The Complete Alice Wonder Series - Insanity - Books 1 - 9

by Cameron Jace

  “You don’t know there is another round?” he says.

  “I don’t know what you mean by that, no.”

  “The mushrooms were supposed to be a sign for the final battle but it all got out of hand.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Didn’t the March tell you?”

  “Tell me what exactly?”

  “Aside from the secret of how to control the children of the world, didn’t he tell you about tomorrow?”

  I squint at the amount of information I’m supposed to comprehend at once. Do the Reds know what the March means by I Remember Tomorrow?

  But wait, he didn’t tell me the secret of how to save the children as well. He fell as the earth cracked.

  “Talk to me Alice,” the leader demands.

  I need to think fast. They think I know how to save the children or control them. That’s my ace card. I have to use it. But I also want to know what the other round and tomorrow means.

  “I want to meet the Jabberwocky.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “You have no choice. If you want to kill me, then go ahead,” I threaten him. “But what if I know more than your boss knows?”

  The Red resorts to silence for a while. The others look at him for orders to kill me.

  “What do you know?”

  “I know how to control the children or save them.”

  “I doubt that,” he says. “If the March told you then you would have applied the solution right away, or why would the children all over the world be reading Lewis Carroll’s books in every city?”

  I hadn’t known about that. What does it mean? Who told them to do that? But I will use it in my favor. It’s an easy trick. It doesn’t take me long to fabricate the perfect lie.

  “Who do you think told them to do that?”

  The Red lets out an unusual sound of surprise. Never have I seen them lose their cool. “It wasn’t you?”

  “I told them how to protect themselves,” I play along, not sure what’s going on. “Jabberwocky can never infiltrate their minds and souls as long as they’re reading Lewis’ books. I also know how to stop them.”

  “Then we’ll have to kill you,” he says. “What’s the point if you won’t cooperate?”

  “Tell me about the other round and I will tell you how to stop the children,” I’m bluffing. It’s a weak try but I have no choice.

  The Red laughs. “I will never tell you. It’s your weak spot. You won by getting your hands on the secret before Black Chess, but Black Chess will win eventually because you have no idea what ‘Remember Tomorrow’ means, even though you once crossed to the other side with the mirror. I guess your shock therapies in the asylum made you forget things.”

  “Enough with the puzzles,” I shout in desperation, waving my sword in the air. “I want to meet Jabberwocky, face to face. It’s our final battle like Lewis Carrol predicted. I’m fed up with the talk.”

  The Red lowers his sword, looking at a looming car approaching in the distance. “Actually Jabberwocky didn’t send us.”

  “Then who did?” I follow his line of sight, staring at the approaching car in the distance. I can’t see it in detail with the ashen atmosphere all around.

  The Reds back away, as if intentionally making way for the car to arrive.

  “The Pillar sent us, Alice,” the Red keeps laughing. “Trust me he is the one who wants you dead, now that the game is over and Black Chess lost.”

  The Reds disappear behind the mushrooms and I realize the approaching car is the Pillar’s limousine.

  It stops right next to me, and the back windows slide down.

  The Pillar peaks out and smiles, “Missed me?”

  I don’t even reply or comment. My sword lands swiftly down his neck.

  10

  Past: Pillar’s Mushroom Garden, Wonderland

  Alice could only smell the rotten scent of mushrooms in the Pillar’s garden.

  It’s been a long time since she last visited. Never again after entering the Looking Glass and returning. The same day she gave up on her plan of becoming the Pillar’s prodigy and eventually avenging her parents by killing the Jabberwocky.

  Where was the Pillar, and why had the mushrooms gone bad?

  Slowly she tiptoed through the vines and trees. The sky above had darkened to the purplish color of bruises in the Pillar’s garden.

  A sense of dread ran down her spine. This was a place that she had known well. Willingly, she had been part of this dark place in Wonderland. Little had she known then, that treading into muddy darkness, will forever leave stains, no matter how much you wash over, no matter how you many time you attempt to redeem yourself.

  But then the Pillar’s darkness would not compare to the darkness she, Lewis, and Mr. Jay saw on the other side. Rarely did she and Lewis talk about it. And when they did, they wondered why they ever crossed over. Why they ever left the nonsensical, childish, colorful world of Wonderland.

  Of course, Wonderland wasn’t all rise and shine. Darkness and evil lurked everywhere in the world. But not like on the other side of the mirror. True evil. Unapologetic, cruel, and seriously disturbing.

  The irony behind the other side of the mirror was that none of those who lived there believed Wonderland was real. To them Alice and her world were fiction. Evil worlds have a strange sense of denial toward everything that’s strange to them. One religion will call other religions phony and rage holy wars against them. One world, though evil, will deny the existence of beautiful madness and call them fiction.

  “You’re the first one to visit me since long ago, Alice,” the Pillar’s voice shriveled atop a mushroom—as rotten as the rest.

  “I’m not visiting,” Alice said. “People visit people they like. I’m here to investigate.”

  “It’s never been my intention to be likable,” his smoke swirled between the mushrooms. It smelled as rotten. Had the Pillar given up on life and wanted to die after Fabiola left him and everyone else hated him in Wonderland?

  “I doubt it,” Alice said. “You wanted to be liked, but then you were hurt, so you fooled yourself into believing you never needed love. Thus you became…”

  “Carter Chrysalis Cocoon Pillar,” he grunted, leaning forward, looking down on her from above. “The greatest of all. In fact, I’m the only sane one in Wonderland.”

  Alice noticed he’d grown older. The sickness of his skin was eating him alive. His bluish suit paled into a color in contrast with the sky above. He was worn out, and his eyes, oh his eyes, had gone green like a demon.

  “I’m not here to argue,” Alice said. “I was told you were dead.”

  “I’m not afraid of death,” he said. “I have it figured out.”

  Alice scoffed. “You figured out death?”

  “Not a cure. Not immortality, but how to outsmart it.”

  Alice looks away from his eyes, “I don’t want to hear it.”

  “I know what you want to hear.”

  Alice raised her eyes to meet his again. This time she dared his arrogance with all her might and power. But also with vulnerability. Not only because of their bond but also being afraid of what the Pillar was about to tell her.

  “You want to know where the Hatter is,” he sneered.

  “He’s been gone for some time,” Alice shrugged. “The March is losing it without him. The children miss him and his tea parties dearly. Lewis is looking for him everywhere,” she shrugged again. “And Fabiola swears she is going to kill you if you hurt him.”

  “Like I said, I’ve figured out death,” he leaned back and inhaled from his hookah. “Whoever comes to kill me will lose. You have no idea.”

  Alice hadn’t the slightest idea what he meant.

  “Fabiola cheated on me with the Hatter,” the Pillar said. “To hell and back, him and her.”

  “It’s not like you didn’t cheat on her as well, Pillar.”

  “I gave her the world, my precious mushrooms, money, clothes, safet
y, and made her happy.”

  “You gave her a mushroom that made her love you, Pillar,” Alice said. “That wasn’t love. She was your prisoner. She was an addict and you were the one who dealt her cards.”

  The Pillar smirked back at Alice. He looked at her as if she were a lesser being than him, “It’s not like you haven’t fooled me, Alice.”

  She fidgeted in her place and lowered her head, staring at her feet. “I wanted to avenge my parents.”

  “By fooling me into joining Black Chess. You know who you actually fooled? You fooled yourself.”

  “Enough with the talk,” she inhaled deeply and pulled herself together, hands laced tensely behind her back. “Did you hurt the Hatter?”

  “I’ll answer if you tell me what happened on the other side of the mirror?”

  “What?” She let out a condescending laugh. “You haven’t entered yet, even though you own it and have it here somewhere?”

  “Had to bury it underneath the mushrooms,” he said. “The girl inside kept inviting me inside. She drove me crazy.”

  “I see. You’re too chicken to enter.”

  “Not after what I’ve seen happen to the three of you.”

  Alice took a moment. She needs to know what happened to the Hatter. She needed to tell Fabiola who sent her. “What do you want to know?”

  “What’s behind the mirror?”

  “Other worlds,” she said. “Other times.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “First we crossed over to another darker version of Wonderland,” she could not control her irregular heartbeats now.

  “Darker than here?” The Pillar looked like he could feel his soul wanting to cross over.

  “Way darker,” Alice said. “We tried to go back but it was a tricky world. I can’t get into details. All you would want to know is that we kept finding more Looking Glasses in every world we crossed to.”

  “It’s not one Looking Glass?”

  “Each world has one. Each world is slightly different from Wonderland. In some, it was the future. Some, the past. Some were the present but with different versions. In one of the worlds, you were a woman.”

  The Pillar raised an eyebrow. “Still, it’s hard to believe that these worlds traumatized you and Lewis and Jabberwocky. What happened, really?”

  “In our pursuit to return home, we stumbled upon one world that was unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

  The Pillar leaned forward with anticipation. “Tell me about it.”

  “At first sight, it seemed like a nice place. Different life than ours but nothing you can’t get used to. People there are generally nice and good looking. None of them are Hares, Rabbits, or Pillars. Just people.”

  “I assume it was all a facade. Tell me about the darkness.”

  A sole tear formed in Alice’s eyes. Thick and moist and painful to bear. “I can’t go into detail. Maybe what would interest you is that they didn’t believe in other worlds.”

  “Elaborate please.”

  “They were so self-centered and narcissistic they believed they were the one and only species, the one and only world. Not just that. They followed a religion that entitled them as a superior race.”

  “Evil is chasing superiority and entitlement.”

  “Then Lewis found his books sold in their shops.”

  The Pillar raised his other eyebrow.

  “To them, we’re just characters in books. In fact, everything we know is silly and unreal to them.”

  “And?”

  “They started to hurt us.”

  “Why?”

  “They called us insane. You see people in that world don’t like you when you’re different. Historically, we learned they’ve killed whoever opposed their ideas in the past.”

  “Insane, huh?”

  “They tortured the insane, thinking they were possessed by demons.”

  “Aha,” the Pillar said. “I guess this was when Carolus was created and Jabberwocky lost his soul—and you…”

  “Yes,” Alice interrupted him. “Eventually I figured out a way back.”

  “How?”

  Alice smiled with gleaming eyes. “The children.”

  “How so?”

  “The children were the ones who were nice to us. They liked us. They liked Lewis a lot and me. They actually believed we were real. They treated ‘fiction’ as though it was real—which it is, but were told otherwise.”

  “The children showed you the way back, huh?”

  “That was when Jabberwocky’s evil side realized that in order to rule Wonderland—and other worlds behind the mirror—the children were the key. Control them and own the world.”

  The Pillar leaned back again. Alice saw him think for a long time, not sure what was going on in his mind.

  “It’s time you answer my question, Pillar—“

  “I killed him,” he cut her off bluntly. “I buried him in the back under a mushroom if you want his corpse.”

  Alice shrieked, not sure if the Pillar was bluffing or not.

  “Tell me one last thing,” he demanded.

  “I’m not going to tell you anything else unless I see the Hatter’s corpse and confirm you actually killed him.”

  “Well, I’ll never show you his corpse if you don’t answer me,” he said. “What was that world called?”

  She had no choice but to comply so she can find the poor Hatter and bury him properly, so she answered him, “They call it the Real Life. They have skyscrapers and eat junk food and call themselves the human race.”

  11

  Present: The Wonderland War, London

  My sword fails to kill the Pillar. Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s me who actually stops midway.

  Frozen in mid-air, I stare at my arm and hands and wonder if it’s a spell. My Vorpal sword is only an inch away from his protruding neck—and irritable smirk.

  Time hangs heavy in the air. I have nothing to say, and I can hardly hear my heart beating. Perplexities and insanity overwhelm my soul.

  Why can’t I kill him? What’s wrong with me?

  “I assume the Reds told you to kill me,” he squints at whatever lay behind me.

  I’m frozen as the statue of liberty. I can life my sword back high, in hopes to land it harder down the Pillar, but I’m frozen. I can swing up but never down his throat.

  “I see they left,” he cranes his head outside the back window, pretty sure that I’m not going to cut it off. “Sneaky bastards.”

  “No one told me to kill you,” I say in almost slow motion.

  “Not even the March Hare?” he wiggles his eyebrows, as if this is all a joke, as if the world isn’t coming to an end.

  “How do you know about the March?”

  “I don’t,” he shakes his shoulders. “It's just a guess. Life is pretty predictable if you stop caring about what people think of you.”

  I shrug. How am I going to complete my mission if I can’t kill him?

  “Could you please make way?” he asks, opening the door. “I’ve always wanted to take pictures with big mushrooms while the world was coming to an end.”

  I scooch over, lower my sword, and watch him amble outside. He takes a deep breath of the ashen weather as it were all Jasmine and flowers all around.

  “Ashes to ashes,” he says with amusement in his eyes. “And mushrooms to Mushroomers,” he laughs. “You remember the Mushroomers, Alice?”

  My lips are sealed. I don’t know where this is going, and I’m so mad with myself that I want to chop off my own head for being a coward.

  “Amazing memories,” he sighs. “I really loved those losers. I mean they wanted you to leave the asylum and succeed. They rooted for you.”

  “Stop playing games, Pillar,” I stand up for myself. “What kind of magic did you use to stop me from killing you?”

  “Oh,” he looks so mischievously innocent for a second. “You wanted to kill me?” he leans over, resting both hands on his cane. “Really, Alice?”

&
nbsp; “I know I have to. At least to help me see clearer without the games you keep playing.”

  “I’ve never played games,” he leans back. “I did what’s necessary to help you find your purpose.”

  “Which is?”

  “Knowing who you are, Alice. Trust me, that's what everyone wants in life.”

  “I know who I am. Do you?”

  “I do,” he tilts his head with a snicker. “The question is do you? Can you fight the Jabberwocky? Did you learn enough to know how to do it? Did you pay attention to the lesson you supposedly learned every mission you went to save lives?”

  Again and again, I have no idea what he is talking about. Why can’t I just kill him?

  “I’m not who you want to kill,” he says. “The Reds fooled you.”

  “Why would they?”

  “Jabberwocky sent them to kill you, but they saw your sword—and also saw it in your eyes.”

  “Saw what in my eyes?”

  “Saw that you’ve grown, enough to deserve the sword in your hand.”

  “How do they know that from my eyes?”

  The Pillar wiggled his eyebrows again and took a deep ashen breath. I guess it’s no different from his hookah smoke. That’s why he can tolerate it in concentrated quantities. “It’s that look that we call ‘growing up.’”

  “Oh yeah? You think I grew up? I’m a bit too young for that.”

  “Age isn’t quite an accurate measurement for adulthood. It’s what you experience that makes you older, not the barcode in your passport,” he says. “A few weeks ago you cared whether you were mad or not, whether you were doing the right thing or not. Hell in heavens, a few weeks ago you still cared about your past and held it like a chip on your shoulder, not knowing that the past has passed. It doesn’t matter. We all messed up in the past, or there would’ve been no point in the future.”

  I hate that I like his words. I hate myself for liking him. “Back to the subject,” I break through his hypnotizing stare. “The Reds were sent by Jabberwocky to kill me?”

  “He is kinda worried you can hurt him,” the Pillar nods. “He’s always avoided this ending. That’s why he never attacked you himself.”