by Cameron Jace
He taps me on the shoulder. I try not to turn around. I’d prefer he walks away with my back to him.
“Hey,” the boy says. “She’s mine.”
I come to understand the boy, and Jack might get into a fight. So I give in and turn to face Jack.
Keep the tears locked inside, Alice. Just for a minute. If Jack sees you crying, he’ll figure out something is wrong.
“Is that why you were surprised I came back from the bathroom?” Jack’s pain is painted like a Picasso on his face. “Is that why you suddenly didn’t want to get on the bus?”
“I—”
I have nothing to say.
Lorina takes the opportunity and backs Jack up. I can’t quite hear what she says. All my senses are focused on Jack’s pain. Generally, she is calling me all kinds of bad things.
Jack’s eyes lock with mine. He must be seeing a stupid teenage girl, reckless and selfish. I see beautiful eyes that will enjoy a prosperous life and will not die young.
The tension breaks with the bus’s ticket thrown at my face. It’s not Lorina who does it. But Jack. Lorina smiles broadly and takes Jack’s arm.
“I never want to see you again,” Jack says. “I should have known. You’re weird.”
“She is mentally cuckoo,” Lorina offers. Her friends laugh. “Trust me, I know. She’s my sister.”
“I should’ve listened to the rumors,” Jack says.
“Rumors?” It’s all I can say.
“They said you were some kind of a witch or something. You and your Wonderland creeps.”
“Let’s go, Jack,” Lorina says. “You don’t need this trip. I have a surprise for you.”
Jack’s last stare at me is full of disappointment. Borderline hatred. I’m sure it can’t be fixed in the future now.
Go away, Jack. Go with Lorina. Stay alive.
My future husband senses the tension and holds me before I collapse under the weight of my pain. I pretend I like it, watching Jack walk away.
With every step, I get this warm feeling up my nostrils. I realize its blood. My time in the past is scant. I may have saved Jack and the bus, but I haven’t found my Wonder. I haven’t saved myself.
But Jack returns for one last scene. An unexpected one. “Here.” He hands me a necklace. “It’s yours, and I don’t want anything that reminds me of you.”
“Mine?” I stare at it, remembering he talked to me about it earlier. But I don’t recognize it.
“You don’t even remember you gave it to me?” Jack says. “I bet you give it to all the boys.”
“What’s this for?” I stare at the necklace in my hand and realize there is a key attached to it. The key has a drawing of the Six Keys on it. On the back is that strange number 14 again. This is the key to where I keep the rest of Six Impossible Keys.
The irony.
I stand with the necklace in my hand. The keys. The reason why I embarked on this journey from the beginning. I’ve exchanged Jack’s life for the keys. No wonder they never found the rest of them. I kept them with Jack.
“I don’t want the necklace,” I scream at Jack. The pain is too strong. I don’t know why I do it, but I throw the keys back in his face. They’ll end up in Black Chess’s hands if I keep them with me. Jack catches them as if a tiny piece of him still wants to carry a memory of me.
Then he disappears.
My bleeding intensifies, and I begin to feel dizzy. In only minutes I’ll die, it seems. All I need now is to make sure the bus is safe.
I watch it arrive. The yellow school bus slows down by the curb. Most girls forget about the drama, excited by the trip they’re about to take.
You did it, Alice. You did it.
I watch the girls get on the bus, my nose bleeding faster, but my heart is fluttering with the victory. It’s hard to imagine that I started this journey looking for a bunch of keys. Here I am, ending up with a bitter victory. But it’s the right thing to do.
Without me on the bus, the future can change. Who said we can’t change the past, Mrs. Tock?
81
THE PRESENT: INSIDE THE INKLINGS, OXFORD
“Did we just get the keys back?” Mr. Tick squinted at the dying Alice on the table.
“I’m not sure, Mr. Tick,” his wife said. “Alice found the keys, but I think she threw them back to Jack.”
“She also looks like she is going to pass on killing her classmates.” Mr. Tick didn’t look happy about it.
“Can’t have all the cake, Mr. Tick.”
“Of course I can have all the cake.” He pointed at the brownie in his hand. “I always do. Figure out a way for Alice to kill her classmates and make sure she gets the keys.”
“I don’t know how to do that, Mr. Tick.”
“Mr. Jay will be very upset.”
“Margaret hired us to send Alice back in time to get the keys. She never said anything about keeping the timeline intact.”
“But this will change a lot of things.”
“I know, Mr. Tick. She will also die without killing her classmates. Because she will not have found her Wonder.”
“Which means we will not even get the keys if she has them.”
“We don’t need to, Mr. Tick. We know that the keys are with Jack.”
“So?”
“Last I heard, the Cheshire managed to possess Jack’s body. With a few tweaks and digging into his mind, the Cheshire will know where they are.”
“That’s genius, Mrs. Tock. But how about Alice? Doesn’t Black Chess want their fiercest warrior back?”
“Can’t help her now,” Mrs. Tock said. “Like I said, if she doesn’t kill her classmates, she dies.”
“She is already dying.” He pointed at Alice on the bed. “Look at how fast she is bleeding.”
“Farewell, Bad Alice,” Mrs. Tock said. “We’ll miss you. You were real fun.”
“Look at the endless number of kids she inspired for a century and a half,” Mr. Tick said. “Did the kids know she was the Bad Alice?”
“Some did.”
Mr. Tick let out a long sigh, took another brownie bite, then combed his hairies. “I guess that’s it, then. Alice dies, and we get the keys from Jack.”
“I believe so, too.”
“I’m just really unhappy with the passengers on the bus staying alive,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve seen someone capable of changing the past so dramatically. It’s always been a few small changes, but not enough to change the course of the future.”
“I agree, Mr. Tick. We all know those on the bus must die.” Then an idea hit her. She rested a forefinger on her lips as if she’d discovered time itself. “Don’t you think time won’t let her change the past?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that the future always finds a way to stay on course. Rule number 47 in the Wonderlastic Guide to Time Travels.”
“I read the rule, Mrs. Tock. But every rule has an exception.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “Maybe not.”
82
THE PAST: BUS STATION, OXFORD
Instead of slowly withering away, the terrible Alice inside me surfaces again. I guess it’s because of my weakness that I can’t oppose her now.
With blood trickling down my cheeks, I stand up and push my future husband away, about to catch up to the bus I am supposed to kill everyone on.
Talk about schizophrenic.
The boy holds me back for some reason. “You’re still bleeding,” he says. “You need a doctor.”
I push him off me, realizing I still have enough strength to get the mission done. He falls back. “I really have no idea why I will marry you in the future,” I say, standing up.
“Wow, hold your horses, girl,” the boy says. “Not so fast. We were just fooling around.”
I don’t pay attention to him and run after the bus. All around me, Black Chess are still watching me, waiting for me to make it happen. Although I’m in evil mode, I wonder again and again why I have to kill those on the bu
s.
I run after the bus, realizing that I’m limping. Why not? I’m dying. Slower, I limp like a mad girl with blood on her face.
People make way for me. They don’t want to have anything to do with me.
The last girl gets on the bus as I cling to the rail on the back. I’m going to get on it. It’s the only meaning in the Bad Alice’s life. It’s the only way that I can live and return to the present, I suddenly realize. If I have no Wonder as a Good Alice then I bet it’s the Bad Alice with the Wonder of killing her classmates.
The bus starts up, and I cling harder to the rail, my legs scraping against the asphalt.
My knees hurt like hell. I should be dead already. I am trying to gather the strength to climb up. The girls in the back window stare at me as if I am a terrorist. Well, I am. A Wonderland Monster.
I manage to pull myself up, bending my knees, and begin to climb up toward the top of the bus, like a poisonous spider who’s come to finish the job.
“Let me in!” I pound on the glass. I must look like a demon now. “Let me in!”
The bus is full of girls. Why girls? Why do they have to die? Who are they?
One of the girls is so scared she submits to my threats and actually tries to open the back window. I smile wickedly at her, encourage her to speed it up.
Here she goes. Just a little wider, and I can set my foot inside.
But I don’t.
Someone pulls me by my legs. I slip back, dropping on that someone behind me in the middle of the street, watching the bus fly away.
“No!” I scream, reaching out.
“It’s all right.” The Pillar holds me tight, both of us lying on our backs. “Let it go, Alice. Just let it go.”
When he calls my name, I don’t know which Alice he is talking to. It’s worse than not knowing whether I’m mad or not.
The Pillar’s grip is strong. He is more embracing me than keeping me away.
“The bus is gone,” the nerdy Pillar says. “Whatever the reason you feel you need to catch it, there’ll always be another.”
“No, there isn’t,” I say, knowing it’s too late. I possess no more strength to go after it. I don’t really know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t know who I am or what I want.
“The girls on the bus will live,” I mumble.
“They will,” the Pillar says. “Now, just calm down. It will all be okay.”
And it should, the Good Alice reminds me. Like the Pillar said, I just need to let go. I did all I could, saved a boy, a bus, and resisted a great evil inside me—although I am not sure which part of me surfaces most of the time.
But it’s all right. The bus is about to disappear over the horizon.
It’s okay. No harm will be done.
“I think I changed so many things in the future,” I tell the Pillar, standing up.
“You think so?” He tilts his head. “I once read the future can never be changed.”
And he is right, because far in the distance, looking over his shoulder, I see the bus veering off the road and crashed into a building.
83
THE PRESENT: INSIDE THE INKLINGS, OXFORD
“What happened?” Fabiola said.
Now that she had no means of using the Muhsroomers to kill Alice, she had come back, wanting to make sure the evil girl wouldn’t return.
“The strangest thing.” Even Mrs. Tock was surprised by the incident in the past.
“What do you mean? Speak up.”
“I think…” Mr. Tick squinted. “I think Alice didn’t kill her classmates on the bus.”
“That’s great news,” Fabiola said. “It means she hasn’t found her Wonder. It means she will not wake up again.”
“It’s not quite that simple,” Mr. Tick said. “I also think that everyone on the bus died anyway.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You see,” Mrs. Tock began, “Alice didn’t get on the bus, so she didn’t kill her classmates, but even so, the bus crashed and exploded.”
“That’s impossible. It doesn’t make any sense.” Fabiola gripped her sword tighter, staring at the dying Alice on the bed. This was so hard for her. Her past, and the secrets she knew obliged her to kill Alice now. But she just couldn’t.
“Sense has nothing to do with time,” Mr. Tick explained. “Time does what it likes.”
“When it likes,” Mrs. Tock added.
“Not a tick too soon.”
“Not a tock too late.”
“I need real answers,” Fabiola said. “Something that I understand. If Alice wasn’t on the bus, why did it veer off the road?”
“Why?” Mrs. Tock shook her shoulders. “I have no answer to that.”
“But we know who did this,” Mr. Tick said.
“Who, then?” Fabiola had to know.
“You won’t believe it,” Mr. Tick said.
“Carolus Loduvicus, although he jumped off the bus and didn’t die himself,” Mrs. Tock said. “He had always been the other Wonderlander on the bus with Alice.”
“And I’ve always wondered why Carolus got on that bus, Mrs. Tock,” Mr. Tick said.
“Me too. His presence on the bus is a mystery.”
“But it does have a meaning,” Mr. Tick said.
“It does?”
“Time is so slick it put Carolus on the bus so that if any of us, time travelers, ever wanted to change the past, it would always have a backup plan. Carolus. Time is so devious, Mrs. Tock.”
“That’s why we love working for it.” Mrs. Tock snickered. “Time is never on your side. It’s only on its own side. The future always finds a way to stay the same.”
“I don’t care about any of this,” Fabiola said. “I need you to answer me this: did Alice find her Wonder?”
“Of course not,” Mr. Tick said. “Her classmates died, but she didn’t do it. Alice is pretty much dead. Evil or good. No Wonder. I’d be writing her obituary if I were you.”
Hearing this, Fabiola collapsed on the chair. She finally had the results she’d sought. But she didn’t know whether to love or hate the situation. She ran her hands over Alice’s wide-open eyes and brushed them to a close. “Good night, Alice Wonder. I’ll always hate myself for wanting you dead, but it’s the right thing to do.”
84
THE PRESENT: MARGARET’S OFFICE, PARLIAMENT
“What do you mean she died?” Margaret yelled at Carolus on the phone.
Carolus explained what Mr. Tick and Mrs. Tock had told him. He didn’t tell her it was him who’d crashed the bus, though — and lived. He didn’t see the point, and he didn’t even remember doing it.
Margaret took a moment to assess the situation. She hardly cared about Black Chess or Alice. She cared to have good enough results so she could get back what was hers from the Queen. “And the key?” she asked.
“The keys are with Jack. We don’t know what he’s done with them. But the Cheshire will fix that.”
“So, my plan worked.”
“I’d say it did. You promised the keys to the Queen. And now we know where they are.”
Margaret let out a long sigh. “Okay, Carolus. Take a break now. I have an important meeting with the Queen.”
85
THE PRESENT: BUCKINGHAM PALACE
The Queen cried herself to death in her room. Her tears were piercing bubbles, splashing against every wall in her chamber. Her dogs eagerly waited for the salty tears to slide down the walls, so they could lick them. They hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for a while.
“Such a loss,” the Queen told herself, dialing Mr. Jay’s number. “I wonder how he will take the news.”
“Yes?” Mr. Jay answered.
The Queen told him about Alice’s death. The man’s silence extended for a few uncomfortable breaths on the line. “Is that confirmed?”
“She is dead. I’m sorry,” the Queen said. “I wished she wasn’t.”
“A shameful loss for Black Chess.”
“I know. Winning th
e war will be much harder now.”
“Alice has always been my favorite. The things she has done for us after the circus. I will always remember her. I wish there was someone to blame for her death.”
“The Pillar,” the Queen said. “He’s the one who turned her mind, almost converted her to one of the Inklings.”
“That’s not quite true,” Mr. Jay said. “Alice had once been an Inkling before she joined Black Chess. She didn’t become one of us until the incident after the circus. You could say she had good and evil in her all the time.”
The Queen nodded silently.
“Also, we may have never found her if it weren’t for the Pillar,” Mr. Jay said. “None of us was sure it was her.”
“That damn Lullaby pill, and Lewis’ curse to make us forget. I wonder how the Pillar knew she was the Real Alice.”
“Maybe he didn’t. It could be a stroke of luck.”
“I doubt that. So are we going to do something about him now?”
“Something like what?”
“If you allow me to chop off his head, it’d be most Jub Jub.”
“No.” Mr. Jay’s voice was firm. “Don’t ever underestimate the Pillar. He didn’t get into this to only convert Alice. The war is just starting. He is full of secrets. So tell me, do we have the keys?”
“The Cheshire is working on it. He says Jack’s mind is a bit tricky.”
“Don’t trust the Cheshire either.”
“I understand. I have my eyes on him.” The Queen hesitated. “However, I have a request.”
“Listening.”
“I want to organize a respectable funeral for Alice.”
“I understand, but it would expose us to the Inklings’ forces. Who knows if they have other plans for us?”
“No one will notice. Kids and families will think it’s a memorial for Alice in Wonderland from the book. To us, Black Chess, we’ll be honoring our Real Alice.”
