself a fresh cup of tea, but didn't drink it, knowing in a few minutes Jack or Johnny would scream they needed a clean cup and make me move again. I jumped at the sudden start of a song and scowled at the rabbit-boy who started it as he sang (it seems more like shouting than singing to my ears) and rolled my eyes, a loud groan escaping me when Johnny joined in. After twenty minutes of listening to the other boys' singing, it seemed like it would never end, propping my elbow on the table and rested my chin in my hand, starting to doze off until a soft voice called out, "H-hello?"