Goodbye, Hello
Patrick Hervey had seen many things to rattle his world in his life, but nothing so much as what he saw in his daughter's bedroom today. But there was most definitely a large white rabbit on the other side of Faelyn's mirror. The mirror she'd reserved for Alice. And behind that rabbit was the most ominous twisting of light, shadow dimension that he had ever, in his forty-seven years, known.
He turned to Hatter for an explanation, only to see his tear-puffed red eyes and the flood of tears covering his face, and the black markings that made the young man look as though he'd wept ink. Patrick had not noticed that Hatter was wearing makeup over the markings.
And now that young man was closing the distance between them, and bowing low. With a flourish he pulled off his queer striped hat. This released long, unkempt curtains of rust-and-garnet hair. He then flipped his head up, framing his face in the blood-red tresses, and pulled something from the hat. It was a rather large hand-mirror, and looked as though it was made from the identical stuff of Faelyn's mirror. It was highly polished metal, with no glass at all. The frame had etchings of suits of cards and fantastic creatures all about it. Turning it dumbly over in his hands, Patrick saw a large embossed heart. A sudden lump hit the back of his throat as he read the banner across it. In loving memory of our true Queen of Hearts.
It was clear from what he'd overheard between his daughter and the madman that the mirror was referring (supposedly) to his once-wife. Alice's father did not understand what was happening here. He only understood, and quite clearly, that he'd been very, very wrong about Alice for many years. And that his this wrong had truly hurt his daughter.
His daughter! – Who was currently making her way to the mirror in the company of a madman who wept for her.
"Wait! Where are you going?" he called.
"Father, I'm going back to Wonderland. I'm long overdue. Just look at the White Rabbit. Can't you see he's telling us we're late?"
She was testing him, hoping he could see what she could, praying she wasn't mad. Patrick smiled at her. "Yes, I see him." He paused. She looked incredulous. "I see him, Alice, I do. I believe you. I-I was wrong. I'm so sorry, sweetheart!"
He was finally moving, moving towards her, trying to catch her. "But please, please don't go! I can't lose you, too..."
The years of distance between them finally showed in his eyes. He'd been so lonely. Just like her. Alice felt her insides knotting. "Father..."
"And that's why you two'll chat with my looking glass," Hatter interrupted. He gestured vaguely at the ornate mirror in Patrick's hands. "Kazan's keepers are very jealous of their secrets. They'll be about this place in no time, and take your mirrors away. Of course, they might not find the one hiding in your shed. Good of you to get it off the mantle while you had the chance. And quite handy. I don't think I'd have made it here without it."
He ignored his stunned audience, and continued, all the while tapping his chin. "They must know about Alice, and about the Queen...er...Faelyn. Right. Names here are so silly, mean nothing really. Anyway, there were rumors that she nicked a couple of the mirrors when she broke out of Kazan. Crafty, crafty lady. Brilliant. None of us quite believed it until she," here he waved his other hand at Alice, "showed up in...ah...Wonderland, you call it? Yes. Good name. Like it so much better than what we call it now."
He finally looked over, first to Alice, then to Patrick. They were both staring at him, jaws hanging. One could really tell the family likeness.
"Ah, yes, that'd be 'Hell.' That's the commonplace name for it now. The place where I live. Yes. Quite. Come along now, Alice. Can't wait to get back."
Patrick's eyes showed panic and a trace of horror, but Hatter seemed to have recovered himself. He grabbed Alice's arm with one hand and the long black evening coat that lay across her dresser-top with the other. He strode purposefully to the mirror, the White Rabbit beckoning wildly all along.
As the tip of the Mad Hatter's boot touched the surface of the mirror, a river of what looked like mercury began rushing up his leg, and soon engulfed both his body and Alice's. Alice was reaching for her father, but by the time the older man tried to touch her hand, she was encased. It was very clear that Wonderland didn't recognize him and wouldn't accept him. The hand mirror, though, was making a sweet ringing sound as he touched the full-length mirror.
All too soon Alice and Hatter were engulfed in the mirror. Patrick saw her looking back at him for an instance, her fingers splayed on the reflective surface, before her image went black, then faded to reveal only Patrick Hervey, alone on this side of the mirror.
….....................................
"Where the devil have you been? We're so very late!" the White Rabbit squealed the moment they emerged on the other side of the mirror.
"There was a tea party, Rabbit. You understand." Hatter responded, primly replacing his hat and grinning down on the crazed, disheveled-looking creature.
"Quite," replied the White Rabbit, as though that settled the matter. "But what've you done to Mary-Ann? She does look so awfully queer!"
Alice turned away from the now-blackened oval, and lifted a brow at the deranged rabbit. She held back the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
"She's still not Mary-Ann. Alice, Alice, Alice," Hatter tapped the Rabbit's nose each time he said her name, and gave a long-suffering sigh. "And I didn't do anything to her. She grew up. Either that, or she caught her head floating up and inflated her body to catch it."
Rabbit screwed an eye up at Hatter. "One can never be too sure about these things, really. It could be either." Both men nodded.
"By-the-by, what happened to your face? You're a mess!" Rabbit exclaimed.
Hatter touched his face, and examined the pale makeup diluted by tears on his fingers. This seemed to trouble him for a moment, but he hurriedly reached into a pocket and pulled out a checked handkerchief. Her rubbed it about his face until most of the pale face makeup came off. Alice looked at the new face. It was still pale, but below each eye there were two black tear-track marks. The tracks ended in a sharp point, the outer one almost to the jaw, the inner one just below the cheek bones. His lips were the same ink-black. He looked like a demonic clown, though he was not grinning now.
Alice was taken quite aback, but didn't want to seem rude. And besides, the markings looked more...natural on him. He looked himself now.
Alice finally looked below her feet and about her. The vortex was unnerving, as it had no floor to walk on, and she felt she might topple over if she kept looking at it. So she closed her eyes a moment and concentrated on her feet, noticing that they were on some kind of solid surface. She walked directly away from the mirror a bit, then walked back. She opened her eyes to find the two men gazing at her as though waiting for her assessment. "I suppose this will do for traveling."
She knelt down to one knee, to look Rabbit in the eye. He was very large for a rabbit, and almost man-like in his movements. He sat back on his haunches, but it was clear he could either walk about on them or hop if he chose. It was his face that was the most interesting. His left eye bugged much larger than his right, and peered from one of her eyes and back again with unmasked insanity. The right eye seemed still. Alice did not break the gaze until his right eye twitched.
Satisfied, she stood again. "Good to see you again, White Rabbit. Though, you look awefully queer yourself. Took me all these years, but I finally caught you." It was only then that she noticed her coat hanging out of the crook of Hatter's arm. "How'd you get my coat?" she asked. She'd really not seen him grab it. She was busy trying not to spill her emotional guts in her bedroom. A swirling vortex stealing away your balance and sense of reality has a way of snapping one out of their emotional fits and pulling them forcibly to the present.
Hatter jumped and dropped the coat as though it bit him. He looked down at it, un-trusting, as if he'd no idea where it'd come from. The coat began to sink through the surface that none of them could see. Alice snatched it up.
Looking thoughtfully at it, Alice whispered, "Hatter, you punched my stepmother." Hm...stepmother sounded so much better when referring to Clarice.
Hatter went rigid suddenly, his cheek twitching a bit. "Well, it's all in your point view..."
"Did he, now?" Asked Rabbit.
Alice looked up at Hatter, brow creased. "I'm almost certain you broke her nose."
"You know, your father helped a bit..." Hatter was scrambling now. Ah well...if there was to be a fight over this...
He took a step back, and raised his fists defensively. His face was dubious. To put it gently.
Alice saw this, and advanced one step, then another. "Yes, the two of you sent her reeling down the stairs. Left her in a heap at the bottom."
Rabbit's little jaw dropped, making his long front teeth look even more exaggerated. They still hung lower than his bottom lip.
Alice grabbed Hatter's white jacket collar and all but yanked his face down, nose to nose.
"If you're going to get touchy about this..." Hatter began, fists uselessly hanging behind Alice's head.
Alice took a long look into his black-rimmed, beautiful eyes, and tugged on his shirt again. On her tip-toes, she leaned in to touch her lips with his.
Hatter's arms tried to hold up, but gave way and fell uselessly to his sides. He tried not to fall as she lingered in the kiss. He took the opportunity to inhale deeply through his nose...
And a rush of deep, earthy scents engulfed him. Clearly, this woman spent time in the garden, walking among the pines, digging in the earth, and washing said dirt away with summer-harvested lavender made into soap. Her rich scent told him more about the way she spent her time than the mirror in her bedroom.
Alice pulled away slowly, testing, carefully. "I just wanted to thank you," She whispered, eyes molten with intimacy, cheeks burning a little self-consciously..
She turned away from Hatter, and did a curious trick of walking and floating away from the blackened mirror.
"A most thorough thank-you," Rabbit commented, left eye bugging, right eye twitching.
A second later, Hatter choked out, "We can go back...I – I CAN HIT HER AGAIN!!"
-
-
Alice was trembling a bit. She'd felt numb and reckless only moments ago, and had done as she pleased with the situation. Pleasing as it had been, she now found her numbness replaced by nervous, giddy embarrassment and a heat in her face that was only partially to do with mortification at her boldness.
Hatter, face marked out in ink and in a non-reality world, seemed irresistible to Alice. So she didn't bother resisting the urge to kiss him. Now, with the two men trailing not far behind her, her only guide forward being an apex of the vortex, and unwilling to turn around with her face so flushed, she was trapped leading the expedition to Wonderland.
Her foot faltered a moment, as though she'd strayed to close to the left edge of the invisible sidewalk they were traversing. She fell forward, her leg dangling off the edge. Her heart raced, and she wondered for a moment what would happen to her if she "fell off" the walkway.
Hatter was beside her in an instant, and pulled her to her feet. "Th-Thank you," she stammered. He looked encouraged by the statement. The last thanks had been pretty fantastic! Alice reddened deeper, broke his gaze.
When it was obvious she wasn't going to look back up at him, the lank man slumped a bit, but took up walking at her side. For safety, of course.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"No clue," Hatter responded. Alice stopped. "Are we lost?"
"Most likely."
"And when did you plan to tell me this?"
"I didn't know you needed to know you'd be lost in Wonderland. From what I remember, it's standard operating procedure for you. Rabbit, are we lost?" he asked the shorter man.
"Quite."
"There you have it," he turned back to Alice.
"Buh....but what about when you came into my world? Wasn't it like this?"
"Ho-ho, no! No, no, when I made it into your world, it was a straight shot from the Duchess' mirror to your shed. Though I'll admit, the shot must have taken a year," he amended, hooking two fingers about his chin. "When I checked the hand-mirror before I entered the Aranmula kannadi, you were still in school. By the time I checked it when I got out, you were celebrating your 19th birthday."
Alice paled a bit. "The Aranmula kannadi? You mean the Duchess' mirror? Why in heavens do you call it by his name?"
Hatter slapped a hand over his mouth and looked down at Rabbit. His long ears were twitching erratically in agitation, and he slunk past them. His dirty white fur seemed to shimmer and darken alternately as he hopped away.
Hatter gave her a sharp look (which lost some of it's intimidation factor – his hand was still firmly clamped over his mouth), and made to follow Rabbit.
Alice grabbed his free arm and spun him to face her. "What was that all about?" she whispered. Hatter put a long finger gently against her lips. He leaned in close, brushing his cheek against hers, "Those ears aren't just for show, so don't bother whispering. Just wait."
"Oh. Well, if that's the case, why did you bother whispering in my ear?"
The Hatter took her arm in his, as he'd done at her own front door not so long ago. Then he grinned devilishly at her, mischief etched into the markings all over his face.
-
A.N. Finally the first kiss! And I don't know about you guys, but I was really hankerin' for some comic relief. Really, I think every chapter before this one could be condensed into the first chapter. Hind-sight 20/20.
For those of you who love American McGee's Alice as much as I do, yes: the White Rabbit is taken off the image in the game. And, really, who in the world has ever come up with an image for the Cheshire cat more perfect and delightful than they? As for the image of the Mad Hatter, that's my own working. I'll try to put the picture up somewhere... maybe DeviantArt will let me post it. I have several incarnations of the image...one in pencil/pen, one in colored pencil, and one (still in progress) in acrylic. Snapps loves Hatter. That's all.
Vinders and Mageblood, I live to make you happy. Just to know that a few people have gone past page one and will chat with me about it---it's delightful! Yes, the road's getting twistier, even as I straighten a few things out. There will be more flashbacks, but I want them to come at the right time. CaptainGonzo, welcome aboard!
