Wonder (Insanity Book 5)

by Cameron Jace

  “Actually, they do.” My jaw tightens as I watch a black limousine pull over. I know who’s inside it. I’ve seen it before, and I’m starting to experience a few wicked emotions in my chest.

  The Pillar and I stare at the woman stepping out of the limousine while the street is suddenly swarming with Reds. It’s the Queen of Hearts.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” she says.

  “Who are you, woman?” the Pillar says.

  The Queen slaps him with the back of her hand, and the poor professor lands next to the garbage can.

  “What do you want?” I ask her.

  “You know what I want,” she says. “You’ll not mess this up. You’re going to be on that bus in less than an hour. Understand?”

  “And if I don’t understand?” I step up to her.

  She smirks. “You know what the beauty of this moment is?”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “That you’re not much of the Bad Alice, so I don’t fear you, but you’re also not much of the Good Alice, so you won’t mess up the plan.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “You’ve been injecting yourself with little doses of Lullaby so your family won’t expose you as the Bad Alice,” the Queen explains. “It was Mr. Jay’s orders from the beginning. He thought you wouldn’t overdo it. But your love for Jack made you want to resort to becoming good all the time. That’s why you don’t feel like getting on the bus. But now you will.”

  “Wait,” I say. “Are you saying you know I’m from the future?”

  “I do.”

  This part really dizzies me, because, according to the timeline, tomorrow I will stuff a bunch of Lullaby pills in her and she won’t remember anything after. But today? “How could you possibly know?”

  “Mrs. Tock told me.” She smirks. “For the sake of accuracy, Mrs. Tock, the one you met tomorrow, found a way to tell herself today.”

  I have to blink at the confusion of the past-tense verb used with the word “tomorrow.” But I get it. The future is resisting change. It’s pushing me in every possible way to follow the timeline of killing the students.

  Two Reds suddenly restrain me from behind and the Queen stuffs a mushroom in my mouth. They don’t even need to force me to chew on it, as it melts instantly. Not just that. I find myself craving it, because it slowly turns me to my real self. The girl who works for Black Chess.

  It’s a terrible and conflicting feeling. The shift from here to there is like being high on drugs. I am not sure who I am now.

  “It will take a while until you’re fully yourself again,” the Queen says. The Reds let go of me. “But we’ll be watching you until you get on that bus.”

  I fall to my knees from the pain. The Pillar is lying comatose on the ground next to me.

  “Why is it so important I kill my classmates on the bus?” I’m trying my best to use the better part in me, as long as it’s possible.

  “Don’t ask, Alice,” the Queen says. “No one questions their role in the Wonderland Wars. Not when working for Black Chess.”

  Resisting the need to vomit, I am aware I don’t have much time before I fully turn into a Black Chess employee. The damned Mrs. Tock is right again. It seems like I’m destined to kill my classmates.

  But at least I saved Jack.

  The Queen returns to her car. I clench a fist and try to fight the pain in my stomach. Then the worst of my nightmares manifests itself.

  “Alice?” Jack kneels down next to me. “What are you doing here?”

  I raise my eyes and stare into his, seeing how concerned he is.

  “Gosh, you look awful. What did you eat?”

  My face reddens with pain. No words come out of me.

  “Come on.” He gently pulls me up. “We need to get you ready, or we’ll miss the bus.”

  Chapter 72

  THE PRESENT: INSIDE THE INKLINGS, OXFORD

  “It looks like things are going to work,” Mr. Tick remarked, staring at Alice lying on the bed.

  “The future always finds a way,” Mrs. Tock added, secretly biting on one of his brownies behind his back.

  “What are you two talking about?” Fabiola scowled.

  “The Queen of Hearts corrected Alice’s path, and now she is going to kill everyone on the bus,” Mr. Tick said.

  “Corrected the path? How?” Fabiola’s mind was frying with all the paradoxes of time travel, which she wasn’t interested in, not the slightest. All she cared about was Alice’s death.

  “It’s a long and complicated story,” Mr. Tick said. “All you need to know is that she met Jack and now they’re going to get on the bus.”

  “And soon she’ll kill them all,” Mrs. Tock said around a mouthful.

  “Are you eating my brownies?” Mr. Tick inquired.

  “Ate your brownies, you mean.” She giggled. “As for you, Fabiola, be very afraid. Once Alice kills her classmates, everything will go the way Black Chess planned it.”

  “How?” Fabiola said. “You still haven’t got your keys.”

  “I’m sure the keys will show up along the way, now that she’s returning to the Bad Alice again,” Mrs. Tock said.

  “Even so,” Fabiola said. “The keys don’t worry me. We’ll fight over them in this life. As long as Alice doesn’t find her Wonder, I’m not worried.”

  “I was just thinking about this, White Queen.” Mr. Tick plunked two sugar cubes into his thirteenth cup of tea. “You may have not understood what her Wonder really is.”

  “What do you mean? Didn’t you say her Wonder is the one thing she’ll always be proud of in life?”

  “Exactly.” He turned the spoon, making clanging noises. “But that’s the Wonder of a so-called good person.”

  “Explain yourself.” Fabiola tensed.

  “A good person’s Wonder may simply be his children,” Mrs. Tock said. “Or the one time they saved the life of a dog when it was in dire need.”

  “So?”

  “So how about a bad person’s Wonder?” Mr. Tick snickered like usual.

  Fabiola grimaced. The implications were disastrous.

  “Let me put it this way,” Mr. Tick said. “The Bad Alice’s Wonder may be different from the Good Alice’s Wonder.”

  “Meaning, her Wonder at this time might be killing someone,” Mrs. Tock explained.

  “Like her classmates, for instance.” Mr. Tick clanked his spoon against his china, as if he were calling boxers for the next round of the fight.

  “Genius, Mr. Tick,” Mrs. Tock said.

  “I know, Mrs. Tock.”

  “Are you two saying that Alice’s Wonder may be killing her classmates?” Fabiola said.

  “It would be a Wonder in Black Chess’s eyes,” Mrs. Tock said.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

  “Love it when nuns swear.” Mr. Tick smiled. “It means evil is winning.”

  “Me too, Mr. Tick. Would you please clank that spoon again? Sounds like Alice’s time has come.”

  Chapter 73

  THE PAST: OXFORD STREETS

  “What do you mean you don’t want to get on the bus?” Jack pulls me by my hand in the most enthusiastic way. “You’ve always wanted to take that ride. You said your life depended on it.”

  “Stop.” I try to wriggle myself out of his embracing arms. “I thought you like Lorina?”

  “Your sis?” Jack laughs. “I admit she keeps chasing me. But I only use her when I need her. Like a few minutes ago I was betting on cards with stupid men and lost the game. She was a good escape with your mummy’s car.”

  So that was it?

  “Look.” He pulls out a handful of pounds. “I won that off the men.”

  “What’s it for?”

  “For us, Alice. Who else?” He keeps dragging me along the street.

  “Us?”

  “The trip, Alice. We’re getting on that bus. I know you’re worried about money, but once we’re there, I’ll take care of you.”

  “Jack.”
I finally stop. “Slow down, please.”

  Jack’s face pales a little. “What is it? You changed your mind?”

  “Changed my mind about what?”

  “About us?”

  Jack is only killing me — if I don’t kill him in a few, that is.

  “I thought you realized how much I love you,” he says. “How can I explain this to you?”

  “I — ”

  “I know. I know. I’m a crook. A thief. I don’t even go to school. But I’ll be a good man, Alice. You can’t just let me go.”

  It’s right now where I can stop it all. I just need to tell him I don’t love him. I can tell him to freakin’ walk away from me. Damn it. Why am I not saying it? It’s just a few words. I don’t love you. I don’t want to see you again. Why can’t I?

  “Look.” Jack pulls me closer. “Only you know me. Only you.”

  “And you don’t know anything about me.”

  “I know enough. It’s not like you can turn out to be worse than me.”

  “I am worse than you, Jack.”

  “Nice one.” He flicks his nose against mine. “Now, don’t be silly. The bus is coming.”

  And you’re never getting out of it, Jack, if I’m on it.

  “It’s our time, Alice,” Jack insists. “We need to have fun together. A life. We need to get on that bus. Hell, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to get on it.”

  “I can’t.” The words slip out of me. “I just can’t.”

  Jack gets the message this time. He realizes I’m not being bratty. He can read it in my eyes. “You’re not in love with that old douche, are you?”

  “Old douche?”

  “That professor. What’s his name?”

  I stop myself from laughing. And though I can just tell him that I am, I can’t bring myself to break his heart.

  “So what’s the problem, Alice?” Jack says.

  Thinking of an answer, I suddenly notice we’re near the bus station. It’s a few feet away. That’s it. And there, among the giggling girls waiting for the bus, the Reds stand everywhere, disguised as normal people. The Queen’s limousine waits at the curb. And a woman in a Red fur stands on the opposite side. My instinct tells me Black Chess is all around, to make sure I will get on the bus.

  “Alice, look at me. Tell me what’s going on.” Jack holds me tighter. “I’d die for you, Alice. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

  I’d die for you, Alice. The words cling to my soul. My darker soul, which is suddenly surfacing.

  Why not? I find myself thinking.

  I’ve been manipulating this stupid boy for so long. Why not? Let him get on the bus. Let him die with the others.

  Hail Black Chess.

  Now I’m back. The real me. The one you should fear the most.

  I pull Jack toward the bus station, imagining a scary rabbit staring back at me from a mirror. “Welcome back, Alice,” the rabbit says.

  Chapter 74

  THE PRESENT: DIRECTOR’S OFFICE, RADCLIFFE ASYLUM, OXFORD

  Dr. Tom Truckle was enjoying his mock turtle soup when Fabiola crashed into his office. He wasn’t sure who she was yet. He’d only seen her serving beer and cracking jokes in the Inklings a couple of times. He’d always joked she looked like a dark version of the famous Vatican nun. But, of course, she couldn’t be her.

  “I need your help.” Fabiola stood by the door, her tattoos barely distracting from her impressively athletic body and good looks.

  “Only my wife asks for help with a sword in her hand.” He drooled some of the soup back into the bowl. “Want to be my next?”

  “Shut up,” Fabiola said. “Alice is about to find her Wonder.”

  “Alice?” He frowned. “Her what?”

  “She has to die.”

  “Are we talking about the mad girl in the cell below?”

  “You know she isn’t in the cell below.” Fabiola stepped up. “I know all about you. About the Pillar manipulating you into letting her out.”

  “Great.” Tom dropped his spoon. “Excuse me if I need to pop another pill to talk to you.”

  “You’re not going to do anything unless I tell you,” Fabiola said.

  “Trust me, the pill helps with all your Wonderland madness.” He reached for the drawer but Fabiola stopped him, waving a threatening sword in the air.

  “I know who you are, Tom,” Fabiola said. “I know what Lewis told you about this asylum, so drop the mask.”

  Tom shrugged. Did others know about this? Lewis had never told him this Fabiola had anything to do with this. “What do you want?”

  “Now we’re talking.” Fabiola leaned against the edge of his desk. “Like I said, Alice Wonder must die.”

  “Why?”

  “You don’t get to ask questions, Turtle,” she mocked him. “You will only follow my orders.”

  “If you say so.” He really needed that pill now.

  “I will need an army to kill Alice when she wakes up.”

  “Wakes up?”

  “I told you not to interrupt me.”

  Tom sat up, listening carefully.

  “You did a good job, all those years, collecting sane people into the asylum,” she said. “Now it’s time to use them.”

  “Really?” Tom’s eyes widened. So Lewis’ prophecy was useful.

  “Yes,” she said. “I will need all the Mushroomers in your asylum.”

  “Need them?”

  “Didn’t you hear me?” Fabiola said. “Alice is coming back, and I’ll need all your insane — or sane — patients to kill her.”

  Chapter 75

  THE PAST: OXFORD STREETS

  It’s hard to explain this feeling inside me. It’s harder to explain how good I feel, dragging Jack toward the bus station. Old and scattered memories of the Bad Alice flood my soul as I am about to kill my classmates.

  As we head to the station, a thinner, weaker Good Alice tries to oppose me, trying to understand why I am supposed to kill those on the bus. But things happen so fast, I can’t locate such an old memory I’ve devoted my life to — my darker life, that is.

  “I’m glad you changed your mind.” Jack holds my hand, now standing among others at the station.

  “Me too.” I peck him on the cheek, my evil eyes sparkling with all the wrong emotions. It’s weird how darkness feels so powerful. It reminds me of Fabiola warning me of getting stained when looking darkness in the eyes. The poor woman discreetly hoped I wasn’t the Real Alice all this time. What an old, mentally conflicted nun.

  The bus is supposed to arrive in ten minutes. The innocent passengers have no idea of their morbid fates. Most of the passengers are girls. In fact, there are only three boys about to get on the bus. I wonder why.

  Please don’t do this, Alice. You’re not her anymore.

  That weak and stupid voice of the Good Alice inside me—it annoys me. If I only had the means to choke her. But that would be choking myself, too. And hell, I freakin’ like me. I like the Bad Alice. Once I kill for Black Chess, I should take some time to immerse myself in the bloody memories of the past.

  A couple of memories loom before me. Me, back then in Wonderland, after the events of the circus, mercilessly slaying a few humans. Why would I give up on such power? And I thought I was an insane girl buried underground, thinking she could save lives.

  “Alice.” Jack squeezes my hand.

  “Yes, baby?”

  “Do you want your necklace back?”

  “Necklace?”

  “The one you gave me last week,” Jack says. “You said it’s important.”

  “Of course I want it back.” I don’t have the slightest idea what he is talking about.

  But Jack doesn’t get a chance to give it back. Suddenly he falls to his knees, clutching at his stomach.

  “What’s wrong, Jack?” I say, but it’s not like I care. I am just annoyed at the plan going wrong.

  “My stomach hurts so much.”

  “All of a sudden?” I say. “Man up, Jack. T
he bus is coming soon.”

  “It hurts.” He moans. “I think I need to visit the bathroom.”

  “You what?”

  Jack hurtles through the crowd in a flash. He needs to use the loo that bad. It happens so fast that I’m perplexed. My plan can’t go wrong. I don’t know, but Jack has to die along with the passengers, even though I know he isn’t the target. I just don’t want to change the course of events. I must have had a reason to kill him in the past, and the reason should remain now.

  “He’s gone to the bathroom?” A panting Pillar shows up, adjusting his glasses again.

  “Can you believe this?” I say.

  “I can.” The Pillar grins. “It was me.”

  “You?”

  “I slipped something into his drink,” he says. “A Chinese herb I use when constipated. He isn’t coming out of there anytime soon.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Didn’t you want him off the bus?” The Pillar drools like a bulldog.

  I slap him on the face and then kick him out on the street. “Can you get any dumber?”

  Suddenly his girl fans are upset with me, pushing me sideways, and kneeling down to help their Wonderland believers.

  “Duh!” I shout.

  I could easily kill them here right now. But they have to die on the bus for some reason. I have to get Jack back. And fast. The bus is coming.

  Chapter 76

  THE PRESENT: RADCLIFFE ASYLUM

  Tom stood watching Fabiola lecture the Mushroomers. She was telling them of the Bad Alice and all the details they hadn’t known about earlier. The Mushroomers, holding to the bars, listened tentatively.

  “So we’re not mad?” one of them asked.

  “Not the least,” Fabiola said. “It was this man who framed you and brought you here.” She pointed at Tom.

  The Mushroomers produced noises of anger and were about to shoot laser beams out of their eyes at him, Tom thought. “I was asked to do this,” he explained. “Lewis Carroll told me.”