by Cameron Jace
It seems like I wasn’t meant to drive busses, ever. I killed my classmates in the past, and every one of the Inklings in the present.
Yellow School Bus / Carolus
Thinking is a drag. It stops you from taking action. From being in the moment.
I scoop a rifle from the bus’s floor. Constance’s legs show from under a seat, but I don’t look. I turn back, pretending I am the Pillar. Pretending I am blunt and calculated and willing to sacrifice everything to get shit done.
I disembark the bus with a limping leg, checking out the rifle for ammo. Every damn word the Pillar has ever taught me, I remember. It’s like he has been preparing me for this moment.
The ammo is good. My legs aren’t.
In the distance, I see a big smile on Carolus' face. He now knows the secret, having opened the March’s mind.
He grins back at me, and takes a turn to run off to Mr. Jay.
You can’t kill Carolus because you’d be killing Lewis Carroll, which means there will be no hope to save the children.
But I can’t let the secret pass to Mr. Jay.
I raise the rifle, check the ammo again, ready it, raise it to my eyes, close one of my eyes, aim at Carolus, take a deep breath, finger on the trigger, eyes following him closer. He is on top of a few small mushroom, ready to jump to the other side.
I aim and say, “Sorry, Lewis,” and I shoot.
Carolus falls to his knees but rests on one hand.
I shoot again.
He flips on his back and falls.
I limp closer to him, panting.
Standing over him, I see he is still breathing.
“You will never see Lewis again,” he warns me.
“If it means I will never see you again,” I say. “Then Lewis will understand.”
I fire and empty all bullets left in his head.
Exhausted, I throw the rifle away and limp back to the March. He is still on his knees with the glowing Six Keys on his head. His face is glowing too. I sink to my knees in front of him. He smiles with his eyes.
“Beautiful,” he says.
“What is beautiful, March?”
“You are, Alice,” he says. “You made so many children happy.”
“Are the children safe?” I ask.
“Not quite,” he answers. “But you can save them.”
“How?”
“I will tell you. They’re ready.”
“Ready?” I grimace. “How?”
“Someone is gathering them to read books all over the world,” he says absently. “I can see it in my mind.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry about that now,” he says. “You have one last battle left.”
“Me?”
“With Mr. Jay, Alice.”
“I thought so,” I nod. “I guess keeping the secret away from him isn’t enough. He will still come for you.”
“Yes, he will. And you will fight him. The ultimate fight, Alice. You will need your Vorpal sword.”
“I nod again, then say, “March, what do you remember? What is it that we had to lose so many lives for?” I point at the cap. “What do you remember?”
The March smiles, “You want to know?”
“I’d like to know the secret, if you don’t mind.”
The March grabs my left ear and whispers. The world around us is collapsing into an apocalyptic mushroom madness while he says, “I remember tomorrow.”
Epilogue
Phone Booth, London
Mother Bird’s journey was long. Determined to make that phone call, she walked the deadly streets of London, looking for one last intact phone booth. It wasn’t an easy job, but she found one last one.
Panting, she squeezed her chubby figure inside and rested on the phone set. She picked it up and flattened that paper again. She dialed.
A beep.
Two beeps
Three —
“Hello?” a young woman’s voice was panting on the other side.
“I’m Mother Bird,” she said. “I am supposed to call this—”
“I know who you are,” the young woman said. “Are you giving us the green light?”
Mother Bird looked at the paper. The instructions were to say yes to this question. Which she did.
“Awesome!” the young woman said.
To Mother Bird’s surprise, she heard the woman talk to children. “It’s time. We can start reading now. Get ready kids.”
“May I ask what this is about?” Mother Bird said.
“Not yet,” said the young woman. “What are your instructions?”
“What do you mean?” said Mother Bird.
“Were you instructed to give me a green light, and also the others?”
Mother Bird read the paper again, “It says I should give the green light to the number I call.”
“Yes? How about New York?”
“New York too,” Mother Bird read from her paper.
“Tokyo?”
“Yes.”
“Amsterdam?”
“Yes.”
“Cape Town?
“Yes.”
“Buenos Aires?”
“Let me see,” Mother Bird checked the list, “Yes, that too.”
“Moscow?”
“Yes.”
“That’s great news, Mother Bird. Thank you,” the young woman talked to the children again. “Tell them in Moscow; they can start reading. And in Tokyo!”
Mother Bird shrugged. She was missing out on the unexplained excitement. “May I ask what you are reading, young lady?”
“Lewis Carroll books, of course,” the woman said. “It’s the end. It’s also the beginning.”
“I am confused,” Mother Bird said. “What’s this all about?”
“Wait a minute,” the young woman’s voice dimmed into suspicious tones. “You are the Mother Bird we are expecting, right?”
“I guess so?” she said. “I was given a million pound to make this phone call when the mushroom event happens.”
“I appreciate that,” the young woman said. “But you need to proof you’re not an imposter so I can let the reading begin.”
“How do I do that?”
“Simple,” the young woman said. “Tell me the name of the man who told you to call us? Not the banker, the other man.”
“Ah,” Mother Bird remembered the Pillar. “You mean the man who drank tea but said he’d prefer drinking hookah?”
“That’s him,” the young woman said. “Tell me the name he whispered in your ears. His real name.”
Mother Bird told her.
The young woman said, “Brilliant! Thank you very much. I have to tell the children it’s him.”
Mother Bird heard the young woman tell the name to the children who hurrayed and celebrated right away. The young woman said, “Children, it’s the Hatter! He made Mother Bird call us. It’s all true. The Mad Hatter is alive.”
Afterword
There is not much left for me to say. The series is coming to an end. An awesome journey. I loved every minute of it. I could have extended the series to make it 20 books long but the storyline had to be true to itself — though there are possibilities of spin offs, especially after you read the ending of the next book, Looking Glass.
I hope you liked Mushrooms. It’s my favorite of the series. I know Alice wasn’t the main focus in this book. It’s is more about fleshing out other characters, and about tons of reveals. Looking Glass has a happy ending — of sorts, but it’s not dark at all. It mainly reveals the Pillar/Hatter situation, Mr. Jay’s final battle with Alice, and of course Alice’s resolution in life and love and madness (and the bus incident.)
Last but not least, the fate of the children, and what the book-reading is about.
I have to admit that the ending had been in my mind from around half of the series (not only the book reading but the surprise finale in Looking Glass.) It’s a perfect resolution for the series. I didn’t want this to end in ‘ma
dness.’ The madness in the series is a means to an end to explore our daily lives and what we care about the most. The fact that the most precious thing is the children is something that came to me while visiting friend who taught in school. I found them reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and realized how much the book impacted their lives — our lives. Since then, I had only one question on my mind: what would our lives have been like as children — and adults — if we haven’t been exposed to this book ( and a few other epic stories of our childhood) ?
Thanks for hanging on that long,
Cam, the Storyteller
Book 9 : Looking Glass
Prologue
Past: Wonderland
Carter Pillar puffed his hookah’s smoke at the mirror in front of him.
He had once read about the Evil Queen in that Snow White fairy tale, talking to her favorite mirror and asking for guidance. He wasn’t as powerful as the Evil Queen, but he was certainly an embodiment of evil.
Neither the Queen of Hearts nor The Duchess could match his level of darkness. None whatsoever.
All but one—if not darker.
Mr. Jay.
That blunt blotch of morbidness lurking in Wonderland since so long. So much that it was doubtful that Mr. Jay actually had a soul.
But today the Pillar was about to put an end to it.
How? By staring into a greater darkness on the other side. By staring into the Looking Glass, one of his most precious artifacts—and one he later lost to Einstein and other humans.
The Looking Glass was the height of a normal human being, and as wide, enough for most people, unless they were giants, to pass through. Rumor had it that the surface rippled into water as one passed through. The Pillar couldn’t confirm it though. He never dared to cross over.
Neither did anyone he knew. Again, all but two—and even that was doubtful.
Lewis Carrol and Mr. Jay.
Light and Darkness.
Good and Evil.
Noble and Trash.
Some people blamed the Looking Glass for making Lewis lose his mind. That it wasn’t the mushrooms the Pillar fed him nor the migraines nor seeing Alice lose her family to the Pillar and Mr. Jay’s doing. It was simply the cross-over that turned Lewis into a stuttering lunatic who photographed children and wrote nonsensical books while still serving as a priest
It was said that Carolus was what Lewis brought back with him from the other side of the mirror.
A whole different theory was told about Mr. Jay though. He didn’t bring anything back with him from the other side of the mirror. On the contrary. He actually left something behind. His heart and soul. And came back void of feelings. Came back as darkness itself.
The Pillar still puffed in the mirror.
He was thinking.
He didn’t think about crossing over, but about making the mirror help him be the number one villain in Wonderland.
How could you top off Mr. Jay? The answer was almost ‘you can’t.’
But the Pillar had another plan. He knew he needed time to ask the mirror for the gift of immortality.
A simple dark magic he had learned. He had prepared the ritual and sacrificed many souls to have the mirror talk back to him.
And it did.
“I can’t make you immortal, Pillar,” the female voice of the mirror said. “Not in a soul and physical way, but in perspective.”
"Perspective?"
"I can make those you hurt you never forget you, Pillar," the mirror snickered.
"Nah," he waved his hookah in the air. "I'm not concerned about that. I've done so much to Fabiola, Lewis, and the Hatter, I know they will never forget me. At least I'll forever be in their nightmares."
"But is it enough?" the mirror said. "You know one of them will end up killing you, don't you?"
"I know," he said.
"Not just them, but also Alice might be the one who kills you."
He snickered back, "Don't worry about Alice. I'll always have her under control."
"You're sure about that?"
"I know her weakness."
"May I ask what it is?"
"Why should I tell a useless mirror like you?"
"Because you're lonely and have no friends?"
"Good one," he chuckled. "I like being alone."
"Maybe you should tell me because you need my help."
The Pillar considered. He had always feared whatever lurked behind the Looking Glass. Another world? Hell?
But if so, what was that world like? What would it mean to cross over? Why did Lewis lose his mind and Mr. Jay return without a heart and soul?
He reckoned he better toned down his arrogant voice when talking to the mirror. "Alice's weakness is her goodness and fierce loyalty to those who help her. People with good in their heart are weakened by the need of wanting to help--and forgive."
"I see," the mirror said. "And that's what you've done with her?"
"That's what I will always do. Past, present, future," he took a long drag from his hookah. "She is a powerful girl but she doesn't know it. Whenever I meet her I'll play father or big brother. I'll teach her one thing or two until she totally trusts me. She is a powerful girl. To suppress her powers, you need make her think she needs my power."
The mirror said nothing.
The Pillar felt like he gave away too much. He put the hookah aside and wiped his lips with the back of his hand as if hungry for a big meal.
"So what were you offering me again?" he asked cautiously.
"Now you want to know?" she teased.
He nodded in silence.
"How about a curse that makes whoever kills you have to wear your face and body for the rest of their lives?" she said.
Never had the Pillar heard such a proposal. He needed a moment to comprehend it. What kind of dark magic provided such a twisted curse?
But then he slowly smiled. He liked it.
Imagine my enemies who hate my guts being punished by looking at my face instead of their own in the mirror every day.
"That's cruel," he said with a grin.
"And you thought you are the embodiment of evil."
"Touché," he tapped his hat for her then picked up his hookah and leaned back and took a long drag. "Imagine the smile on my face when my enemies kill me. I bet that's actually what you call priceless."
The mirror allowed Pillar his privacy while his imagination ran wild. The girl inside the mirror thought: Poor Pillar, you have no idea what's going to happen to you.
1
Present: The Wonderland War, London
The March Hare's words hurt my ears. Did he just say 'I remember tomorrow' when I asked him about how I am supposed to save the children?
This doesn't make sense. I've had enough with the nonsense. We've been through so much to get to this point where he is supposed to remember.
The mushrooms are erupting from the earth and bending high all over the buildings like Godzillas. In my mind, the Wonderland War will end soon if there is no way to stop the earth from cracking up by these vicious and giant plants.
What the heck is going on?
"What do you mean, March," I shake him. "What tomorrow do you remember? How can you remember tomorrow?"
"I can explain," he says but then his eyes widen and he grips my shoulders. "Duck, Alice. Duck!"
I listen to him and do as told. Something swooshes right above our heads. The smell of fire and ashes lingers in the air. I hear screams everywhere. A few seconds later the building in front of us explodes and tumbles to the ground. Whiffs of dark ashes spurt back in our direction. The sky starts raining in black.
"Was that a missile?" I utter in disbelief.
"The world's gone crazy," the March says.
"Come with me". I take his hand and stand up. "I need to find you a safe place. If the world only knew how precious you are…”
The March follows me as I stumble in the ashen streets. I'm like a blind pied piper misleading everyone who thinks I
’m the one who knows the way. What else can I do? I'm trying to play my part of 'Hero Alice' in a world that has become too confusing to live in. I wonder if the asylum was my best bet in the first place.
What was wrong with living with the mad in a contained place where insanity was defined and recognized, not like the world outside where I can't tell which is which?
"I need to tell you so much, Alice," the March says. "I remember…"
"Trust me, I have to know," I grip his hand harder. "But I can't risk you dying before you tell me…"
It's still puzzling how an old man like the March still acts like a child. The way he presses back against my hand like a kiddo in need of his mother.
Suddenly, I stop in my tracks. I have glimpsed the yellow bus flipped on its side. It's a dimmed yellow, plagued by the ashen air all around it. Fire flickers nearby. I wonder if it will eventually explode like I see in movies.
I feel the March's hand squeeze harder.
"It's not your fault, Alice," he says. "You were trying to save me."
I shrug.
What does he mean?
Are they dead?
Did I kill them?
Why was I driving a yellow bus again? Is it true that I killed my classmates in a similar scenario in the past?
2
Present: Mr. Jay's Headquarters, London
The Cheshire Cat was going crazy.
Naked and bruised from his fight with the Pillar, he couldn't bring himself to chase his nemesis again. In a frenzy, he searched for his priest’s outfit all over the room. He couldn't find it.
The room was pretty dark at the moment. The only light came from the weary afternoon sun outside. Soon it would sink into the earth and he wouldn't be able to see clearly. But whether sunlight or darkness, the scene of mushrooms erupting everywhere outside his window was a sight to behold. He loved such chaos. Let the humans suffer.