Alice scrambled to her feet, hauling her mother up and shoving her toward the stairs. “Go!” She slid between her and the Black Knight as he turned, sword lifting.
“You can still turn this around, kitten. Give me the Eye. She’s just going to keep coming for you and the people you care about if you don’t.” He extended his arm, pointing the sword at Alice’s chest, then angled it away just so, at her mother.
“I’m not giving you a damn thing.” Alice darted forward, ignoring her mother’s scream. She thrust one dagger toward his chest, twisting around to drive the other at his side when he blocked. The blades collided in flashes of white, shrieks of metal against glass rising into the air.
Anger blazed through Alice. It filled her body, pushing her to move faster, strike harder. She twirled in and out of his faltering stance, pushing forward into thrusts and parries, pouring every bit of strength into her blows. This asshole poisoned Hatta. Killed Chess. Took Maddi. Now he was in her house again, and threatening her mom?
Enough. “You wanna play with me?”
Alice dodged outside of a swipe, then brought her knee up, slamming it into his stomach. He whuufed and stumbled back, but not before she spun around and hammered the heel of her shoe into his helmet. He staggered with a cry.
Enough. “These little games of yours?”
A feeling like lighting burned along her arms, cold and powerful, but also painful. She tightened her hold around the hilts of her daggers. If past instances were anything to go by, she wouldn’t be able to hold this for long.
Enough! “I’m done.” Heat exploded from her palms and engulfed her fingers. Light flared along her daggers, bright and blinding. The Black Knight threw up a hand to shield his eyes, despite his helmet.
“And so are you.” With a roar, she was on him. He brought his sword up to defend himself. He even managed to block her attacks, but in exchange he gave up ground as he backed away from her wild and furious onslaught. She drove her weapons home, pouring her rage, her fear, into every strike. Each blow reverberated through the blades. Their light pulsed up her arms and down her legs. It filled her, fueling her.
The Black Knight buckled under her barrage. His back hit the door frame leading into Mom’s room. He was boxed in.
“Kitten—”
“You don’t talk to me!” Alice whirled into a spin and pushed every ounce of fury and energy flowing through her into the blades. With a boom, two white arcs exploded forward.
The Black Knight managed to dodge one, but the second caught him full on, and he went flying, tumbling into Mom’s dark room.
Body thrumming, shaking, Alice hurried forward. She slapped on the light. Her mom’s blue comforter and sheets were thrown aside from where she’d probably raced from bed at the sound of the fight. Two grooves sliced deep into the floor, singeing the carpet and wood beneath. The dresser across the way was mangled, split in half, its smoldering contents spilling out like guts, the dark wood finish peeling back under the faint glow of dying embers.
The Black Knight was gone. He was gone!
“Ahhh!” Alice drove the pommel of one dagger into the wall. The plaster caved, and a thick crack zigzagged a few feet across the wall like lightning.
“A-Alice?” Mom’s small voice called from behind her.
She turned to see Mom running shaking fingers over the groove the arc had left in the doorjamb. Brown eyes found hers, wide and confused and fearful. The anger pouring through Alice started to fade. She realized it had been the only thing holding her up when the trembling in her limbs intensified. Groaning faintly, she leaned back against the wall and slid to the floor.
Mom made a small, frightened sound and hurried over to her.
She lifted a hand. “I’m okay. Just tired. Fight took a lot out of me.”
Mom stopped in the doorway, looking between the charred grooves in the floor, the mess that was once her dresser, down the hallway, then at Alice.
“Wha-what the hell just happened?” Mom flung her arms into the air. Her bonnet had slid partway off and dangled from the curlers wrapped in her hair. A few had come loose, leaving black curls sticking up here and there. “Who the hell was that? What the hell is going on!”
Shutting her eyes, Alice couldn’t help the bitter laughter that bubbled up. Of course this was how it would go. Why not? The last thing she needed right now was her mother finding out her little secret, and what happened? Said secret shows up outta nowhere and rips holes in her house.
“Alice!”
“You might wanna sit down, Mom.”
Seven
WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS …
Alice managed to calm her mother down enough to convince her to have a seat on the bed. It took several reassurances that she herself was all right and twice as many insistences that they didn’t need to call the cops before she was able to plunge into her story.
She started at the beginning, the night Dad died. She explained the Nightmares, Hatta—though she left out a few details concerning recent kissy developments—her training, Wonderland, then everything that had happened the past week with the Black Knight.
At first, Mom kept interrupting with questions, but as Alice dove further and further into explaining, Mom fell quiet. Her face went ashen. Her eyes widened. She’d pressed her hand to her chest about fifteen minutes ago and now had the collar of her nightshirt in a stranglehold.
“So that…” Mom cleared her throat as if the words refused to come. “That’s why you been sneaking out and not coming home? You out there fighting those things?” Her gaze trailed toward the grooves in the carpet again. “Out there fighting him?” Her voice dried up toward the end of her sentence.
“Yeah.” Alice tilted her head back against the wall. She hadn’t moved from the spot she’d sunk to after the fight. She tapped one Figment Blade idly against her thigh. The other rested on the bed. Mom had asked to see it. Alice had handed it over, and it only took a few seconds before it was tossed to the sheets.
“That thing on the news, ’bout the field being torn up by vandals.” Mom smoothed her collar out only to twist it up again. “That was you?”
“Yeah,” Alice repeated. “Only it wasn’t someone doing donuts or whatever they think happened. We fought a Nightmare.” She’d skipped the part about this being the biggest damn thing she’d ever faced. She also skipped over how it nearly killed her. And all the other times something almost took her out. “I had help, though. I’ve had help this entire time.”
“And that’s how Chess got hurt. Not a car accident.” There was an accusatory lilt to Mom’s words.
“Y-yeah.” Alice also left off the part about him dying, especially since that was still up in the air. “He was trying to—he got caught up. And that ass—that jerk I was fighting is the one that hurt him. I have to stop him before he hurts anyone else.”
Mom pursed her lips and nodded as Alice spoke, though she shook her head a few times as well. The fingers of her free hand went back and forth between tapping the blanket and twisting in it. They brushed the dagger, and she jerked her hand back as if burned, staring at it.
Several seconds passed. Then several more. Mom just eyed the weapon.
Alice shifted where she sat as her mother’s chest started to rise and fall faster and faster. “Mom?”
“Oh my lord,” Mom wheezed. “Oh my lord, what—what in the world are you thinking? You can’t be doing this shit!”
Alice surrendered a sigh. Here we go. “I’m one of the few people in the world who can.”
Mom shook her head, her curlers bouncing. “Mm-mm. Mmmmm-mmmm, nope. Nuh-uh. Not my child.”
“Mom—”
“This is chaos.” Mom lifted her hands. “This is madness, and you’ll have no part in it.”
“I’m already part of it.” And you don’t wanna know about the actual Madness …
“Then stop!”
Alice blinked. “Stop … what?”
“This!” Mom flung her hands up. “You stop. You ju
st stop. You’re done.”
Alice snorted so hard her throat burned. “I was gonna! I was gonna quit, tell Hatta to find someone else. Then all this popped off, and … and now I gotta fix it.”
“No.” Mom jumped to her feet and started pacing. “No you don’t. You don’t gotta fix nothing, you’re just a baby. My baby. And I’m not having it.”
“I have to do this, Mom.”
“No, you don’t. And you not.”
“If I don’t, people could die.”
“You could die. Let them other folk handle it.” She waved a hand, continuing to pace.
“They need my help.”
“What did I say?” Mom shouted, her voice cracking, as she whirled to face Alice. “It stops today, right now, all of it. The lying, the sneaking out, the…” Her eyes trailed to the grooves yet again, and the pacing resumed. “You’re finished. You’re gonna tell those people you’re not doing this anymore, you hear me?”
Alice watched her mother while drawing patterns in the carpet with the tip of her dagger. Funny, she expected to be freaking out about having to go over all of this, about having her mom finally learn her secret, but for real? She was relieved. No more hiding, no more lies. And even though Mom was having a damn cow, screaming and carrying on, just like she’d expected, Alice was actually kinda chill. It was weird as hell.
“I can’t stop now,” Alice said quietly. “That guy, he’s trying to resurrect his queen. It’s a long story, but the point is she tried to literally destroy the world once. If we don’t stop him, she’ll try again. Then I’ll die anyway. And so will you. And Nana K. And everyone else.”
Mom made a sort of wounded sound as she waved her hands again.
“Didn’t you see me kick his a—butt?” Alice pushed to her feet, holding the dagger out between them. “I was trained to do this, Mom. I got powers and—you saw that fight. I’m fast. I’m strong. I’m a legit superhero.”
Mom shook her head again. Her shoulders hunched, her fingers working at each other. “No. I said no, didn’t you hear what I said?”
“And you hear me, right?” Alice sighed and moved to catch her mom’s shoulders, forcing her to stop. “I’ve been doing this for over a year. And I’m good at it.”
Mom met Alice’s gaze, hers bright with fear and something fiery, all mixed beneath a furrowed brow. “So, so what? What, I’m just s’posed to let you run off to fight some damn demons just cuz you beat up on some lil boogeyman?”
“Nightmares. They’re called Nightmares. And he’s not the boogeyman. Not really.” The boogeyman probably wasn’t as dangerous. “And yes, I have to fight him. And beat him. Then I’m done.” Technically, she would have to find this lady and deal with her, then she’d be done. But there was no reason to get into that right now.
Mom stared at Alice, frown still staunchly in place. “This is some mess.” She pulled away and stepped over to her ruined dresser. “Lord help me, this is too much.” Her bare toes trailed the edge of the carpet where it was scorched, like testing the water in a pool or something. “My house. Oh my god. A-are we safe here?”
Alice rolled her shoulders, unsure. “We should be. I mean, I chased him off. But he could come back. Has before.” At that, she moved to grab the other dagger from the bed. Inspecting the blades, she noticed the cracks had deepened, and a few more had formed. They probably wouldn’t last another fight.
“You want something to eat?”
Alice blinked, not sure she heard right. “What?”
“I need to eat.” Mom stepped around the bits of door still dangling from the doorjamb. “Gonna make breakfast.”
Alice stole a glance at the clock on the nightstand: 1:13 a.m. “U-um.” She wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. “Yeah, I can eat, I guess.”
“Mmhm.” Mom’s half-rollered head disappeared down the steps.
Left standing alone in her mother’s partially trashed room, Alice pushed out a hard breath as her whole body sagged slightly. “That could’ve gone better.” It also could’ve gone much, much worse. Running a hand over her face, she glanced around at the damage again. This was getting outta hand. She needed to let Hatta and the others know what was going on. If only she had her phone.
Wait … She hurried over to the nightstand where Mom’s phone lay facedown. Her phone was somewhere in here, but it also probably wasn’t a good idea to go looking for it while Mom was processing, or whatever she was doing down there. Instead, Alice grabbed Mom’s and pulled up Courtney’s number.
It’s Alice. Saw Chess.
He’s full of that Slithe stuff.
Black Knight came to my house again.
Fought him. He ran. Tell Hatta.
I’ll try and get there tomorrow.
Mom knows.
The response was almost instantaneous, despite the late hour.
Oh shit …
Alice glanced at the door, then back to the phone.
Yup. Don’t text back. See you tomorrow.
She waited a second to make sure nothing came through—Court was the type to say okay or something to a request to shut up—then deleted the messages. More lies. More secrets. She didn’t wanna keep that going, but Mom was in a delicate place right now, and random texts about all of this might not be the way to go. She set the phone back on the nightstand. That was when she smelled it, the acrid, tangy scent of smoke.
Something was burning.
Fear flickering fresh in her chest, Alice hurried from the room. “Mom?” she called over the railing as she moved down the hall. No answer, even though light poured in from the kitchen. “Mom?” Fear turned to panic as she raced down the stairs and bolted into the kitchen. “Mom!”
Smoke hung thick in the air, enough so Alice’s eyes stung. The tightness in her chest eased when she spotted her mom at the sink, running water into a skillet. Something thick, black, and grimy flopped out of the pan into the drain. Relieved, Alice waved a hand in front of her face as she approached her mother. Any second now, the detector was gonna start chirping.
“What happened?”
“Burned the eggs.” Mom sniffed and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand.
Alice froze. Oh no. “Mom?”
Mom sighed and let the pan slip free with a clang. She turned on the garbage disposal, and the gurgling whir filled the air for a few seconds. After turning it and the faucet off, she faced Alice. Red tinted her eyes and tinged her cheeks just a tad if you knew where and what to look for.
“I was just thinking, how I’m s’posed to protect you. How I’m s’posed to take care of you, raise you right, make sure you’re safe. Here you are running around behind my back fighting people and killing monsters. Monsters…” She shook her head. “I knew something was up, that you were hiding shit from me. I was scared it was some lil boy and you were pregnant or something. Especially after w-what your nana said. Never did I imagine … this.”
“No, I’m not pregnant. And there’s no boy.” At least, not a human one, but they’d talk about that later. “This is better, right? Than me being pregnant?” She smiled, hoping to ease some of the tension coiling through the air.
Mom scoffed. “If you risking your life for months without me realizing counts, I guess. You really could’ve ended up dead, and I would never—I’d never know it.” Her voice broke again, and she pressed a hand over her mouth.
“No, no, that wouldn’t happen.” Alice moved forward then, wrapping her arms around her. “First of all, I’m good at what I do, Mommy. I mean really good, you seen me. And if anything ever did happen—it won’t—Hatta would make it right. You’d know.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? God, I’m in here wondering what I did or what I did wrong, that made you do this—lie to me all this time or make all this up.” A shuddering breath shook its way out of Mom. “But it’s not made up. Much as I want it to be. There really was some … dark knight here. He tore up my house.”
“I may have helped with that,” Alice offere
d, still trying to inject a bit of humor into the situation. She hated seeing her mother cry. It pulled at parts of her she’d locked away after her dad died, parts she didn’t want making a comeback. Not right now.
Mom cut her a look, but it was brief. She sniffed. “You really out here being some hero, huh? Like one of those silly shows you be watching, Player Moon or whatever.”
“Sailor Moon.” Alice smiled.
“You know what I meant.” Mom sighed, shaking her head. “This is a lot.” She reached to finger one of Alice’s sheathed daggers. “I’m not okay with it. At all. I don’t know what I am, but I am not okay. I’mma need time. Wrap my head around this.”
Alice stayed quiet. The one thing they didn’t have was time, but she didn’t wanna push. Mom was right, this was a lot, even for Alice, and she’d been at this for a while.
Mom wiped at her face then spun on her heel and made a beeline for the fridge. “I’m glad you kicked his ass. Messing up my furniture.” She pulled out a tub of butter pecan ice cream and grabbed a spoon from the nearby drawer. “How am I supposed to explain this to the insurance people? It looks like a big ole bear or something been running around up there.” Mom shoveled a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and grunted before proceeding to talk as she chewed. “I can’t tell ’em what actually happened, they’d lock both of us away.”
“We’ll come up with something.” Alice reached for the spoon.
“Uhp.” Mom pulled the tub and thus the spoon out of reach. “Get your own. I ain’t sharing with you, I’m still mad.” She took another bite to emphasize her point.
Alice couldn’t help laughing. “Fair.” She wasn’t really hungry, anyway. The faint twisting in her stomach was something else, something that had more to do with the unease moving through her.
Her mom was here, okay, and somewhat accepting of what had been going on all this time. But the Black Knight had still been in her house, had attacked her outright. Why? She didn’t have the Eye here, and he didn’t even look for it. He just showed up and started poppin’ off. It didn’t make sense, and usually that meant something more was going on.
A Dream So Dark Page 7