Sorry its taken me SOOOOOOO long ot write this!
We finally learn who the Masquerade is! Woot!
It was a cold day in Underland. Colder than it's been in years. Ice layered the marble walkway into the palace of Marmoreal while a fresh blanket of pure white snow covered the cobblestone path of Salazen Grum.
In Aboveland, Alice Kingsley was in a terrible worry. She remembered everything. From Mally to the Bandersnatch. She remembered the Red Queen and White. She remembered the vorpal sword and the Jabberwocky. From a red mask to the terrible screams. And that nagging uncertainty... All she wished to do was to get back to the place that she loved. To the people she loved.
She talked about it constantly, and was soon introduced to the man who would forever change her life. He was a tall man of six feet and four inches with knowing blue eyes. He always wore the same white clothing everyday, along with his signature wide-brimmed glasses. His name was Harold. Harold B. Covington.
The director of the London Institution of the Mentally Insane.
Underland
Tarrant
I feel the cool sheets beneith my burning fingers, their comfort only minimal to the horrid pain in my mind. I would have thought I was back in the dungeon with Ilosovic, but I knew the Knave was dead. Still, I could hear the lashes, feel the pain, but I knew they were only phantom pains.
At least, most of them were.
I remembered my screams as the Red Queen ordered my newest weapon in the vast collection I already held. Only this one, I would carry with me always. I had no choice.
Dear God it burns!
I opened my eyes in what seemed like forever. They were hazy at first, taking several batting of my lashes to clear them. In an instant I knew where I was, yet I wished to never have been there again.
I was back in my chambers.
In the palace of the Red Queen.
In Salazen Grum.
My back arched as another wave of pain ripped through my torso, the screams belting from my lips in a dizzy. In an instant, I was accompanied by the nurse that was clad in red and black hearts. So kindly she dabbed at my forehead with a cool damp cloth, surprising me that it didn't sizzle against my burning flesh. Her name was Cathleen. She was the kindest person I knew in the castle.
She told me that the Queens had made a truce for the moment, seeing as though their warriors had been injured. My mouth opened to speak the first words in weeks. I had to correct her, my heart suddenly in more pain then the rest of my body. Alice was gone, slain by my own fingers. Her name burned itself in my head.
She shook her head warmly, dabbing with fervor. She was alive, but was sent back to Aboveland, where it was safe. "Safe from what?" I asked, and she sighed once more. That's when I froze, figuring the month that was to pass. My breath caught in my throat as I whispered "Masquerade..."
She and I froze in fear, quivering in our own self torturement. It was not my noblename that we feared at, but another. The one that had once been pure, yet turned so evil. The one that had given the Red Queen her motto, "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!".
It was the creature that lurked within the hearts of even the purest of souls, the purest of which belonged to the White Queen. It was like the devil, coaxing you with words to make you turn. It was the devil, more demon than man, who created the Jabberwocky, a bit of its dark soul to make the creature. It was the person everyone feared. The thing everyone feared. That was why I had named myself that, after the most feared and wicked being to ever set foot in Underland.
And it was going to wreak revenge on every last person in Underland because I had set it free. I had let the soul of the monster go. I released the true devil upon the world.
My brother. Masquerade Edward Bartrex Hightopp.
And all I could do was let out a scream...
How was that?
Please read on and review!
~ILJA~