Wonder

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 thi

“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 i

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

That weak and stupid voice of the Good Alice inside me—it a

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 a

“My stomach hurts so much.”

“All of a sudden?” I say. “Man up, Jack. The 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.”