Chapter 7 – Nightmares and In-confessed Confessions

POV change - Hatter

The White Queen led us into our chambers, me and Tean in the same one. Once she got away with Alice, I closed the door and collapsed on the bed.

"Tarrant Hightopp: is that the way you behave in one of the Queen's chambers?" Tean asked me, setting her pouches on her hips and shifting her weight on her right leg. Her eyes were still moist from the story she had to tell.

"Well, Tean Hightopp: as I know you, I'm sure that if you had almost died today, you would have done the same!"

She seemed thinking for a moment, then she looked at me smiling softly: "You won…"

"I always do!"

She came over me with a mysterious look in her gaze: "No…" she said provocative "…You don't…" then she playfully hit my face with a pillow.

"Tean Paula Hightopp: is that the way you behave in one of the Queen's chambers?" I asked imitating her.

"I just couldn't resist! You made that face!" she told me faking (faking?) a offended expression.

"Which face? This one?" I smiled, waded my eyes and lifted the eyebrows.

"No! You just drive me mad!" she said burying her face into the pillow.

She didn't move from that position. I came to sit next to her, moving my hand up her back: "Hey, there?"

She lifted her wet eyes, showing that what I thought was a laugh, was instead a sob: "Ah have neve' seen dad again afte' tha' day… Ah miss him sehw much and tha' face o' yehrs reminds meh thee much o' him! Ah feel like when Ah could deh somethin' useful tha' could have saved him, Ah did nothin'!" she said through sobs and tears. All I could do was allow her to rest her head on my shoulder and hold her tightly.

"Don't even think about it! You couldn't do anything to stop her and if you had done something you wouldn't be here right now! So, now, cheer up… I'm sure he's in a better place now, safer… as your baby is… And I won't make that face again!" it was difficult for me to not speak with my accent: it was a painful topic for me too. But her sobs seemed to quite time to time, until they stopped.

"I feel better, thank you…" she whispered.

"Good! So, now, whip those tears away and show me that smile you are famous for!" I said brushing her tears away from her now smiling face "Way better!".

She sighed: "Well, I'm going to have a bath, what about you?"

"Wha…? Sorry but we have never had a bath together!" I told her blushing, my eyes became yellow for confusion.

"No! Not the bath! What are you going to do? Are you waiting here, going somewhere in the castle?" she said quickly, quite awkward.

"Oh! Yes! Well… I think I'll go to check Alice out, you know which day is tomorrow…"

"Aye, so I'll wait for you!" she said as she turned directed to the bathroom.

"Right…" I left, looking for Alice.

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Upon the ruins of the castle, the Jabberwocky's roar clearly hearable. But the fight doesn't seem to go right: in fact, the giant beast hits Alice, making her fall down, until she crashes on the battle field. The Red Queen won… .

I woke up shivering and breathing irregularly. I sat on my bed and passed a hand on my forehead: wet.

I got up and went in the little kitchen (a corner of the room with a kettle, a sink and a cupboard), where I made some tea to calm down.

"Tarrant?" I lifted my eyes and saw my sister standing on the door, tormenting her still closed eyes with the back of the hand, maybe because of the light.

"Tean…"

"Aye, I'm here… How are you?" she asked me in a worried tone.

"Fine, just scared, I had a terrible nightmare… I'm sorry I woke you up…" I answered, still in a whisper. I took a chair and sat.

"Never mind. Would you like to tell me about it?" she asked coming behind me and caressing my shoulders.

"…I …Yes: it was the Frabjuos Day, but the Bloody Big Head won…" I said in a sigh.

"There must be something else: you don't scare so much for such things. Well, it's an horrible thing, but, you knew it was just a dream and you wouldn't be so scared. Would you?" she added.

I was confused. After the talk with Alice on the balcony, I didn't know what to consider. I decided to not tell her about Alice's death, so I merely changed argument: "Tean, when did you realize that you were in love with Terence?"

She stared for a moment at nothing in particular, then held even tighter my shoulders and sniffed: "Sorry sis! I didn't mean to make you cry!"

"No, it's alright!"

"I just wanted to know it because…" My eyes grew wide and I covered my mouth with a hand!

She looked at me smirking my same gap-toothed smirk: "Because…?"

I didn't answer, just blushed.

"Well then: I felt like something was pushing on my chest when he was around, making me blush and breathless, everything I said was a stupid thing for me-" and she went on… . I just thought about what I felt when I walked on the balcony next to Alice: I was excited, I couldn't help but smile, but when she said that I was just a figment of her imagination, something cracked in my chest.

"Good times…" my sister finished, breaking the contact and returning to bed.

"Tean?" I stopped her holding her arm.

"Yep?"

"Would you mind sleeping with me tonight?" I couldn't believe what I had just asked, so I tried to avoid her eyes.

She thought about it for a while: "Like when we were children?"

"… Like when we were children" I agreed.

She led me by the hand and once under the blanket: "Alice?" she asked.

"…What?"

"Alice: the motive of your question"

I barely nodded. Probably trying to figure out what I had dreamt, she assumed a sad look, setting a hand behind my head and making it lay it on her collarbone, as I hugged her.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise…"

"About the dream?"

"No, about your feelings for Alice, silly… You'll tell, when you'll want. That's not of my business."

I gently placed a kiss on her cheek "Thank you, sis…"

I let myself fall fast asleep again.