The Complete Alice Wonder Series - Insanity - Books 1 - 9

by Cameron Jace

  “I think Lewis and Fabiola will want to reunite with the Inklings,” Mr. Jay replies. “He will want to find Alice.”

  “Do you think he knows where she is?”

  “He does,” Mr. Jay says. “I don’t know how, but he does. Follow him and once you confirm they’ve met with the rest of the Inklings, attack. Kill everyone except Alice.”

  Warehouse location, London

  Seeing all of us gathered again is a joy to the heart. Of course, Lewis could be just a figment of our imagination, but hey, Alice, me, in the books had been the figment of everyone’s imagination throughout the years.

  “You know me?” Lewis kneels down and talks to Constance.

  “With every beat of my heart,” she touches his face gently. I am not sure I understand how Constance is magically the sum of the all the girls Lewis took a photograph of. And why the hell did he do that? I hope I will eventually know. “I am happy you know me.”

  “I know everyone one of you,” he said pointing at her brain.

  Okay it’s getting a little bit weird. But what isn’t?

  “I need a phone!” Tom interrupts. A Mushroomer kicks him in the balls, on behalf of Constance.

  “Are you real?” Constance asks Lewis.

  “That’s debatable,” he says. “I am here and not here. But then again I am here.”

  “I miss you.”

  “Me too,” he says. “At least the part of me that still remembers things does.”

  “I don’t remember everything either,” she explains. “Too many memories of other girls in my head. It makes me weary and anxious sometimes.”

  Now I understand why she’s so feisty. I can’t imagine the burden on this young girl’s shoulders.

  “It should pass soon,” he smiles at her. “Soon we'll get the most precious thing.”

  Oh, again, I roll my eyes. Should I ask him what the hell it is and spoil this sentimental, wondertastic moment?

  “I know,” Constance nods. “The most precious thing.”

  “You know what it is?” I ask her.

  She shakes her head into a no again, without taking her eyes off Lewis. “I only trust Lewis that we need to find it.” She keeps touching his face, as if not sure he is real yet. She says, “I remember you, Lewis.”

  He tilts his head. Fabiola and I exchange confused looks.

  “Remember everything?” Lewis shrugs. “Wonderland?”

  “Some.”

  “Do you know where the Six Keys are?” he asks.

  She shakes her head into a no. “You never told us.”

  I still can’t get the ‘us’ part, but I am watching, like Fabiola is watching, like the Mushroomers are watching. As for Jack, he is stunned with what’s happening.

  “Yeah, I know.” Lewis raises his head and looks over Constance’s shoulder. “I only told the March.”

  “So you must know about the mushrooms?” I ask him.

  Lewis stands up and gazes serenely at me. “Alice,” he says, “we haven’t met for some time.”

  “Depends on what you mean exactly,” I reply. “We met in strange, hallucinatory circumstances, in other worlds. Or do you mean when we last met in Wonderland two centuries ago?”

  “You never cease to surprise me. You want to know everything precisely. You want to make everything right. You want to help people. You want justice,” he says.

  “Do I?” I grimace. In my mind I think I haven’t done enough to save the world that is now in chaos. I am just a girl looking for truth. If someone tells me why I killed everyone on the bus, I’d settle for that. But then again, I don’t think it’s the proper time to ask.

  “I missed you,” he smiles.

  A small, funny rabbit popped its head out and says, “Me, too.”

  I fold my arms. “Am I supposed to remember you?”

  The rabbit looks confused and gazes back at Lewis. “Is she?”

  Lewis pats it back inside and looks back to me. “Time is scant,” he says. “I think we all know what we need to do,” he nods at the March Hare. “And the answer to your question is ’no I don’t know about the mushrooms.’”

  “Not at all?” Jack steps up into the conversation.

  Lewis doesn’t pay much attention to Jack, and answers me instead. “I know that I told him he will remember when he sees the mushrooms. That’s all.”

  “Why did the March forget?” I ask. “I thought you kept the secret with him, and assume you had to rid yourself of it because of Carolus.”

  “True.” Lewis explains, “though I can’t remember I did even that. I ate a mushroom that’d help me forget. I was confused. The migraines were still new to me. I was in a haze. Carolus was killing me from the inside out. I had learned from my diaries that I came across the secret of the Keys somehow and had to protect the knowledge.”

  “The knowledge of?”

  “The most precious thing,” Fabiola says.

  I let out a sigh. “Which I assume none of you wants to tell me what it is.”

  Lewis and Fabiola exchange gazes now. “It will confuse everyone, knowing what it is now,” Fabiola says. “Let’s take it slow.”

  “Slow?” Tom bursts out. “This is the end of the world and you want us to take it slow?”

  “I prefer if you don’t speak, Tom,” Lewis shows a darker side of him now. His eyes are burning. “You did a terrible job with the asylum. I told you to help those Mushroomers, not pain them like you did.”

  “That was Waltraud, not me.”

  Lewis averts away and looks at the March. “So the March told you, Alice, that he will remember if sees the mushrooms?”

  “I am not sure if he said mushroom or mushrooms,” I tell him. “But he said it’s in London. One of his designs.”

  “Oh?” Fabiola seems happy about that piece of info. “This narrows it.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask her, but then we hear loud knocks on the warehouse doors outside.

  “Shit,” Constance says. “It’s the Reds.” She turns serious again and sneers at Fabiola. “You let them follow you.”

  The Vatican

  Angelo trudged over to his drunken friends, swaying like Jack Sparrow, out to the balcony. He had no issues with addressing the people while he was drunk out of his mind. They’d got used to it. Outside, he was surprised he saw no one. The piazza was empty.

  “No one believes in the lord anymore, these days,” he swayed and gulped again.

  He rubbed his eyes, wondering where everyone had gone. But then again, wasn’t it clear? Everyone went to kill the Inklings. The fact that a few bad words about a person in the news would turn them into a public enemy within seconds unsettled him a little.

  Not that the Cheshire cared, but humans were so strange. Maybe that was part of why he hated them. Strange creatures. Judgmental. Prejudicing, and with an uncanny lust for blood. You just have to convince yourself you’re the good one, and the others are the bad ones, and you’re good to go and shoot them.

  The Cheshire took another drink. The bottle was empty. He looked at it, hating it for a moment. A hallucinatory moment with a bottle.

  “I hate you,” he told it. “How come they haven't invented bottles that don’t empty yet,” he raised a finger and said, “Ah, I know why. People would drink themselves to death then.”

  He rested his hands on the balcony and addressed the emptiness, “Can anyone get me a bottle of wine at least?”

  His voice echoed to the emptiness. It sucked that there wasn’t enough to drink in the end of the world. He turned back inside and saw the TV was still on. The same reporter was announcing that the authorities have located the Inklings’ whereabouts. An anonymous person had called them. The police were on their way to get them.

  The Cheshire laughed out loud, hands on his stomach. “I love the news. They’re just sending out a message for the Inklings to escape.”

  He sat down and shut off the TV. The whole thing about the end of the world wasn’t as satisfying as he had wished. This wasn�
��t painful enough for the humans he hated. It sucked when the movie you’ve waited for so long ends up being a letdown.

  “Maybe I have to reside to the form of a cat again,” he told himself. “Find some kid in a wealthy family and seduce her into sheltering me. Let her feed me and live the boring life of a cat. I could get so fat, eating so much.”

  He leaned his head back on the couch. His eyes were beady, encouraging sleep. As they closed, he remembered how the world sucked without the Pillar. Humans were boring. The Pillar wasn’t. He hated him but loved him as well.

  “Oh, man,” Angelo slurred. “Blowing up the Queen’s head was so funny,” he began snoring, a few last words pooling out of his drooling mouth. “Unlike what you had done to her sister. Man, that was so evil, even by my standards.”

  Warehouse Location, London

  “I need a phone!” Tom wails like bratty child.

  “Guns!” Jack instructs the Mushroomers.

  “I got mine,” Constance run toward the door, then away from it.

  I am about to run after her when Fabiola stops me.

  “Let go,” I shout.

  “Wait,” she hisses. “I can help.”

  “What?” I grimace. Behind me, Jack and Lewis are readying themselves for the shooting already.

  “How are you feeling?” Fabiola whispers in my ears.

  “Do you think this is the time to ask?” I try to slide my arm away, but boy, she is so strong. What happened to her?

  She pulls me into a corner. The Red’s knocks are deafening. Soon they’ll break the door and get inside.

  “We should be good,” Jack tells Lewis. “We just shoot when they get inside. We’re safe. They’re the ones who want us.”

  I try to pull away again, but Fabiola’s piercing eyes stop me. What does she mean with ‘how are you feeling?’

  “Did you feel weak since the Pillar died?” she asks.

  I shrug. Why does she ask me this? I haven’t told anyone about how I miss him.

  She nods. “It’s understood.”

  “What’s understood?”

  “Your weakness. It’s okay,” her grip is that of an enemy, but her eyes are those of a mother.

  “You know what that is?” I give in. If she can help I’d be glad. But she has to make it fast before the door breaks.

  “It’s a bond.”

  “Bond?”

  “From the past,” she nods. “From when you and Pillar wrecked havoc on Wonderland.”

  “So it’s a dark bond,” I sigh. “I am evil again?”

  “You were never evil, Alice. You were angry at Mr. Jay that he killed your parents. You were blinded by revenge and used the Pillar to teach you the dark arts so you could get to Mr. Jay.”

  The door is about to break. Constance yells at everyone to stand by.

  “It’s too late for sentiments,” I shake myself awake from the overwhelming emotion. “Do you have a solution for me?”

  “That’s why I am talking to you now,” she pulls out a sword. “Remember it?”

  “It’s the Vorpal sword. I saw it in the Vatican the first time we fought the Reds with the Pillar.”

  “That one looked like it, and I know I told you it was the real Vorpal sword, but it’s not,” she hands it to me. “This one is.”

  The sword’s grip is heavy. It has a weight about it that I can’t explain. It’s not its real weight, but it feels like a burden to me.

  “Thank you,” I am about to turn back to the door.

  She stops me again.

  “They are getting in,” Tom shouts in panic.

  “What now?” I tell Fabiola.

  “To use it, you have to do something crazy with it.”

  “If I had a mushroom every time I heard the word crazy,” I mumble. “What is it?”

  Slowly I watch her take off the jacket she wore of her hospital’s nightgown. The tattoos on her skin show like rivers branching out everywhere. It’s the first time I see her tattoos so near.

  It’s shocking.

  I realize they are not tattoos.

  They are thousands of cuts done with a knife or something. Wait, with this sword?

  “Are you suggesting I hurt myself?”

  “It’s the only way you get your power back,” she said.

  I look at the swords slicing tip and then look at my skin.

  “Why do you think I was the fierce warrior I was in Wonderland?” She asks. “The pain you will feel will set you free and only then can you save us from the Reds outside, because, let’s face it, Jack is very wrong about them. We’re stuck in a warehouse. They will raid us with bullets and kill every one of us, including Constance, and then take you to Mr. Jay.”

  The door breaks, but the bullets don't sound yet. There is a slow motion feeling my head. I take a deep breath and… cut.

  Past: Wonderland

  The Queen’s sister was beautiful, naive, and Wonderland’s most loved. She was the opposite of everything the ugly Queen of Hearts was. If she hadn’t been younger, she’d have taken her sister's place.

  But of course, the Queen of Hearts wouldn’t let that happen.

  So many times had the sister saved men and women from the Queen’s chopping blade. She had saved so many heads.

  “Take this mushroom,” the Queen told her sister.

  They were sitting at the Queen’s lush dining table. A magic one that created a slice of bread from nothing once you picked up one. Mushrooms hadn’t been a typical meal in the palace. Not in Wonderland in general — unless you found your way into the garden where the Pillar lived.

  “I hate mushrooms,” said her younger sister.

  “But you must, my dear. You look pale this morning, and this mushroom is your medicine.”

  “Do I look pale?” the sister naively believed her. She stood up, about to run back to look at her face in a mirror.

  The Queen stopped her, “Darling, trust me; you look sick. All the pepper and cooking you love to do, it sickens you further.”

  “But I love to cook. Wonderland is boring sometimes. There is nothing else to do.”

  “Wonderland is fabulous. It’s not boring.”

  “Well, if you’d let me out, I would know,” she rolled her eyes.

  “It’s not safe outside. There is a lot of conflict happening now. And it’s full of monsters.”

  “Monsters?” the sister laughed. “Like the Pillar?”

  The Queen was shocked, “Why did you say that?”

  “Look at him, sis. Such an evil man, with his beady eyes and hookah. I heard he deals in drugs.”

  The Queen hadn’t expected that. How was she going to convince her to marry the Pillar? But who was she fooling, the Pillar was the devil’s nephew or something. And she wouldn’t be able to convince Mr. Jay to force her bratty sister to marry the Pillar. Mr. Jay was too busy.

  But the Queen needed that other mushroom that would make her smarter. She wanted to rule over Wonderland. Most important was her desire to secure herself when Black Chess fell. She did not doubt that the Inklings would win eventually. She’d heard her maids and servants talk. They all secretly love the Inklings. Alice, in particular.

  She watched her sister leave, rubbing her chubby chin and working on a plan to get her to eat that mushroom and fall in love with the Pillar.

  SPECIAL_IMAGE-images/svgimg0001.svg-REPLACE_ME

  Outside the naive sister danced among the poppy flowers in the garden, swirling like a flower herself. She was thin. Athletic and beautiful. Whenever someone told her how evil her sister was, she had always defended her, saying she was the older sister and had too much on her plate.

  But she wasn’t out here to think about her sister. She was waiting to meet the boy she loved. That funny one in the strange outfit. He usually found a way to sneak into the castle and secretly spend some time with her. She loved him. Wanted to marry him when she gets older. And of course, drink his delicious tea.

  She was waiting for the Hatter.

  Present: W
arehouse Location, London

  The bullets shower the warehouse.

  The Mushroomers hide behind stacks of boxes full of roses. Not the best hideout. Jack is courageous and shoots back. He is so fearless. He might be dead, so that would explain it.

  Lewis is a sword’s man. Guns aren’t his thing. He joins Constance. They wait for whoever wants in near the door to kill him. Lewis is also a fearless warrior. Constance is just heartless with the enemy.

  Tom hides behind me, looking for protection.

  But I am busy. I am cutting myself while Fabiola protects me with her guns. If there is anyone who is truly heartless, then it’s her. Constance may be brave. Lewis is honorable. Jack is young and powerful. But boy, Fabiola is a bitch of war.

  Before I cut myself, even once, I can’t take my eyes away from her. She has so much pain inside. So much. She kills with punishment and execution. When she shoots someone, it’s never a clean cut. She doesn’t shoot a man in the heart or the brain. She shoots in the jaw — though it’s hard to see the Red’s jaw under their hoods — on the side of the waist, in their private areas. She does it on purpose. She wants her victims to suffer. Not because she has darkness in her. No. Darkness makes one confused and hard to live with, conflicted and weakened by the lack of decisiveness. Fabiola doesn’t have darkness. She has pain.

  “Are you going to cut yourself?” Tom’s eyes are wide with terror.

  “Duck somewhere and try to stay alive,” I say.

  “You’re mad,” he watches me cut the first cut across my hands.

  “If I had a mushroom every time I heard that,” I tell him. “I have a Certificate of Insanity, so be it.”

  “You’re all nuts!” he shouts, but no one hears him. No one cares about him. There is killing going on here. “I want a phone.”

  I am not sure why he always wants a phone. Probably he needs to call his children.

  The cuts hurt. They run deep. In the beginning, they are tolerable, but then they began to sting. I don’t care for the sight of the blood anymore — thanks to the Pillar for traumatizing me with blood in Russia when were after the Checkmaster.