I have returned! I had loads of fun at the beach with my boy and now I'm back to get down to business. It was such a shame one particular character had such an abysmally short, if barely there, role in the miniseries. He was always my favorite in the book. Cheers!
Chapter X: Fickle Felines and Demented Rabbits
As exhausted as Alice was, she found sleep to be elusive as she lay underneath the tattered coverlet upon the surprisingly comfortable bed in the barn. The girl had built back up the fire before retiring to the bed, and the flickering light played upon the walls and ceiling. She switched from side to side, curling her legs up into the fetal position or stretching them out. Nothing seemed to help urge the sweet release of unconsciousness. Sighing in frustration, she sat up and rubbed at her eyes. It was pointless to continue lying there willing sleep to come.
Charlie was snoring away in his hammock, occasionally singing to himself in his sleep in a way that made Alice smile and shake her head. She had no idea why he had not returned to the campsite after doing whatever it was he had left them to do. Perhaps he had heard the serious conversation taking place between herself and Hatter and decided he did not want to interrupt. The girl felt kind of guilty for making him feel excluded after he had gone to the trouble to provide them safe haven and food. Then she wondered how much of it he had heard and gleaned. Did he know she was a supernatural warrior? She wondered what the old knight would make of such a revelation.
Her thoughts then turned to Hatter as she recalled seeing him settle up against the gate outside the entrance to the little shelter she was in. It was almost as if he had perched himself there to guard her over the night. Of course, he had only done that so she could have the superior comfort of the bed. It was a very sweet gesture, but the bed was not going to do her any good tonight. There were far too many troubling things on her mind. They were the culprits keeping sleep at bay.
Alice needed to get Jack out of that casino, and it needed to be done soon. Time was probably running out for her boyfriend. And while Hatter had told her they could discuss it later, she knew his mind was all but settled on the matter. Jack was not important. He was an expendable element in Hatter's opinion. The young Slayer could not blame her friend for thinking that. But Jack was not expendable to her. If Hatter was not going to help her rescue her boyfriend, then she was going to have to make a difficult decision. She would have to take matters into her own hands.
The only problem was she had no idea how to get to the casino. There were no handy maps of Wonderland lying around, unfortunately. If she struck out on her own with no sense of direction in mind, the girl would probably only achieve getting herself lost in the woods, unable to help anyone. There was only one conceivable solution to the problem, and the thought of it made her cringe. The quickest way she could think of to finding the casino would be to allow herself to be captured by the Suits on their trail. They would drag her back there to be brought before the queen, and it was there she would have to try to play her hand at using the ring as a bargaining chip.
Alice silently rose from the bed and pulled her boots on. Years of tracking and hunting the undead had made it easy for her to slip soundlessly about. She crept past the entrance, pausing to glance down at Hatter who was miraculously sleeping while propped up against the crude wooden gate. Her stomach twisted anxiously as she looked upon him, making her eyes tear up unexpectedly. His hat rested on his bent knee, leaving his unruly dark brown hair to spring free. The position he was in looked terribly uncomfortable, but the teashop owner/Resistance fighter seemed to be able to make it work nonetheless. He breathed the deep breaths only those caught up in a deep sleep could achieve.
This is wrong. You can't just leave him like this, a small voice inside implored her. She tried to ignore it. The girl did wish she could leave some kind of a note, but she did not know if Charlie kept any sort of writing supplies and, if he did, she did not want to wake the old knight to ask him.
Time was ticking by, but Alice could not tear herself away from Hatter's side. She studied his face, trying to burn the image into her memory. The notion that this may be the last time she ever saw him made her heart thud in anguish against her ribcage. It made her want to abandon her plan altogether, and that was unthinkable. Jack needed her more than Hatter did. In fact, all that Hatter had gotten for her company was trouble and death threats. Everything he had was hanging on by a slim thread all because of her, and he had not once blamed her for it. All he was trying to do was keep her safe and get her home. Her leaving was probably doing him a favor, though it might take him a while to figure it out.
I'm sorry, Hatter. I really am. But this is the only way. Please forgive me, she wanted to say aloud, but, for fear of waking him, she remained silent.
Alice glared down at the ring on her finger, focusing all her resentment and anger on the thing. For an inanimate object, it had certainly caused her a lot of grief. She wished she had never laid eyes on it. A horrifying thought struck her then. If she kept the ring and actually did use it to negotiate the release of Jack, she would be throwing the Resistance's chances at victory down the rabbit hole, so to speak. The images of all those hungry, sickly refugees rose up in her mind as well as Hatter's noble words from earlier. Also, Hatter needed the ring to convince Dodo to call off his threats. If she took it, she would seal his fate and that of his people. Aside from her burgeoning feelings for the man, Hatter had done so much for her already at the risk of his own life and livelihood. Taking the ring for her own selfish reasons was definitely no way to show her appreciation and gratitude. On the other hand, without the ring, she and Jack would not be able to get home. The Looking Glass would not be able to operate without it.
But was Jack's life worth more than all the lives of those refugees? Worth more than Hatter's life? The fact that she did not know the answer to the second question made her stomach flip over. Jack was her boyfriend, and while she may not love him yet, she should certainly hold him in higher regard than Hatter...right? Alice did not know what she thought or felt on that subject anymore. Her feelings were a jumbled mélange of confusion. That alone was yet another reason it was probably better she and Hatter went their separate ways.
She slid the ring off her finger and held it up into the moonlight, shaking her head in wonderment that so much hinged on whoever had possession of such a small, seemingly innocuous piece of jewelry.
Meanwhile, Hatter made a soft sound in his sleep and shifted his position slightly. His eyelids fluttered as if they were about to open, causing Alice to freeze in sudden terror that he would awaken and question her about what she was doing out of bed, staring at him like a creep. It took her a few seconds then to decipher what it was he had mumbled in his sleep. The sound he had made had been her name.
Alice's throat started to constrict and she swallowed, feeling a tear slip down her cheek. Hatter's dreamy utterance of her name tugged at her heart, making her stomach feel fluttery all over again. She looked away from him and wiped at her eyes. As she did so, the decision about what to do with the ring was made. She could not take the ring, no matter that it might spell disaster for her and Jack in the end. She would not jeopardize Hatter's chances or the Resistance's. If anything, she owed him that much.
"Goodbye," she whispered to Hatter, forcing herself to turn away from him.
Alice made her way to where the Red King's skeleton sat upon his ancient throne. She looked up into his grim, bony façade. The loss of tissue and hair had caused the crown to lay lopsided on the skull, which had sunken deep into the chainmail hood. The young Slayer stepped up onto the small dais the throne sat upon and stretched up to rectify the crown's position. After she straightened it she gently grasped one of the dead king's skeletal digits and deftly slid the ring onto it.
"There you go," she said softly. "It only took about 150 years, but it's back where it belongs."
Shrugging off the velvet coat, she left it hanging on the ladder nailed against the tree directly across from the barn. The sky was starting to lighten a little as the sun peaked over the horizon. A chorus of birds could already be heard as they hunted for worms, insects, and seeds to feed themselves and their hatchlings. The cool early morning air incited goose bumps on Alice's skin as she climbed up the path out of the camping enclosure. It would warm up soon enough as the sun rose higher, and she wanted to be well away from the campsite by then. She did not want to dawdle in her plan of clandestinely stealing away without Hatter and Charlie's notice.
Alice decided she would follow the path they had taken to the Kingdom of the Knights. Hopefully once she reached the area where they had met with the jabberwock, she would find the posse of Suits still trying to find their tracks. It was kind of absurd that she was hoping to find the enemy so she could give herself over to them, but it was the only way she could think of getting to the casino. If she did find them, there was no doubt they would question her about Hatter's whereabouts. She had already resolved that she would fight the entire lot of them and die before she would betray Hatter and Charlie's location.
Stopping next to a tree, the girl felt an ominous prickling sensation assault the back of her neck. Her fingers dug deep runnels into the bark of the tree as she felt the same presence from when she had been bathing. It had returned to watch her as she made her journey right into the hands of the enemy.
Though there was undeniably little time for a heart-to-heart with her invisible stalker, Alice could not help but shout out, "Will you just show yourself already? This is getting really annoying!"
A high-pitched, maniacal cackling filled the air around her. She twirled around as she tried in vain to pinpoint a location of the source of the laughter.
It was at this time that Alice was sorely regretting not having grabbed some weapons from Charlie's armory. Instead, she swallowed her trepidation and muttered, "Oh fuck this," before recommencing her trek. If all that thing wanted to do was laugh at her and spy upon her, she was just going to leave it to it. There were far more important things to be done.
"Going somewhere, my dear?" a sexless voice above her asked silkily.
The question caused the girl to halt in her tracks. She debated on whether or not she should look up, figuring the entity could just be throwing its voice simply to mess with her.
"Listen," she stated in a tone of extreme irritation. "I really don't have time for this shit."
The presence merely laughed at that. "You silly mortals always think you have a claim on Time. When it is Time who has a claim upon you, little Slayer."
Rolling her eyes, Alice finally looked up. Balancing on a branch above her was a fat purple cat with vivid blue stripes. Black slits were surrounded by bright blue-green irises and its mouth was impossibly wide and grinning, showing off its army of sharp white teeth. A bushy tail stretched out behind the animal, thumping against the surface of the branch.
It could be none other than the Cheshire Cat, one of the few characters from the story she still remembered well. The only issue was this Cheshire did not feel like a cat, or any type of animal, for that matter. The creature was more than likely some kind of a shape-shifter. It exuded an awesome amount of power, but there was no innate character of evil or good to it. It was neutral in that regard, but the fact that it kept watching her and taunting her did not lend it a benign label. As for the matter of it knowing about her being a Slayer, well, she could at least justify that with it having overheard her conversation with Hatter. If it had known about it beforehand, well, that was just too disturbing a road to go down at that particular moment.
"And so my life is complete; a talking cat," Alice remarked sardonically. Rather than listen to more of its nonsensical rambling, she pushed forward to continue her journey.
"Oh, pish, you're no fun," the creature crooned.
"No, I'm busy," she countered snippily as she walked ahead. However, Alice was forced to stop when the creature materialized in a cloud of purple smoke in front of her. It, quite literally, laughed its head off at what was probably a dumbfounded expression on her face. The disembodied head circled around the flustered young woman, laughing madly.
"What do you want?" she asked crossly. When she made a swipe at the head, her hand merely went through it and the thing disappeared in a wisp of smoke.
Wonderful. If this thing is evil it'd be a pain in the ass to try to kill or subdue...almost impossible, really. I hope it's just annoying.
"What do you want?" it asked, its head having magically re-attached to the rest of its body.
Alice huffed and gritted her teeth. "I want to be on my way in some kind of semblance of peace, thanks," she replied. She started walking again, this time just moving right through the floating cat.
The cat started floating alongside her this time. "Well," it stated in a pompous tone. "Didn't we get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"
She ignored it and hopped over a particularly large, protruding tree root.
"I suppose you aren't even interested in the fact that you're going the wrong way," it suddenly pointed out in a sing-song voice.
That gave her pause, though she was doubtful as to whether or not she should trust the word of such a fickle being. Reining in her temper, she turned around to see it stretching out like real cats would on top of the tree root she had hopped over.
"What do you mean?" she asked, crossing her hands over her chest.
Incredibly, the Cheshire started grooming itself as if the answer to her question was of no importance. It lifted up its leg and she grimaced in disgust as it started to lick its own crotch. The young woman waited for a while until her patience ran out.
"Okay, seriously, you're not even a real cat. Why are you doing that?" Alice inquired briskly. "Also, if I'm going the wrong way, which way is the right way?" She was still unsure if this thing could be trusted, but she was at least willing to hear its answer. That was, if it ever got around to providing one.
"The servants of the Queen of Hearts are not back the way you came," it finally supplied.
A shudder ran up her spine. How had it known where she was going? She had not once mentioned a single part of her plan out loud. Why would she have? There was no one she could have told about it. Her annoyance started crossing over into the territory of dread. All Slayers had been taught the value of mental blocks, but she had never had to use them before. The girl struggled to remember how it was done, for she did not want anything seeing into her head without her permission.
"Trying to keep me out, eh?" the Cheshire remarked drolly. "You're a quick one, I'll give you that. A lot savvier than the other Alice. Then, she was only a child. Can't be blamed for her innocence and naïveté nor for not remembering me as I really was."
So, the books got it wrong about him. How...unsurprising.
"Don't you think it's odd?" the Cheshire asked.
Alice frowned in confusion. "What's odd? Everything's odd here, so maybe you should narrow it down for me."
It grinned, its immaculate white teeth shining lethally in the morning sunlight. "You being here, of course. What, did you think it was a coincidence? When you looked at that homeless man, you felt something. A part of you knew something was coming, didn't it? You felt the finger of fate brushing over you." Its eyes glowed ever brighter and it rose into the air, floating towards her. A feeling of impossible power washed over her. This thing was dangerous, but, at the same time, she did not feel it was exactly a threat.
"What are you?" she asked breathily.
It did not answer but just continued swirling around her, grinning hysterically. It then shifted its shape into that of a small flaxen-haired girl no more than seven or eight years old. Her golden locks were held back by a blue satin ribbon tied into a little bow. She was wearing a blue dress with a lacy white pinafore over top of it. Her legs were encased in solid white stockings with glossy black shoes encompassing her tiny feet. The little girl's face was exquisitely shaped, showing the nascent comeliness that would have one day bloomed into true beauty.
Alice needed no introduction to know what shape the Cheshire was taking on now. This was the Alice of Legend. A child maybe, but still a legend in this world. It was a surreal notion.
How could a small child have brought down the whole house of cards?
"You'd be surprised what the will and insight of a child can do," the little girl said sagely. Her eyes, a deep ocean blue, bore into Alice's own blue eyes. They flashed blue-green for a split second, as if to remind the young woman that it was not really a child who was speaking to her. "Things are never as they seem in this place, Alice Hamilton of Cleveland, Ohio. You, a Warrior of Light, are not here by coincidence, oh no. And I do believe, deep down, that you know it."
The images of those refugees from the Great Library flew through her mind. She remembered standing on the landing above, looking down at them with sorrow. All of their lives had been torn apart by this Queen of Hearts whom she had yet to meet. Then there were the numbers of people from her world, including Jack, trapped within the casino having something vital drained from them all at the behest of this tyrannical monarch. Who knew how many people's lives had been stolen through the machinations of that woman? Hundreds, perhaps even thousands had been abducted from her world and brought here. Though no one had told her what occurred to her people after they fulfilled their roles at the casino, she had a strong suspicion that they were not returned back to their homes. No, they were probably discarded like they were trash to be thrown into the bin.
"Why does the Queen of Hearts bring people from my world here? What does she want from us?" Alice questioned.
The little girl did not smile; a welcome change from the madly grinning feline. Her face took on a grim expression. "You know what it is, Alice. You have the pieces. Put them together."
Alice weakly shook her head, idly glancing around her. She was burning up precious time standing here talking with what she was beginning to suspect was some sort of forgotten deity. But, suddenly, it seemed crucial that she finally figure out what it was that made people from her world so special. Laying a hand on her forehead, she thought back to when she first arrived in Wonderland. She brought up the memory of walking into Hatter's shop, figuring that was probably an important part of figuring out the puzzle.
There were words on the bottles and the board...they were the names of emotions! And when Hatter pulled out that bottle of pink liquid to give to the smelly slicker guy he said it was...What was it? Pure human excitement! Holy shit!
"Emotions? She's after our emotions?" Alice exclaimed incredulously. "But, I don't understand. Why would the people here need our emotions?" She thought of Hatter then, not finding anything peculiar about his emotional expressions. He seemed to act like any typical guy from her world. Well, maybe he was not exactly like a typical man from her world, but he never appeared to have any trouble feeling. But then she remembered what Charlie had told them when he first brought them to the Kingdom of the Knights.
She only wanted to feel the good, not the bad.
It now made sense how the Queen of Hearts was controlling the people of Wonderland. If she kept them all doped up on positive emotions, never to realize what shambles their world was turning into, she would never have any dissent threatening her authority. She would never have to expend any effort on being sure her subjects had clean water, food, education, protection. All she had to do was use fabricated positive emotions to keep the populace content and blissfully ignorant. But that begged the question: why did it have to be emotions from people from her world?
"Your people are practically ruled by emotions," the little Alice-Cheshire informed her. "You may think you live by logic and rationale, but that is simply untrue. It's the reason you people live such short lives in comparison to the people of Wonderland. Emotions burn through the life force like a wildfire."
Alice raised an eyebrow. She pointed out in a voice dripping with skepticism, "But Wonderlanders can't be incapable of feeling good things on their own, right? I mean, Hatter seems to get along just fine."
The child who was not a child shrugged. "The people of Wonderland are capable; it is just so much harder for them to feel deep emotion. Normally, some kind of catalyst is required. In your Hatter's case, a very special catalyst has stimulated true, pure emotions he has never really felt so intensely in his entire life." The being smiled knowingly as Alice picked apart that cryptic remark.
The young woman gestured to herself with a stunned expression on her face. "Me?" The implications of that truth were something her mind could not consider right now, not when she was trying to find a way to save her boyfriend.
The little girl's smile widened, her teeth morphing from normal child's teeth to the sharp incisors of the Cheshire. "You may go your way, Vampire Slayer. Your work is far from finished in this world." With that said, the child vanished. The eerie laughter of the Cheshire echoed faintly all around Alice.
Crap, Alice silently lamented.
"I don't suppose you were going to point me in the correct direction, were you? Or, better yet, you could just teleport me to the casino or something," she called out, cupping her palms around her mouth. The Cheshire may not have been malicious, but it definitely was capricious. She did not know if she could expect any response or not.
The young Slayer did receive a response, however. A little mew sounded over to her left, and when she turned towards it, her eyes widened in shock at what she saw. Standing not three feet away from her was a little long-haired cat with brown, black, and gray stripes and white fur tipping the end of its bushy tail. It was a cat Alice recognized very well, and she felt her heart swell with nostalgia.
"Dinah?" Alice breathed incredulously.
The cat meowed again, strolling towards Alice to rub up against her legs. Its loud purring brought tears to the girl's eyes. The rational side of her mind reminded her that it was not her beloved pet rubbing and purring up against her legs. Dinah had been run over by a car when Alice had been ten years old. It had been one of the most devastating incidents in the young woman's life. In fact, there really was only one other incident to eclipse the desolation she had felt over losing her cherished cat, and that one had occurred not very long afterwards. There was no way her dead cat had suddenly come back to life in Wonderland. It was just a ploy of the Cheshire; something to twist at her heart and emotions. But, oh, there was such a large part of her that wanted to scoop the animal up in her arms and smother its head with kisses.
Dinah, or, rather, the Dinah-imposter, loped away from Alice, then. It trotted off past a few trees, stopped, and then turned to meow impatiently at her. The young Slayer gleaned the message quickly. She was to follow the cat.
The cat led her up a steep slope slickened by dew-covered leaf litter and grass. Alice traversed the hill easily enough, though she did wish several times on the way up that she had rethought her footwear for that dinner date with Jack which seemed a lifetime ago. Then again, it was probably a spot of luck she had chosen the purple boots. She could have worn her pumps or, God help her, stilettos. And then where would she be? More than likely she would be running around barefoot, as she imagined she would have broken both of those types of shoes by now.
The morning sun rose higher into the sky as the girl followed the cat through the forest. The trees eventually thinned out until she emerged from the forest completely. The landscape had given way to scrub brush more suited to a desert environment than the temperate area she had just left. An open field of thorny bushes stretched out in front of her, rolling slightly as the elevation rose at certain points ahead. She could feel the heat of the sun more acutely here and there was a definite arid quality to the air.
That's Wonderland for you. Two completely separate biomes smashed right up next to each other.
Alice felt the presence of others long before they materialized into view, surrounding her completely with their weapons drawn. The Slayer held her hands up in the sign of surrender, the sun illuminating the green mark etched into her forearm. Showcasing the insignia so blatantly would assure there was no mistaking who and what she was.
There were about fifteen total regular Suits, with the requisite gray spade emblems upon their jackets. One dusky-faced man wore a black bowler hat and a plain black suit with a large silver medallion hanging from his neck in the shape of a club. His face was smooth and unlined save for the dark, triangular beard descending from his chin. She recognized him as the man the ratcatcher had been speaking to back at Hatter's shop. He was not smiling as he approached Alice, but she could feel a sense of grim satisfaction mingled with relief emanating from him.
Then there was the rabbit-head Suit, the one who had senselessly murdered that old man at the shop. Her entire being recoiled in a mixture of fear and revulsion as this Suit came towards her. He may not have been able to form a smile on his vacant ceramic face, but there was a sense of malevolent glee just the same. If he could smile, his face would be sporting a wide, demented grin. The thing was positively relishing this moment.
"Hello, Alice," he greeted with his jarring robotic voice. He clasped his human hands together in front of him, cracking his knuckles. "You look like you could use a little company."
Nauseous dread gripped her gut relentlessly. There was something inherently wrong and unnatural about this Suit, and it was wreaking havoc on her delicate senses. He reeked of death, pain, and madness. Her internal warning system was sounding off alarm bells, registering this creature as a serious threat. Whatever this Suit was, he was extremely dangerous, even to her. She capped the well of panic that started to arise and forced it deep down under her control. It would not do to have this thing realize she was afraid of it. It was not so much her personal well-being she feared for (though that was part of it). She was more afraid of how this new, unexpected threat would affect her chances of rescuing Jack.
"Where's Hatter?" the rabbit-head Suit asked.
The query caused Alice to tense up. It was not that the question had been unforeseen, for Hatter had given his aid to an escaped oyster. There was no doubt the queen would want him to answer for that. The way the thing said her friend's name, even in his tinny, inhuman voice, betrayed a deep-seated, deadly hatred. The Suit was not asking after Hatter's whereabouts merely under orders from the queen. He was asking for his own personal reasons. She felt a fierce protectiveness rise up.
He and Hatter know each other...or did at one point. And I think Hatter must have done something to really piss him off.
The girl shook her head and replied boldly, "He's not here. I came alone." The words she uttered silently were: And you'll have to kill me before I ever tell you where he is.
The Suit twitched, no doubt displeased with her answer. The man in the bowler hat must have noticed because he immediately stepped in between the rabbit-head Suit and Alice. With his back turned to Alice, she heard the man say in a commanding tone, "The queen ordered that the oyster be brought to her alive and unharmed, Mad March. You would do well to follow Her Majesty's wishes. The teashop owner is unimportant."
Though the man was one of her soon-to-be captors, Alice felt a rush of gratitude towards him.
When he turned to her, his coal black eyes assessed her dispassionately. He jerked his head towards the men surrounding them. "Grab her arms." To Alice he said crisply, "If you come quietly without a struggle, we won't tie you up."
She gave a little nod to show that she understood and would not put up a fight. The instinct to throw off the men who tightly gripped her small arms between them was difficult to suppress. This had been her plan all along, had it not? She had fully intended to be captured and taken to the casino. But planning it was something entirely different from experiencing it.
Handguns were trained on her as the man in the bowler hat pulled a mobile phone out of his pocket and dialed. "We have the oyster. Requesting transport immediately," he reported.
A few minutes passed before the whirring noise hit the air and a Scarab came into view. It beat up a wind during its descent, blowing Alice's long dark hair all around her face as it lowered to the ground. Doors slid open on the front of the craft and a ramp descended to the ground. She could feel Mad March's eyeless gaze upon her. He seemed to be waiting for her to make any kind of move; hoping for it, in fact. Alice maintained her composure, however, as the Suits flanking her started pushing her forward up onto the ramp. The young Slayer held her head up high as she was brought on board of the Scarab.
This apparatus would bring her to the place where, if luck was on her side, she could rescue her boyfriend. There was no going back now.
Thank you all so much for your patience during this brief hiatus. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!