Dear Readers,
Alright this chapter was going to be apart of the Epilogue, but then I decided to be nice and have it stand alone as a little tease, taste, and lead-in of what is to come in the closing chapters of this generation's story. The last chapter will be out as soon as possible. It will be about all of the Covenant, including Reid and Alice, back in Ipswich for Sarah and Caleb's wedding. This chapter will be the end of their story and foreshadowing of their children's story, which I am working on as well. Maybe if I finish the first chapter of the second generation's story, I will give you a little preview of it in the next (and last) chapter of Malice in Wonderland! Be on the look out. Oh and I wanted to let you know that the sequel to Malice in Wonderland is going to be called Welcome To The New Age. Thanks so much for reading. You guys are fantastic! Enjoy!
ABOUT 4 YEARS LATER
Reid
I woke up in the middle of the night with a start, sweating profusely (even for summer). It took me a second to remember where I was, and when I was. It had been a little over four years since our final battle with Chase Collins, but every so often I have a nightmare about that day, only in that nightmare Alice is dead. I don't know why, but it happens. I let my head fall back down onto my pillow, looking over at the space next to me in a be. Then I sat up, looking at the empty space where Alice usually slept.
We had gone to different colleges, but different colleges in the same city; Waltham, MA. Alice is going to be a senior at Brandeis University this fall, and is a Studio Art major. I just graduated from Bentley University with a degree is Business and Accounting. I know what you are thinking, and yes I did barely skate by in my program. I wasn't an A student by any means. But I passed. I needed to get a good job for the future. My Dad wasn't gonna pay for everything forever.
Anyways, my first year, I stayed in the dorm and commuted back to Ipswich to see Alice. When she came to Waltham, I rented an apartment off-campus, and although she said she was going to live in the dorm, she stayed at my apartment almost every night of the week. For the next two years, we rented an apartment together. After I graduated a month and a half ago, I proposed to Alice, and she said yes. Being engaged is really weird, but I couldn't imagine a future without her.
So, for her side of the bed to be empty was weird. Alice did have friends, but if she was going to be out late, I usually knew. She was probably really excited that we were going back to Ipswich tomorrow. We would be moving back there after she graduated, but we always visited. This visit was special, though. Sarah and Caleb, who had been engaged for the past 4 years, were getting married. I got up from bed, looking around our bedroom, and then noticing our bedroom door was cracked open. I realized that she probably woke up from a dream and was inspired, and probably went to the little studio part of our apartment where she would go to draw and paint. I went to go push the door open, but something made me stop.
I had the strangest feeling that something wasn't right. I looked through the crack in the door, and saw that the light in the kitchen part of our apartment was on. Alice was sitting at the kitchen counter, and I could only see her profile. Her hair was up in a ponytail, the hair sill reaching the small of her back. Her head was tilted slightly to the side as she turning something over in her hands. It glinted in the light, and suddenly I knew what she was holding. It was a knife.
She had been acting weird lately, I couldn't deny that. Getting no sleep, drawing a ton like she used to. When she drew, or painted, she would shut herself in her studio room for hours at a time. She had been doing that a lot more lately. Her demeanor had been a little off lately as well, but I hadn't said anything until now. I was about to push open the door, maybe confront her about her actions, when she suddenly took the knife and slid it across her palm, letting out a loud gasp as she did. I pushed open the door, about to yell 'what the hell are you doing?' when I stopped. Her head was tilted backwards, her back was arched, and she had her eyes closed. When she opened them, her eyes were black, healing her hand I assumed, but by that time the cut on her hand had bleed so much that it looked like she was wearing a red sleeve.
"Alice!" I finally shouted, running over to her. As her eyes went back to normal, a look of confusion appeared on her face. She looked from me and then down to the knife in her one hand and the blood on her other hand. She screamed, her face went white and her eyes went wide as she let the knife fall to the counter with a clang.
"What... what the hell is going on?" She said, tearing up.
"Sh, come here." I rushed forward, holding her tightly to me as she started sobbing, I pulled her up off of the stool, and then moving her body to the sink. I turned on the water, washing away the blood from her hand. I could tell once the blood had been washed off of her palm she had, in fact, healed herself.
I held her tightly as she sobbed, saying fragments of sentences that didn't make sense. All I could think was that we needed to be in Ipswich already, because we needed to look at the book and we needed to talk to the Caleb. Because my first thought was that she was being controlled by Darcy... but Darcy didn't control people, she was a shapeshifter. She could've gotten a friend, but I feel like Darcy was someone who really bided her time. After all, she was an immortal, so I felt like she could probably wait for decades before exacting her revenge. But the thing that really hit me was her eyes... she had bee using when this happened. It also made me realize she had been using a lot lately, she tried to hide it, but she wasn't very good at hiding things from me. She did not age from power usage, but I was starting to think her power had an affect on her in a different way. All power has its price.