Whoo, another lengthy one. I think I got on a roll and just couldn't stop haha. Enjoy!
Chapter XVIII: Coming to Light
Alice could never have foreseen waking up to Hatter's deep, rhythmic breathing blowing strands of her own hair across her face. Truth be told, she never would have guessed she would be waking up next to Hatter, or, rather, with their limbs unfathomably intertwined like they had fallen asleep during a game of Twister. She may not have foreseen it, but she could most definitely get used to it. The girl could not recall the last time she had slept so soundly, and the much-needed rest had fully rejuvenated her exhausted mind, body, and soul.
Well, perhaps the rejuvenation could not be chalked up entirely to the rest, she noted wryly. The girl gently traced her sleeping companion's lips, parted just slightly in his sleep. The feel of those lips still lingered on her own, and her heart leapt in her chest. He was impossibly lovely in his sleep, she noticed with a silly smile of adoration on her face. His shock of chestnut hair was dashingly mussed up without the hat to give it shape.
Last night she found that this man touched a part of her which had heretofore been untouched by an entire slew of boyfriends. He made her feel things that even Jack, who she had once thought would be different from all the rest, had never come close to inciting within her. If she had not been so concerned about the matter of protection, it was highly probable she and Hatter would have made love last night. Her own audacity shocked her. There had been a few (very few) points in her past associations with the opposite sex where she had jumped into the sack with a man more quickly than propriety entailed. But never before had she felt the urge to sleep with a man after barely two days of knowing him. Even if she had, she certainly would never have acted upon it. Such things were reserved for wanton, drunken one night stands, which was something she could safely say she had never done. But Alice had wanted to make love to him last night, and even now she found she was inundated with fantasies of the two of them divesting their clothes and drawing together with breathless moans. A delicious heat was winding its way through her body right down to her very core, causing her to unconsciously clutch her thighs together.
Hatter shifted around in his sleep. His leg was thrown over her body, with his bent knee pressed up against her lower abdomen. When he moved, the joint dug into her soft flesh, compressing a bladder which she only just discovered was very full.
Alice groaned quietly. She would rather stay in bed and just take pleasure in looking upon Hatter in this completely unguarded state (an act which she knew was fairly creepy), but the urge to void her bladder soon became too insistent to ignore. So, as unobtrusively as she could manage, she worked to untangle herself from Hatter's haphazardly positioned limbs without waking him up.
The girl pulled her boots on and, because the early morning air still carried a chill, grabbed the velvet coat where it lay beneath Hatter's leather jacket. Unfortunately, living in the remnants of a civilization which had, by all appearances, pre-dated modern plumbing meant very few options of where to take care of one of nature's baser urges. It was one of the few times other than that special few days out of the month where Alice lamented being a female. Having a penis made urination in the woods so much more convenient.
She stepped outside the gate and began quietly heading towards the trees, intending to go far out of the way for privacy's sake, when a succession of strange noises halted her in her tracks. First it was the sound of something like a weight being dropped up against a metal object and then the sound of something swinging in the air. Then that poor crow which was caught up in that suspended wooden cage began squawking rather loudly.
She frowned in confusion. What was all that about?
With a gasping cry, Charlie sat up so abruptly in his hammock that the thing spun in mid-air, completely detaching from one of the trees it was strung between and sending the old knight sprawling to the ground. Hatter awoke with a start, as well, although by virtue of being in a bed, it did not end up with him tumbling to the ground.
"Aw, shit, not again," the teashop owner groaned from behind her.
"What the hell was that?" Alice demanded, whirling around to face Hatter, who was stumbling to the other side of the bed towards his shoes.
"That was the West Wall!" Charlie cried out in alarm. He scrambled out into the middle of the encampment, barefooted and dressed in his white underclothes.
"What?" Alice said, still not comprehending what was going on.
"It's the security system he built," Hatter supplied while he sat on the bed, tying his shoes. "That was the alarm being triggered. Someone's broken through the perimeter. That's how we knew you had left yesterday morning."
Alice blanched. Seeing as how everyone was accounted for, there could then only be one explanation for the alarm being triggered. Someone had entered into the Kingdom of the Knights. Mad March's sinister ceramic visage flashed before her eyes and she met Hatter's dark brown gaze. A wordless exchange told her that he had thought the same thing.
"Shit," she cursed, turning around towards Charlie, who was headed towards his armor. His sword was next to the empty suit of armor in its sheath, and her vision immediately zoned in on it.
"Alice, wait!" Hatter's protest rang out as she started to run, almost as if he had guessed what her intentions to be. She ignored him. If it was Mad March who had finally discovered their hideout, the last place that assassin could be was in the vicinity of Hatter. She was the only one who had any chance of standing against the man/thing. Besides, he would only be too glad to spill Hatter's precious blood, and Alice would die before she allowed such a travesty come to pass.
"Charlie, I need your sword and for you to point me towards the West Wall," she curtly instructed, a strange tranquility descending upon her.
"Alice, no, what are you doing?" she heard Hatter demand, his voice tinged with distress.
She unsheathed Charlie's sword and dropped the scabbard to the ground. "If it's Mad March and his gang, I'll distract and hold them off. You two need to get out of here," she stated flatly. Slayer mode was starting to take over, rendering her voice more mechanical than normal. It was almost like she had stepped outside herself and was observing from the sidelines.
"You're not going out there alone," Hatter declared, his hand falling upon her left forearm and spinning her around. His hat had been shoved back on rather hurriedly so it did not sit very securely upon his head. "And I sure as bloody hell am not going to run off without you."
"He'll kill you," Alice told him soberly. "You know he will. At least me they'll probably want alive." If he kept these stubborn objections up, she would be forced to knock him unconscious and order Charlie to drag his body off to safety. The thought of causing him physical pain was not a desirable one, but she would do it in the interest of preserving his life. For Hatter's life had, of late, become more precious than her own.
"I'm not leaving you!" Hatter shouted, his dark eyes sparkling with anger and determination.
"Am I interrupting something?" a very familiar voice interjected from the western edge of the encampment.
Alice's jaw went completely slack. She, Charlie, and Hatter all turned as one to see none other than the Prince of Hearts himself purposefully striding towards them. Gone were the bright crimson suit set and the flouncy white shirt, replaced by slacks and a matching suit jacket the color of deep sangoire, a crisp white shirt, and a plain black tie. He stopped a few paces away from the trio, his countenance surveying them with an unreadable expression. His gaze did appear to linger upon Hatter's hand, which still gripped Alice's arm. Hatter must have noticed, for he stepped forward so that his body partially concealed the girl from view. She appreciated the protective gesture even though she knew that if Jack was given a mind to hurt her, she could easily take him down.
"Oh dear," Charlie murmured, seemingly uncertain how to handle the situation.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" the teashop owner inquired, doing nothing to disguise the hostility in his tone.
"That's none of your concern," the prince retorted haughtily. He did not even deign to bestow a glance upon Hatter while he spoke. His eyes stayed trained upon Alice.
"Well, it is mine," Alice cut in, stepping out from behind Hatter. She glanced up at him in a placating manner, trying to reassure him that she would be safe. "So, what are you doing here, Jack?"
"Who is he?" Jack inquired, motioning towards Hatter.
"What's it to you?" Alice shot back, not quite in the mood for civility.
The prince shrugged, trying to give off an air of insouciance, but the tense set of his shoulders and jaw line had betrayed him. He had seen and marked the way the two had interacted even in those brief moments. No doubt he had been taught the value of reading people. It was a useful trait for one reared in royalty to cultivate. "You two seem rather friendly," he noted.
Alice huffed in disbelief. "Oh, don't tell me you're jealous! The man who is engaged to a duchess who looks like a goddess is worried about little ol' me," she taunted. She knew it was rather immature and tasteless to jeer at the man, but the vindictive side of her needed to have its due for once. She would worry about being gracious and civil later.
"He was two-timing you?" Hatter hissed. She heard his knuckles crack from behind her.
"Oh, well, technically, he was two-timing her, since she's his fiancé and all," Alice clarified in an overly loud voice. "Jack simply made me the 'other woman'."
Jack's cheek twitched and he shifted awkwardly. "You know that was just an act," he said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, like our whole relationship, apparently," Alice flung back at him. "Well played, I must say."
The flaxen-haired man at least bowed his head shamefully, showing that he did feel remorse over his actions. For the moment, the girl was unmoved by it. "I had my reasons for deceiving you," he claimed while fixing her with a desperate gaze which begged her understanding and forgiveness.
She nodded. "I'm sure you did," she mumbled dryly.
Jack sighed. "Look, Alice, you don't have much time. I've brought you a horse. We must leave immediately," he informed her, his tone suggesting he clearly expected her to just follow him without question.
"She's not going anywhere with you!" Hatter roared, stepping up next to Alice and putting his arm about her shoulder.
"Hear hear!" Charlie chimed in agreement, stepping up to join the two.
"You know she can't stay here!" Jack shot back in a sharp tone. He directed his attention to Alice. "I can take you to your father," he claimed.
It was like he had said the magic words. Suddenly, her caustic barbs melted away, and she felt her heart twist with painful nostalgia over hearing her father mentioned. Unconsciously her hand drifted down to her pocket where his watch still resided in a slight bulge of fabric.
She felt Hatter's fingers clamp down on her forearm. She laid her hand over his. "I need to know, Hatter. Please," she begged him in a whisper.
The teashop owner threw a hateful glare at the blonde man, but nodded at Alice, pulling his hand from its deathly tight grip on her arm. She walked up to Jack, still holding Charlie's sword, earning a bewildered frown from the prince. He had never seen her hold anything other than a wooden staff in some of their classes. The sight caught him off guard and he did not quite know what to make of it. She took a wretched kind of satisfaction in that.
"Okay, Jack, I'll bite. But I swear to god, if you are jerking me around, I will rip out your vocal cords and strangle you with them," she promised. Years of fighting alongside Sunnydale veterans had armed her with a vast repertoire of imaginatively gory threats. From behind her, Charlie gasped in horror and Hatter merely sniggered.
Her threat served to drain the color from her ex-boyfriend's already fair-toned face. He gulped, but then nodded. "It's the truth, Alice. He is alive and well, and, if you let me, I will take you to him," he confirmed in a rather tremulous voice.
Alice drew in a deep shuddering breath. "Where is he?" she questioned.
"We're moving him into the city. And if we hurry, you can see him by afternoon," Jack replied succinctly.
Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean you're 'moving him'? And who is 'we'?"
"I have people helping me," Jack explained.
"What people?" Hatter asked in a low, dangerous voice. He had ventured up to the exchange between Alice and Jack.
Jack ignored him. "Do you want to see him or not?" he asked Alice. It was as if he were holding her father up on a string and dangling it just out of her reach. She loathed him for asking her in such black and white terms. Of course she wanted to see her father. Jack was well aware of that, and he was using it to manipulate her. What was worse was that part of her was giving into the manipulation.
She was in an agony of indecision. This was a chance to see her father who had been absent in her life for the past eleven years. This was a chance to restore the gaping hole he had left in her heart when he had disappeared. And, yet, doubt over Jack's trustworthiness, which had pretty much been non-existent in every other matter, anchored her feet to the ground. She clenched her free fist in frustration while the other one ground into the hilt of Charlie's sword.
Hatter moved up close to her to vocalize his distrust of the prince. "It's a trap, Alice. Don't trust him," he told her in a furious voice, his belligerent eyes glued to Jack.
Her…well, whatever Hatter was in the realm lying between platonic friendship and romance…had a valid point. But something within her rebelled at the idea that Jack intended to harm her or deliver her over to his mother. She remembered how strangely he had comported himself back in the throne room of the casino. The man had slipped her father's watch into her hands right under his mother's keen, unforgiving eyes and then had tried to give her a way out of her situation. Of course, in the end, she still ended up in the Truth Room and Jack had not been any help in getting her out of that. But she supposed he did try to get her back home.
She turned to Hatter, laying a calming hand on his shoulder. "He knows where my father is, Hatter," she said in a trembling voice. Uncertainty still wracked her tone, and the teashop owner could sense it.
"You don't know that for sure, Alice," he pointed out in a much gentler tone than he had been using when speaking to Jack. "He'll say anything to get his hands on the ring! He's manipulating you!"
While the manipulation was rather evident, Jack had made no mention of the ring. That was somewhat redeeming in Alice's opinion. "But he hasn't asked for the ring," she argued desperately. "He doesn't want the ring. Do you, Jack?" She turned to face the prince, eyeing him hopefully.
"Yes, I do," Jack stated brusquely.
She heard Hatter let out a huff of vindication, surprised the man had not just said I told you so. Gawking at Jack, Alice asked, "You do?" Her stomach quivered. Had this all been some elaborate scheme to try to wrest the ring from their hold and return it to the queen? If that was true, he had gone through an awful lot of trouble.
"It's all just an act!" Hatter spat in disgust.
"We need the ring to get you home," Jack reminded her, unperturbed. "The Looking Glass won't work without it."
"Shit, you're right," Alice muttered.
Her head whipped around when she heard Hatter stomp off a few paces in his fury, his hands thrown into the air as he whirled around and stomped right back to her. "Don't be fooled by this, Alice!" he pleaded. "He's working for his mother. Blood and water, remember?"
"Then why am I alone?" Jack countered with his eyes on Alice. He spoke levelly and logically as he challenged Hatter's valid accusations. "Why aren't there five-hundred Suits at my back? And how did I find you here, in the middle of the forest? Do you think I just followed my nose?"
A feeling of coldness fell over her at the last question. How had Jack been able to find them? If Mad March had been unable to track them to this hideout then she highly doubted the prince should be able to.
"How did you find us?" Hatter asked suspiciously.
"You sent for me," Jack declared.
Both Hatter and Alice were taken aback by that answer. The teashop owner's gaze went from Alice, who shrugged in confusion, and then back to Jack. "Come again?" he asked.
The corners of Jack's thin lips very nearly turned up into a cold smile. "I'm the agent who's supposed to escort you to Caterpillar," he informed them coolly.
Alice's breath hitched. She had completely forgotten about the Resistance agent who was supposed to be arriving here this morning for just that purpose. The dots had not been connected when Jack had shown up. Who would ever have expected the son of the Queen of Hearts would be a member of the Resistance? But, once she considered the possibility, some very strange details suddenly made a lot more sense. It explained his apprehensive behavior in the casino which went beyond simply being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Alice had nearly blown his cover probably.
"You know Caterpillar?" Alice asked incredulously.
"Very well," Jack replied. "Caterpillar recruited me into the Resistance about five years ago." Inexplicably, Jack began walking away from Hatter and Alice, all the while spinning out his bizarre, but completely plausible story. "So I stole the ring, and escaped to your world. The theft was supposed to have triggered a coup, but…well, you saw what happened."
No, I did not…oh, wait…oh, I happened. I tried to play hero and nearly fucked everything up. Oops.
Alice sighed. "Well, it's not my fault. I only did what came naturally. Serves me right for trying to save your sorry ass, I suppose," she mumbled bitterly.
Her biting remarks seemed to completely roll off of the prince. He marched right back up to her, his eyes gleaming with hope and desperation. "But if you give us back the ring. We can give it another try," he proclaimed.
The pieces all came together. No wonder Caterpillar had recruited the crown prince of Wonderland. He wanted to be sure that when the Queen of Hearts was deposed there was a legitimate and well-trained claimant waiting to replace her, one who had helped get rid of her in the first place. It was a logical and ingenious move. It would all but ensure a smooth transition of power…well, once all the fighting was over with.
"You want to overthrow your mother," Alice realized.
Hatter made a sound which told her he did not quite believe that, but otherwise he remained silent.
"I've seen what she's done close-up. I know what she's capable of. And I know, perhaps better than anyone, that if I don't stop her, she'll destroy Wonderland," Jack explained. He sounded so determined, so noble, that, for just the briefest of instances, Alice forgot about his treachery towards her. She had been an unwitting pawn in this power struggle, but he had done it for the greater good. She, of all people, should understand making concessions and sacrifices all for the greater good.
But the budding of those more positive feelings toward Jack were destroyed after he spoke his next piece. "So who are you going to trust to get you and your father back home? A Resistance insider and future king who has already scheduled your return trip through the Looking Glass, who cares for you more than anyone else in the world…" Alice rolled her eyes at the last remark, but her heart grew cold at what he uttered while throwing a disdainful glance towards Hatter. "Or this man?"
"Excuse me?" Alice replied in an icy tone of voice. She thrust her index finger at Jack, poking the tall prince in the chest and causing him to stumble back a few steps as she advanced on him in her ire. "Firstly, I don't really give a rat's ass that you're about to be king, so, if you thought that little detail would make me swoon, you need to re-check your facts. I'm American. We fought a war to get royalty off our backs." She backed him up to the gate in front of the barn where she had slept next to Hatter the night before. A part of her wanted to just throw that detail in Jack's face for the sheer fun of it, but she held her tongue on that note.
"Secondly, this man has saved my life more than once here in Wonderland. He took a bullet for me and then saved me from the Truth Room while you just let your mother's pet rabbit waltz me off there. Thanks for that, Jack. I had a grand old time with the Tweedle Twins," she spat fiercely. "Oh, and this man has a name. His name is Hatter. And you'd do well to stop treating him he's like a bit of scum underneath your shoe. I don't care if you are a prince, you will show some respect." She lowered her hand and settled it upon her hip, her hard gaze boring into him.
Jack opened his mouth to speak, but no words issued forth. He swallowed and then dipped his head to show that he understood even if he did not quite agree with her. "I'm sorry," he mumbled petulantly.
"Don't apologize to me…well, you can apologize to me, but you also need to apologize to Hatter, and, while you're at it, tell Charlie you're sorry for waking him up so rudely," she ordered, turning around and gliding back to stand next to Hatter who was grinning brightly at her.
"Very nice," he whispered to her, snaking his hand over her shoulders. "You can be quite scary, you know?"
Jack recovered and walked back towards them. "Alice, we really don't have time," he cajoled her. "If you want to see your father, we have to leave now. Where is the ring?" A muscle twitched in his jaw. No doubt he was vexed over seeing Hatter's arm slung so possessively over Alice's shoulders.
Hatter tensed beside her. "Alice, you're not going with him, are you?"
"Excuse us for a moment," Alice said to Jack, pulling Hatter some distance away to speak with him privately.
"Hatter, please understand…I have to see my father." She laid her hand over his upper arm and squeezed it.
The man shook his head, his eyes filled with doubt and agony. "Alice, I don't like this at all. Something smells rotten about the whole thing," he replied.
"But you were told they were sending an agent, and, well, no one else has shown up," Alice pointed out.
Hatter huffed. "Maybe he intercepted the real agent and killed him," he proposed with a dirty glance in Jack's direction.
While she conceded such a thing was possible, somehow Alice did not believe that was what had happened. Occam's Razor applied in this matter and the simplest explanation was that Jack truly was an agent of the Resistance. If he could bring her to her father, she would go with him, but she would definitely remain on her guard the entire time.
"Just trust me," Alice implored him.
Hatter's hand reached up to stroke her hair. He had been doing that a lot, she noticed, not that she minded. "I do trust you, love. It's him I don't trust." His eyes were darkened by worry. She knew he was probably thinking of the morbid legends surrounding those unlucky few who had captured the interest of the Cheshire. She, herself, had not given it much thought. If she did dwell on it too much, she probably would kill off her already very tenuous confidence.
"Well," Alice said. "If it makes you feel better, come with us." Having Hatter by her side would make her feel a lot safer. That was quite odd, considering she was more than capable of handling herself.
Hatter nodded, his Adam's Apple bobbing slightly as he swallowed. "All right," he conceded finally. "But no getting angry at me if I end up breaking his jaw."
"Yeah, well, we'll see who gets to that point first," Alice quipped.
She turned back to where Jack awaited her, impatiently pacing a two-foot radius on the ground. He looked up and halted at her approach.
"All right, we'll come with you," she announced.
Jack briefly glanced at Hatter, who was slowly walking up to stand by Alice. The prince shook his head. "No, I'm afraid he can't come."
"Well, I say he is coming," Alice shot back resolutely.
"Caterpillar was very clear. If you want the Resistance's help it must be on their terms. You must come alone," Jack stated in an implacable manner.
The hiss of Hatter's breath beside her told her this merely justified his convictions of all of this being one elaborate trap. Divide and conquer. It was one of the oldest rules of warfare in the books.
"It's for your own safety. And your father's," Jack then added softly. He sounded almost sympathetic, but not quite.
Before Hatter could raise his inevitable protests, Alice clamped down on his arm and turned to him. "I'll be fine," she assured him. Her eyes flitted back towards Charlie, who stood merely observing the exchange silently. "Just hang with Charlie and wait for me to come back."
"You're coming back here?" Jack sneered in disbelief. "I thought you wanted to get home."
"I've waited this long to get home," Alice snapped at him. With her tender gaze on Hatter, she murmured, "I can wait a bit longer." Besides, I still have a war to help win here. You aren't going to be able to bring your mother down on your own, Jackie-boy.
Hatter's eyes glistened with worry and fear as he regarded her. The look he gave her almost made her sag into his arms. It was like he feared he would never see her again. She could not succumb to that fear. She needed his strength and blessing to carry on.
"Go," he murmured reluctantly. "Be careful…and remember that bloody rule of yours, or, so help me…" His voice trailed off and he swallowed back his emotions. No doubt he did not want them on display in front of Jack.
Well, to hell with Jack and his sensibilities, Alice decided. She pulled Hatter into a tight embrace and whispered, "Thank you." Tears sprang to her eyes when they pulled apart, but she held herself together long enough to keep them from falling. She wanted to kiss him, but she feared that if she did that she would never summon the will to walk away from him. So she slowly backed away and then turned to her ex-boyfriend, who was now glaring quite pointedly at the teashop owner.
"Okay, let's go," Alice announced.
The prince tore his angry gaze from Hatter. "We need the ring first."
"Oh, right," Alice mumbled. She marched over to the marble throne where the skeletal Red King sat and reached up to pluck the ring right off the bony finger she had left it on.
"Huh, right under my very nose," Charlie remarked admiringly.
She walked over to the old knight and presented his sword to him. The man took it graciously with a warm smile. "Thank you, Charlie," she told him. "For everything."
"It was my pleasure, Lady Alice. Good luck to you," he replied. His pale blue eyes swiveled over to where she assumed Hatter to be standing, but the knight did not make any comment.
Jack held his hand out expectantly as she walked back towards him, but Alice had no intention of handing the ring over to him. She still did not quite trust him enough.
"I'll be keeping this with me for now," she asserted, dropping it into the pocket of the velvet coat.
His face fell, but then he nodded. "Fair enough, I suppose."
Alice glanced at Hatter, who was clearly struggling with himself. When he caught her eyes, he settled just slightly. Though no words passed between them, there was a world of meaning in the gaze between them. She felt her heart skip a few beats at the intensity in his eyes, the emotions she read in his face. It was far too soon for anything like what she saw there, reflecting her own tide of feelings. But there it was, plain as day. He inclined his head toward her and she returned it.
When she followed Jack out of the encampment, she was grateful the prince did not turn around to glance back at her. For then he would have seen that though her head was held high and her face was frozen in detachment, a lone tear was trailing a wet path down her fair cheek.
Alice resigned herself to the fact that horsemanship was never to be among her collection of skills. She shifted uncomfortably in the saddle and jerked the reins as the creature started to wander off the path. Shooting an envious glare at the effortless way Jack handled his horse, she huffed. He had offered to let her ride with him and merely trail the second horse along behind them unencumbered, but she had flatly refused. And even if she might end up tumbling off the beast should they be forced into a gallop, she resolved not to regret her decision.
Still, it was unfair that he made it look so easy.
Why is it they have horses, cell phones and casino games, but not condoms? she idly wondered to herself, thinking back on that relatively chaste previous night.
Her chest tightened when she recalled the look on Hatter's face when she had left and pressure built up in her sinuses once more, warning of impending tears unless she remedied the situation. She tilted her gaze up to the sky and tried not to think down the pessimistic path of doom her…companion…seemed to be stuck on. So what if just about everyone contracted by the Cheshire to accomplish some deed had died? The Alice of Legend had survived. She liked to think she would be harder to kill than a young girl. But then that little chit may have just gotten lucky. Alice's luck was sketchy at best, if not downright horrible.
Thankfully, Jack did not seem interested in striking up a conversation. He seemed content to allow the girl to quietly follow behind him while stewing in her own murky thoughts. She found her mind wandering to that ravishing beauty who had hung upon Jack's arm at the casino. Try as she might, Alice did not have it in her to hate the woman. After all, the noblewoman had been deceived by the prince just as surely the young Slayer had.
As she reflected on Jack's two-timing treachery, the girl was surprised to find it did not sting her nearly as much as she initially thought it would. Alice searched for that spike of jealousy which should be ramming its ugly head at seeing her ex-boyfriend wrapped up in the arms of that golden goddess. It was practically non-existent though. She was quite miffed at the deception, furious, actually. Part of that fury was aimed at herself for having so completely fallen for it. She felt like a fool, but not really a jilted fool.
Hmm…interesting. The girl knew she was normally quite quick in getting over a man, but, honestly, this was unprecedented. Wonderland must be having the strangest effect on her.
They paused in their journey at a shallow streambed where cool water ran over a plethora of smooth stones of varying size. She gratefully slid out of the saddle and stretched out her aching muscles. The horses dipped their snouts into the running water and slurped noisily.
"So who is this Hatter, really?" Jack asked, taking care to keep his tone level though the way his eyes gleamed with jealousy belied his tranquility.
"He's…" Alice did not quite know how to describe who Hatter was. She feared telling Jack he was the proprietor of the teashop in his parents' royal employ when he so clearly had ties to the Resistance as well. Although, she supposed since they had ransacked the shop, the cat was out of the bag on that one. "He runs the Tea House, or, rather, he used to. Then I dropped in and he helped me, which ended up costing him everything."
"Oh, I thought he looked vaguely familiar," Jack mused, scratching his smooth chin. The girl realized she had never once seen the man with so much as a single golden stubble of hair on his face.
A renegade sensory memory of the way Hatter's own rough stubble had rubbed and tickled her neck and face flitted through her head. She shooed it away.
"If and when you overthrow your mother, you need to remember that it wouldn't have been possible without Hatter's efforts. So you see to it that he is well compensated, got it?" she demanded.
"I will, Alice. I promise," Jack replied in a sincere voice.
The girl let out a deep breath. "While we're on the subject, I suppose, just who is this duchess? Does she have a name or do you all just call her by her title?" she inquired.
"Her name is Ilaena," Jack told her quietly. "And she is my mother's creature. It was an arrangement made when we were both children. I have no feelings for her, nor she for me." He crouched down to splash some water on the back of his neck. The mid-morning sun had started to grow rather warm.
Alice had figured it was probably an arranged marriage, but that did not necessarily mean there were no affectionate feelings there. She searched her memory of the duchess, but it was too vague and quick to lock down any discernible feelings of fondness. The only thing she recalled was the secret steel shining out of those green-hazel eyes.
"Well, I can't tell you if she has feelings for you or not, but I can definitely tell you she is no one's creature," Alice remarked diffidently.
Jack apparently brushed aside that comment. "My heart belongs to you, Alice, completely. You believe that, don't you?" He turned his golden brown gaze up to her, his expression beseeching. Once, it would have made her melt. Now, she felt nothing.
Shaking her head, Alice smiled wanly. "I believe you that think it does, but I don't believe it. More to the point…" Her bitter wishes to strike out at the prince in all her pain and fury had subsided about an hour ago, so she plundered on in a gentle voice. "I was in a relationship with a man named Jack Chase. Jack Chase doesn't exist. I don't know you, Jack Heart. You're a complete stranger to me."
The prince inclined his head and swallowed. "Well, perhaps we could make a fresh start," he ventured.
The girl let out a harsh bark of laughter. "I don't think so. I'm not princess material. You see, there are things about me that I hadn't yet told you, but if you had stuck around long enough, you would have learned them." Now that the relationship was effectively ended, she could pretend like she had firmly believed it would have lasted long enough for him to learn about her being a Slayer.
The prince's fine brow creased. "What are you talking about?"
She was not interested in delving into another epic tale of her job, so she just waved her hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter. Aren't we on a time crunch here?"
Jack stared at her for a few moments before snapping out it and rising to his full height. "Um, yes, I suppose we should be off." He snatched up the reins of their mounts and guided the horses out of the water onto the dry bank.
Alice walked up to the mare she had been riding to mount up, but a prickling of intuition bade her pause and turn around. She searched the surrounding area for any sign of the eyes she felt watching her, but there was nothing but wind shaking the trees and a few twittering birds loping in the air. Still, there was a feeling of being watched, but her instincts did feel threatened at all. In fact, it was almost like they were relieved by it. Shaking it off, she mounted the horse and clumsily kicked it into a canter to follow behind Jack.
The sun had drifted over into mid-afternoon once they reached the outskirts of the smoggy city. They dismounted and left the horses un-tethered outside the threshold of the decrepit urban area. Alice craned her neck up to glimpse just how high the levels of the city stretched. It was hundreds of feet, probably even eclipsing a thousand. She gulped unsteadily. A fall from such a height, even for a Slayer, would lead to a bloody end.
Here and there, narrow grass-covered bridges and walkways crisscrossed the air, some of them spanning the entire distance between two separate building levels while others had been obliterated halfway or a third of the way across. As she followed Jack up a network of stairs and ramps, she noticed there were also rickety old rope and wooden bridges with planks of wood missing at certain points. There were even full-fledged trees growing out the sides of some buildings, their thick trunks curving out and arching upwards towards the sky. The girl gawked at them. This was one bizarre dystopia.
Jack was not mindful of her fear of heights. Every time she slowed down to try to calm her growing sense of panic, clutching at the wall and drawing as far back from a narrow ledge as she could, he would scold her and tell her to hurry. She understood they were pressed for time, but she could not force herself to go any faster with these nausea-inducing heights around her. Oh, how she wished Hatter was here with his gentle, firm voice and his lovely warm hands, guiding her and coaxing her along in her time.
To be fair, she did shrug off Jack's hand when he tried to take hold of hers.
Eventually they reached the very top level, and Jack led her alongside a house with cracked white siding towards a huge, immaculate building with white plaster siding and red brick trimmings. Awnings decked in blue and white stripes stretched out over some of the windows. When she looked up, she also saw an enormous clock adorned the very front of it, its golden gears exposed and turning. The scene took her breath away.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"The Hospital of Dreams," Jack replied.
Of course it is. This is Wonderland. Everything must have a fanciful name.
They traversed the grassy bridge leading to the Hospital of Dreams. Jack gave her some very firm warnings as they crossed. "Just stay close by me and keep your mark covered. If the inmates figure out what you are, I won't be able to help you."
"Inmates? This is a hospital. Aren't they supposed to be called patients?" Alice questioned, somewhat unfazed by his other warnings pertaining to her mark. She had no intention of parading the fact that she was an oyster around.
Jack did not answer her query. He pushed open the huge double doors and allowed her to enter first before creaking them shut. Alice gasped at the size of the lobby they entered. It was all one single chamber, but it was gigantic. Tiles of amber gold gleamed in the soft, intermittent lights and there was no decoration or furniture, save for one lone desk set in the center of the floor.
She and Jack approached the desk. A woman dressed in an old-fashioned blue nurse's uniform with swept up brown curls sat behind the desk, a glossy black phone receiver pressed up against her ear. Her jaw worked as she chewed on a piece of gum and she was using a pencil to poke at what appeared to be a cockroach in a plastic container. Alice grimaced at the scene in disgust. She hated cockroaches.
The receptionist eventually hung up the phone and peered up at Jack lackadaisically. "He's on the third floor," she informed him, still herding the insect around with the pencil.
"Thank you," Jack replied.
They took an elevator to the third floor instead of traversing more stairs. It opened onto a hallway of ivory and green tiles with little Romanesque frescoes painted into the borders between the two colors. Her boot heels clicked upon the brick red tiles of the floor as she followed Jack down a small set of stairs and around a corner.
She stopped when she heard the eerie, high-pitched screams and demented laughter. Both were filled with madness.
"What was that?" she demanded.
"The inmates," Jack supplied. "Try not to let it get to you. They can drive you mad."
Again with calling them inmates…although I guess this place is more like a mental hospital.
"Caterpillar may seem a bit odd to you," Jack warned as they walked down the hallway. Alice snorted at that. This was Wonderland. Just about everything seemed odd to her. Why should a man named after a grub be any different? "But, believe me, we're among friends."
"If you say so," she muttered.
He led her down another set of stairs leading to an open, beaded archway. Beyond there was a large swimming pool, the bright blue standing starkly out against the warm reds and golds. The smell of chlorine filled her nostrils and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. She was more a beach lover for precisely this reason.
In the middle of the pool was, inexplicably, a rowboat. A man sat in the boat although how he fit amidst all the other junk crammed in there was beyond Alice. There were several piles of books, a lamp, a desk, a typewriter, and what appeared to be the wide blue-colored cylinder of a gramophone perched behind the man in the boat. She frowned when she also saw the man was holding a hookah.
A hookah-smoking Caterpillar is the leader of the Resistance. No wonder they haven't really done anything productive.
"Hello," the man greeted, his voice was reedy with age, although possibly also from hallucinogenic drugs. "Do you have the ring?"
"Yes," Jack answered.
He held his hand out to Alice, so she gathered she was supposed to produce the piece of jewelry. But when she reached into her coat pocket Caterpillar stopped her. "No, no, no. Should the moment arise, I must be able to swear under oath that I have never laid eyes on it."
"Okay," Alice said slowly, dropping her hand from her pocket. Whatever. It was safe to say her confidence in this great and mysterious Resistance leader was plummeting.
"Ask the girl to come closer," Caterpillar requested.
"Alice—" Jack began, but she held her hand up to silence him.
"I'm standing right here and I don't have problems with my hearing. So you can talk to me directly," she told the old man in annoyance.
"Very well," the old man replied diffidently.
She and Jack walked around the pool until they were standing right next to the rowboat floating in the water. Closer inspection revealed Caterpillar to be a man well within his sixties with round glasses that gave the impression of bug-eyes. His hair was completely gray and spiraled out of the crown of his head in multiple directions. He was dressed as if the temperature of this room were near to freezing with a thick green coat and a scarf striped in multiple colors.
"You're not as tall as I imagined," Caterpillar remarked in a thoughtful voice, studying her with his weird bug eyes.
She bristled at the jab towards her unimpressive height. "Well, you're a lot higher than I imagined," she retorted hotly.
"When did you last see your father?" Caterpillar asked, apparently ignoring her jibe.
The girl sighed. "When I was ten," she said tightly.
"Ten," Caterpillar mused. "A long time ago."
What? First he calls me short and now he's trying to insinuate that I'm old? I really am not liking this fellow.
"Where is he?" Alice asked.
Caterpillar took a long drag off the hookah, puffing a cloud of smoke out of his mouth. Alice huffed in disbelief. She turned to Jack with an outraged expression. "Are you kidding me? This is Caterpillar?" She thumbed towards the man.
Jack shrugged helplessly. "In the flesh," he replied.
"Your father is a very difficult man to reach," Caterpillar finally said. "We've been tracking him for a long time, but never got close enough to pop the question. Never once. And do you know what it is we want to ask him?"
Alice frowned. This was not making any sense to her. Why would the Resistance be tracking her father, an insignificant oyster? "No," she said, shaking her head.
"You don't even want to hazard a little guess?" the Resistance leader wheedled.
"What are you talking about?" Alice demanded impatiently.
Caterpillar swept his arms out. "Horizons, my dear. I'm talking about bright new horizons." The man smiled cryptically at her. "And that's where you come in."
"Where I come in?" Alice repeated skeptically.
"Yes. When you first met Jack, did you think it was a happy accident? The fickle finger of fate?" Caterpillar asked.
"You felt the finger of fate brushing over you…" Caterpillar practically echoed the Cheshire's ominous words. She felt a shudder of unease. Looking to Jack, she saw the man sheepishly staring at the floor.
"You mean..." She paused as the words tangled up in her throat. "He singled me out?"
Caterpillar rowed over to the edge and stepped out of the boat. He gave Alice a speculative one over. "There is far more to you than meets the eye, I think."
Wish I could say the same about you, Alice thought to herself.
He laid a hand on Alice's shoulder and guided her back towards the entrance to the pool room. "Come with me, my dear," he said. "There are things which you must see and understand."
Caterpillar led Alice and Jack to what must have been one of the patient wards. They came upon a hall adorned with cells housing people in various states of...well, illness was not quite the word Alice would use to describe what was wrong with these people. In fact, she could not seem to come up with any adjectives which seemed suitable. All the cells were covered in a sheet of glass rather than metal bars. It enabled them a full view of these pitiful people in their equally pitiful predicaments.
"You see, the effect of your powerful emotions on our delicate senses can be devastating," Caterpillar explained. He stopped their progress at a cell where a woman was suspended in the air against a backdrop of a blue sky which gave the illusion of moving as if one were falling. Alice appraised the scene with a mixture of fascinated horror.
"Patient 243 couldn't get the precious high of Flying High out of her system. So, we're bringing her back down in a controlled environment," the Resistance leader elaborated.
They moved on, passing by another cell where an enormous naked man very nearly took up all the space in his cell. He sat with his hand pressed up against his temple, staring sullenly out ahead at the trio.
Caterpillar told this one's story, too. "Patient 671 drank too much Self Importance. So we're shrinking his considerable ego, little by little, back to its original size."
"Jesus, you mean he was bigger than that?" Alice blurted out in astonishment.
Caterpillar nodded gravely. "This is the first time in weeks that we've actually been able to house him in a normal-sized cell," he told her. "We're all vulnerable. Mix the wrong feelings together, the right kind of bad with the wrong kind of good, and you'll wind up with a total breakdown."
Though the man was a hookah-smoking airhead, she had to admit that was true even for people from her world.
"The oysters, your people, are contaminating our world," the old Resistance leader declared as they went through a set of doors, walking underneath a tunnel lined with green hedge bushes. They emerged onto an open brick-lined pathway, the afternoon sun shining brightly down on them.
Alice stiffened at the accusatory tone he used. "Well, cry me a river," she spat sarcastically. "It's not like any of them asked to be here."
Caterpillar, unflappable as always, it appeared, replied in an even tone. "Well they must be returned to their world, your world, before it's too late. Dead or alive, they must be gone from this world."
She scowled at his indifference over the fate of her people. "You know what? It sucks, what's happened to these patients, or inmates, or whatever you call them. But the fact of the matter is, they got that way through their own fucking stupidity. They chose to knock back those emotions! But did my people choose to be stolen from their lives and brought here to be sucked dry? No! And I know what happens to them after they've given all they can give. They're executed. So don't expect me to feel all that sorry for those people in there."
Caterpillar blinked his bug eyes, not showing any sign that her words had registered with him. "Be that as it may," the man droned on. "They must go. And your father is the only one who can release them."
Alice blinked, unsure if she had heard the man correctly. "Um, what?" she asked in bafflement.
"Our undercover operatives successfully smuggled him here earlier today. It's the most dangerous operation we've ever mounted," Caterpillar explained.
Alice gawked at him. Could she ever get a straight answer from these Wonderland folk? "Smuggled him? Where…what the hell are you talking about?"
Jack laid a hand on her arm in an effort to placate her. "Alice, wait, hear him out."
"I must warn you, he's not the same person you knew as a child," Caterpillar said in a surprisingly gentle tone.
Ice gripped her heart and her stomach tightened. "What do you mean?" Had he been tortured? Had his mind been broken beyond repair or his body mutilated in some way? She did not care, for this was her father. She had waited eleven years for this moment.
"He's…how shall I put this?…Stuck," the Resistance leader stated enigmatically. "We're hoping you can help clear away his cobwebs."
"What? I don't understand," Alice complained.
Jack pulled her around to face him. "Alice, I came to your world to find you because we needed your help."
"Only you can wake him, Alice," Caterpillar added.
So it all came together then. Whatever part of her had been hanging onto some kind of slim hope that her presence in this world was through some bizarre accident had been snuffed out like a candle flame. She had been chosen once more, singled out. Hatter had been right all along. Jack had been using her. The girl had been nothing more than a means to an end.
"So everything…us…our relationship…it was all about my father," Alice hissed, her fists clenching as an indescribable fury began to take hold of her.
Jack shook his head, his eyes bleak. "It wasn't all an act. I really do love you, but you must understand your father holds the keys to our future in Wonderland."
He had never told her he loved her before. Once she would have yearned to hear those words from his lips (although she would have wanted a few more months to go by), but now all she could see was more manipulation and lies. It practically clouded her vision.
"Fucking Christ, you have been lying to me this entire time," she accused, her voice barely above a whisper. She turned away from Jack, her ire forcing her breaths to come in quick and shallow.
"I'm sorry, Alice," Jack told her, his voice wracked with guilt.
"Would you have believed him if he had told you the truth?" Caterpillar interjected.
She glared at the intruding old man. Could he not see that this was a relatively private and emotional conversation? "You know, you'd be pretty fucking surprised over what I'd believe."
"You're right, I should have been more honest, Alice. But I can't turn back the clock." The words came out rushed, as if Jack were merely impatient to get them out of the way so he could move on to the important things. "But please," the prince implored her, desperation in his tone. "Will you help us?"
"Alice, our world depends on it," Caterpillar threw in dramatically.
Alice sighed, her breaths still coming in shaky and shallow. Tears of anger and betrayal were threatening to spill, but she beat them back. She brought her hand up to run through her hair and then drew them down to cover her trembling lips.
"I'll help, but I'm not doing it for you," she asserted. She decided not to mention that she was bound by sacred duty to help. Let them think she was doing it out of the goodness of her heart.
Caterpillar turned, beckoning to the two to follow him. He led them to a door at the end of the path and opened it. They climbed up a set of stairs which led to a wide open terrace bordered by white slabs of concrete. The dull red brick seemed to end quite abruptly though, as if the terrace had never been completed. And yet she knew that the building was wider than this, so how was it possible that there appeared to be nothing there? Her confoundment was laid to rest when Caterpillar walked up to a big red button and pressed it. A high-pitched sound pierced the air and then the rest of the terrace seemed to just magically unfurl with a rumbling sound.
Three figures stood upon the newly appeared half of the terrace, the afternoon sunlight glinting off of their shiny yellow plastic lab coats. All of them were male, two relatively young, and one looking to be around fiftyish or so. The older one was strung between the two younger ones with their hands clamped onto his arms. At the appearance of Alice, Jack, and Caterpillar, they released the older man from their holds.
At first, all Alice saw was a man with curly brown hair and a beard, and roving hazel eyes which regarded her and everyone else with a sense of anger and contempt. Then her brain began to work and she gasped.
That man was her father.
Well, this was another one I ended up having to shave off some and leave it for the next chapter. I'm on a roll, it seems, especially since there's a particular part I just can't wait to write…though I think some of my readers will want to kill me for it hahaha…
Oh, and I hope ya'll don't mind me giving the duchess a name. I was kind of annoyed she was just "duchess", so I gave her a name and some more substance, albeit a little indirectly.
Feedback is much appreciated, so please tell me what you thought! You'd be surprised how reviews can spur along updates...