Destiny is a Strange Thing: Heartless ending

Chapter 6: The Hatter

I hear a faint mutter coming from the tea shop. Hesitating, I stepped forward. I pushed the door open. I gasped as I took in the sight before me.

This is not the tea shop where I came for my first real tea party.

The shop that was once filled with laughter was void of any life entirely, let alone laughter. The chairs, once filled with joyful chattering creatures, were now empty if not upturned. The table was strewn with half empty teacups and cracked teapots, littered with biscuit crumbs and sugar crystals. A faint smell of ginger biscuits and old tea lingered around me. I gazed about at the wreak that has become of this once glorious tea shop, At the head of the table was a man. His great purple top hat over his eyes and his feet on the table. In his hand was a small porcelain teacup.

It was Hatta.

I searched for my voice but it buried itself inside my throat, too deep to reach. I wet my throat as I tried to summon my thoughts. The silence echoed around the room. I took a step towards the hatter. The wooden floorboards let out a loud resounding CREAK. Flinching, I stopped. Hatta set the cup in his hand down and slowly looked up. His face was ghostly pale. His eyes bloodshot and wide, heavy bags beneath them. His gaze fell on me. His face twisted into a smile. It was a nasty sight.

It was wild, crazed, almost malicious. The grin sent shudders dancing down my spine. I looked away. I swallowed to moisten my throat, stubborn and dry. Struggling to keep my voice straight, I said "Hatta."

"Lady Pinkerton." He said, a hint of annoyance punctuating his words.

A moment of silence followed. Before I could open my mouth to talk, Hatta's words spliced the air.

"So, you finally decided to show up." He said sardonically.

"Come to check if I had gone mad, eh? Well, I'm not mad yet. I assure you." He spat, a dark look ran across his face and his eyes now bore a glint of hatred. I stopped taken aback. Taking a good long sip from the teacup, he continued. "You must be too busy enjoying the comforts of royal company I reckon?".

"A-Actually I'm not-" I stuttered only to be cut off again by Hatta. "I should have expected no more from you. and here I thought you were different. Well, I was mistaken, now wasn't I?" he chuckled darkly. "No sooner had he died that you decide to abandon all thought of him. Like everything between you, the sacrifices that he made for you, never even existed." He shook his head. The heat began crawling up my throat.

But I stopped myself. This wasn't like him, there was something wrong. He has been through a lot as well. Jest was his best friend. He knew Jest longer than I had. His crazed stare left my face. His eyes fell on the wall opposite to him. Following his gaze, I found myself looking at a clock which I had not noticed in my previous visits. "Like the new addition to my shop?" The insanity evident in his voice. "I personally think it adds quite a splash of color to the old drab walls." he remarked. The clock was indeed a colorful one. I counted twelve needles going in all different directions. And the numbers were all mixed matched and out of order. The clock was truly blindingly colorful. Each hand, number and quadrant of the clock was a different color, hue or shade. Three different pendulums swung irregularly. The ticking from the clock now was so loud and apparent that it puzzled me how I hadn't noticed it before. Mesmerized in the painfully bright clock I hear Hatta's voice again. The same tinge of madness still in it. "Time's always running. It never stops, not for anyone. You can never hide forever. It will catch you one day. Always running, always chasing." He says in a faraway voice. He grimaced. A second later he smiles once again. He refills his teacup, spilling cold tea over the brim. "Care for some tea?" he says in a singsong voice. My breath was quick now almost panting. My heart was hammering inside my chest. "Hatta, this isn't like you. What's wrong with you?" I said in a panic. A laugh exploded from his mouth. An unnatural sound. "Wrong with me? What's there to be wrong with me. Are you suggesting I'm mad?" He laughed once again. Suddenly his voice turned serious. "I'm not mad yet, alright? Although it may seem so." He made a noise in his throat. The lopsided smile climbed onto his face. "Oh and can I ask you something? Why is a raven like a writing desk?" The strange tinge returned to his voice. He looked down and took another long sip from his cup.

I inhaled a long steady breath before speaking. "Hatta, all I came to say is that I accepted the king's proposal. I'm to be married to him the day after tomorrow." I said quietly.

Hatta's gaze found me again but his face remained impassive. He considered me for a while before speaking "So, I see.' He muttered. He began murmuring silently to himself. Then the words rushed aggressively out of his mouth "Well don't expect me to show up to that ceremony. I warned Jest he couldn't trust you and this is the very reason I said it! Even before his body touched the ground you run right into the arms of another man." Hatta yelled, panting. 

"Why, I-" I started saying only to be interrupted once more by Hatta. "I warned him that you were bad for him. Not worth his good heart. But it was too late, you had him snagged." He shook his head again and picked up his teacup.

The anger bloomed across my face. The fury bubbled up my throat. It exploded inside my head. "I thought that there was someone who would listen and understand but I see that I'm mistaken again!" banging my hands down on the table, I knocked a teapot over. "And I see my company isn't wanted, so goodbye!" I turned at the heel and stormed out and at the doorway, I heard a faint whisper from the head of the table "You didn't deserve him." My heart was squeezed by an unseen fist and my vision clouded with tears and I fled out of the door. As I left the hatter alone in his shop just waiting, waiting to go mad.