Chapter Two - An Unwelcome Arrival
"Hatter, you okay?"
"Hmm?" Hatter glanced up from the table top to where Alice was standing elbows-deep in soapy dinner dishes. They had a long-standing agreement that whoever didn't cook dinner would do the dishes; with Alice's abysmal cooking skills, she most often ended up with the chore.
"You okay?" she repeated.
"Course," he replied. "Why you askin'?" By way of answer, she pointed at his hands. He looked down and realised he'd been twirling his hat between his fingers at a dizzying speed. He immediately stilled his hands.
"I'm fine, love," he assured her. "Just thinkin' on some things."
Alice nodded and went back to scrubbing the frying pan. "What kinds of things?" Her voice was soft and curious, but he could still feel the Concern coming off her in waves. It fascinated him the way Oysters felt emotions so strongly that they seemed to radiate them. He felt more clearly than most Wonderlanders, but even he wasn't sure he could be capable of the quantity and strength of emotions that Oysters went through on a daily basis.
Hatter smiled. "Trivial things. Crumbs in the butter."
Even though he could tell she had recognised his evasion, she still laughed. "Sounds interesting."
"More than the song of a Grizzerby," he replied playfully. She rolled her eyes the way she did every time he used a saying from Wonderland, knowing full well she wouldn't understand it. "Silly birds," he explained. "Got two heads, and each head can sing three songs at once. Can pass hours tryin' to hear all the songs." He set his hat on the table and stood up. "I'm gonna pop into the shower. Unless you'd like to join me," he added with a wink.
Alice laughed again, real and bright, and shoved his chest with a sudsy hand. "Get out of here."
Hatter smirked and ducked his head in to steal a quick kiss, and then disappeared into the bathroom. A nice hot shower and a good night's sleep would clear his head and put this awful, edgy day behind them.
Alice sighed and snuggled herself closer to Hatter's side. As if on instinct, Hatter draped his arm over her shoulders without glancing up from the book in his own lap. Reading together before bed had become a nightly routine of theirs, although more often than not it would end up being just him reading while she dozed against him.
They had only been at it ten minutes tonight and her mind was already drifting. She couldn't get herself to focus on the textbook she was supposed to be reading for her college science course. Instead, she fell back on her usual stand-by: watching Hatter.
She liked to see the change that came over him while reading. Books had become one of Hatter's greatest loves in her world. Growing up in a place where all of the books were locked away for safekeeping, reading had been a leisure activity rarely enjoyed. The fact that books of every kind were so readily available in her world had spun his mind, and he devoured them all eagerly. They made weekly trips to the library and sometimes even that wasn't often enough to keep him going.
At the moment Hatter was reclined in the sofa, his ankles propped up on the coffee table with his book spread open across his knees. His hair was still damp from the shower, and it was starting to curl and flip around his head in its typical style. Narrow creases had formed on his forehead as his chocolate eyes narrowed in concentration, darting back and forth across the page. There was a soft smile twisting up his lips, just shy of making the dimple appear in his cheek, and it made him look peaceful. This was her Hatter, the one that only she ever saw.
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
Alice blinked in surprise. Hatter hadn't taken his focus off his book, and if she hadn't been staring at his mouth she wouldn't even have been sure he had actually spoken.
"What?" she asked, puzzled by the comment.
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" he repeated, turning the page in his book.
"I don't know," she said. "Why?"
Hatter chuckled. "Well I dunno, do I? Else I wouldn't need be askin'." He finally glanced up from his book to grin at her. "You seemed so bored, I thought I may as well give ya somethin' worth thinkin' 'bout." His gaze went back to the book as the dimple in his cheek surfaced. "'Sides, your starin' is distracting."
Sitting up, Alice set her hand on top of his book. When he looked up at her she was smiling impishly. "Maybe I was trying to distract you," she said suggestively, leaning in to kiss the side of his neck. Hatter's eyes brightened and he immediately set aside the book.
"Well then, love, by all means," he said flippantly. "Distract away."
She didn't need any further prompting.
He was in a wood, of that much Hatter was certain. It wasn't the Forest of Wabe, however. The trees here were too old, too – talkative. They were whispering to each other over his head, so softly that he couldn't make out the words. Wherever he was, the very air hummed with magic.
"You really ought to run."
Hatter spun around but he couldn't see anyone. "Who's there?"
From behind a tree stepping a bushy, grey-and-violet striped cat. It sat down on the roots of the tree and stared at him with intelligent, shining eyes. Hatter's heart leapt into his throat. A Cheshire!
"I'm dreaming," he concluded aloud. He had to be; no one had seen a Cheshire in over a hundred years. Not to mention he was fairly certain that Cheshires were too tied to the magic of Wonderland to be able to cross over to the Oysterworld.
"Obviously," the cat responded, licking one of its paws lazily.
"Why?" He knew the old stories; a Cheshire only ever presented itself when something important was about to happen. They were omens, of a sort. Whenever a Cheshire had cropped up in his school history books, it had always inevitably been followed by some dramatic change in Wonderland.
"Why ask me? This is your dream, after all." The cat cocked its head, its lamp-like eyes glimmering knowingly. "Perhaps you should ask that."
Hatter turned to see what the cat was staring at and instinctively stumbled backwards in terror. There was a bolt of black charging straight toward him, its white eyes fixated on him. Between the eyes was a long silver horn, and the realisation burst out of him in a breathless gasp. "A unicorn."
The horn pierced straight through his chest like a knife through warm butter, and there was an explosion of blood droplets as the pain consumed him.
Hatter swallowed his scream as his eyes snapped open. Immediately his hands went to his chest but the skin was smooth and undisturbed. Even the relief of having not been gored to death couldn't steady him. Alice was still sleeping peacefully – she was a much heavier sleeper than him – and he carefully slipped out of bed and headed for the bathroom. He shut the door behind him quietly before flicking on the luminous yellow lights.
His reflection was the first thing that caught his attention. The glow of the lighting did nothing to disguise the fact that he was pale as the moon. His eyes were wide and the pupils dilated from adrenaline. He could actually see the frantic beat of his heart in the artery in his neck. At his side, his right hand was fisted so tightly the veins along his muscles were bulging beneath the skin.
"A Cheshire dream," he murmured aloud, his mind still reeling. He wanted to tell himself that it was just a dream, that his mind had conjured up the images out of some sort of dormant fear, but he knew it wasn't true. He'd actually been visited by a Cheshire cat. Nothing good could come of this situation.
Leaning on the counter, he tried to analyse the dream for meaning. It had been in Wonderland, surely. As far as he could tell, the magic of the Oysterworld had died away a long time ago. It had been barely clinging on in Wonderland, and even then only in the oldest and most undisturbed of places. Far away from the city and the casino.
And there had been a unicorn there. That was impossible, though. The unicorns had gone from Wonderland centuries ago, so long that they had disappeared into the realm of myths even before the time of the first Alice-of-Legend. So what could his dream possibly have meant?
"Madness," he muttered, shaking his head and dragging a hand through his hair. "Cracked kettles and marmalade." There was really no purpose in trying to decipher a Cheshire dream. The stupid things never actually made sense until they had come to pass anyhow.
Still, the Cheshire had clearly been trying to warn him of something. Maybe it would be a good time to take a bit of a holiday. He and Alice could go on a trip; get away for a couple days and put this whole thing behind them. Perhaps he would take the Stone of Wonderland and hide it away somewhere far from the Looking Glass, just in case.
Hatter splashed cool water on his face and then made to go back into the bedroom. He would tell Alice about it all in the morning, and they could make some excuse to go away. A couple's retreat, maybe for some vague anniversary type thing. He had just shut off the bathroom light when he heard something out of place in the quiet flat; a creaking floorboard.
He froze in the doorway, his ears straining for any other sound, and then he heard it. A shuffle of steps on the hardwood. Running on the balls of his feet to keep quiet, Hatter darted across to the bed. He placed a hand over Alice's mouth and shook her. She woke up in a flash, and at the look of alarm in her eyes he placed a finger to his lips, signalling for her to keep quiet. When she nodded he drew his hand back and she sat up. What? she mouthed in the darkness.
He pointed to his ear and then out to the living room, and she nodded again. Standing up, he crept cautiously toward the door to the next room. Alice followed a half-step behind him. Hatter paused beside the door and fisted his right hand, gesturing for her to stand on the other side of the frame. She scowled at him and for a minute he thought she would actually argue with him about it, but she slipped over to the other side and pressed herself against the wall, her arms raised in a fighting stance.
Content that she was safe for the moment – because when the door opened she would be shielded from view by it – he flattened his ear against the door and listened. There were more hushed steps, heavy but deliberate. Whoever it was, they were obviously big. They were moving casually, almost lazily, as if the person was unafraid of being caught, but most surely in the direction of their bedroom.
They waited, expectantly, as the footsteps slowly advanced. Hatter's arm was starting to ache from being flexed for so long, but he didn't dare release his grip. Not when his Alice might be in danger. The steps paused on the other side of the door. Hatter watched the knob, waiting for the fidget that would warn of someone opening the door. One second... Two seconds... Three-
BANG!
The door burst open like there had been an explosion. Hatter heard a startled scream as it swung wide and hit Alice, who was crouched behind it. Bracing his feet, he threw his fist hard in the direction of the intruder. The wooden frame shattered under his hit, sending splinters and paint chips flying in every direction. Before he could recover from the misplaced attack, an arm threaded around his neck.
"Gerroff me!" he growled, grabbing the arm around his throat and trying to use the attacker's weight against him, the way Alice had taught him. The only result was a series of deep, painful scratches where the assailant's fingernails clawed at his neck for a better grip. The world started tilting perilously, and he threw his elbow back, driving it into the other man's stomach. The choke-hold finally loosened enough for him to break free, and he pivoted around, ready to throw himself back into the fight.
The sight that met him made him stagger in shock. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. The taller man grinned darkly. "Hello, Hatter."
Hatter's eyes widened in alarm even as he scowled. "Gryphon."
It all happened so quickly she couldn't quite process it. One minute she and Hatter had been crouched on either side of the door, listening for signs of the intruder. The next thing she knew, the door had burst open so hard that it had knocked her back into the wall, bashing her head against the bricks. Alice clutched her head, willing the spinning to stop. She could hear sounds of fighting; Hatter needed her help.
"Hello, Hatter." The voice was sharp and gravelly, with a liberal amount of condescension, and clearly belonged to a man. It took her approximately an extra three seconds to realise that the man had addressed him as Hatter, meaning that he must know Hatter from Wonderland. But how was that possible? The Looking Glass was closed.
"Gryphon," Hatter replied, and she could hear something in his voice that sounded a bit like fear. Pressing a hand against the throbbing side of her head, she clambered to her feet and took in the scene in front of her.
Hatter was standing, crouched defensively, and there were four long scratches across his face and neck that were oozing blood onto his bare chest. Standing opposite him was a taller man, whose swept-back ginger hair was liberally streaked with silver. When he shifted his weight it made the tails of his trench-coat swirl against his legs and she realised with a jolt that this must have been the man she'd seen in the dojo mirror.
As she straightened up, Hatter's gaze flicked over the man's shoulder to meet hers, and he blanched further than he already had. "Alice, run!" he commanded.
The man turned on his heel and she could actually feel his dark-eyed stare as it weighed over her. "So, this is the Alice-of-New-Legend that I've heard so much about," he mused. "I expected a bit more. At least she's older than the last." Hatter suddenly staggered. His gaze had gone slack, and he touched the scratches on his neck lightly. The man – Gryphon – chuckled as he picked at one of his unnaturally pointed fingernails. "You feel it now, don't you?"
Hatter looked up at Alice again and, this time, his expression was one of pure terror. "Run, Alice!" he repeated, but his voice was weak. He buckled to one knee, fighting to keep his balance. "He's dosed. Don' let 'im touch ya. Run!"
Ignoring him, Alice unlocked her knees and lifted her arms, ready to attack at a moment's notice. "What did you do to him?" she growled at the man angrily.
"He'll survive, don't worry your pretty little head," Gryphon said dismissively. He suddenly let out a loud bellow as Hatter launched himself at the backs of the larger man's knees, and they tumbled to a heap on the ground.
"Alice, go!" Hatter gasped out, wrestling to keep the other man down.
As usual, she didn't listen to him. Instead, she bolted forward and pounced on the man, hitting him in the throat with her flat fist. He choked, but grabbed her upper arm and tugged roughly. His nails dug furrows into her skin as he tossed her aside like she weighed nothing. Alice tried to climb to her feet, but somehow her balance felt off. She must have hit her head harder than she'd thought.
"Sleep now, Alice-of-New-Legend," the man said as he straightened up and dusted off his coat. She slumped backwards against the bed frame, feeling a strange pulling sensation in the back of her mind like she had gone too many hours without sleep and now it was threatening to drown her. Her eyes flicked to Hatter, who was sprawled, unconscious, across the area rug. As she watched Gryphon stooped down and lifted his body, swinging it over his shoulder like a sack.
"Don't hurt him," Alice snarled between gritted teeth, trying to shove herself to her feet again. She failed, and wound up hitting the floor hard, her breath bursting out of her as her back collided with the hardwood.
"Oh, I won't," Gryphon replied but there was something sinister around his smile as he leered down at her. "But as for the others, well, I can't promise anything."
Questions were all struggling to burst out of her at once, but she couldn't make her tongue form the proper words. Darkness was teasing the edges of her vision and it was getting harder to fight off the exhaustion threatening to drag her under. "Hatter," she mumbled thickly, and her eyes sought out his face, hovering feet above hers. It was pale and slack and striped with blood.
Gryphon's heavy footsteps carried him out into the hall, taking Hatter away from her view, at the same time that she lost consciousness.
