Malice in Wonderland Bundle 3

by Lotus Rose

  They arrive at the campsite.

  The Jabberwock says, “Let’s take our rest for the night, all except for you of course, Sleepy B. You watch over the Queen and I’m sure we’ll all be refreshed in the morning, yeah?”

  They all agree and walk back to their bedding.

  But as Malice walks, it suddenly feels like fireworks explode within her head, her vision blurs and fills with odd colors and shapes, whose brightness contrasts with the darkness of night.

  Overcome with dizziness, she moans, stumbles and falls to the ground.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MALICE FEELS UTTERLY anxious and crazy—she feels as if she is under the influence of a horrible drug.

  Her teammates call out in alarm and rush to her.

  “Malice!” Hatter calls out. “Honey! Calm down!” She feels his hands on her shoulder and back—he rolls her over, but she gasps as she realizes she was mistaken. It’s not Hatter who looms above her, it’s the munchkin girl, in her bandanna mask—and she has black roses tucked above each ear.

  “Darling,” the munchkin girl says, whilst, for some reason, doing an impression of Hatter’s voice. “What’s wrong?”

  Malice looks around in a panic as three other masked munchkin girls arrive to look down at her—they all wear black roses tucked behind their ears. One even wears a tunic made entirely of the black flowers.

  “No!” Malice shrieks to all the munchkin girls. “You’ve to keep me away from my beloved black rose!” She slaps the face of the munchkin looming over her.

  The munchkin grabs Malice’s wrists, and says, using her impression of Hatter’s voice, “Malice! What’s gotten into you? Snap out of it!”

  Malice snarls back. “Oh, no, you evil munchkin! You tricked me into eating those flowers, and now you want to kill me!”

  “Malice, dear, it’s me, Hatter! You’re hallucinating again!”

  “Nice try!” Malice shouts as she struggles to free her hands.

  “We don’t want to hurt you,” says a munchkin girl, doing an impression of Humpty’s voice. “We want you to be safe.”

  “Malice,” says one of the munchkin girls in the Jabberwock’s voice. “You said you ate some flowers? Not the pink ones near that tree we were standing at, I hope. Did you?”

  Malice works hard to follow his words—she’s having trouble focusing.

  Malice says, “Yes, of course, I ate those stupid flowers because you—well one of you munchkin girls tricked me into eating them. I must say, they didn’t agree with me very well.”

  “Oh, confound it all!” the Jabberwock-voiced one says. “Those flowers will make you hallucinate and be paranoid. How many did you eat?”

  “Three,” Malice says. “And I must say, they haven’t alleviated my craving one bit!”

  “Oh bother!” the Jabberwock-voiced one says. “You’ll be ranting and raving all night!”

  “I shan’t!” Malice shouts. “To calm me, you need only give me some of that black rose you’ve all tucked behind your ears, that you so cruelly taunt me with!”

  All the munchkins, except the one pinning her, all feel behind their ears and pull their hands out as if they don’t feel the flowers there—Malice is astounded and confused as to why all the black roses above their ears don’t seem to shift or be knocked off.

  The Hatter-voiced one says, “There is no more black rose, love, I’m sorry. You’ll just have to wait out the effects of the flowers you ate. We can get through this.”

  “No, no!” Malice screams and thrashes violently, as the munchkin struggles to restrain her. “You plan to kill me so I can’t partake of your black rose! So, begging your pardon, but I must kill you first, before you kill me!” Inconveniently, her ticktock heart is causing her to regret the possible slaying of the munchkins, despite the fact that she’s doing it to save her own life.

  “No, Maly, don’t!” says the Humpty-voiced munchkin.

  “I shall!” Malice shouts. She twists left, now right. She lifts her knee into the Hatter-voiced munchkin’s stomach, knocking the breath out of her captor.

  Now, with another violent jerk of her body, she manages to roll the munchkin to the side, and now Malice is the one doing the straddling.

  Malice shrieks with murder-lust and clamps her hands around the Hatter-voiced munchkin’s neck. Malice hates having to kill the munchkin, but this is a matter of kill-or-be-killed.

  The part of the munchkin’s face not covered by the mask begins turning red, as the munchkin girl tries to pull Malice’s hands off.

  “Stop, Malice!” the Jabberwock’s-impersonated voice calls.

  Malice feels some of the munchkins pulling at her arms, but she maintains her choking hold.

  “Let’s hear your Hatter impersonation now!” Malice shouts.

  Something wet and soft presses over Malice’s mouth and nose—once again Malice smells the familiar scent of formaldehyde, as she feels herself losing control of her limbs. Curiously, the face of the munchkin she’d been choking transforms into a serpent with a flicking tongue, and ears with black roses tucked behind them, wearing a top hat made entirely of black roses.

  Everything goes black.

  CHAPTER NINE

  HER TEAMMATES END UP hogtying Malice. It’s not the most comfortable way to sleep, and the flowers she ate cause her to hallucinate and experience frightening, insane nightmares.

  But Sleepy B watches over her, and reads her bedtime stories during Malice’s bouts of insomnia—and from time to time her teammates visit her as well to soothe her.

  So, by daybreak, she manages to get a few hours of sleep at least, and her hallucinations have stopped. She still has cravings for the black rose, and a headache, though the cravings and headache are much less than from the night before.

  Malice is doing her best to ignore the sunlight while trying to snooze a few more minutes before officially waking up.

  Her eyes are closed when she hears the Cat’s voice say, “So is this how you like to sleep now?”

  Malice opens one eye and scowls up at him—though, since her cheek is currently pressed to the ground and her arms and legs are sticking up in the air—well, she doesn’t think her intimidating gesture is all that impressive. “Bugger off...please.”

  “It’s just that it doesn’t look all that comfortable,” the Cat adds.

  “You’re lucky I’m currently hogtied, feline, or I’d hug you so tight, your eyes would pop out of your head, you delightfully annoying kitty.”

  Soon, Humpty unties her. The team members collect their things and set off in the direction of the village the munchkin spoke of.

  The Cat soon becomes bored again and leaves, reappearing off and on again throughout the team’s hike.

  As they walk, the forests gradually give way, until they are walking in flat land with reddish dirt and sparse vegetation. They’re now in the desert area to the east of the wastelands proper.

  Due to the flatness of the land, they can see quite far, but don’t see the village. All they can do is keep walking in what they hope is the right direction. The Cat refuses to let them know if they’re on the right path, citing his non-interference policy.

  At around mid-afternoon, they notice something out of the ordinary. At first, they think nothing of what they take to be a tree, off in the distance.

  Malice is the only one to really pay attention to the tree, because in her black-rose-craving mind the tree almost looks like a black rose—despite how ridiculous that notion is, for, due to the tricks of the lighting and distance, the tree trunk almost looks green like a flower stem, and the leaves seem black.

  Malice keeps her eye on the tree as they hike, watching it grow larger in her view. Their path won’t intersect with the tree, because the village they’re heading for is to the east of it.

  As the details become clearer, the tree looks more and more like a black rose that’s as tall as a tree, to Malice. Malice thinks it must be like a wish-fulfilling mirage to her. It would be much too embarrassing to t
ell her teammates—they might tie her up for hallucinating again, because the idea of a giant black rose flower in the middle of the desert is preposterous.

  Or is it? Could someone have known she might be coming through the area? So it might perhaps be a gift to honor her!

  Malice desperately wants it to be true, as her cravings surge inside her.

  She realizes she has to verify the accuracy of her vision—she has to ask one of her teammates.

  She chooses Sleepy B, because she thinks Sleepy B will be less judgmental if it turns out to be another illusion.

  Malice sidles up next to Sleepy B as they walk. She leans into the girl’s ear and whispers, “Hey...that supposed tree over there...see it?” She nudges with her chin at the one she’s referring to—there are only about six trees in the immediate view.

  “Uh huh,” Sleepy B says with a nod. “What about it?”

  “Take a closer look at it...”

  “How come?” Sleepy B mutters. She squints her eyes at it. “What?” she murmurs. She tilts her head to the side. “Why, it looks...” She tilts her head in the opposite direction. She stops walking and points at it, shouts, “That’s a black rose!”

  This sudden exclamation, of course, startles everyone, including the Cat, who has been chatting with Humpty. Malice isn’t startled however, because she wasn’t surprised.

  “What is?” Humpty says.

  Sleepy B points more fervently, which means her pointing arm gets more shaky. “That tree...is actually a black rose.”

  “Preposterous!” Hatter says. “Flowers and trees are quite distinctly different. Nonetheless, I shall peruse what you’re pointing at.”

  All eyes shift onto the black rose in the distance. After much squinting, various exclamations are uttered, such as:

  “Crikey!” the Cat exclaims.

  Humpty says, “It is a black rose, cor blimey, but how can it be so big?”

  “How can this happen?” Hatter demands, while scowling at Sleepy B with his hand upon his hip.

  Sleepy B raises her arms, with her palms facing up. “Beats me. I just reports what I see.”

  The Jabberwock says, “I must admit, it looks a lot like a giant black rose. But why is it sitting in the middle of nowhere?”

  “A gift to me,” Malice ventures. “Because someone realizes how much I need my medicine. Cat, what do you think?” she says to the Cat with a waggle of her brows, sending the message that everyone knows full well that he could simply teleport over to the black rose to figure out the mystery.

  The Cat raises his nose in the air. “Curiousity killed the cat.”

  Malice says, “So we shall simply have to go down there and find out why it’s there and stock up on its petals.”

  “It could be a trap,” the Jabberwock says.

  “And it’s out of the way,” Humpty says, while pointing where the village is supposed to be, off to the east of the giant black rose.

  “So, we shall have to make a detour,” Malice says.

  Hatter says, “But, Your Highness, that will delay our trip. And if it’s true that you can get a new heart by going to the village, then you shan’t be needing the black rose medicine, anyway.”

  “Quiet please, servant!” Malice shouts. “Sorry, I meant dear servant.” Malice doesn’t want to admit an ugly truth—that she desires the black rose for its intoxicating effects almost as much as she needs it for medicine.

  Humpty says, “I really don’t think we should go. I really think you don’t need any more black rose, anyway!”

  “It’s my medicine!” Malice snaps, before smiling sweetly now. “If it turns out to be a false alarm, the village will still be waiting there for us, it’s not that far off our path.”

  “It could be dangerous,” says the Cat, “which is why you simply must go there!”

  “I agree,” says Sleepy B. “It could prove to be a real real, exciting adventure! And plus, I just have to find out what the deal is with a giant black rose standing there. I mean, what’s the deal with that?”

  “I know, right?” Malice says.

  The Horseman body crosses its arms, and the Jabberwock says, “The ‘deal’ is that it’s a mirage, or a trick of some sort. Neither is good.”

  “Oh, come on!” Malice says. “I thought the whole point of this team is to go on adventures! To make good stories! Right?” She points at Sleepy B, who whoops, and pumps her fist in the air, and says, “That’s right, Maly!”

  Malice makes clucking sounds with her tongue. “And can you imagine us going our whole lives, wondering why we saw a huge black rose in the desert? Why, it would bear so heavily upon our minds, for we would forever be asking ourselves, why didn’t we investigate? Why go the rest of our lives with such a lingering, nagging mystery? No, I’m afraid I care much too much for you, my fellow teammates, to allow you to live that way. We shall investigate! We shall satisfy our curiousity. And hopefully, I shall attain more of those delectable petals. And, I apologize, but I’m certain we shall do this, because as Queen, and leader of the team, I command it! So, let’s shift our course and get to trekking, shall we?”

  CHAPTER TEN

  AS THEY WALK TOWARD the giant black rose in the distance, the Jabberwock and Hatter make a few more attempts to discourage her. Malice politely informs them that she shall abide no further negative talk, and they continue their trek.

  When they get closer, but while the flower is still far off, a strange feeling comes over Malice. At first, it is like an odd nagging feeling—before long, she wants to start humming a vaguely familiar tune, but she ignores the strange notion.

  The only problem is that, as they continue walking, the feeling increases, until it is now what some call an “earworm”—a song that repeats over and over inside a person’s head. That is irritating in itself, but what’s even more vexing at the moment, is that she can’t remember the words, though she can remember the notes of the first line. She wonders if she should continue trying to ignore the earworm, or whether she should tell her teammates about it.

  While Malice is thinking it over, Sleepy B begins humming.

  Malice’s eyes widen as she realizes it’s the same melody.

  Malice shouts, “Why are you humming that tune?”

  Everyone is startled by her outburst, and they stop walking.

  Sleepy B shrugs. “It just popped into my head.”

  Malice says, “That tune was playing in my head, too!”

  Hatter exclaims, “It was running through my top hatted head as well!”

  “And, my floating head!” the Cat says. “Though I can’t think of the words.”

  “Me, neither,” Humpty says.

  “Yes, yes,” Sleepy B says, “I can’t recall the words either.” She hums the melody again, while her eyes ping from side to side, in thought.

  “They’re on the tip of my tongue,” Hatter says. He sticks his tongue out and taps the tip with his hand, but feeling nothing there but tongue tip, he frowns in disappointment.

  “I too have that tune running through my head,” the Jabberwock says.

  “Your decapitated head,” the Cat corrects.

  The Jabberwock says, “That’s not relevant, but yes. I find it quite unsettling that we’re all thinking of the same song, and that none of us can think of the words.”

  “I could make some up,” Hatter says.

  “I could too, you know,” Sleepy B says indignantly.

  “My point,” the Jabberwock says, “is that there are strange things going on here, that may be connected to that rose. That supposed rose.”

  Humpty says, “Magic, you think, perhaps?”

  “Perhaps,” the Jabberwock says, “and I don’t think we need to find out the potentially dangerous particulars. Time to turn back before it’s too late.”

  “I’m sorry, Jabby,” Malice says, “but I told you, no discouraging talk...”

  “This is a new development...” the Jabberwock says in his defense.

  “Yeah,” Sleepy B
says in agreeance with Malice, “it’s just a goofy song we can’t remember, not some dangerous creature, silly billy.”

  “But it—” the Jabberwock starts to protest.

  Since Malice’s ticktock heart is currently working, she treats him quite pleasantly. “Oh, don’t be a spoilsport, my dear Jabby.” She smiles sweetly at him, and wriggles her nose. “Let us proceed onward on our adventure!” she says as she points at the black rose off in the distance. She proceeds walking toward it, proclaiming, “Come along, team.”

  As they draw closer, the melody in Malice’s head grows louder and the tip-of-the-tongue feeling increases. But she feels it’s best not to mention that to her teammates.

  They walk further until the rose is about ninety feet away.

  The Cat sings out, “Oopa dee doo, oopa doo dee,” in the same melody Malice is thinking of.

  And Sleepy B sings in response, “Oopa doo dee, oopa dee doo!” She points at the floating Cat’s head as they stare at each other in amazement.

  The rest of the team has stopped walking and are watching the pair, with widened eyes.

  “Those are some of the words of the song!” Sleepy B shouts while shaking her pointing hand emphatically.

  “Indeed they are!” the Cat says.

  “If you can call them words,” Humpty remarks.

  “How did you know them?” Sleepy B says.

  “They just popped into my head!” the Cat says.

  “Your decapitated head,” Hatter says.

  The Cat responds, “Not relevant.”

  The Jabberwock says, “The song is growing stronger and clearer the closer we get to the rose. I know you told me not to be a spoilsport, but...” He turns and locks his gaze with Malice’s eyes.

  “Yes,” Malice says, “I find it rather creepy, but it’s a jolly catchy tune! What’s the harm?” She points with authority and fortitude. “Onward!”

  They all walk some more.

  And still the melody grows more intense.

  Humpty sings, “Oopa dee doo, oopa doo dee, once you have a mirror, there’s much more to see!”