by ERIN BEDFORD
“They’ve always been here,” Type snipped. “You just weren’t looking.”
Giving Type a glower, I moved away from the desk and toward the doors. One sat in the direction in which I had come from. I shook the handle and found it locked. Frowning, I moved around to the next door, the second of the four doors which had suddenly appeared in the middle of the white room, or rather abyss. I wasn’t quite sure what else to call it. I couldn’t see any corners or ways out beside the doors. I hesitated to move past them in fear I might become lost.
The second door’s handle was also locked, as was the third and the fourth. Curiously, the latter, in addition to being locked, had chains wrapped around the door with more than a dozen locks on them.
“You won’t get in there,” Gripe called out, reminding me they were there.
“More importantly, you don’t want to.” Type nodded her head with a warning look in her eyes.
“Alright,” I drew out coming back to the desk, “then how do I leave? Watch said I was late, but he didn’t very well wait for me. How do I know where to go?”
“Well, let’s see.” Type picked up the board and read the contents through her spectacles. “Watch signed back in from the human realm several hours ago.” She stopped and peered up at me. “You are quite late, aren’t you?”
“Hours ago?” I cried, my mouth falling open. “But I just saw him not a few minutes before.” I gestured back toward the door I’d come from.
Gripe shrugged. “Time flies here faster than you can blink, especially for a human. You’d think you’d remember that from before.”
“Before.” I mouthed. “Right. Well, in any case. I need to go where Watch went. Does it say where he went next?” I pushed up on my tiptoes and tried to see over the board, but Type pulled it tighter to her chest, sneering.
When I sighed and dropped back to my feet, she finally looked at the paper. “Ah, ha.” She tapped a feathered wing on the paper. “He went to Summerville.” I must have looked confused because she added on, “That’s in the Seelie Court.”
Seelie Court? Summerville? “Isn’t this Wonderland?” I frowned their words foreign to me.
“Wonderland. Wonderland?” the two heads squawked together and chatted as if I wasn’t even there.
“She thinks we’re in Wonderland.”
“What the hell is Wonderland? Been drinking too much tea, that one.” Type nodded in agreement with her other head.
“Humans are quite mad. Didn’t you know? Better to send her off to the queen.”
“No, no. The opalaught will be needing the credit. Better send her to him,” Type told Gripe with an annoyed glance at me. “Better to put the blame on him for leading her here in the first place.”
“Enough,” I snapped, banging my hand on the counter. “This is my dream! I’ll decide where I go.”
An amused look passed between them, then Gripe gestured toward me. “By all means, Alice, where do you want to go?”
“The rabbit, I mean, the opalaught, Watch. Where did he go?” I placed my hands on my hips, staring the two of them down.
Their shoulders lifted in what I supposed was a shrug before Type answered, “We’ve told you. Summerville. Though you are quite a bit behind.”
“Days,” Gripe interjected.
Throwing up my hands and deciding to just go along with it, I asked, “Which door sends me there?”
“That one,” Gripe pointed at the one behind them, “but you can’t get in there. You need a key.” She pulled a key on a long ribbon out of her dress. “Just like this.”
I stared at the key for a moment, and then the door, and then locked eyes with the bird. “And how does one get a key?”
Snorting, Gripe swung the key back and forth as she taunted me with it. “You need permission.”
Knowing where this was going, I decided to skip the questions and take matters into my own hands. “What’s over there?” I pointed toward the big white area off in the distance.
Gripe and Type turned their heads toward where I pointed, and instantly, I took the chance to snatch the ribbon out of her hand. Before they could stop me, I gathered my skirts and raced around the desk to the door.
It took longer than I expected for the two of them to notice. The squawks of alarm only sounded once I had the key in the hole. I twisted the key and opened the door. Before I could step through, something caught my train, and my skirt ripped, plunging me head first through the doorway.
I BRACED MYSELF FOR impact, but the world around me slowed, my descent with it. The Between had disappeared, and I was falling through what looked like a rabbit hole.
Covered in dirt, the walls moved at a languid pace or rather I did. My torn skirt flared out around me like an umbrella, and I scrambled to make sure I wasn’t showing anything important. When I failed to make my skirt stay down, I sighed.
Well, it was a dream after all. No one back home would know they had seen my undergarments. My train had already been destroyed which took the majority of the back of my dress with it. I should be happy to have any dress left at all. Now if only my corset would meet the same gruesome fate.
The door I’d fallen through must have been far above me, but I couldn’t see it beyond the darkness. The ground was far beneath me. So far that I couldn’t see what lay below.
Glancing up from the ground, there were cabinets filled with odd bottles and objects. Glass mirrors hung from odd angles. One showed me upside down. The other a gruesome decomposed form. I flinched away from the mirrors in time to see the walls around me fill with clocks.
All shapes and sizes ticked in my ears though when I peered at the time each of them said something different. Some were like normal clocks, but the time was all wrong, the hands spinning wildly in circles around the face. The others had odd letters I didn’t understand or sometimes not even numbers or letters at all. I saw a picture of the sun, a snowflake, a red leaf, and a flower circled one face. Did they track the seasons like this? With the way Gripe and Type had spoken about me being behind, I couldn’t imagine it to be easy. One moment was hours. A few minutes ended up being days. How did one know day from night in this place?
Thinking about time made me wonder about home. How long had I been gone? Had they stopped searching for me? Or had my family found me, and at this moment, I was lying in bed dreaming this dream?
“More like a nightmare,” a teasing voice growled at me from below.
My eyes shot down, searching for the owner of the voice as my descent came to a sudden yet not at all painful stop. My heels clicked against the red tiled flooring as my feet touched down, and I turned in a circle in a shock to take in this new place.
A mixture of mismatched furniture lay spread out around the medium size room. Clocks were the primary decoration here as well, though one large grandfather clock dominated one of the walls, its pendulum swinging back and forth in a hypnotizing manner. Shaking my head, I backed away from it and searched once more for the voice. I knew I hadn’t imagined it. Why would I? I was dreaming after all, a dream that I was starting to wish I’d wake up from soon.
“Why, that’s no fun at all.” The voice graced me with its presence once more. My head swiveled toward the sound, landing on a tall-backed armchair with an orange ball of fur sitting in it.
Moving closer, I spoke this time out loud, the thought of whoever or whatever this was reading my mind too strange for even me. “Hello? I apologize for dropping in like this. I was on my way to Summerville.” I paused, waiting for an answer. When none came, I continued, “I came with Watch?”
A low growl came from the orange fluff, and a tail unwrapped from around itself. That single tail became larger and multiplied until there were nine tails in all surrounding the frowning face of a fox. Could foxes frown? A question for another day.
“Watch. Watch. Everyone cares about that damn opalaught.” The fox snapped his jaws, and I flinched back. “Like he could be trusted to keep the time. He’s always late.”
&nbs
p; My head cocked to the side, peering over the talking animal. He wore a buttoned-up sapphire vest with gold clocks decorating the fabric. The buttons were also clocks. It seemed the obsession with time didn’t just stop at the decor.
Clearing my throat, I knelt down to the fox, so I was at eye level with the three-foot fox. “Hello, my name is Alice. Could you help me?”
The fox stopped preening and complaining long enough to focus those beady black eyes on me. Licking his jaw, a slow, wicked grin curled up his face. Still astounded by the fact that the fox could actually make a facial expression, I almost missed what he said next.
“I could, but I won’t.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“Because I’m bored, and you are quite the interesting piece of something else.” He licked his paw, his eyes glinting at me in such an obscene manner that I feared he might want to eat me. He climbed off the chair and stood before me, taking my hand in his paw. I forced myself to stay still in case he might bite.
“Tell me, Alice.” He snapped his jaw as he hissed out my name. “How do you feel about becoming my companion and, perhaps one day, my wife?”
My mouth gaped. “Why… uh… I’m flattered, but I don’t even know your name and, where I’m from, marrying an animal is unheard of, talking or otherwise. So, I’ll have to decline politely.” I withdrew my hand from his paw and took a step back with what I hoped was a disappointed look.
Unfortunately, my word did nothing to dissuade the fox, he looped his thumbs - were they thumbs? - into his vest and grinned up at me.
“My apologies. You may call me Tick, and as for my form…”
His tails wrapped around him, and he twisted in place before growing larger, transforming right before my eyes. The fur pushed back to reveal muscular olive skin, enough skin to make me blush. The vest strained against the bare chest beneath, and his hind legs were now long and lean, covered in pants made of what seemed to be leather.
After getting over the initial shock of the transformation and - who was I kidding? - the lack of clothes covering parts I hadn’t even seen on my brother since we were children, my eyes moved up to the strong jaw and sharp-angled nose. The orange fur that had covered his body now confined itself to a long mane hanging down his back and over his shoulder, silky and soft. My hands itched to touch it.
However, the beady black eyes which had changed into an ember hue warned me off. The glint of them that I could no longer mistake for that of a hungry fox was now that of a man looking at a woman and thinking of all the ways he could violate her.
“Is this form more to your liking?” A roguish grin curled his lips, a sharp canine peeking out. “Now, it does take a bit more energy than I usually like to expend on a daily basis, but for you?” He picked up some of my hair which had fallen out of the pins Violet had painstakingly put up and let it slide between his fingers before curling it tight and giving me a bit of a jerk. I either had to move toward him or risk my hair being yanked out.
I chose the former.
My choice placed me closer than I’d ever been to a man, even Lewis. We’d always had a chaperone, and even then, we always at least two feet apart. I certainly had never felt his breath on my face or the heat of his body so close to mine. The scent of Tick a spicy sort of flavor that caused a warmth to spread through my abdomen and brought on an involuntary press of my thighs. I had to admit, it wasn’t a completely unpleasant feeling.
Clipping my mouth shut, I realized Tick was actually waiting for an answer. “Well, I wish I could but…” I withdrew from him, waving a hand at my destroyed dress and hair. “I’m actually getting married. I mean, I was until I saw that…” I trailed off my eyes leaving him and searching for a way out, not seeing anything but the large grandfather clock ticking aggravatingly in the background. “I really should find Watch and get back.”
Tick’s grin never faltered. “You don’t sound so sure. Perhaps I could persuade you to stay.” He waved an arm at a table with a teapot and a set of cups. My eyes darted from side to side, but I couldn’t find a reason to tell him no, especially if I needed him to let me out of here.
Letting out a sigh, I took one of the seats and grimaced, shifting my dress so that the corset wasn’t stabbing me. “So, since we are being civilized, could you answer a few questions for me?”
Tick took the seat across from me and crossed one leg over the other. His feet were bare which should have disturbed me but actually seemed normal. Why shouldn’t he be barefoot? He was a fox. Fox didn’t wear shoes. They didn’t wear vests either, but here we were.
Pouring the tea, Tick eyed me over his cup. “How about we play a game instead?”
I arched a brow at him, picking my cup up but not drinking from it. “A game?”
“Yes.” His tongue snuck out to catch the liquid on his lips, and my eyes tracked the movement. “I’ll answer your questions, but you have to answer my riddle.”
“Riddle?” I frowned. “I’ve never been very good at riddles.” I lifted the cup to my lips but didn’t a drink. “My sister Rhoda, now she has never found a riddle she couldn’t solve. Violet, on the other hand, is a riddle in herself. One day, she only cared about bright colored clothing, the next, it was beige lace. Who knows what’s actually going on in her head?” I sat my cup down and picked up the spoon, swirling it around in the liquid. Tick’s eyes followed my every moment.
“Interesting. And your husband to be? What’s he like?” Tick’s tails appeared out of nowhere, making me blink rapidly. They swayed from side to side in a kind of lullaby that made my head feel heavy.
“Lewis? Well, he’s…” I trailed off, having a challenging time getting my thoughts together. “He’s all right.”
“Only all right? I’d think you’d want more than just all right if you were marrying him. All right is for a meal with a long-distance friend, or perhaps a song, but never for a life partner. I could be so much better than all right… for you.” He leaned forward on his elbows, my gaze drifted up to his eyes, my mouth drooping open.
“Huh?”
“We were discussing the game,” he said smoothly. “I will ask you a riddle, and if you answer correctly, then I will show you how to find that damnable Watch. But if you lose…” He tapped his long nails on the table between us, arching over the space to press his face close to mine. That delicious smell of his invaded my senses once more, and I found myself moving closer to him.
“If I lose…?” I mimicked him, not really caring what he was talking about as long as he came closer.
“If you lose, then you have to marry me instead. Stay here forever.” A wicked grin spread across his lips, his hand tipping up my chin to meet his gaze. “Do we have an agreement?”
“A what?” I blinked, my head not quite on right.
“Do you agree? To the rules of the game?”
“Oh, yes. Of course. The rules. We must follow the rules,” I mumbled.
Tick seemed satisfied by the response and took his seat once more, leaving me hanging above the table on my own. Flopping back into my chair with a less than dignified huff, I lifted my cup to my mouth.
“Now, I only find it fair to answer your questions first so go ahead ask away.” Tick waved a languid hand my way.
Questions? I had questions? If I did, I couldn’t remember any of them now. I could hardly remember what I had been doing here in the first place. Tick had said something about a watch, but he had so many clocks already. Why would he need a watch? My eyes drifted to the grandfather clock again, then they followed the pendulum until I noticed a dark inkiness behind it. It wasn’t the dirt wall, and a flicker of light moved in the blackness that had me sitting up straighter.
“What’s behind that clock?”
Tick’s brows rose high on his face, a look of astonishment replacing his bored amusement. “Behind the grandfather lies the lair of the JubJub and also so happens to lead to the streets of Summerville.”
Summerville. Summerville. Why did that name sound fam
iliar? Did I live there?
“Though I’m not sure why in the Underground you would want to go there. Nothing but stuck up Seelie piss ants. Your opalaught friend would be lucky to keep his head going in there by himself.” Tick clucked his tongue and sipped his tea. “Now, if that was all your questions, my turn.”
“Opalaught,” I said, the feeling of the word strange inside my mouth but familiar as well. Summerville. Opalaught. It was on the tip of my tongue. I’d been trying to find an opalaught in Summerville. Why? Why? Why?
The fox in human form kicked my chair with his bare foot, jolting me from my thoughts. “Are you ready for my riddle, Alice? Or would you prefer to watch me for a little while longer? I’m happy either way.”
Watch! My eyes widened as I realized what I’d forgotten. I’d followed a rabbit wearing a waistcoat down a hole. The rabbit’s, opalaught’s, name was Watch, and this sly fox before me was trying to drug me into compliance with both his presence and with the way he was urging me to drink, most likely his tea.
I snapped my mouth shut and shook my head, clearing the last of the fog away. Sitting my undrunk cup on the table before me, I pushed my seat back. “You, sir, do not fight fair. I will not be bamboozled by a cheat and a liar.”
“But rules are rules, dear Alice.” Tick lounged back in his chair, twisting his finger in a circular motion above his cup and causing the contents inside to spin on its own. “You have already agreed. The game has begun. No backing out now.”
I placed my hands on my hips and glared. “An agreement made under false pretenses such as drugging your visitor. What kind of person,” I caught myself and flung an arm at him, “thing are you?”
Tick stood from his seat, a smirk on his lips. “Why, I’m Fae, I would think you would remember? Though, you are a bit older than the last time you stopped by.” His eyes scanned up and down my form. “Not that I’m complaining. However, if you don’t remember you being here, then there’s no hope for you to stay. You had promised to play my game when you were older, but it seems like you aren’t quite old enough.” He picked up my hair and gave it a sniff, making a face. “Yes, yes. I was right before. Not old enough for me. Now off you go. You’re terribly late, you know.”