Chapter 4

The Red King stood by with his subjects in tow, crumpling his wrinkled face and tapping his behind with his sceptre. The White Queen struggled helplessly, her arms and legs held tightly by thick leather straps. She felt a strong sense of dread as the stench of the king's breath clenched tightly to her nose, and his cold fingers drummed along her back.

"Any last requests?" The Red King smirked, stroking his rough stubble.

"I…" The blade came down.

Alice watched. Another in a constant series of reminders. Her fingers were pressed closely against the panes of glass, watching those despicable red monsters murder for the sake of murdering. She wanted to break these panes and shove her knife right into the King's forehead. For a minute, she grinned as she imagined the thick, red blood emitting from the monarch.

Alyss watched. The strange Jabberwock, the thing with the furnace where guts should be, was telling the truth. She was being mocked right there and then. The Queen being executed, she looked so much like Genevieve, dear sweet mother, that it wasn't funny. She had to endure that horrific coup twice, one time more was just sadistic.

She held the eye in her hand as if it were a stress ball. She could already see her counterpart in this world, staring through a window. Her presence brought Alyss deep chills in her body, yet, at the same time, made her blood boil with anger.

BOOM.

Alyss fell over backwards as a fierce explosion interrupted the execution, and a strange gangly creature leapt down from a roof of a nearby building. It shot a bullet out of its finger and shattered a window – and Alice leapt out.

"Ah, my dear, I've been growing impatient."

Alice shrugged. "I was expecting to meet you much later."

The Red King and his subjects made their way off the round and prepared to retaliate, when they were all attacked by another creature the Hatter had brought.

"Well, Alice, I'm quite the wizard, don't you agree?"

The mechanical monstrosity reared towards Alice, its human head staring at her with pale, emotionless eyes. It reached towards her with one of its arms, which had a thin blade on the end. Alice leapt over the robots attack just to avoid it shooting blades out of its mouth. It leapt to the air, continually throwing star-like metal weapons at Alice. One of the blades swept by her arm, causing a thick cut.

"You'll pay for that, you…"

She threw her own blade at the creature, right in the mechanical stomach, causing sparks to fly everywhere and fade away. With its last act, the creature threw its organic head at Alice.

It exploded and set her flying against a wall.

"Well, Alice, ready to give up?"

"I'll…never…I'll…save…"

A thick purple beam rushed towards the Hatter. Before he could get away from the sudden attack, the beam hit him right in the middle of his stomach, causing him to clench it in pain. Almost immediately, sparks flew off the Hatter as he was a miniature firework display. He screamed loudly in anguish and pain, raising his arms and clenching his fists in fury, until his head exploded and he fell to the floor.

Alice breathed deeply as she lifted herself off the floor and came face to face with her saviour.

A young woman with black hair.

"Who..are…"

The woman raised the Jabberwock's eye. It shot another thick, purple beam, this time at Alice.

"Die," was all she said to Alice.

Alice turned towards the stranger as she ran from the blast of energy. "What have I done?"

"You know very well what you did. You made a mockery out of me."

"I've never met you before in my life."

Alyss stomped her foot and shot another beam. "Well, how do you know about my Wonderland, then? Why did you make a mockery out of my bodyguard? Why did you mock me when my parents had been killed by Redd?"

"Your parents were killed?"

Alyss snarled, allowing a few tears to fall down her cheeks. "Yes."

Alice grabbed her knife tightly and raised it in the air. "How dare you…how…dare…you…"

She tried to lop off Alyss' head with a quick swipe, but she swiftly ducked and ran out of the way.

"You're the one mocking me!" Alice had to bite her lip to stop herself from crying. "You have someone to blame for your parents murder!"

Alice raised her knife in the air and ran towards Alyss yelling angrily. Alyss raised the Jabberwock's eye and shot Alice backwards with a thick beam.

"You…little…wretch…YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO HAVE YOUR PARENTS DIE WITHOUT SOMEONE CAUSING IT!"

Alice threw her knife at Alyss but she swiftly grabbed it.

"Shut up. You won't be gaining sympathy out of me."

"I'm not trying to be sympathetic. I'm merely stating why you should die and why I should live." Alice spoke more calmly but still had hot tears streaming down her face.

"You made fun of my glorious world. You mocked the source of all imagination. Just like that stupid little book."

"I've never heard of you, or this little world you speak of. Wonderland is mine and it's up to me to fix it."

Alyss shot another beam. "Liar! Liar! I'm going to do to you what I've been wanting to do to Dodgson!"

"What…"

"This is all your fault…"

"Uh…"

The Jabberwock hovered above, perching on a tower, eagerly watching the battle he had prepared with his one eye.

"This is all because of you, Alice! If you weren't such a wretched little girl, if you didn't enjoy torturing me, if you had saved your family from that house fire, all this could have been avoided."

"No! It's not my fault!"

The Jabberwock began laughing. To see Alice in this state, she who caused him all this trouble, she who transformed him into an unnatural abomination of God and man, it was…well…amusing.

"Why couldn't you have left us alone! Why couldn't you have had a normal life? Why can't you be a good little girl, like Alyss here?"

"I have no idea…"

Alyss clenched Alice by the neck.

"She mocked you…"

She raised Alice's knife.

"Just like Dodgson…"

Her hand shuddered.

"Just like Dodgson…just like Dodgson…"

She tried to plunge the knife into Alice's heart, but she had never killed before…she had never…

"SHE MOCKED YOU JUST LIKE DODGSON!"

Alyss closed her eyes and…

She killed her.

She killed her.

Yes, she killed her! And not even with the eye!

She began dancing around Alice's corpse in a somewhat tribal manner as she took the knife out of her heart and used it as a baton. She dipped her fingers into Alice's blood and tasted it; the taste was like adrenaline flooding her entire body, a taste more exhilarating then tarty tarts, the smell enriching.

But what were this images?

A family hugging each other and smiling…then bursting into flames?

A treasured book that was meant to bring happiness forever…bursting into flames?

Playing cards, chess and other funny games…bursting into flames?

People being burned, dying, flesh melting, bones?

Why did she enjoy seeing these images?