Painting the White Ones Red

Chapter Five: The Jabberwock

The boy looked a year older than me, but he looked familiar. His straight and chin length dark blonde hair flopped over his eyes. His skin looked pale, and his smile was that of a Cheshire. Darkness swarmed around him. Every time I reached out to touch him, he would get farther away.

"Cordelia...Don't tell me you've forgotten."  They whisper, no sincerity in their words. 

I reach my snow white fingers out again. "Forgotten what?" I ask. It sounds like more a demand. 

The smile they wear grows bigger. Their teeth look like razors almost. They don't answer my question until they fade away. "Everything." 

My body feels hot and sticky, like I just ran a mile. I sit up quickly, awake now. I wake up to Hatter right in front of me on the other side of the desk. "Miss Cordelia, my lessons are not a nap time." He tells me.

"Sadly. They would be better off being a nap time." I hear Chess grumble from her spot on the couch. Hatter shoots her a look that would make a child bawl. My friend looks back at him. "What?" She asks innocently.

I cough and pull the book in front of me again. He has handed me an article on monsters this time. Victor took his glare off Chess and looked back at me. "Delia--"

"Cordelia." I correct.

"Doll," he says instead. It's my turn to glare at him, and he knows why. "If I can't call you Delia, I'll just call you Doll." Victor explains. It's not worth the energy to claw his eyes out. Not when I might have a witness. "Now, have you finished the article?"

I nod. "Why are you making me read things on monsters?" I ask him. He waves the question aside and hands me a paper and a pen.

Hatter takes the book off the desk. "Then write a five-paragraph essay on them." He sounds calm, like this is usual for a student. I blink at him. "It's due tomorrow, so I would get writing." I watch as he puts the book away then exits the room.

Growling, I start to write. Right as I went to write the last sentence, my paper caught fire. Nothing was nearby. I just caught on fire. 

Black fire.

I wasn't confused or scared or curious.

I was angry. 

"Seriously?!" I shout at it. Chess woke up from my outburst and looked at the paper. "You couldn't light on fire at the beginning or something?!"

Chess sits up and rubs her eyes. "I don't think that's what you should be shouting about." Jasper, who has been reading nearby,  tells me, cautiously. He's right, I understand that. But I still continued. "Delia?" He asks me, looking behind me. It was like he saw something. 

"WHAT?!" I snap at him. All she does is stare up at something. Letting out a sharp, frustrated breath. I immediately regret my actions. "Oh...That.." I manage to say.

A large, black dragon-like creature's head is right outside the window. His neck is long and thin, like a giraffes. His head was about the size of my desk. His body was the size of a house. His mouth, which was big enough to swallow an adult whole, was full of razor sharp teeth. His huge, soulless black eyes stared into the building window and bored through me. He looked like a huge stalker.

"Cool!" Chess burst. Jasper shot her a look that held a mix of horror and the word "idiot". She just blinked at him, not seeing the problem.

Fear had washed over my body. The creature opened it's mouth and sucked in a huge breath. I took a step back, but I ended up bumping back into the desk. A ball of darkness grew larger and larger by the second in their mouth. Finally, they blew. Right as they let loose, I felt a warm arm around around my stomach from behind and jerk me over the desk and back. Black flames poured into the room. Everything from where the creature stood to where I had been standing turned into ashes.

My breathing became deep and unstable. The whole back wall was gone, revealing the full body of the creature. The arm let go and I finally looked back to see who it was. "Thanks Jasper." I breathed finally. He nods once.

I look back ahead at the now-gone wall. Lareina is going to have my head. "We should go get Victor." Jasper said. I had never seen him so serious. I didn't blame him for this though, but still. "He'll know how to handle this." I hear him whisper as he begins walking.

Not in the mood to argue, I follow. But Chess is now curious. "Handle what?" She asks, following Jasper and walking alongside me. He doesn't reply, so she repeats the question. Still no reply. "Oi!" She shouts at him, balling up a fist to punch him. "Answer me right now or I'll--"

"It's none of your concern." He tells her. The air around him has turned into a mature one--he's acting his age. "So just stay close by and keep quiet." He commands.

Chess snorts. "Who the hell decided to eat all his cereal?" She grumbled under her breath. One of Jasper's ears twitched, hearing her. She smirked up at the back of his head.

Right as we turn a corner, I notice some black flames on the edge of the floor. "Hey... Jas?" I say quietly, tugging on his sleeve like a little girl. He follows my gaze and looks at the flames. "What is that thing?" I hate feeling like a little kid, but at least Hatter isn't here to see me.

Jasper reaches over with his other hand and puts his hand over mine. "It might be better if someone else tells you." He looks at me. I look at him for a moment. He's thinking of letting that Hatter tell me. Instead of shouting back like I usually would, I just nod.

"'Kay, I'm not trying to interrupt this sweet little 'moment', but there's this thing outside that seems to want us dead." Chess interrupts us, putting air quotes around the word 'moment'. "Plus, it's making me want to throw up. So can we move on?" 

I take my hand back and we approach the stairs. I didn't see any guards attacking the creature. Where was everyone? Lareina should at least be yelling at someone for tearing up her home. Harvey would be coming to check up on me. Where were they? Or was I jumping to conclusions.

We exited the stairs, off at the first floor, and took one of the back entrances that were near the library we were in. On the ground, I felt even smaller looking up at the giant monster. "Whoa..." Chess exclaimed in pure awe. "Hey...Delia?" I look over at her. "If I catch it, can I keep it?" Her eyes shine with excitement.

Before I can reply, Jasper shoots a glare at her. "No." He snaps at her. Right as Chess goes to scream her favorite foul words at him, the creature roars to block her voice out, but her lips are still going off with every single foul word in existence. 

I blink a few times then look back up at the creature. Jasper rolls his eyes, as if she was an amature at swearing. Chess sticks out her pink cat tongue at him. Jasper looks back at the black dragon as it sucks in another breath to breathe out more flames.

Jasper pulls a gun from his belt and aims. I pray he knows how to use it. Right as he goes to pull the trigger back, the thing swings it's long, slender tail down at him, forcing him to dive and roll across the yard. He sits up on one knee and takes aim again.

Chess continues to stare up at the creature, like she really does want it for a pet. She looks as if she's thinking of all the things to name him, what to do with him, where to take him, and probably even what to feed him. 

The dragon sucks in a quick breath and blew flames towards us. I grab Chess' arm and run from them. That snaps her out of her fantasy. Jasper fires at the dragon, but only grazes it's neck. The creature howls in pain and shoots flames at him while swinging it's tail. He manages to dodge the tail, but the tail knocks him back into a tree. His gun slides away and out of reach.

Chess holds her ears at the noise. I look up at the creature, not really bothered by the noise. His eyes look on mine, and his head gets closer. "Delia! Move!" I hear Jasper call. Chess grabs my arm, ready to run if needed. 

From the corner of my eye, I see a dark figure move on the top of the roof. I don't draw attention to it, because I don't want the dragon to hurt them. Not until I learn who or what it is. The dragon's head is about a yard away when the figure lunges off the edge of the roof and at the dragon's neck. 

The monster's head is a foot away now. As they land, they slice the head clean off. The smell of blood fills the air quickly. Chess lets go to cover her nose with both hands. I stare down at the head for a moment. 

Then I look up at the figure, finally able to see their face. I should thank him, but I can't really speak at the moment. "Victor." I hear Jasper say in relief to the figure. "Right on time."