Malice in Wonderland Prequel (6 page)

She could feel the power of her goody two-shoes negating the corrupting influence, and debated whether to take them off.

But then she swooned and fell to the floor, lost in an unblinking daze. She was conscious, but unable to move.

She was unaware of how much time passed—it could have been seconds, it could have been centuries, when she felt someone or something grab a hold of her arms and drag her out of the room to the forest outside.

She was unable to blink and her eyes stung as they stared into the clouds above.

She saw a cloaked arm pass over, holding a glass tube, then something was held beneath her nose. She smelled the aroma of a pungent chemical. She instantly jolted and was able to move again.

She shifted her eyes to see a mysterious hooded cloaked figure holding the Black Rose in its pot.

Alice said, “Who are you? What happened?”

Alice could only see the glowing twinkle of two red eyes beneath the hood. “Shhh.” The mysterious being lifted a bony gray finger to its mouth. “Your kind is not yet ready for the beauty of the Black Rose.”

“You mean humans?”

“No, I mean little girls.”

“I’m not so little. I’m almost 8.”

“Yes…little girl. You went too far from home, young one.”

Alice got the sense that it was speaking figuratively. “I just wanted to help. I’m sorry.”

“One day perhaps, you will be ready. But this is not the day. Go back to your former life now. I am putting the Black Rose in a different place, to await those who are ready. As for this place…” It pointed to the stone doorway. “It will explode in ten seconds. I suggest you run.”

When Alice shifted her eyes from the doorway back to the figure, it was suddenly gone and she couldn’t be entirely sure it had even ever been there in the first place. Then her eyes went wide in alarm as she hurried to stand and run as fast as she could away from the doomed place.

The sound of a huge explosion erupted behind her then heat licked at her back and threw her ten feet through the air. Her head landed just a few inches from the trunk of a tree. Debris and ash rained down upon her from the sky.

She realized her blond hair was on fire and shrieked and rolled about to put out the flame—she hoped her hair hadn’t been blackened.

Then she dusted herself off and returned to her hut. She snuck back into her chains. The guard card was still taking a nap.

When he awoke, he seemed puzzled by Alice’s singed hair and the burn holes in her dress, but the guard card wasn’t very bright, so the matter was quickly forgotten by him.

As she sat there, her thoughts were quite different than usual. She ruminated upon the delectable pleasures of torture. She wondered at the allure of licking the tears of others’ pain and humiliation. And she thought, uncharacteristically for her, of how delicious revenge must be.

How great it must be to thoroughly vanquish and humiliate one’s enemies? To plant death’s kiss upon their cheeks, while raining your unrelenting revenge upon them? And upon their graves, to place…a single black rose…

CHAPTER SIX

Birthday Party

When Alice was 8

Calloo Callay! What a frabjuous day!

It was an splendid day, indeed, for today was Alice’s 8th birthday!

In the short time she’d been here, the citizens of Wonderland had grown so fond of using the girl for the sake of their own pleasure, and today was their chance to celebrate that!

Everybody who was anybody was gathered in the Queen of Heart’s ballroom, which was filled with the dancing revelers and an assortment of cakes, snacks and foods. There was even a table of tarts that only the Queen was allowed to eat (heavily guarded of course, to prevent any further thefts).

“Welcome!” the Queen called out to the crowd of assembled revelers, as she held a glass of sparkling apple juice. “I’m so glad you all could attend.” She gazed out at the crowd, searching. She saw the Tweedles, Humpty Dumpty, the Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse, even the Jabberwock was there, looking awkward and shy. And there even was the grinning floating head of the Cheshire Cat, whom she hadn’t even invited. “Now, we just have to wait for the birthday girl herself to get here!”

That brought up a round of polite laughter from the crowd.

The Queen said, “But I’m sure she’ll be along shortly. So, eat, be merry and dance, and when she gets here, the party shall truly begin and we shall unleash all our planned festivities!”

That brought a cheer, and the Queen left the crowd to it and began mingling.

Meanwhile, Alice sat at her desk she was chained to, inside her humble, sparse hut. Today was her 8th birthday, but since she was stuck in this horrendous, stifling world, she didn’t expect anyone to throw her a party, and just as she’d expected, no one had invited her to one. She sighed and pouted miserably. She supposed there was always the possibility that they would throw her a surprise party, just like they surprised her with unhappy unbirthday parties every day. And the day wasn’t over, so she still held out hope.

So Alice was now spending her birthday at her desk, drawing upon a sheet of paper. She was drawing a picture of a girl who was chained to a desk. There was a huge cake in front of the drawn girl and she was holding her hand out toward it, but the chain wasn’t long enough to reach. There was a big frown upon the girl’s face. Alice felt like she wanted to draw tears, but that might be a difficult thing to draw.

The guard card who watched over her was no good company at all. He was seated in his chair, dozing.

She heard the sound of the door opening and grinned.
Here comes my surprise birthday party! Oh, this just has to be it!

But when the door swung open, there before her eyes, was a girl she couldn’t recall ever having seen before.

The girl was wearing a white lace veil over her face. She looked to be a teenager, wearing a long, fluffy black dress much like Alice’s own. There were splotches of what looked like dried blood splattering her dress. The girl’s right hand donned a black metal gauntlet like from a suit of armor, adorned with ornamental engravings and an odd, repeating symbol. She held a box with a handle atop it in her other hand.

Alice gasped and called out to the guard.

“Eh?” the guard said as he lazily opened his eyes. He saw the older girl and began to stand, as the girl calmly walked up to him and punched him so hard he knocked back into the chair and toppled backward into it with a crash. He lay unconscious upon the ground.

“Oh no!” Alice cried.

The girl was kneeling. She took the gauntlet off, then began rummaging through the metal box. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t harm you. I’m here to warn you.”

At the Queen of Heart’s ballroom, Humpty Dumpty was throwing a hissy fit. “Where is Alice!? I have a bucket of paint I had prepared especially to pour over her head!”

“Yes,” said Tweedledum. “It’s quite rude for her to show up late for her own birthday party!” “Yes, quite!” said Tweedledee. They crossed their arms.

“Yes,” added the March Hare. “Doesn’t she know how to tell time? She knows what time the party starts correct?” He was peering at the large oversized clock he wore around his neck.

The Queen of Hearts tried to control her irritation. “Yes, of course she does. It was right on her invitation, just like with all of yours.”

“Well, then it’s quite inconsiderate of her,” said the March Hare.

The Queen of Hearts said, “Well, she’s still not
too
late. Perhaps she’ll be along shortly. But in the meantime, let’s have some of her cake, shall we?”

“Warn me of what?” asked Alice. She watched as the veiled girl brought out two handcuffs from her metal box and put them on the card’s wrists.

“I am from the future,” said the girl. She began putting the other pair of cuffs around the guard card’s ankles. She stood, kicked the card’s spear away, then looked at Alice, said, “I am here to warn you not to let your heart grow black.”

Alice chuckled at the very idea. “Well of course I won’t, but why exactly did you want to tell me that?”

The girl sighed. “Listen. You’re still new here. But I know…from personal experience. This place, the creatures and people here can be very cruel, and over time, it can, I mean it
will
really tear you down, make you start thinking negative thoughts. You might start thinking about getting revenge, hurting those who hurt you…”

Alice giggled. “Oh, that’s silly! You can only get negative thoughts if you allow yourself to. That won’t happen to me, because I always stay positive.”

“I’m sorry, but all their cruelty, over time, it can get to anyone. It happened to me.”

Alice frowned. “Well did you think positive thoughts?”

“I did for a long time, until I didn’t.”

She frowned more. “But did you look on the bright side?”

“I did, but then after all those years, the bright side disappeared, and it became
all
dark side.”

Her smile wavered a bit, then reasserted itself. “But did you tell yourself everything was going to be okay?”

“Yes, I did everything you do, but still, over time, I let my heart grow black. And now I regret it.”

Alice’s mouth was twerking as she thought. “Well if you did all that, then I don’t know how you could possibly let your heart grow black. You must have done something wrong. Did you try turning your frown upside down?”

“Yes, but after so many years of people being mean to me, the dark side took me by surprise. That’s why I came here. I want to tell you, that over time, all the ways you keep the dark thoughts away might not be enough. Don’t always assume you can keep away the darkness on your own.”

Alice frowned, but then smiled. “Aww, don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”

“No! Listen to me! Things might not all be okay! They could turn out very very bad! I was once like you! I didn’t take the darkness seriously, and now…” She pointed at the splotches of reddish-brown on her dress. “This is the blood of boys whose hearts I ripped out after causing them to love me.”

Alice frowned, but this time her smile did not reappear. “That sounds mean.”

“It
was
mean! Because I let my heart grow black! Listen, you must promise me, to do whatever you can. You must
fight
it, don’t you understand? You must fight the darkness! Never let your guard down!”

Alice nodded and her lower lip began to tremble. She felt like she was going to cry, because this lady was scaring her.

The girl said, “Good. I’ve got your attention. I know the citizens of Wonderland can be cruel, but never let their cruelty wear off on you. Never give in to hatred, never let them get you down.”

In a whisper, Alice said, “I won’t. They just don’t know any better. I will teach them to be kind.”

The girl laughed sadly. “Just promise me you’ll never let your heart grow black. You gotta do whatever it takes.”

Alice’s eyes went wide. “I promise. And those guys don’t get to me. The meaner they get, the
nicer
I get! I’ll kill them with kindness!”

Again the girl laughed sadly. “That’s the spirit. I wish I could do more than just warn you, like provide you magic protection or something, but all I can do is use my own words and experience.”

“Aw, don’t feel bad,” said Alice.

The girl softly shook her head. Meanwhile the guard card was regaining consciousness and slowly figuring out his condition.

The girl said, “Now I know it’s your birthday, because I had to wait till today to speak to you, because of how the timelines interact, so I brought you this.” She reached into her iron box and pulled out a chocolate cupcake with a candle stuck in the top.

“Ooh, is that for me?” said Alice. “I thought everyone had forgotten my birthday.”

“I could never forget,” said the girl just before she struck a match and lit the candle.

The guard card struggled and shouted, “Who are you? Let me out!”

Alice watched as the girl set the birthday cupcake upon her desk, and then Alice lost control and burst into tears. “Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome sweetie.” She set two keys next to the cupcake.

“Halt! Surrender yourself!” called the guard card.

“Blow out your candle,” said the girl gently.

Alice closed her eyes, made her wish, then blew out the candle. She expected it to go out, but then relight, just like the candles the citizens of Wonderland tormented her with during her unhappy unbirthday parties.

But when she opened her eyes again, the candle was extinguished and unleashing gray smoke.

The girl was walking away.

“It’s your birthday?” said the guard card. He sounded remorseful.

“Where are you going?” said Alice.

The girl’s voice sounded choked up. “I’m sorry. I can’t stay.” She picked up her things, put the gauntlet back on. “Happy birthday.” She began walking toward the door.

“Lady?” Alice said.