"So good to see you again, Wendy dear,” he said. “Haven't been by in far too long. Begun to worry something in the forest had gotten you into its dinner pot.” Then he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Now. Don't wander off again; I need to go gather payment from the pirates.”
“Pirates?” Alice asked. “There are pirates around here? Are they nice, at least? Like Jack Sparrow pirates? Or are we talking actual scary pirates?”
"Drunk pirates," the White Rabbit said. "Mostly drunk pirates. And lovesick. Which reminds me, if you happen to visit them later and you see the scrawny bearded one start to go over the side of the ship, stop him please. He's convinced one of the mermaids returns his feelings and drowning is such a nasty way to go.”
***
Alice dreamed of lying in a different bed-- this one a twin-size with neon green and blue sheets and a ruffled bedskirt. She'd gone shopping with her mom at the thrift store and found it. Someone had spilled spaghetti sauce or something on the top sheet and just gotten rid of the whole set. Her mom had agreed to bring it home, had fixed it for her, and now they were talking about painting her room to match. Once the weather warmed up they'd. . .
The door was opening. Her mother came in, smiling. “And here Jessie said you'd gone to sleep an hour ago.”
“I pretended. So tell me a story!”
Her mother sat down on the end of the bed, smiling. “Well, for once, Queen Penny, she of--”
“The Extraordinarily Bad Judgment,” Alice chimed in cheerfully.
“Exactly,” her mother said. “Didn't have bad judgment.”
Alice huffed out a breath. “Darnit.”
“I know. I went out with Helen and Janie, we just watched a couple of movies. No bad dates to escape from.”
“If you were just watching movies, why didn't you take me?”
“Because Janie likes horror movies.”
“So do I!”
“She likes the kind you can't see yet.”
Another sigh. “So when are you going on another date? I want more stories.”
“I don't know, kiddo. Might just give up on that for a while.”
“Okay,” she said. “Hey, tell me the one where you crawled out the bathroom window!”
“Again?”
“Yeah!”
“Well, I suppose. Queen Penny's best friend, Empress Helen, had set her up with the Prince of a neighboring Kingdom. Helen assured Penny that he was an interesting guy, but Penny was sure later that Helen was just playing a big practical joke on her. . .”
The sound of her mother's voice faded then, replaced with someone else's, and Alice let out a short groan, curling in on herself.
“Your mom tell you I have tomorrow off?” Dan asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“So you want to go to the park or the pool?”
Alice bit her lower lip, thinking. “The pool.”
“Great.”
“Does mom have the day off, too?”
“Well, that's why she's working late tonight. Getting a couple of projects done so she can come along.”
“Okay.” She glanced at the clock. It was almost ten. This had to be another night that Dan was staying over, then. On nights that he went back to his apartment, he always left before nine. She'd heard Dan and her mom talking a few nights ago about him moving in, about how to talk to her about it. She wasn't sure how to bring up to her mom that she'd overheard . . . eavesdropping wasn't nice, but she hadn't really meant to do it. Just heard her name and kept listening.
She could tell mom tomorrow, at the pool. Alice yawned, and then tugged up the cuffs on her flannel nightgown.
Noticing the motion, Dan got to his feet. “I'm sorry; my fault it's too warm in here. Cold-blooded, I think,” he said, giving her a quick smile. She smiled back. “I'll go turn the heat back down.”
She nodded. He got to the door, then snapped his fingers and headed over to her closet instead, opening it and pulling out a nightshirt. “Here. This'll help until the house cools back down.”
“Thanks, Dan.” It was still weird, calling a grown-up by his first name. But 'Mr.' was something she'd call a teacher, and she couldn't call him dad. Even if he married her mom someday, 'dad' would be even weirder than Dan.
Then she frowned, realizing that he hadn't left or even turned around. Maybe he was trying to think of how to talk to her about moving in, too. She set the nightshirt at the end of the bed and pulled the covers back.
“You can go ahead and put that on,” he said. “You'll feel better.”
She paused. “Mom said boys and girls can't change in the same room,” she explained. When Carla had called her a lezzy at school her mom had told her that some parents never taught their kids any manners; maybe Dan's parents hadn't taught him the changing rules.
“Well, I'm not a boy,” he said, giving her another smile. “I'm a grown-up. She didn't say anything about that, did she?”
“No,” she said. Something seemed wrong with that, but she wasn't really sure how to explain. And maybe she was wrong. After all, Dan hadn't been in any of mom's Queen Penny stories; he was a nice guy. He wouldn't ask her to do anything mom wouldn't want her to do.
She picked up the nightgown, looked back up at Dan. He was still smiling, but it wasn't quite the same smile she was used to from him. She didn't know how to explain that, either, and so she just looked away.
Then the door opened, and her mother's voice filled the room. “Hey, Alice. Are--”
Alice watched as her mother looked to Dan, and then her. Her expression changed, from exhausted to something Alice had never seen before, something that looked even worse than mad, and she started to stammer an apology.
“Mom, I'm sorry, I don't--”
“Get out.”
Then she realized that her mom wasn't mad at her, wasn't even looking at her. She was focused on Dan.
Now Dan's normal smile was back, but Alice still took a step away from him. She couldn't help but see that other smile underneath this one now.
“Pen, what's the matter?”
“I told you to leave.”
“You were the one who called me. You said you'd be working late tonight and you asked me to watch her.”
Her mother closed her eyes. “You okay, honey?”
Alice nodded, realized her mother still had her eyes closed. “Yeah. I'm okay.”
“Of course she's okay! Jesus Christ, I can't believe how paranoid you are! First you make me wait months before I can meet her, and now this? Do I seem like the kind of guy who'd hurt a kid? Huh?”
Her mother looked over at him again. “None of the guys who'd do that ever seem like the type. That's how kids end up hurt. Now get the hell out of my house before I call the police.”
Dan muttered a word that her mother had lectured her for saying once and then stalked to the doorway, shoving her mother out of the way. Her back hit the wall hard, and Alice cried out, scrambling over the bed to get to her. Then she started out into the hallway after Dan, but her mother leaned forward and grabbed her hand.
“Don't. You stay right here.”
“But he pushed you!”
“And I'm fine. He's gone, that's all that matters.”
“What if he's just in the frontroom or something?”
“I'll go check that, not you.”
“But--”
“I'm not arguing with you on this.” She moved the chair from the dresser in front of the window. “Remember how Queen Penny went out the bathroom window?”
“Yeah.”
“You lock your door behind me. I'll give our secret knock when I'm done looking around. If it's not me, you go out the window and run to Janie's, okay?”
Alice nodded and twisted the lock on the door. She almost called to her mother, almost told her to go get daddy's gun before she checked around for Dan, but then she remembered she wasn't supposed to know about it.
She didn't like this. Her mother had always told that Queen Penny story like it was something funn
y, but this didn't feel funny at all. Her stomach was all twisted up in a knot.
It didn't untwist until almost ten minutes later, when her mother knocked on the door-- twice fast, three times slowly. Dan had left. The doors and windows were all locked, lights were on, and hey, her mom said, didn't a movie and some ice cream sound like a good idea?
He was gone. But the next afternoon he called, and the afternoon after that he called three times, and then when he'd realized that her mother really wasn't going to talk to him anymore he--
Alice opened her eyes, nearly vaulted to her feet. She hoped it was at least close to morning, because there was no way in hell she'd go back to sleep.
Then she remembered where she was, and closed her eyes. If it wasn't one nightmare, it was another.
***
She came out of the latest Door just at the edge of the Lagoon. Wendy gasped and stumbled back, losing her already weakened footing.
Never, ever going into that world again.
It had started normally enough. And she had done precisely what she always did-- stayed quiet, observed what was going on, tried to figure out the particular dangers and benefits of the reality she found herself in before she risked asking about Scheherazade.
And then someone had sneezed, and she had automatically said 'bless you'-- wasn't even sure where that came from, for pity's sake, no one said such a thing in Faerietale-- and everyone had turned on her.
Apparently people in that world made themselves silent. She'd realized as much when a man had pointed at her, letting out a hoarse scream that revealed his cut-out tongue.
She ran, but not fast enough. They had some form of necklace that shot fire. And she hadn't known that people could accurately throw knives at that distance.
Definitely should've just stayed home and helped Alice weed the White Rabbit's garden patch today, she thought ruefully as she tore off her still-smoking outer jacket. Patting at her undershirt frantically, she managed to get the smoldering embers on her shoulder put out. Then she winced, cursing. Shouldn't have used both hands for that, she thought, inspecting the deep slit on her palm.
It was going to be just brilliant to get any work done with that over the next few weeks.
She eyed the Lagoon water. It would help her hand feel better. And it was very clear and shallow right here; no place for the crocodiles or the mermaids to hide.
Then a splashing sound had her looking up. There were two men rowing toward her. One had dark blondish hair and a beard, and he was rowing. The other man was wearing a truly outrageous hat-- was that a white phoenix feather in it?-- and it soon became obvious why the other man was rowing-- the hat-wearing man had a hook where his hand should be.
She knew that she should run, should get back to the White Rabbit and ask him for a poultice or three and then take a very long nap. But she was curious.
Wendy did, however, take several prudent steps back from the shore. Best to be able to run if need be, after all.
If she even could, she thought. She was still shaking, and all she really wanted to do was sit down and breathe for several minutes. But she didn't know the intentions of these men, and it wouldn't do to show weakness around strangers.
As soon as they close to the shore, the bearded man stared at her for a moment, the expression on his face so sad that she almost wanted to give him a hug and tell him it would be all right.
Ignoring the ridiculous impulse, she watched as the man with the hook got out of the boat before they were even ashore and sloshed through the water, not stopping until he was right in front of her. "Are you all right?"
"I . . . yes, I suppose so. I will be."
"Let me see that hand."
She didn't know why she did it. For all she knew he wanted a good hold on her so he could drag her into that rowboat and toss her to the mermaids. But she still placed her hand in his.
"Come back with us," he said quietly. "We can take care of this."
"I-- I'm not sure if that would be a wise idea," she told him, keeping her eyes on that wickedly curved hook.
wasn't right. Wasn't right that he had that. Should have both of his hands, one of them with beads of blood on it as a small crocodile rested at his feet
She took a step back, eyes searching his face. She'd thought that the bearded man looked sad, but this man looked positively shattered. "Do-- do I know you?"
"You could say that, m'girl," he whispered.
"Wendy?"
She quickly turned, smiling at the White Rabbit. "Hello."
"My dear, are you all right?" he asked, quickly moving forward. "What happened?"
"The people in the last realm were slightly cantankerous," she said. "This man offered his assistance."
"Very kind of you," the White Rabbit said. "Rest assured she will be fine. Come, child. Let's go home. Alice has been fretting about you all afternoon."
Wendy nodded and followed, but couldn't help but look back at the two men. There were answers here, she was sure of it. She knew the White Rabbit worried that if she got her memory back too quickly that it might do permanent damage to her mind-- "Leave you just like me. Can't have that. You don't want that", he'd told her-- but she needed to know. And since she certainly wouldn't be using that Door again, she needed another excuse to come back. She unclasped the golden bracelet around her wrist, and quickly tossed it toward the shore.
When she glanced back again, the hooked man was smiling.
“Do you know anything about me?” she asked the White Rabbit. “From before?”
It was a question she'd asked before, and she got the same answer she'd always gotten. “No. Nothing. Just found you as is near my doorstep.”
Always, she had left it at that. Now she stopped, drawing him to a stop as well. “Rabbit. I need to know.”
Her benefactor looked down at her again, sympathy and understanding and an overwhelming worry. "I know. But what you need and what you need are two entirely different things."
She waited. Years ago, she would've asked, "Pardon?", would've wanted him to elaborate immediately. Now she knew waiting was best, that chances were in a moment or two his mind would catch up again.
"You need to know the truth," he finally said. "You need to be safe. You can live without the truth and most certainly be safe. You can't be sure of safety, not when you go hunting for things the sun's already set on. What about Alice?" he snapped. "Or the infant? Or the other people you've helped with your traveling? You look for truth and you forget what Doors even are, who helps them? Who helps them?" he asked. She took his arm carefully, whispering reassurances as she led him to the house. "Selfish," he muttered as she opened the door, and she caught sight of a tear tracking down his dirty cheek and knew he wasn't addressing her any longer.
Chapter Five
Once Upon a Time...
Beauty slipped three apples into her bag, then turned to her friend. "There! That's finally everything."
Serena looked at her full-to-bursting bag and laughed. "Did your mother run out of everything at once?"
"I believe so." Along with the usual fruits and vegetables, this time she'd asked for three loaves of bread and several different types of fabric. The fabric, at least, interested her-- perhaps mother was making her a new dress.
"Did she even give you enough coin for anything extra?"
With a grin, Beauty held out her free hand to display four silver pieces. "Enough for a new necklace, if I can bargain the seller down a coin or two. And you?"
"I've enough for a ring, I believe; I-- oh." Serena's smile faded, and Beauty turned to see what she was looking at. There, hovering at the edge of the weekly market crowd, was a tiny girl in ragged, filthy clothes. She eyed the food sellers' carts and crept a step closer, then stopped again.
Beauty sighed. "Serena? Come on."
Her friend followed after her as she moved away from the food vendors. They looked over necklaces and rings, and then they went to a young man selling beautifully embroidered scarves. Beauty wa
s just about to pick one of those up when the voice of a nearby vendor caught her attention and made her look up.
Combs. The woman was selling the most gorgeous hair combs.
The seller, an old gray-haired woman, caught her gaze and smiled. Beauty tugged on Serena's arm. "Oh, look here!"
Serena hurried over to the seller, giving her a quick smile before she began to look through the decorated hairpieces. She picked up one that was ice-blue with silver scrollwork on it, and then she bit her lip and set it back down.
"Serena?" Beauty asked.
"Give me a moment," she said, stepping away from the seller. Beauty followed her for a few steps, her voice a low hiss. "What are you doing?"
"I . . . well, the seller will probably be here next week."
"You don't know that! We've never seen her before! Do you really want to miss a chance to own one of those combs?"
Serena shrugged, looking away.
"That girl will be here next week, I guarantee it," Beauty sniffed. "Her kind always are."
"I'll be back in a moment," Serena whispered.
With a roll of her eyes, Beauty went back to the comb seller. Her gaze was once again drawn to a glorious copper-colored comb with bright red jewels. She was almost certain she didn't have enough coin for it, but perhaps she could go back home and beg mother for whatever the price difference was. Mother would give it to her, she was certain, especially if she said that she knew for a fact the seller wouldn't be here come next week.
"I see which one you're eyeing, dear," the seller said. "You have excellent taste."
She beamed. "Thank you."
"Special for you today, only four silver pieces."
Beauty stared at the old woman, unable to believe her ears. Then she grinned. If she were fool enough to part with something so valuable for such a small sum, far be it from her to argue. "That's quite generous of you, ma'am."
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