Alice's Sister's Adventure In Underland

Chapter 5:The Queen's Castle

          The Hatter warns me to stay in his pocket no matter what and to stay as quiet as I can possibly be, because I will be killed if they find me. I never realized how quiet I could be, but I guess the magic of having your life on the line can make anyone deathly quiet. Those red card soldiers make the Hatter walk all the way to the red queen's castle. Poor Hatter, I wish I could do something, and if I was in my normal height I would help him. I hate being this size! The soldiers put handcuffs on him, and the worst part came when they took us to the dungeon.
They take us to this room in the dungeon, but it isn't like an ordinary cell. This room is for a different purpose that I wish I never found out. The soldiers leave us in the room and lock the door behind them. Except before I can even get one word out, the door opens again and a man enters with a scary grin.
He acts so friendly in spite of the fact that his face shows something completely different. The man takes off the Hatter's jacket, which has me in it, and tosses it on the ground. Thankfully, I manage to stay inside the pocket, but unfortunately, I land full force on the cement floor. The jacket covers my vision, but I can still hear everything. I hear the Hatter getting tied down onto something, and the worst thing in my life happens. The man starts torturing my sweet, kind, mad hatter, and I have to use my willpower to hold back tears. Surprisingly, there isn't any screaming like I imagined there would be if someone was being tortured. After a few minutes, I blackout from all of the stress and pain.
Slowly, I flutter my eyes open and light is shining through a barred window. I realize that I'm no longer in the Hatter's pocket and panic strikes through my body. Another thing that I realize is that I'm not on the cement ground anymore, but on something that is soft compared to the cement. Looking down, I am laying on a hand, and I know this hand from anywhere. This hand looks like it has been cut, and discolored like the rest of his skin, from mercury. Quickly, looking up at the Hatter, I see his face smiling kindly down at me. My heart jumps up in my throat at remembering what happened earlier.
"Hatter!" I shout in happiness and sadness, I jump up and he raises his hand close to his face. Without a second to spare, I hug his face as I start to cry. Then I quickly step away from his face, "Are you alright!?!"
"I'm alright," he replies and his eyes show how deep his love is for me. Just two days ago, I was still depressed over Lowell and his treachery. Look at me now. I'm in love with a man that I just met, but I know for a fact that I would give my life for this man. He has shown me that he will protect my life even at the cost of his own. I need to figure out what I'm going to do when all of this ends, because I don't believe that Alice and I can stay here. If I have to choose between leaving with Alice and staying here with the Hatter, I will gladly stay, but I need more time to think.
He pulls out one of his handkerchiefs and dabs my eyes. Sniffing, I look back at him, but I don't say anything. Last time I told a man that I loved him, he ended up breaking my heart. There is that insecurity still in me, and I just don't want that happening to me again. Until he tells me first, I will not tell him my love. Deciding that, I just stare at him and showing my love for him through my eyes like him.
"Are you sure?" I ask him, and he nods with a smile. His smile makes my heart skip a beat and heat rises in my cheeks. I can tell that he sees me blushing, because he looks like he is enjoying himself.
"I am truly alright," he says and he looks up towards the door. Remembering the fall on the cement, I quickly take out my pocket watch. Thankfully, the watch is not broken and it is still working. Rubbing the watch with my hand, I think back to when I was a child and I fell out of a tree. The pocket watch was in my pocket and it stopped working. When it broke, I had an awful feeling that the world would end if I didn't fix it. After looking through countless books on watches, I fixed the watch and I feared of it breaking ever since.
"What is that, AnaBeth?" my Hatter asks me, and I come back from my memories. Smiling up at him, I tell him that I had this watch ever since I was a baby. I don't know who gave it to me nor do I know who my parents are, "That's an excellent pocket watch."
"What happened after I blacked out?" I ask him, and I gently sit on his hand. He explains to me that after a while of being tortured, the man gave up when he realized that the torturing had no effect on him, "How did the torture have no effect on you?"
"Probably from the fact that I'm mad," he replies with a smile, and I laugh too. Right before we can continue the conversation, footsteps from the card soldiers start coming down the hall towards the door. With one last smile, he gently puts me in the chest jacket pocket again. My heart starts beating quickly from the hatter and the fear what is to come next.
Fortunately, the card soldiers take us away from the dungeon and up to the higher levels. They put handcuffs back onto him, and lead him to this grand hall with an enormous door. From the way everything is neat and clean, this must be part of the castle that the queen goes through. There is no one else in the hall besides the card soldiers, and us. With their spears still pointing at the Hatter, they throw open the grand doors.
All of the furniture in the hall has the color red overpowering it. There's red on the pillars on both sides of us, the red carpet is beneath us, and there is a red throne in front of us. The color red is the same shade as a heart or blood. Right behind the throne is huge red curtains, and finally, there is a woman, with a head that is triple a normal persons head, sitting on the throne. She has a small golden crown with small red jewels on her red hair, which is the same shade as the furniture. Her dress is something that Elizabeth I would wear, but there is small red heart at the bottom of the skirt.
Before I can see her further, I fall back into the Hatter's pocket, and I can't stand back up. It is so hard to stand, when the pocket is moving around from the Hatter walking. After unsuccessfully trying to stand up, I decide to listen to what happens instead. If they hurt him I will kick everyone's butt, and I might be killed, but as long as he is alright it doesn't matter. I feel the Hatter kneel down to the ground, and I look up at him. He has his head hanging down and looks at me for a few seconds. I smile encouragingly up at him, and he can't smile down, but he smiles with his eyes. He looks away towards the woman, and I can see an expression of surprise briefly on his face. Taking the chance, I glance over the pocket and I notice another woman sitting next to the woman on the throne. Oh my god!
The woman that is sitting next to the throne is my sister. Before Alice was an inch tall, and now she seems to be seven feet tall. She must have drank something again, because she has never been that tall before. Alice is wearing a hideous dress, and on her right side of the skirt is white with red hearts. The other side of the dress is red with black stripes. The top is red and black too, but it isn't stripes like the skirt. From the way the dress is I would have to say that the dress is made from curtains. Sister! I hope you know what you're doing, because I will not be able to protect you too.
"Where is Alice?" the woman asks in a broad voice, and from the way she spoke I can tell that she is full of herself. My Hatter lets out a crazy laugh, and looks up at the red queen. When I realize that she is the red queen, my brain starts throbbing, and a two words pop into my head. Not this again! Like any other word that popped into my head lately, the two words are names. Well, the two names make out one full name. Iracebeth Marmoreal is the full name and then the red queen pops back into my mind. My brain should stop hurting, because I piece together the name to the person, but it keeps hurting. Next the words older sister come into my head, and it starts to freak me out. This hasn't happen to me yet, before it was just names, but now I'm getting relations too. This is becoming way too much for me.
"I've been thinking all of the words that start with the letter m," the Hatter replies in his sweet, yet crazy voice, "Like the word Malice."
"Now, we are thinking words that start with the letter a," Iracebeth replies to him and then shouts, "Where is Alice?!"
My Hatter starts talking to her about how much he loves her enormous head which is shaped like a globe. Iracebeth becomes flattered, and the Hatter takes the opportunity to talk about his job. 'What is he doing?' My crazy lover boy gets up from his knees and walks up the step towards the queen. Without realizing it earlier, a man that is standing on the other side of the queen takes out his sword.
The man is wearing all black armor with a red heart shaped eye patch on his left eye. His long straight pitch black falls around his shoulders, and his black gloved hands are holding onto his long slender sword.
My Hatter convinces Iracebeth to take him on as her hat maker, because instead of getting himself beheaded, she tells the man to cut off the handcuffs. I feel like I can finally breathe, when the handcuffs are taken off of the man that I love. Thankfully, he doesn't draw any attention to my sister, and nobody suspects a thing. The Hatter walks in between Alice and Iracebeth, while talking about different colors for hats. Suddenly, my Hatter starts to change like he did in the forest. He slowly changes and the colors he was talking about start to speed up.
"Hatter!" I whisper harshly, and Alice whispers the same thing at the same time. Right after we say his name, Hatter quickly snaps out of it and everything about him brightens again. He says sorry, but the whole situation seems to not have bothered Iracebeth. She smiles up at him, and pretty much hires him on the spot. Hatter smiles back at the queen, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Her people show us away from the main throne room, and takes us to a smaller room with a loads of fabric. The guard handcuffs his left ankle to the long work table. He has just enough chain to walk around the table, but not enough to walk further than to the half way mark of the room. Around the table are a few mannequins, and I must say they are fucking creepy. Every furniture piece in the room is red like everything else in the castle. Well, besides the walls and floor, which are grey cement blocks.
Once the guards leave the room, my Hatter gently takes me out of his pocket and sets me on the wooden table. He takes his jacket off and throws it off to the side. So far that I have been with him, he never looked this excited, except when he first saw Alice.
"Nice work, Hatter," I tell the Hatter with genuine happiness. Walking over to the stacks of red, white, and black fabric, I jump on the smallest stack and let out a sigh of bliss. Without having to look, I know that the Hatter is snickering as he watches me, "What? The fabric is soft and comfy."
"I can tell," he replies, and picks up a roll of red fabric. The Hatter spreads it over the surface of the table, and talking to himself more than to me says, "I missed this."
"When was the last time you made a hat?" I ask out of curiosity. He shakes his head like he wakes up from remembering past memories.
"A long time ago," he says with a smile towards me. I smile back and jump off the fabric.
"What can I do to help?" I ask him, but he shakes his head again.
"I don't need any help, and besides you should rest."
"Says the man that was tortured just a few hours ago. I know that you think that I have no experience with making hats, and you're correct," I say to him, as I walk towards him and stop right next to his hand on the fabric, "If you show me, I can replicate what you show me. I have what is known as photographic memory. Please, I want to help you after everything you have done for me."
"If you really want to help me," the Hatter says, as he thinks about it. I quickly nod my head and place my small hands on his right hand. He smiles and looks like he appreciates my offer for help, "I guess you can grab things for me."
"Yay!" I shout in glee, and I jump up. He laughs and then looks at the red fabric before him. I run over to the stack of fabrics, and drag the cold metal scissors over to the crazy red haired man that without even trying stole my heart.
The Hatter and I made hat after hat, and by the time it was dark outside there is already a huge mountain of hats. I spent the entire time dragging tools across the table to the Hatter, and that soon drained my body of strength, but I kept dragging tools. I want to help this man, because he has helped me a lot, but dragging tools across the table isn't enough. Except, this is all I can do and so I will do my best. Unfortunately, all of the dragging made me grow very tired, and sometime during the night I fall asleep.
Once again, I wake to the sunlight piercing my closed eyes. My body feels very stiff and every muscle aches from all of the dragging yesterday. Momentarily, I forget about everything that has happened for the last few days, and I just focus on the thought of sleeping longer. Uh! The aching hurts so much that I barely move, and I moan a little bit involuntarily when I move my head slightly to my left.
"Are you alright, AnaBeth?" I hear a man's voice that brings back all of my memories of Underland. Thinking about the Hatter, I forget about my pain and quickly sit up. Sharp unbearable pain shots through my body, and I take in a sharp breath while flopping back down on the table. Realizing that my head didn't hit a hard surface, I feel a soft pillow underneath my head. When I realize the pillow, I look down to see a small blanket over my body. Finally, I look over to the Hatter, and I can see worry in his eyes.
"When did you make the blanket and pillow?" I ask out of pure surprise.
"I made them when I saw you shaking in your sleep," he replies and my love for him grows deeper than I thought was possible. I never expected to fall in love with a man that is crazy in this senseless world. As if remembering something, he looks into my eyes with worry again, "Are you alright? I heard you moan just now."
"I'm fine," I tell him, but when I move my arm, without thinking, I wince from the pain shooting through that limb. He looks at me with sadness and pain I never want to see from him again. When he looked at me like that, I feel guilt and sadness from lying to him.
"I know you are lying," he says with sadness, "Please, tell me what's wrong, AnaBeth. I don't want you in pain nor do I want you to feel like you have to lie to me."
"Everything hurts," I say with a sigh, and I decide that I'm not going to lie to him again, "I can't move or sharp pain hits me."
The sadness and the pain stays in his eyes as he ever so gently picks me up. Surprisingly, no pain hits me as I lay on his soft yet hard palm. I know from the look in his eyes he is blaming himself, and I hate that he thinks this, because I love him too much for him to think that.
"This is not your fault, Hatter," I say with a gentle and loving voice, "I am the one that wanted to help you. I am the one that pushed myself beyond my limits, but I did that, because I wanted to help you as much as I can."
"I don't want you to help me," he says, and I'm about to protest when he continues to speak, "I know you want to continue to help me, but I need you to understand that I hate seeing you in this state. It pains me to see you in this much pain, because of me."
"Okay, Hatter," I reply with sadness, but it soon goes away seeing how happy and relieved he looks.
"You should call me by my actual name," he says with delight as he lays me back on the pillow. The Hatter puts the red blanket over my body as he tells me his name, "My name is Tarrant Hightopp."
"That's a wonderfully crazy yet proper name," I tell him with a smile. The warmth from the sun and from the blanket starts to make me feel drossy. No, I can't fall asleep and leave Tarrant alone! My eyes start closing, but then I open them wide again as I fight against the waves of sleep.
"It is alright, AnaBeth," he says softly, as he softly rubs my head with his finger, "You deserve to rest and heal. I'll be alright while you sleep."
"No, you deserve to rest, Tarrant," I reply as I shake my head from side to side, "You are the one that got tortured, and the one that worked through the night. Tarrant, you are the one that needs to rest."
"That is true, but you need to remember that I'm crazy," he says with a smile, while he keeps rubbing my head, "I'm not tired and I'm used to it."
"You are an amazing man, Tarrant," I say as I drift off to sleep.

Now, my dears readers I need your help. I have hit the cursed writer's block and don't know how to continue this. IF any of you have any suggestions, I'll gladly hear them, because I want to continue this story for all of you. Thanks for reading this side note, my dear readers! :-)