Hatter's Revenge (rewriting - read at own risk)

Ch. 24: Prisoner in Heart Castle

When Mad woke up, he thought he was blind. The side of his jaw and face hurt horribly and it took him a minute to figure out why he was in so much pain. Trying to get up, he realized that his hands were bound behind him and everything came rushing back.

The burned house. Tamsus. A deadly game of tag. Then Rakta.

Mad wasn't blind. Simply blindfolded.

He struggled to a sitting position and smirked at the tactic. Did they really think not being able to see where he was would scare him? Mad sighed. This was not how things were supposed to end. It was supposed to end one of two ways.

With either Tamsus or himself dead.

Mad's legs were unbound, his feet bare and he used a wall to get to a standing position. His knees wobbled a little and he was sure that if he could see, he would feel dizzy. As it was, he felt shaky, like he hadn't eaten in several days. He discarded the horror of that thought in favor of the idea that the hit to his head was what made him feel so weak now.

Keeping his shoulder against the wall, Mad walked the perimeter of what was probably a cell. The air was vaguely musty and smelled like underground. That, plus the coolness of the air made him think he was most likely in the dungeons under Heart Castle.

Mad wondered if the stone down here was the same reddish marble as the rest of the castle.

The one comfort he had was that he had at least sufficiently distracted Tamsus. He sat back down, grimly satisfied. Mad as a prisoner would definitely keep the Ace away from Alice and the rest. Tamsus would be reluctant to go searching for the King of Spades when he already had Mad at his mercy. The Ace didn't care about the King, and Mad doubted Mavros would send Tamsus away if she thought he would be able to break Mad to her will. Of course... that probably didn't bode very well for Mad's personal health.

He didn't call out. He didn't see the point in alerting anyone to the fact that he was conscious. Mad knew that when they found out he was awake, what Rakta had done to him would feel like little more than a slap to the face.

His head was still achy and his mouth tasted like old pennies.

He automatically looked up when he heard the door creak open, even though he couldn't see. Scrambling to his feet, he backed defensively into a corner of the cell, teeth bared in a snarl.

"Looks like the Ace wins," an unfamiliar voice said with a sigh. "He bet the prisoner would be out less than a day right?"

Mad breathed an internal sigh of relief. He'd been worried that he'd been unconscious for days.

A more nasal voice replied, "You were the only one stupid enough to bet against him."

"Well if you'd seen him when they hauled his ass in here, you would have too. I heard the Queen was furious at the Diamond for messing up his face," the first voice snapped.

Mad heard the two draw nearer and growled, "Stay the hell away from me."

The nasal one laughed, then they grabbed Mad who thrashed, grinning when he managed to stomp his heel down on the instep of one of the guard's feet. One of them let go, howling in surprise and pain.

Mad laughed then grunted, hitting the floor on his knees when something slammed into the back of his head, leaving him dazed.

"Stop your crying," the first guard ordered. "Help me carry him."

Muttering and swearing under his breath, the one with the now possibly-broken foot helped the other guard drag Mad out of the cell, turning left to go down a short hallway, then down a set of stone stairs.