literature

Trial of the Mouse

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Chapter 16

Caught in a dream

The Mad Hatter shambled through the hallways, a trail of blood in his wake as he heaved his heavy croquet hammer over his shoulder, his eyes still glazed with madness.

All around him, he could see he was nearing the Red Queen’s fortress, where his beloved Alice was trapped. And it was up to him to make sure Alice was rescued and safe. After all, if Alice was dead, order and tyranny would engulf Wonderland, and he knew that the Red Queen would bathe in the blood of all their citizens if she got the chance.

As he made his way through her hedge maze labyrinth, he prepared himself for what he must face. He had already taken out several of the Queen’s card soldiers as he made his way towards the castle, but now he knew that he would be facing his greatest challenge yet trying to infiltrate her fortress. He prayed that he didn’t awaken the Jabberwock while he was rescuing Alice. He doubted either of them had the strength to face that thing yet.

As he shambled his way towards the massive door, he wondered where Alice would be kept. He needed to rescue her quickly, before the Queen decided to chop off her head.

And as the door slowly opened, he prepared himself for whatever lay behind it.

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Alice finally finished cutting through the rope that bound her hands, rubbing her wrists where the rope had burned her, her car key grasped in her fingers.

Her hands now free, she quickly twisted around and undid the rope that bound her to the chair and finally got up, stretching a bit. “Whew! Glad I’m finally out. Now, I need to find where they are keeping Jervis.”

She tried the door, but it refused to budge. She tugged again and again, but it still refused to yield to her strength. She huffed, before suddenly thinking of an idea. Pulling out a bobby pin from her hair, she started to shape it into a lock-pick. She hoped her idea worked; otherwise she would be stuck here unless someone let her out.Years of getting locked out of my dorm and forgetting the key, don’t fail me now, she silently prayed as she maneuvered the tiny pin into the lock.

With a click, the door opened before her.

Alice grinned, and stepped out of the door for the first time in weeks. She hoped she would find Jervis soon and get out of here. She could only hope she was not too late.

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The Mad Hatter let out a sigh of relief as the last card soldier collapsed. He had expected, when the door opened, to be beset by a deck of card soldiers, but he had not expected just how many would be in there.

But now that the last card soldier was unconscious, he made his way into the castle.

He saw a long hall of corridors, each branching off into a different room.

“Hmm, now which room? Which room?” he said to himself, looking around. Alice had to be behind one of these doors. He just didn’t know which. There were dozens of rooms, each stretching in a different direction.

He closed his eyes, his finger pointed to one of the rooms. “Alright. Eeny, Meeny…”

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Alice ran down the corridor, trying to find her way out of the maze of cellblocks and doors. She could’ve sworn that she was in the abandoned Gotham P.D. building with so many cells around her. And what she saw within them frightened her.

There were many dead men in the cells, their faces ripped to shreds and their bodies torn asunder, as if a mighty animal had been unleashed into the cell with them.

She didn’t want to think about what could be capable of taking such a huge chunk out of those men, so she continued to run.

As she turned down another hallway, she gasped as a guard spotted her.

“Hey, girly. Care to take a step closer?” the goon said, flicking his forked tongue towards her.

With a scream, she ran in a panic. She didn’t know what that henchman would do to her, but she certainly didn’t want to find out.

But behind her, the goon was gaining fast, and, if she didn’t go faster, would soon overtake her.

She urged her feet to run.  But she tripped, and the guard pounced on her, his claws digging into her flesh.

A small flash of green flew past her, and she found she was suddenly released. She looked behind her, and was astonished to find Jervis fighting off the monstrous man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Mad Hatter looked up from his search when he heard Alice’s scream. Dropping everything, he quickly followed the direction of the scream. But what he found made his blood boil.

Alice was there, all right. But so was that…. that horrible lizard, Billy. It must have found his dear Alice again. He thought it was long gone by now. But it must have not been satisfied with Alice’s answer, for now he was after her, ready to do unspeakable things to her if he didn’t intervene.

With a roar, the Hatter launched himself at the anthropomorphized lizard, his mallet raised as he smashed the lizard’s head again and again, bludgeoning it senseless as he let all of his pent-up rage and frustration out in his mallet swings, his eyes wild with fury and madness as he let all his emotions run wild.

He could feel someone pulling on him, calling him, but he couldn’t hear anything over the roaring fury in his mind. He pushed it away, not wanting to be held down, suppressed. He hated that, and he would rather die than go back to that prison that Jabberwock had put him in.

Just as he pulled back for another swing, Alice dove between him, separating him from his target. “Jervis, stop!” she cried.

“Alice?” he asked, bewildered and confused. What was she doing? Why was she defending that no-good lizard that had stolen her away from him? Did she love him? No, no, that couldn’t be it. She had said that the lizard had betrayed her to the Red Queen. And certainly no one who ever truly loved somebody would ever want to betray the one they loved.

“Please, just stop!” she cried, grasping his shoulders, fear in her eyes as she looked into the glassy eyed stare of the Hatter. She didn’t know what to do. She had never seen him like this, even in his worst incident with her. It was like he had shut out the world around him, closing off all portions of his memory that dealt with the real world, and instead opened up the floodgate of all his imaginations of Wonderland.

“Why? He’s not dead. Just knocked out,” he said, unaware of just what he had just done. “Besides, I’m rescuing you, Alice. I don’t think I could have done that without knocking those cards out.”

Alice’s eyes widened as she just now realized how deep he had delved into Wonderland. “Jervis, those weren’t cards. Those were people.”

The Hatter became stunned for a moment, before suddenly starting to laugh. “Oh, Alice, you’re so silly. Cards aren’t people. They may look like people, but they’re not.”

“No, those were people, Jervis. I don’t what you are seeing or what you’re thinking right now, but this isn’t you. You don’t kill. You don’t act like this. Please, wherever you are, just come back to earth. Please! I’m worried about you, Jervis.”

The Hatter looked hurt. “But…but why would you say that, Alice? Don’t you like Wonderland? Don’t you enjoy it here, with me and my tea and all our friends?” he asked, thinking about their wonderful tea party they had the month before with the March Hare and the plucky field mouse.

She smiled ruefully. “I know. And I do enjoy it, Jervis. But I enjoy it with you, though. And right now, I’m in the real world.”

“But…But can’t you just go back to Wonderland, where we belong?” he asked, his voice small and tiny and his lip quivering, “Why do we have to go back?”

“Because sometimes we don’t always get what we want, Jervis,” she replied firmly, her eyes serious and no-nonsense. “Sometimes, to make others happy, you have to sacrifice your own happiness. It’s painful, yes, but ultimately you get back more than you sacrificed.”

He scowled at her, his grip tightening on his mallet. “But why should I give up my happiness for anyone, when they’ll just throw it back in my face? Why should I sacrifice something, when I know it will only lead to pain?” he snarled at her, his eyes blazing and his shoulders shaking, looking like he was either going to start maniacally laughing or wailing in sadness.

“Jervis…”

“No! I won’t go back! Never! This is all a trick! All of it! Y-You’re nothing but a Jabberwock disguised as my dear Alice!” he howled, quivering with sadness and anger. He couldn’t trust anyone now, not Alice, not the March Hare, not anyone. He didn’t know what was real or what was fake anymore. Everything was spiraling down the rabbit hole, and he was the only one not falling.

“I’m not the Jabberwock, Jervis,” she replied softly, trying to calm him down. She was very worried that the mallet was going to come for her next if she didn’t convince him that she was not going to betray him.

“How can I be sure?” he wailed, starting to break down in front of her. “How can I be sure of anything? Everything I know…everything I love… it’s going to die. It’s all going to die.” Tears were streaking down his cheeks, his hands curling into claws in his blonde hair as despair filled his heart.

“It’s not going to die, Jervis, as long as you don’t let it,” Alice replied, trying to soothe her friend as he continued to wail. She put her arms around him, his tears dripping down her back.

“Yes, it is. The Jabberwocky is tearing it apart. And I can’t do anything to stop it. The story is ending, and I can’t do anything about it,” he whimpered, clutching her tightly, as if she was his lifeline, the only part of the story that wasn’t being pulled into the vortex of madness.

“You can, Jervis. The story doesn’t have to end,” she replied encouragingly.

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused. Everything seemed to stop in its tracks. He knew stories had to end. Every story ended, in some way or another. Why did she think that this story didn’t have to end?

“Make your own story, then. Continue where this one left off. Just because one story has to end doesn’t mean that yours has to as well.” She held out her hand. “Take my hand, Jervis, and we’ll write our own story together.”

And for the first time in weeks, the Hatter smiled. “Yes. You’re right, Alice.” He took her hand, and allowed himself to exit Wonderland as it returned to its natural state.
Hey, guys, I'm back. It's been a while, hasn't it? I hope you guys enjoy the story. 
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