Mad As A Hatter (Completed 2015) [WATTY AWARD WINNER *Featured Story*]

chapter twenty seven - neves ytnewt retpahc

He was taken aback.  I couldn't blame him.  The potion was supposed to connect both Jessie and Alice together and bring my body to peace. 

A fight was inside of me ever since I had that heartbeat; when Jessie came to life.  The struggle with juggling emotions, and then no emotions, and then emotions.  It takes a toll on a body.  Bodies may be vessels but vessels can only be rocked for so long until they crack.  And I was about to break in half until I drank that potion.  Gaining a clear mind and relief, the potion gave me sanity—and I needed it to go up against someone who was the very opposite.  I knew there would be no more sudden snaps of demon or channels that switched to the human station.  I was one creature rather than two in one body.  I had limited emotion but enough thirst to kill and get the job done without feelings in the way of that.

But sanity wasn't the only thing I gained. 

"What?" he asked.  His gaze ran over my perfectly straight hair, skirt and shirt without a wrinkle in sight.  My eyes were awake and sparkling in life and determination.  He was about to speak, and then hesitated, unsure what to call me by.  I gave him a nod as to say 'Whatever you please' and he said, "Jessie, are you okay?"

"Never been better," I swiftly answered and walked past him.  I saw my swords laid on the counter and started hooking them onto my belt.  "So we can avoid confusion during our communications, I suggest you just say Alice.  For the sake of everyone else who didn't know about the human past."  I didn't even look to find him nodding.  I heard his feet travel to his room and that upcoming silence was not a peaceful kind.  His shoes squeaked at the pivot towards me and I felt his eyes burn at the back of my head, analyzing my perfect state and then the crazy disaster in his room.  I should've come out with a scratch—even a bruise.  "We will not question what happened either.  Do I make myself clear?" 

"Crystal," he distantly said and stole another look inside.  "Must've been demon sex," I heard him mutter. 

I took a kitchen knife and added it on my thigh strap.  "Please, Cray.  I'm more posh than that." 

Cameron sensed something had changed.  He was avoiding it.  Soon Grim, Levi and Isaac were awake and the first thing they saw was the open door to Cameron's room.  I was glad for their silence and grabbed my red trench coat off the chair.  "We're leaving." 

"I don't think you deserve to make demands around here," Grim said.  If he was surprised how the 'messy room' and the 'flawless me' didn't add up, he certainly didn't show it.  "We waited for over seventy two hours for you to come out!  We could've been doing something much more important yet we decided to stay and do nothing while the darkness grows out there, and simply sit in hope that you're alive.  We put you as our main priority. And this is how you repay us?  Telling us to get our ass up and go like nothing just happened?"

I sighed as he was the child in the situation.  Honestly, I would've expected better from him.  "Grim, out of all things, this is what you're worried about?  Do you expect a thank you?  I didn't ask you to wait for me.  Lately you've been caring about people a lot.  Have you forgotten the first law of demon nature?"  I took another kitchen knife and tapped it lightly on his heart.  "Always put yourself first."  I lifted the knife off and gently tapped the spot just below his pants and he jumped.  "Baby, I hate to break it to you but you're turning human." 

Shock registered on his face and I smirked, putting the last blade in my carryon.  Astonishment was high in the air and everyone looked at Grim who was suddenly locked up within his thoughts.  I asked him, "How long have you had a heartbeat?"

He didn't say anything at first.  Then he said, "For a few weeks."

There was a finger snap and Cameron zipped over to his chalkboard wall, picked a white chalk and began scribbling formulas and questionable symbols.  I sensed his blood spiking up and smiled to realize he knew what I knew.  "Maybe that demon to human transformation doesn't apply to just the Purge.  Maybe that's for all demons," Cameron said. 

Isaac and Levi stood, silent as they tried to take in Cameron's next words.    

"That's why Lord Death is rising the Cold Bloods.  Because they can't transform—they're still human, only with demon blood.  Once he goes up to the mainland, he's going to have all the demons kill off the humans, and then in the middle of that, the demons will die off as well, leaving only the Cold Bloods.  He's trying to wipe out two races."  He looked at me.  "And you just figured that out—before me.  You knew he wasn't taking the battle on land too."  He pointed his chalk towards me.  You didn't have to be blind to see it shaking.  "How did you know that?" 

I flapped my trench coat closed, buttoning it up.  I made my way out the door without a care in the world if they followed me or not.  "I've been given incredible knowledge within those seventy two hours.  I now know too many things, Cameron.  Too many."

It was no question that they'd follow me.  What they did question was how as soon as they stopped out of the apartment, they weren't in the city anymore.  Oh no, they weren't even on land.  We were at our final destination. 

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They were frantic for a split second, the change of atmosphere incredibly abrupt.  The thick city smoke stench was replaced up our nose by the smell of sea salt.  Sails flapped steadily and the demanding shouts from men and women flew past our heads along with the relentless wind battering to our fronts. 

Cameron's men recognized him and gave sincere nods before continuing on track with their task.  No one seemed bothered that we had just appeared on a ship.  There was no time for questions.  Only action. 

"How?" Isaac's first words were. 

My boots made a clunky noise as I led them up the stairs of the ship, the good Cold Bloods taking their hats off for me or giving short nods as well.  "You know that special power we share?" I asked Isaac.  "The one where you can hear my thoughts and I can hear yours?  That happens because we're connected, remember?  My father and I share the same bond.  He can hear my thoughts.  In that room, he knew too.  He has access to my new knowledge and sees this power I've gained that I have yet to use."  I rested my gaze on them, and their shoulders grew heavy.  "I need your trust.  Will you be willing give that up to me?"

Levi was the first step up.  He was nothing but a soldier.  He knew it and so did everyone else.  He didn't have to—for it meant many things, but he did anyways and bowed on one knee.  His wings spanned out, laying himself at disposal and I masked this surprise that I nearly revealed.  Just like that, time seemed to stop in courtesy of me.  Ropes stopped burning, grunts came to a halt and cranks paused and even the water didn't slosh up against the boat.  The whole crew on the ship kneeled.  It was a wave reaction, the closest starting and then it fanned out.  I turned around the saw the hundreds of other ships behind us—my soldiers, figures bowing down to one knee as well.  I realized my father did not just gather Cameron's men and the good Cold Bloods.  He gathered other specimen that I had never seen, horns in odd places and whiskers that dragged to the ground.  Beasts that had their own ships and beasts that lived in the water and air.  Wings, gills and fur—together.  I nearly forgot the smaller in-between lands, between the cracks of Hell and the mainland and the mainland and Hell.  Angels, demons and humans were the majorities but the minorities were just as important. I watched as the wind even died down, allowing the sails to gently flap in honour of me.

The energy was more than alive, thriving now; around the boat, in the air we breathed, and through the sea.  I turned back and saw my father come out of the cabin and tip his hat to me, giving that fatherly smile to say he was proud.  I was proud of him.  These people were willing to give up their lives for my choices, they surrendered themselves to me and I had their trust. 

But would the creatures I needed most give me there's?    

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