Alice in a Twisted Wonderland (BL 18+ Completed)

Chapter Twenty: Boa in Purgatory

"MOM!" Yelled out an angry Alex, yanking me away from the smiling woman. "Wha—you made Erin cry?! What the fúck is wrong with you—"

"Alex!" I cry out, holding my forearm against my nose. "Stop, leave her alone. That's your mother, don't yell at her!"

"What did she do to you?!"

"Nothing!" I yell at him, feeling horrible that this woman, who suffered badly and is coping with alcohol, is being treated badly by a son who used to carry her old lover's likeness. "Don't yell at her. She didn't hurt me, but you're always hurting her!"

"She's always drunk! She doesn't care about anything except alcohol!" Alex and I are now yelling at the hallway, but what's new. Lady Montgomery is drunk because of her past, her son, but I can't tell Alex about that.

"She's always thinking of nothing but you! Stop treating her like shít, maybe you'll be less of an ásshole!" I yell back at him. Knox appeared with his usual blank stare, and accompanied Lady Montgomery off the chair.

"Oh Alex, look at how tall you've become!" She fawns over the four-eyed man, not her son.

"Mom," only then did Alex take his eyes away from me. He inhaled and closed his eyes, before breathing out, "Let me... take you to your room this time."

"Oh? Is that my Alex? Aww, my little Prince!" She slurs, leaning against her tall son when he goes over to Knox and takes his own mother.

Surprisingly, Alex is holding her gently by the arms and begrudgingly telling Knox, "I'll handle this."

Raising an eyebrow, Knox stays with me as Alex takes his mother to her bedroom to rest. The tall man glances down at me, "How do you just easily manipulate Alex to do what you want?"

"Manipulate?" I finished wiping my face clean. "I'm just telling him what he should do, not what I want. Would you treat your mother the same way he did?"

"I could only hope my mother is as decent as Lady Montgomery," Knox says, pushing his glasses up. "But no, I'd like to murder my mother."

"Why...?"

"Private matters," Knox says, now looking at me, "His mother—not even I—could tell Alex what to do. He's a stubborn kid, one might call an untrained Golden Retriever. Hmm, the power of attraction. He's really desperate to impress you and catch your attention."

"I don't want him only changing to impress me. What if I reject him, then he'll go back to being an ásshole?"

"Then reject him," Knox shrugs, walking away with his cane. "A real rejection, I mean. One that will break his heart enough to leave you alone. You'd want that, right? You want nothing to do with him."

Break his heart? My own just dropped to my stomach. Leave me alone? Knox has a point, as always. Does Alex really like me so much he's willing to change...? I... don't believe that.

This isn't Wonderland, this isn't a fairytale. Alex and I didn't waltz without taking our eyes off each other...

Alex didn't save me from an Army, or a fire...

Alex didn't confess his love to me like a Prince.

There is no reason he should be falling in love with me. And then I realized something about Ace. Those red eyes really do love me.

When Erin woke up in Wonderland alone, he wandered to the bathroom where he most likely spent an hour worrying his eyes out.

Should I tell Ace about what I know? About the time loop...