CH16

The Red Queen's Castle

"How can you not be able to get an innocent girl!?" The Red Queen's voice boomed through the castle.

"She has many friends." The creature hissed. It glared at Knave then continued with its Queen. The Red Queen was furious. She rose up her staff and from the orb came a red streak of lightning that hit the creature. It burst into dust.

"You want something done right" She mischievously grinned "You send the Jub Jub Bird." From inside the castle the predator's cry could be heard. "Now dear Knave, please check on the rabbit and cat. See if they will help catch the girl or die." Knave left.

Marmoreal

Yelling, laughing voices outside caused me to wake up. I noticed my mom wasn't with me and I wondered when she got up. My leg still hurt and it was time to put a new bandage on it. I limped on over to my room and put on my now clean jeans, tank top, and white jacket. Slipping into those I noticed my bed head and grabbed my brush. Something finally hit me that I was now in my old home. It felt unbelievable to actually be back, but I was.

"Hey Lily have you met my new friends?" Tiffany squealed and barged into my room.

"Hi Tiffany and no I don't think I have." I gave a tiered smile.

"Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee come on." She encouraged the two short fat boys to come in. I don't remember these guys.

They looked at each other nervously "Hello princess Lily." They tried to bow.

"Oh, you don't have to do that and it's just Lily." I grinned and they relaxed a little. I saw Brandon leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed. He looked a little annoyed.

"So anyways, your mom told me to tell you to come eat breakfast and that she is still waiting for you. Crystal and Sam aren't talking to each other and James is…well actually I don't know where he is, but Absolem wants to talk to you ASAP." She left with her two fat friends before I could ask who Absolem was. Brandon stuck around for a minute.

"So, got some competition with two fat boys?" I smirked while he fake laughed and walked away. He peeked his head back in real quick "Make sure to wear a gas mask when you see Absolem." Then he was gone too.

My first stop was Mrs. Smith. My stitched leg was starting to itch and I needed a new bandage. I walked in to see her fixing up some bottles and rearranging the room.

"Hello, Mrs. Smith." I greeted with a smiled and returned the gesture.

"What can I do for you today princess?" I sighed at the princess part. I pointed to my leg.

"It itches." I motioned over it. She came over and led me to the bed to sit on. She un-wrapped it and we noticed it was red around my stitches and a little swollen.

"Hmmm, looks like it did get infected. Well we will have to start over. Need to take these out and you need to drink infecticide.

"What's that?" She turned around and went over to her table of ingredients. She placed several strange looking herbs and ingredients into a pot. When she turned around she held a bubbling red liquid. "It smells awful." I stuck out my tongue.

"It does and the taste isn't any better but it will help get rid of the infection." She offered it to me and I hesitated taking it. She nodded for me to drink it and I did so. I held my nose and drank the awful drink. It tasted lie dirt and manure all in one. I coughed and she smiled with pleasure at me. "Now, go eat I will fix your stitches later." She patted me on the back and helped me to the door.

The closer I got to the dinning hall the strong the scent of eggs and bacon got. My limp was worst than before and my leg burned, but I tried with all my might to hide the limp so I didn't worry my mom. The two large doors opened and I saw my mom chatting with Hatty.

"There you are." Mom came over and helped me to my seat. Hatty tipped his hat to me and I waved.

"When did everyone else get up?" I began to eat my breakfast.

"7, I guess they were rather excited to still be here when they woke up. I went ahead and got up to help them with breakfast, but I let you sleep in. So how is your leg?" I looked over to see 2 pairs of eyes starring at me. I glanced between Hatty and Mom.

"Good" I lied. I didn't want her throwing up or passing out with the truth. "So uh where is Absolem?"

"In the garden, that caterpillar sure does like to smoke but your friends kept coughing so I asked him if he wouldn't mind staying in the garden and he agreed. Why do you ask?" I tried to act as casual as possible.

"No reason. My friends were just talking about him so I just wanted to know where he was." I took a sip of juice and got up "Well cya later." I waved and went as fast as I could out the door with my limp.

On my way I passed Crystal and Sam still arguing and not acknowledging me at all. "I can't believe you did that to him, AGAIN!" Crystal was throwing her arms all over the place while Sam tried to argue back.

"Oh, look there's Lily, let's ask her." Sam came up to me and I hesitated. Then Crystal came behind me. I was in the Middle.

"Yeah, what do you think about Sam getting jealous over a guard when all he did was help me up then talk to me?" I looked at Crystal then at Sam.

"Well, uh-…"

"You see she agrees with me." I glared at Crystal who crossed her arms. Then they started at it again and I managed to sneak away.

I went down some more corridors and hallways. Sometimes it felt like that's all there was. I passed mark and we greeted each other with a smile. Continuing my walk/limp into the garden I manage to fit in a quick hello to Angel who was also limping. She limped over and licked my face with her big wet tongue and I continued my search once more.

"Uh- Absolem?" I found him by the cherry tree. I sat down in front of him, which was a pretty bad idea with all the smoke being blown at me, but I dealt with it anyways.

"Who are you?" He blew out smoke.

"Lily" I waved my hand in front of my nose.

"No, who are you." He began to eye me.

"Lily Miranda White of Marmoreal, daughter of Mirana and Richard the king and queen of Marmoreal." I sighed.

"You don't look like her, or act like her." He sucked in more smoke.

"Well growing up in London and being in an orphanage can change people." I quipped crossing my arms.

He blew out smoke with a "Yes"

"So explain to me why you wanted to talk to me." The annoyance of my time being wasted by deciding who I was was beginning to show.

"You do not trust you are the Queen's daughter. Why is that?" He continued smoking and I jumped up with anger.

"Fine you want to know why, I will tell you why! She sent me away without her! She could have come with me but she didn't! Then I find someone who was part of my life more than she was and I loose her too! To top it all off when I get back here she treats me like nothing happened and the worst part is, is that it did! Everything is different, this all feels unreal." Tears were rolling down my cheeks that I hadn't noticed during my episode, but I wiped them away.

"Well, the first door you shut yourself in has been opened." He grinned with the smoke blowing out between his teeth.

"What are you talking about? I don't have doors." I plopped back down and fiddled with my necklace.

"Don't you? You are here not only for your mother, but for all of Underland. You have a prophecy to fulfill." I leaned forward closer to him.

"What prophecy?"

"The one where you defeat the red queen."

"I am only here because that devil thing dragged me down the hole!" I paused and the question came to me. "Does my mom know anything about this?"

"Only me and the Red queen, but the Red queen has other plans for you."

My anger was boiling inside of me, so I got up and limped away. Why did this have to happen to me? Now I was starting to miss all those annoying fans and concerts in London. That annoying movie Twilight that Sarah always made us watch and I missed our home. I felt better when I found James by the flowers.

"Hey James" I managed to make my way over to him.

"Oh, hey, I-uh- got these for you." From behind his back he pulled out an arrangement of flowers.

"Wow, they're beautiful." I smiled at him. He was about to kiss me and I wanted him to, but I could see my mom and friends peeking out the windows. I tried to act casual "Um- they are watching us." He looked over at them and gave our friends a menacing glare, but waved and smiled to my mom.

"Well, at least I got to give you the flowers." He grinned. I couldn't help but smile widely.

"So-" James was cut off by an awful screech. We looked at the sky and around us. I glanced at my mom already with her guards. Our friends were already by our sides. Hatty and Mally were between me and my mom. The screech boomed through the air again.

"The Jub Jub Bird!" The guards yelled and got to their positions.