Notes: In the words of the Walrus, "the time has come." After a long hiatus of music in this story, the next few chapters, starting with this one, will each include bits from Phantom of the Opera; a few of the lyrics have been altered for the storyline's purposes. Nothing related to the musical belongs to me, and if, for whatever reason, these pieces must be removed, tell me; the last thing I want is to be kicked off the site for incompetence. This chapter was one of the few things I worked out before writing this story, as are most of the ending chapters. (Yes, my fiendish friends, we are nearing the end of this twisted tale!)
Also, a warning, mainly for my friend and fellow author, Katzsoa: Mallymkun is INTENTIONALLY written to be slightly out of character here. Please, to those of you who read this, do NOT complain about it in any reviews you send.
Now, enough of this babbling: prepare to be entranced – I hope – by the chapter all you "Phans" have been waiting for...
Chapter XVII: Music of the Night (Corny, Aren't I?)
"I din noo abou' this, Mally..."
"I understand your concern, Hatter, but it's unnecessary; one stupid mistake from Russ, like lying to try and get himself out of trouble, is forgivable. If he SHOULD try anything...well, that's what my pin-sword is for."
Such had been Mallymkun's parting words to the Hatter. She was now trying to hide a childish smile as she was led blindfolded up Drimdok's Hill – named after a great White Bishop, who had supposedly practiced the marriage of Underland's first king and queen there – by Russ, his paws around her eyes.
"No peeking, Mally," he purred.
Mally giggled.
"You realize how naïve this all is, don't you?"
"I don't play enough for my own good; seeing as you are in a playful mood yourself, I think you can forgive this child-like game, can't you?"
Mally just chuckled.
"It's rather nerve-wracking, you know..."
"What is?"
"Well...trusting you."
Russ stopped moving. Mally quickly realized the reason, and hastily added, "But not in a bad way."
Russ hesitated a moment more, then continued to move with her.
"We are almost there," he said.
"Can I look?"
"Not yet, not yet!" he chided gently. "Just a little longer..."
And, so, a little later...
"Okay, now look..."
Mally felt the paws lift from her eyes, and opened them.
She couldn't help but gasp in delighted surprise.
The sunset view from Drimdok's Hill was truly spectacular: Mally could see all of the Tulgey Woods from the hilltop, painted a rusty, amber color by the waning light of the great star. Pinks and reds and oranges melted into greens and pastel yellows, making everything look as if it was coated in a thin layer of molten gold. The sky was dark blue above her head, but gradually became more purple in color as it approached the circular shape of the Sun, creating a plum line around the life-giving orb far, far, far away.
The sight was enough to warm anybody's heart, and made even Mallymkun feel like a child, a feeling she had felt many times, but never so greatly as right now.
"It's...beautiful."
"I know," said Russ. "A friend brought me here, long ago. She told me that it was the most wonderful place she could think of."
Russ grew silent, and Mally turned to face him.
"What happened?" she asked.
"...The Horunvendush Day happened," he said, simply. "After Hightopps' Land was destroyed, and Witzend thus fell, the Queen sent soldiers to...destroy all our homes. I escaped, but my friend was caught. I never saw her again."
Mally had no words to speak with.
Russ smiled sadly.
"I miss her from time to time," he said. "But wounds close and scars fade. I barely remember her."
Mally nodded, unable to do anything else.
Russ chuckled, and walked up to the edge of the hill. He sat cross-legged on the ground, just gazing out over the woods. Mally paused, and then joined him, sitting close beside him.
Neither spoke a word. The sun sank lower and lower, the dark indigo of the sky expanding, the golden glow slipping away as twilight faded into night. The faint chirping of birds gave way to the distant hooting of owls; the musical chirping of crickets began to sound.
"Russ?"
"Hm?"
"He hurt me."
Russ stared, surprised by this sudden statement.
"Are you talking about your father?" he asked, carefully.
Mally, eyes closed and head held down, shook her head slowly.
"No," she said. "The 'somebody' I told you about once."
Russ blinked and, after a short time, waved a hand for her to continue.
"He...he got angry at me...I found him doing something, something I shouldn't have seen..."
"Was he with another lady?"
Mally stared. For some reason, she found that amusing; she started to laugh, unable to stop. Russ gaped, confused.
"N-no," she said, recovering after several seconds, and wiping a tear, brought on both by laughter and the pain in her chest, "Nothing like that..."
"Well, what did he do?"
"That I cannot say," Mally said, suddenly somber again. "All I can tell you is that it involved blood."
Russ glared.
"If he is a murderer," he said, darkly, "then why should he be angry with you? It isn't your fault he chooses to kill."
"It's nothing like that," Mally said again, this time with a hint of anger. Russehc shut his mouth tight.
Mally sighed.
"He...he grabbed me," she said. "He was so, so mad...in more ways than one...he pushed me up against a tree, told me 'I could never go free.'"
Russehc's glare grew darker and darker.
"And then, he...let me go. He was sad, sad that he hurt me...he was angry with himself. I was too frightened at the time to think of anything but the fact that he hurt me, and I had to run, afraid he'd do it again..."
She paused, blinking back tears.
"He...he came back a few days later, wanting to apologize...and I...I snapped."
"I would have, too."
"You don't understand!" Mally squeaked loudly, standing up and facing him with a maddened sort of stare. "He wanted me to forgive him! He could kill me, despite all my skills, with a swipe of his paw...literally! He didn't understand, either...I wanted to tell him I forgave him, but I was so confused! I...I couldn't think straight! Now he WANTS to kill me! He wants to hurt me, because I hurt him! I don't know what to do! Whenever I try to apologize, he either refuses to listen, or the words get stuck in my mouth...because...because..."
"Because...?" Russ questioned, softly, cautiously.
Here, it seemed, the white female could take no more. Dark streaks darted across the fur beneath her eyes, and Russ looked on with concern.
"Because...I think I still love him...he still gives my heart a funny sort of thrill...he still holds my heart in the palm of his hand. And I don't think he...I don't think he really knows how I feel, how much I care, and how much I'm hurting..."
She sobbed.
"It's all too mad..."
Russ watched her silently, as she sobbed two more times, sniffled, and sat back down, wiping her eyes on her apron.
"S-sorry," she said, apologetic, and embarrassed to have shown such...emotion around him. "I...I just...I think it's the sunset..."
"It's fine," said Russ, even quieter than usual. "I understand...or, at least, I think I do."
Both turned to look at the sunset again.
But the sun had disappeared.
All was blue and black in tone, but not ominously so; the crickets formed an orchestra, and the owls hoots kept the time. Bats cheeped and squealed, catching their meals, adding another layer to the nocturnal symphony. The breeze created a steady base.
All nature slept, yet didn't sleep at all.
Mally was about to suggest they go back to the windmill, when she heard something...something soft, lilting, and hauntingly familiar...
And it came from Russ.
"Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation...darkness stirs and wakes imagination...silently, the senses abandon their defenses..."
The gray male in the blue derby stopped short, and blushed faintly when he noticed his companion staring at him.
"W-were you just...singing?"
Russ nodded weakly.
"Am I that bad?"
Mally shook her head.
"No, no! It's just, you sounded...sounded like..."
Like Chess, when he sings to me...
"Sounded like what?"
"Sounded like...you've had lots of practice."
Russ shrugged, and turned away, looking up at the stars.
Mally bit her lip, and paused.
"Russ?"
"Hm?"
"Could you please...sing some more?"
The dormouse blinked, surprised, then smiled, closing his eyes, and turned away.
"Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor. Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender..."
Here Russ turned to Mally, and, gently, cautiously, took one of her hands in his. She looked up at him with some surprise as he rose to his feet, and she did the same.
"Turn your face away from the garish light of day! Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light...and listen to the Music of the Night..."
Russ extended his arm.
Mally hesitated, longer than she had ever hesitated around anyone before...
And slipped her arm into his, all the while thinking, You'd think I was some dimwitted schoolgirl...
Inside his mind, the Cheshire Cat was roaring like a lion.
With a soft smile, Russ began to head back for the tea table, Mally came with him.
"Close your eyes, and surrender to your darkest dreams...purge your thoughts of the strife you knew before!" sang Russehc softly, and brought two fingers to her eyes, teasingly closing them. Mally opened them up again fast and glared half-heartedly. "Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar...and you'll live, as you've never lived before."
Here Russ paused in his movements. Mally looked at him. He was focused on something above them.
She looked up.
It was the moon, set in a perfect crescent.
She shuddered, unable to think of anything about the moon aside from how similar it looked to Chessur's grin...
Could he be watching her right now?
Russehc felt her tense up, and squeezed her arm slightly, as if to comfort her. His ears perked up, and he gestured toward his left. Mally followed him.
A small, dull yellow flower bud was in the ground.
Mally raised an eyebrow at Russ, who looked at it raptly.
"Softly, deftly, the Music shall carress you...hear it, feel it, secretly possess you..."
The flower bud opened...revealing a marvelous pattern of yellows and purples and white, like a miniature star about to explode.
So beautiful, yet so deadly; as the star's explosion could cause destruction, so, too, could the poison the petals of the plant carried.
Russehc knew this, and the irony was not lost on him.
To Mallymkun, who knew nothing of the Comet Flower, a species native to Underland, it was simply a beautiful, previously unknown plant, and she could not look away. It was the second time that night she felt like a small girl, looking at something new and wonderful, like a shiny new toy.
She yawned, growing tired...
"Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind, in the darkness, which you know you cannot fight...the Darkness of the Music of the Night..."
They began walking again, and Russ continued to sing...
"Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world! Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before! Let your soul take you where you want to be...!"
He stopped, feeling a pressure on his shoulder. He looked down at Mally.
He smirked.
She was not asleep, but reaching it...lost somewhere, lulled by the enchantment, into a place somewhere between dreams and reality.
"Russehc" had seen her like this once before, not long after the Frabjous Day...but she had been with the Mad Hatter then.
Now she was with him.
And, under the circumstances, he allowed himself a bit more liberty.
"...Only then...can you belong...to me..."
Gently, he moved her, so that he was carrying her in his arms, as if she was his bride – he hoped it would not be long till that thought became real – and continued...
"Floating...falling...sweet intoxication..."
He tenderly held one of her paws to his cheek, and felt his heart surge with a sense of triumph when she sighed in her half-asleep state.
"Touch me...TRUST me...savor each sensation..."
He released her hand. It fell onto her chest, and she yawned softly.
"Let the dream begin...let your mind finally give in...to the power of the songs beyond the light...the Power of the Music of the Night."
It was if he controlled her.
She fell asleep at once.
Russehc blinked at her.
Then, knowing she would not know...
SWOOMPH.
They were at the tea table. The Hatter was slumped in his chair in sleep, and the Hare had his head leaned back, snoring loud enough to send his head off his shoulders.
A gray-blue-black striped cat now sat on the table, holding a small, white dormouse in his mouth like a kitten. Gently, he opened up the teapot she called a home, and dropped her into her bed. He moved the leafy covers over her, and shut the lid.
"You alone can make my song take flight...help me make the Music of the Night..."
He sighed, lullaby finished.
"Goodnight, dormousey," he purred to himself, and disappeared.
He never once noted the pair of bright, red eyes watching him, shadowed by the brim of a tall, tall hat.
I'll bide my time...Chess.