Damaged People: The Last Waltz
Chapter Seven:
Know-Where
Hatter suddenly broke his captor's hold on him, and reached into his pocket; he threw a glass vial to Alice, who caught it and read the familiar tag on it: 'DRINK ME'. Not wasting a single moment, she downed the whole thing and felt the change wash over her. She was growing taller, going up and up! She eventually reached the high, vaulted ceiling.
The Queen of Hearts was beyond furious. Her plan to torment the crazy couple had backfired most impressively. She turned to her card soldiers.
"Well? Don't just stand there! Attack them!"
The cards surged into action, leaping at the Hatter with blood-red minds. They thought he'd be the easier of the two to take down... they were wrong.
"Who cares for you?" the Hatter said coldly, "You're nothing but a pack of cards!" He killed the storm of angrily charging cards in one elegant, fell, sweeping motion. They collapsed, blood and paper, mixing until one was more the other. Alice viewed the chaos around her with dispassion. The running, panicked creatures scurried around her feet in frantic circles; they looked so small now, and not the least bit threatening.
"My… my cards!" Even as their blood splashed her feet, the queen screamed in disbelieving fright, so very changed from her previously angry, foul, and haughty mood. She had finally realized the mortal peril she was in… so she ran. She ran to her castle's huge double doors, but by the time she got one open slightly, it closed on her. She tried desperately to open it once more, but the Hatter's hand was holding it shut, effectively barring her escape.
"Well now… Where do you think you're going?" he said, idly drumming his fingers on the red wood. Alice had tried to follow the Hatter's warpath towards the Queen of Hearts, but she was astonished when he up and dissipated into the air. Just as the Hatter disappeared, the Cheshire Cat appeared, floating in the space around her head. Alice was surprised when he spoke suddenly, seeming to be smiling more so than usual,
"I say, he's the best student one could have hoped for. Hatter's the only one to have mastered it... well, besides myself that is." The cat spoke conversationally, as though the ruckus that was going on down there was something trivial. And in a way... it was.
The queen, stripped completely of power by now, was attempting to escape from her certain destruction at the hands of the Hatter; but she was grabbed from behind before she could run off.
"Not this time. Not from me. You won't escape this." Hatter spoke with eerie finality, setting the queen off to apologetic, begging tears. He narrowed his eyes and disappeared again. From the nothingness, he spoke, "You've outstayed your welcome, 'queen' dear." The red line of a cut to the Queen of Hearts' body suddenly made its way around her arm. It caused her to shriek most unpleasantly, but Alice only winced for the pain to her eardrums. "Causing our Alice such unnecessary pain..." Another red, bleeding line showed up; on her face this time. Alice watched as the queen's final judgment drew inexorably near. "It's downright inexcusable."
"Please, please don't- ohh- don't kill me!"
The Hatter reappeared once more, in front of the Queen of Hearts, who dropped down onto her knees. Alice rather liked that picture, herself.
"The time for imploring is long past-" the Hatter said coldly, before finishing her off. He flickered out of sight for a bare moment, before stepping back to admire his work. The queen was confused and stood there for a few seconds before a thousand hairline, yet deep cuts spouted blood all at once. A gurgling scream of unimaginable pain rang through the castle, causing everyone and everything to go quite still. The noise kept going, but as the cuts deepened further still, and more blood pooled to the floor, it gradually tapered off to a quiet death rattle. Without warning, all those slices took their toll on the queen's fragile body- she fell apart like a sand statue crumbles as a crushing wave overtakes it.
All of Wonderland stayed silent for only the barest of moments. This desperate fantasy had run its course- it was time for Wonderland to be no more! The furious whirlwind of Alice's first departure from Wonderland came back full-force, nay- stronger. All throughout this place of pure nonsense, an energy of cosmic proportions was consuming and annihilating everything in its path, removing all that remained in her now twisted and misbegotten world. It roared towards the castle, shaking the very foundation with its unbelievable might.
"I will have my Ever After!" the Hatter shrieked, defiant even in the face of certain destruction. The force made it to them, drowning out Alice's scream of fright- Wonderland itself howled as it felt the 'Mad' Hatter be torn away, into life, into love, into peace. Alice felt herself be rejected violently, and screamed again, struggling to get free-