“Off with her head…” the Queen tried to command, before Alice did something no one in the kingdom would dare. She slid from the chair and picked up the Queen, holding her tight. The crimson man paused in front of them, unsure what to do. The Queen squirmed, but before she could wriggle free Alice took hold of her stitches and pulled. The Queen’s face began to slip.
“Please don’t fight, Your Majesty. I would hate for you to come undone,” Alice advised.
The Queen went still but was far from quiet.
“Guards!” she screamed like a tantrumming child, and almost instantly they were surrounded by the faceless red soldiers.
“Let me through,” Alice shouted, “or Your Majesty will be less.”
The Queen nodded in agreement and the guards created a corridor, lined with their blades.
Slowly Alice backed down and out of the room. She followed her previous route, guards not far behind and the Queen seething threats. Alice, with her prisoner, found herself outside and into the thorn garden under the watchful eye of the entirety of the Queen’s army. There were crimson men everywhere. Alice, still moving with caution, made her way to the drawbridge, only to find the way blocked at both ends by the crimson guards.
“Now, Alice,” the Queen said softly with an undertone of frustration, “if you kindly let me go, I will only make your undeath miserable for only millennia.”
Alice looked at the soldiers creeping forward. Alice looked at the sky, ever grey. Finally she looked at the moat chasm swirling around the palace.
“Your Majesty, you forget.”
“Forget what, Alice?” The Queen was curious.
“I have leapt from misery before.”
Alice, with the Queen, ran from the drawbridge into the never-ending oblivion. Alice smiled as she fell further into the chasm, while the Queen kicked and ranted as she went spinning. The moment before the nothing claimed them, Alice was sure that underneath the Queen’s screams there was cheering from the palace.
Then they were both gone.
Epilogue
The undertaker and his wife had seen death in many forms, yet never grew accustomed to the sight. For example, in the darkened parlour surrounded by coffins and lit by a dark wax candle, the undertaker looked down upon the girl on his table. She was around thirteen years old, with long blonde hair, and thus far no one had claimed her. She had been seen jumping into the Thames, her body found an hour or so later.
“What a waste of so much love and potential,” the undertaker’s wife noted. “What does this world do to them?”
The undertaker and his wife, although young for their profession, had been unable to have children of their own. The wife had secretly thought that death had somehow seeped into her.
“I think I will take care of this one,” the undertaker said. “I don’t want to see her in a pauper’s grave. She deserves more.”
The wife nodded. “We shall give her a name; let’s not have a blank stone.”
“That’s a nice idea, wife,” the undertaker said. “And what shall you name her?”
“I like Alice,” the wife replied.
With that Alice coughed and breathed and opened her eyes and sat up. Of course, the undertaker and his wife very nearly died of terror.
Later, after all the shock and when the undertaker and his wife had stopped screaming, they listened to a story they could scarce believe, of a world where the unwanted dead went. It was also decided that no one else would scarce believe it either. So in the end there was nothing for it. Alice found new parents and the undertaker and his wife found a daughter.
CARINA™
ISBN: 978 1 472 09467 4
The Gruesome Adventures of Alice in Undeadland
Copyright © 2014 Sebastian Brown
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Carina, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
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The Gruesome Adventures of Alice in Undeadland Page 5