Queen of Hearts

Five

Dottie Mouse snored. Loudly.

Lizzie turned over on her dusty cot and faced the wall, her eyes focusing on a thin crack that ran from the ceiling to the floor. Before curfew, Alyson had told her that she would start training the next day. Lizzie had no idea what exactly training entailed, but from the look on Alyson's face it wasn't pleasant. And if Alyson Wonderland thought that something wasn't pleasant, then Lizzie would probably hate it.

Lizzie closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep as Dottie's snores reverberated around the room, but sleep would not come. Just twenty four hours earlier, Lizzie had been in her own bed in her own apartment, trying to decide whether or not Jack Cards was a real person. Now she was lying in a dusty cot in the very heart of a resistance against Courtly Jester.

Courtly Jester had taken so much away from Lizzie. As a child, she had known that a day would come when her mother was no longer the queen of Wonderland, but that day had always been in the very distant future. Lizzie had always imagined herself to be married with several kids by the time that her mother passed. And it would be of natural causes. Courtly Jester had ripped that all away from her.

A tear trickled down Lizzie's cheek and she briskly brushed it away. She needed to get out of the room, to go somewhere where she could gather her thoughts and think straight. Somewhere where she could bring back levelheaded Lizzie.

The floor was cold, causing Lizzie's toes to curl the moment that her feet touched the ground. Lizzie rubbed her arms at the chill that bit through the 'Wonderland Middle School Un-Chess Team' shirt that Ace had loaned her. Despite the fact that Ace was over three years younger than her, her shirt hung down to Lizzie's mid thigh. Lizzie could not remember Wonderland ever being this cold, maybe it was a part of the dark magic that Courtly had used to take over.

Lizzie snatched Alyson's black hoodie from the bottom of her cot and made her way through the sleeping girls. She glanced at Dottie on the way out, snores shaking her small frame, and a small smile spread across her face.

The hallway outside was dimly lit, with glowing sconces every ten feet casting blue light onto the floor and walls. Lizzie followed the wall, her bare feet padding against the ground, not knowing where it would take her. She didn't really care. Right now she needed to be out, away from everyone and everything that was happening.

How could Courtly do this? She had talked to the older girl, befriended her for the short period of time that Courtly had arrived at Ever After High. They were by no means close friends, but Lizzie had considered them friends, even inviting Courtly to her unbirthday party. Had she been planning the hostile takeover the entire time? How could Lizzie have been so blind?

Her friends hadn't trusted Courtly, but Lizzie was a believer in second chances. Lizzie shook her head. She should have listened to Kitty's warning in high school. Now, she would never she her mom again, all because she didn't send a stupid jester to jail.

Tears started to flow freely from Lizzie's eyes, and she made no move to brush them away. Mourning was okay. Mourning was natural. And, right now, she would mourn her mother. She would mourn all of the times that could have been, and would now never be. She would mourn the Queen of Hearts tonight, and in the morning she would fight for the resistance. In the morning she would go to training with Alyson, but right now, she would mourn her mother.

Lizzie walked faster, her head down, staring at the floor through blurry vision. How could Courtly do this to her? Out of all the queens to kill, Courtly had to chose her mother. Out of all of the places to take over she had to choose the one that Lizzie loved the most.

Lizzie's back hit the wall, and she slid down until her knees rested against her chest. Why couldn't Courtly be happy being a jester? Wasn't that what she was supposed to do? Jest about things!