by Lotus Rose
“Please come with us!” Sleepy B says. “We’ll miss you if you don’t, won’t we, Cat?”
“Of course. You’re my friend, even if you’re annoying at times.”
“Thank you,” Humpty says. “But I’m still staying. I don’t want to risk the rejection.”
Malice says, “But you’ll only be cheating yourself if you stay! I— Because I think...” Malice searches for words—she’s not even sure herself how she feels toward Humpty anymore.
“We hate to interrupt,” Fred says. “Elisa, tell them please, won’t you?”
Elisa perks up. “Yes, of course. Um, Dorothy and the Tin Knight have completed their situation. If we don’t get out of here soon...”
So Malice speaks quickly. “You say you’re not brave, but one of the bravest things you could do was admit your feelings for me. And maybe someday I’ll return those feelings or maybe I won’t, but if you truly love me, can you honestly say you want to go the whole rest of your life never looking into these eyes again?” She meets his eyes, and musters up the biggest, saddest puppy-dog eyes, while simultaneously wobbling her pouty lower lip.
Humpty’s eyes scan over her face, and she can see all the resistance inside him crumble. “Alright!” he shouts. “Just quit looking at me like that!”
“There you go!” the Cat says. “Yeah!” says Sleepy B, and the giggly Elisa predictably giggles.
“We must hurry!” Fred shouts.
Malice grabs Humpty’s hand, and he steps off of the couch. The munchkin girls sweetly say their goodbyes and good lucks as Malice and the others rush to the Yellow Brick Road.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
THE TEAM RUSHES FORWARD along the Road, this time, without Dorothy and the Tin Knight showing up.
“They have been held up by their own new situation,” Fred says.
With the crisis passed, Humpty and Malice look down awkwardly at their intertwined hands. They linger for a few more moments in each others’ touch, before shyly pulling apart.
Malice startles as Sleepy B shouts, “It’s Jabby!”
There, in the grassy area next to the Road, lies the Horseman body on its back in a cast iron bed that’s decorated with molded skulls and bones. The legs and stomach of the Horseman body are covered with a blanket, leaving the Jabberwock’s head uncovered in its harness, where he looks serene and still, with his eyes closed. Oddly, the Horseman body’s arms are stretched out, with its wrists shackled to the headboard.
Four munchkins—two females, two males—are sitting in the grass, speaking in hushed tones. On the ground next to each munchkin rests a jabberwock-head mask, like the masks one would wear during Halloween.
“He’s asleep,” Elisa says. “Come.”
As they approach, the munchkins get up and line up at attention off to the side of the bed, each holding his or her mask in hand.
Fred says, “The former female guide and I tried to help him sleep last night, but he was in the throes of madness from the mental effects of the poppy. He had to be shackled for his own safety. It seems he eventually fell asleep, though I’m sure he didn’t get much rest.”
Elisa says, “He’s most likely still in the grips of temporary madness, trapped in a state of mental torment fueled by his feelings of guilt and inner conflict.”
“Conflict about what?” Malice says.
“As guides, we can only fill you in so much,” Elisa says.
“Phooey,” Malice says. “Then even though I hate to interrupt his rest, we probably need to wake him—we don’t want Dorothy catching up with us.”
Fred says, “As you wish, but before you do, you should know, that the Road has decided to incite his mind into a state of self-delusion.” He gestures at the munchkins, and they slip the masks over their heads. “When he sees them like that, his mind shall choose to believe that they are jabberwocks.”
“He’s gone mental,” Malice mutters. “Is it possible for us to snap him out of it, so that we may interact with him in a reasonable manner?”
Even though Malice was addressing Fred, it is Elisa who shrugs and says, “You may indeed be able to temporarily coax him away from the madness which the Road has so generously gifted him with. But know that if the Jabberwock chooses to stay here by the side of the Road, he shall be kept in the state of his self-induced delusion until the end of his days.”
Malice exchanges glances with her teammates and the Cat, and says, “Well, we shan’t allow that, shall we team?”
Humpty shakes his head, Sleepy B shouts, “Bollocks to that!” which gets a stern disapproving look from Malice. Moments later, the Cat mutters, “Thinks he’ll spend the rest of his days lollygagging in self-delusion, does he? Not bloody likely!”
Malice considers delivering him a stern look as well, but since that often leads to complications when dealing with the Cat, this time, she chooses not to.
The Horseman body twitches, and the Jabberwock mumbles in echo of Sleepy B, “Bollocks to... What—” He starts to rouse more.
“He’s waking up,” Humpty says. “Let’s try to be gentle with him. We don’t want him hurting himself on those restraints.”
The Jabberwock’s eyes open. “Mommy?” He attempts to look around, but the restraints and the positioning of his head in the harness prevent him, and Malice wonders if he even knows his team is here.
Malice and teammates exchange uncertain looks, as the mask-wearing munchkins go to stand on the opposite side of the bed. One of them says, “Yes, sweety? Mommy’s here.”
In a high-pitched voice, the Jabberwock says, “Mommy, I’m so tired. I wanna go back to sweep. Won’t you sing me a little-girls-goodbye, pwetty pwease?”
Malice cringes at the spectacle of the infantilized Jabberwock. She sees Sleepy B’s mouth firm into a thin line, and her body straighten as if she’s about to say something, loudly, but Malice shakes her head at the girl.
Sleepy B looks put upon as the masked munchkin begins to sing, sounding muffled behind her mask:
“Hush little jabberwock, don’t you cry,
Mama’s gonna sing you a little-girls-goodbye.
And—”
“Enough!” Sleepy B shouts. “Jabby, quit talking baby talk, and get your rear end out of bed! We’re here to pick you up for our team’s journey down the Yellow Road.”
Jabby struggles some more, but still can’t see her. “Sleepy B? Is that you? Are you still a little girl?” He’s speaking in his normal voice now.
“I”m still the same age as before.” (Sleepy B hates to ever admit she’s a little girl.)
A snarl appears on Jabby’s face. “So you didn’t go to the Wizard to have your age increased?”
“Of course not, silly billy, we don’t get to the Wizard until the end of the road, and I’m gonna ask him to make me a jabberwock, so—”
The Horseman body begins thrashing wildly against the restraints as he shouts, “Well, then get under my bed, where little girls belong, or I shall be forced to slay you! For I am a jabberwock, and that’s what we do!”
“I shall not!” Sleepy B declares indignantly.
“Get thee under, vile little one! Go now! Go!” When Sleepy B doesn’t budge, he thrashes about violently. “Let me out, Mommy! I’ll kill her! Ravage her!” He shrieks whilst thrashing about so violently, Malice fears he’ll harm the Horseman body, so in a hushed tone, she tells Sleepy B, “Just get under it, so he’ll be calm!”
“Ugh!” Sleepy B proclaims exasperatedly, but she nonetheless complies.
“Malice?” the Jabberwock says. “Is that you?”
“Yes, and Humpty’s here too, and the Cat. We’re ready for you to join us on our journey to see the Wizard.”
“Okay, I’m under!” Sleepy B says.
“Okay, now be quiet a little while, so I can talk to Jabby.”
“Ah, the formidable Queen Malice,” the Jabberwock says, with his eyes rolled very far on the side of his head so he can see her. “You’re a young woman now, no longer a little girl, and you�
��re so bravely going on your quest without me. Oh, she who no longer cries. Oh, how I envy you, that, for crying is so unmanly, or unjabberwockily, as it were.”
Malice says, “What do you mean, you’re not going with us, Jabby? Our whole quest revolves around you, because we need you to help us interact with the jabberwocks! And I must say, I don’t consider not being able to cry to be a good thing at all.”
“Trust me, you’re better off without me. I believe in you. You can be fierce and strong. You left behind that little girl inside you, right? Crying is for little girls...”
And now he starts singing in a higher pitch, but thankfully not using the child voice:
“Shed ye no more little girl tears,
For the time has come to face your fears.”
“Cut the bollocks, Jabby!” Malice shouts, causing Sleepy B to giggle underneath the bed. “You are an integral part of our team, and none of us shall be happy until we see you being gifted with a new jabberwock body by the Wizard, because you’re our friend and we care about you, dammit, and we’re not leaving without you.”
“Yeah, come along, mate,” the Cat says.
“Don’t be a prat!” Sleepy B shouts. “I’d miss you too much. I won’t leave you behind.”
A vacant, insane look comes over the Jabberwock as he stares straight up into the clouds in the sky. “Ah, my dearest little Sleepy B, I shall miss you dearly, but you’re exactly the reason I can’t go with you, a symbol of my disgrace.”
Sleepy B gasps. “I’m the one under a bed, and you’re the one disgraced...”
Elisa lifts an index finger in the air. “Excuse us, hate to be a bother, but...”
“Dorothy and the Tin Knight are close to completing their situation,” Fred says. “We suggest you hurry.”
“You heard the guides,” Malice says. “Time to go. As your Queen, I order you to come with us!” She snaps her fingers.
“I can’t,” the Jabberwock says. “While I was high on the poppy, I went on a bit of a vision quest, did some soul searching, and I came to the conclusion that I don’t deserve a jabberwock body.”
Malice groans. “Why does no one pay attention to my orders?” she mutters to herself. Now louder, “Listen, Jabby, we all have our insecurities, but I’m sure we can work it out while we walk along the Road. Now we haven’t got much time, love. So...” She looks to Fred and Elisa. “How do we unchain him?”
Elisa looks to the munchkin the Jabberwock had been calling Mommy, gives a little nod, so the munchkin steps up and unchains his wrists as Jabby says, “I must warn you, that if she unchains my feet, I shall pull Sleepy B right out from under this bed, and tear her limb from limb.”
“Would that be bad?” the Cat says, as the Jabberwock sits up and turns to look at Malice and team, and grins in a dementedly goofy manner.
The munchkin holds up the keys, gives a jingle that’s a question of if she should unlock Jabby’s feet as well. Malice answers with a little shake of her head.
The Jabberwock says, “I am unworthy to be in your team, for in the past, I have dishonoured the loathsome name of the Jabberwocks, because I used to be nice to little girls, when jabberwocks are supposed to be cruel and vicious to them.”
Humpty says, “But we’re glad you’re such an amiable bloke. You’re our friend and—”
“No!” the Jabberwock shouts. “I was a disgrace to monsterkind! But from now on, I shall seek to redeem myself by banishing myself to this place, and correcting my behaviour. So from now on I shall slay all little girls who enter my domain!”
“Not if you’re chained up,” Malice says.
“It’s lucky for her that I am, for I’m no longer a mild-mannered mockery of a true jabberwock. From now on I’m a vicious little girl slayer, who vanquishes all the little girls who enter my territory—unless I happen to be locked up...right Mommy?”
The munchkin he’s talking to says, “Oh, yes, sweety pie. Such a darling, vicious little girl slayer you are.”
“I object!” Sleepy B says.
“What? Why?” the Jabberwock blusters.
“Because,” Sleepy B says, “you’ve killed no little girls in your territory so far, and I doubt any shall enter it in the future, either. Because why would they step off the Road to do so? Ergo, your claim to be a little girl slayer is meaningless.”
Elisa says, “You really should wrap this up soon. Dorothy is almost done with her situation. You can always leave him. ”
The Jabberwock says to Sleepy B, “It’s not my fault if I don’t encounter any little girls to slay! But the intent is there, believe you me! I’m fierce! Right, Mommy?”
“Oh, yes! So fierce, and bloodthirsty! And so handsome!”
“See! So you and your team better leave while you can, and thank your lucky stars I was chained up, Sleepy B, because I’m a fierce little girl slayer, and if I wasn’t tied up right now...oh boy...I shudder to begin to even think what I’d do to you. Oh, boy.”
“Bollocks,” Sleepy B proclaims. She begins crawling out from under the bed.
“Careful, Sleepy!” Humpty says. “He could grab you!”
“You dare to defy me?” the Jabberwock says. “I assure you I’m deadly and not to be trifled with, right Mommy?”
“Oh, yes, honey. You’re fierce! So vicious, and considerate to your mother.”
Sleepy B stands and faces the Jabberwock with her hands on her hips. “And he’s full of tripe. I’m officially calling shenanigans.”
Malice’s eyes widen in alarm as she sees how close Sleepy B is standing to the Jabberwock. “Sleepy B! Step back from him! I hate to say it, but we’ll have to leave him behind. Dorothy is coming!”
“No!” Sleepy B says, and she stomps her foot. “I shan’t step back! Because I don’t believe you, Jabby.”
“Well you better step back,” the Jabberwock says, sounding flustered, “before I realize how close you are... And I must say, your eyeliner is really making your peepers pop, girl!”
Malice says to Fred, “How much time do we have left?”
“Two minutes, no more.”
“Sleepy B!” Malice hisses. “He’s not cooperating! We have to go, though I beg you, Jabby, please join us, without slaying her.”
Jabby doesn’t reply, merely meets Malice’s eyes, and looks forlorn.
“The thing about that is, that I don’t believe him,” Sleepy B says. She locks eyes with him, and he actually looks fearful, as she says, “Enough dilly-dallying. Dorothy is coming, so the time to decide is now.” She gives a nod to the masked munchkin. “Unchain his legs. If you want to stay here, Jabby, you shall have to kill me, but I don’t think you will.”
As the munchkin unlocks Jabby’s ankle cuffs, Malice shouts, “What?! Jabby, I warn you, if you kill her, there shall be consequences.”
The Jabberwock casts the blanket off and swings his legs over the edge of the bed. He shrugs. “It would be foolish for me to kill you, if it would only result in me being slain by the superior forces of Malice’s team. So it seems we’re at an impasse. You’re lucky, Sleepy, because if they weren’t there, I’d definitely tear your entrails out, right Mommy?”
“Oh, yes, sweety pie. You’re bloodthirsty!”
Sleepy B’s hands form into fists, and she stomps her foot. “Codswallop! They’re no match for you! Now you either come with us, or you kill me, right now! Quit stalling and decide!”
The Jabberwock draws back and whimpers, “They are a match! Quit bullying me!”
“Quit being a whiner and join us. Don’t you dare leave us!”
The Jabberwock whimpers and sings:
“Don’t you dare call me a stupid whiner,
You little girl with big eyeliner.”
He crosses his arms and scowls.
“Please come,” Sleepy B says.
“No!”
Malice groans. “Sleepy, honey, he’s not coming. I’m sorry, but we have to go.”
“No! We can’t leave him. I shall prove you’re just a big softy
, Jabby.” She stops talking, seemingly lost in thought.
Malice, meanwhile, is wondering if they shall be forced to drag Sleepy B out of here, when Sleepy B says, “I have an idea. I know we don’t have much time left, but let me try this last thing, please, Maly.” Without waiting for a reply, she steps even closer to the Jabberwock, so that the twos’ faces are quite close.
In a cooing voice, she says to him, “Okay, for the purpose of this, I shall be a”—she makes air quotes—“little girl! Face it, Jabby, you’re different from the other jabberwocks. You’re no slayer of little girls. In fact, you’re sweet on them, you’re sweet on me. And I think you wouldn’t even harm a hair on my head, and in fact I don’t think you could even bring yourself to smudge the carefully crafted line of my eyeliner, because you know how much it would hurt me.”
“Of course I would smudge,” he stammers. “I— I would smudge it asunder.”
“Prove it. Smudge it. And you can’t use that excuse that you fear retaliation. So, either smudge it, or admit you’re sweet on me, and join us. I’ll even make it easy on you.” She holds the smudger part of her eyeliner pencil in front of her eye. “You can guide my hand, so you don’t have to worry about nicking me with your claws. Now, we don’t have any more time to waste. So...” She shouts furiously, “What’s it gonna be?!”
The Jabberwock halfheartedly lifts his hand toward hers, before blurting out, “Fine! I admit it, okay? I’m sweet on you! You’re my sweety pie Sleepy B!”
Sleepy B tilts her head forward. “You fail. And by failing, you pass. Admit it, you’re different, Jabby. Embrace it, as I shall embrace you.” She takes his hand in hers. “I’m different, too. Let’s be different, together.” She pulls at his arm, as she turns to face the team. “Let’s go.”
They all rush to the Road, but they’re not fast enough—Dorothy and the Tin Knight appear, suddenly, further down on the road.
“Alice!” Dorothy calls. “Don’t you run off on me again! Stay right there, or I swear I’ll beat your bottom with this.” She raises her riding crop in the air and shakes it.
“We can avoid her if we hurry,” Fred says before running down the Road. The rest of the team, and Elisa, follow his lead, and the next Malice looks back, Dorothy and the Tin Knight have vanished from view.
