Chapter fourteen

Carol watched her daughter with sympathy and worry as she shuffled around the little house getting ready for work. She had seen her after her father had disappeared, Alice was a stubborn one who wasn't likely to give up easily, but somehow this time she was different. She seemed more fragile and desperate than Carol had ever seen her before. As a mother she would do anything just to see her smile again, or fight back or just show any sign of life inside of her. Instead she retreated inside of herself, barely talking to her mother and obsessed with mirrors for god only knows what reason. The only time that Carol actually heard her say anything more than a one word sentence was in her sleep, and even then Carol couldn't figure out what was going on inside of her head. Sometimes she cried in her sleep too, or reached out her arms for someone who wasn't there. Carol had taken to checking on her in the night like she used to when she was just a little girl; it broke her heart to see her baby girl in so much pain and sadness and be powerless to do anything about it. When she found that David Hatter she hoped to god that he would suffer just as much as her Alice had.

Carol walked with Alice to Amber's Antiques and stood with her arms crossed in the doorway, looking at the place sceptically. It looked pretty much the same as it had the last time she had set foot inside of it, which just showed how very bad business must be if most of the stock hadn't been shifted from last year. Amber too looked exactly the same, short, plump with greying, unruly hair that was loosely held back with a big brown clip at the nape of her neck and glasses propped at the very top of her head. Carol never could stand the woman. She was far too messy and chaotic and it was a wonder at all how she kept a business going. Alice on the other hand seemed to smile graciously at the woman as she embraced her tightly and went to hang her coat in the back room, leaving Carol and Amber alone for a few moments.

"Amber." Carol smiled politely and shortly as she gave the woman a quick nod of her head.

"Carol." Amber returned the gesture right before an awkward silence swallowed them. The only sound in the shop was the constant ticking from a Grandfather clock beside Carol. Thankfully, Alice returned quickly,

"So what exactly do you do here Alice?" Carol asked, trying and failing to keep her tone light and conversational.

"I clean down all the pieces. Bring new pieces out, arrange them and then watch the shop whilst Amber goes out to auctions in the afternoon." Alice explained, "Sometimes I also help deliver a piece to an address or go along to auctions."

Carol bit her tongue to stop her from complaining about how it wasn't a proper job and she could do so much more if she pushed herself. Instead she decided to stroll around the shop and see what it had to offer. She was peering inside of an old oak wardrobe near the back of the store when she heard Alice whispering to Amber. From what Carol could make out, she was telling her about the latest mirror she had bought but Amber wasn't very impressed by the news. Carol leaned in further to hear more just as Alice appeared around the other side of the wardrobe, causing Carol to jump. Alice had a scornful expression as she looked back in the direction of Amber,

"I'm going to get a few things from the shop round the corner. Do you want to come?" Alice asked. An hour ago Carol would have jumped at the chance of Alice asking her to go somewhere with her, but right now she had other things on her mind.

"Not right now, darling. You go on ahead. I want to look at some more things here." Carol smiled and Alice shrugged her shoulders before leaving the shop loudly and noisily.

Once she was gone, Carol casually made her way to the front of the store and faced Amber,

"Alice needs help." Carol stated, staring Amber in the eyes,

"I couldn't agree more." Amber looked down at her desk sadly, "Ever since that no good fiancé of hers disappeared she's been acting so strangely."

"I'm glad we agree on something." Carol sighed her relief, "I'm telling you, when I get my hands on him..." she trailed off and took a deep breath, "What is with the mirrors?" she asked. Amber's eyes seemed to widen slightly but she soon covered it,

"I don't know. She bought the first one from here, and ever since she's been going mad with them. I guess, I guess they give her hope. What hope, I don't know. But it's not healthy. You need to get her to get rid of them."

"She won't listen to me. In fact, she seems to have grown close to you. Couldn't you try to help?" Carol looked at Amber suspiciously,

"I've tried." Amber held her hands up in surrender, "I've tried every way that I know how, and short of coming round with a sledge hammer and smashing all the mirrors, which believe me, I've considered, there isn't much else I can do."

"Charlie!" Hatter tried to pull the old man down but his ankle was secured tightly. He hung upside down from the tree. Hatter pulled Charlie's invention that he had used to open the vents from his pocket and attempted to cut the rope that suspended him with it.

"Jack!" Hatter called as he tried to cut the rope, "Jack are you here?"

"Who wants to know?" A gruff voice asked. It seemed to be coming from the trees.

"It's Hatter and Charlie. We're looking for Jack and everyone else." Hatter felt quite stupid talking to a tree, but he didn't have much of a choice.

"There's no Jack here. Go away." A familiar voice called back, it sounded as if it were behind him. Hatter turned to the tree behind him, "Owl, is that you?"

"What? N...no... Go away." The familiar Scottish twang called back at him, "There's no use Duck, he knows it's us." She sighed.

"Just get Jack." Hatter called back. Why those two had been left in charge of protecting the people he didn't know. It was bad enough when they were hiding in the Great Library, but in trees? They were hopeless.

A few moments later Jack appeared at the top of the tree, and climbed down to meet them, followed by Duchess. Both looked worse for wear, it grubby and ripped clothes and like they hadn't washed in a year. Jack smiled and embraced Hatter tightly, who was more than a little bit shocked at this display of affection from someone who couldn't stand him just four months ago.

"Hatter. You don't know how glad I am to see you. Where's Alice?" Jack looked around as if she were likely to jump out from behind a tree,

"I...I don't know." Hatter stuttered, "I think, and I hope that she's back in her own world."

"But Wonderland needs her." Duchess almost snarled, "How could she just abandon us like that?"

"She didn't abandon you. She didn't know. Neither of us did. I got pushed through a mirror and ended up here only to be greeted by some not so friendly knights who shoved me in a dark cell with Charlie."

"How did you escape?" Jack asked,

"Through the vents." Hatter stated, "I have Charlie to thank for it actually." Hatter gestured his head to him.

"Yes, and I'd be happy to tell you the full story if one of you would get me down from here!" Charlie spat as he spun slightly, still suspended by his ankle.

"Oh, sorry about that." Jack smiled and produced a dagger from his pocket which he used to cut the rope free. "Not many people come into this part of the forest, but you can't be too careful."

"Yeah, why the trees?" Hatter asked, looking up at the towering trees above him.

"It's off the ground so we're safe from the Jabberwock and any Knights that happen to ride through. We're high up so we have a vantage point and can see people coming, but they don't see us. We tried to use the Great Library for a while, but someone betrayed us and the whole place was burnt down. This is the safest place for us. We even have a guard dog of sorts." Jack smiled,

"Speaking of, he would have heard you shouting. We should get up before he comes back." Duchess started climbing the nearest tree. For such a pampered girl she sure knew how to climb. Jack climbed up next followed slowly by Charlie and Hatter behind him. Once they got to the top the familiar screech of the Jabberwock filled the air. Hatter's senses seemed to overtake him, the smells and the sounds. It was all so Wonderland.

Hatter turned to see how the resistance had been living. Tree houses filled every tree, hidden in amongst the great masses of leaves and branches. They were small enough not be noticed easily from the ground and well hidden with camouflage, but big enough to house a few people per tree. Some even had walk ways between them made from branches secured together. It was way more advanced than Hatter's little tree platform back home.

Hatter ran his hand up on the walls of the tree house in front of him jealously. When he got back he was going to make that tree house in the garden the best tree house in the world. He didn't care how long it took. If they could do it here in Wonderland with hardly any resources, he could do it back in Alice's world.

"Welcome to the resistance." Jack smiled, breaking through Hatter's thoughts, "Now, I want to know everything."