WtSLB: Sapphire in Wonderland

Chapter 22: A Small Rest

Sapphire gasped as she sat upright, Vao raising an eyebrow. "Oh, you've finally snapped out of it," he said.

Sapphire didn't respond for a moment, clutching her forehead as she slowly took in everything she had seen. Vao sat up in bed, wincing as his shoulder popped, cupping her cheek with his good arm.

"... Sapphire...?"

The doll turned to him, blinking her eyes. "I'm... Okay," she said quietly. "V-Vao! Did you see it?"

Vao still looked concerned, but shook his head. "No... And I couldn't really read the book either... The handwriting is a proper mess, innit?"

Sapphire glanced down at the diary, trying to read it. She didn't get sucked into the diary a second time, giving her the chance to see what Vao had been trying to read.

It was a bunch of scribbles with no rhyme or reason. She couldn't even make out a single letter of the alphabet. Shoving the diary into her satchel, she turned to Vao.

"Th-then I'll tell you!" She whispered loudly. "Vao, I think the Mad Hatter is Lord Vao!"

Vao nodded. "Kinda figured, to be honest... Wot with how he knows who we are, his hair looks like mine. Weird he doesn't have his accent."

Sapphire scratched her head, trying to piece it together. She still didn't know exactly what the Mad Hatter was. Was he human? He should've been. The First Vao was human.

And then there was the mention of Outer Gods. Sapphire had never heard of such things, nor anything about a Black Court.

And the cherry on top of it all was that she still hadn't figured out just how Wonderland came to be, how it was sealed away from the rest of Twist.

She wondered if she could continue to trust the Mad Hatter. As far as she knew, he didn't do anything wrong against her or Vao. Hell, he was the reason Vao had figured out how to save her from becoming a demonbeast in the first place, and he had only just been loud, obnoxious, and wild every time they saw him in Wonderland, even telling them how to get out.

But then there was the diary, which made Sapphire feel like he did something awful to Mono.

She recalled that the Mad Hatter had addressed Lily, Nik, and Sunny as Dormouse, March Hare, and Bandersnatch respectively. That didn't make much sense either - the children were monoeyes, and didn't look anything like the trio who had been with the Mad Hatter when Sapphire first fell into Wonderland. Bandersnatch wasn't even close to Sunny in appearance.

She wondered if reading the fifth diary would give her answers. And while she did consider it, she decided to do it later. She had something she felt more important to do.

The doll hopped off the bed, turning to Vao. "Are you hungry? I can bring you some food!"

Vao smirked. "Only if you're the meal..."

The flirt went right over Sapphire's head. "Kyihihi! I don't taste good, you goober!"

Vao blinked, dumbfounded. "Wot... No, I... Nevermind. Anything is fine."

Sapphire nodded happily, closing the door gently behind her, her shoes tapping against the floors of the hallway, the stairs creaking as she made her way down. She found Bandersnatch sitting in front of the fireplace curled up to stay warm, Emma and Red Hood napping on the sofa. The brutish monster's ears twitched, lifting her heavy head for her burning orange eyes to stare at Sapphire. The doll felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine.

"Hi, Bandersnatch! Do you have any food?"

"Fat ass caterpillar ate it all," Bandersnatch growled. "We might have something left, if you look hard enough. In that basement, though I'm not sure anything down there is any good anymore. Not like it matters much to corpses and dolls."