No Longer Heartless

Chapter 16: I Hate That Thing

"Almost there," Cath nodded as the stone wall came into view.

"Thank god," Jest sighed in relief. "I can't wait to take this hat off. No offense, Hatta."

"Some taken," Hatta scoffed.

It wasn't much longer before the group made their way over to the wall. They were only a few paces away when they stopped, finding the gate to be heavily guarded.

"What are we going to do now?" Cath moaned.

"They can't see us," Jest reasoned, "so we shouldn't have a problem with just opening the gate and walking out."

"Okay. Hatta, you go first," Cath nodded.

"What? Why me?" Hatta frowned.

"Don't ask questions. Just go."

Hatta gave a roll of his purple eyes, but complied, moving slowly towards the entrance -or in their case, exit- of the White Queen's land. He carefully un-latched the gate and gestured for the others to follow.

Fortunately, none of the guards noticed the lock that seemed to move on its own, and the others followed Hatta over to the gate.

Now came the hard part.

Slowly and hesitantly, Hatta creaked the gate open, which called the attention of about four guards. Hatta opened the gate just wide enough to slip through, and Cath followed closely behind. One of the guards tried to close the door, but Jest was too quick. He made his escape through the gate right before the guard closed it, securing it with a padlock instead of the latch that was there prior.

The group quickly ran as far as their legs would carry them, which was only about two hundred yards or so.

"Phew. We made it," Cath sighed in relief.

"Yeah, we did," Jest nodded, panting slightly.

"What are the two of you stopping for?" Hatta frowned, whose heart rate had already gone back to normal. "We need to keep going!"

"I agree," Raven nodded. "Let's go."

"I...I can't breathe," Catherine panted, dropping to the yellow grass beneath her feet.

"I can't either," Jest stated, shaking his head as he too dropped to the ground.

Cath thrust off the hat she was wearing and gave a another loud sigh of relief. "That did a number on my hair."

Jest pulled off his hat as well and exclaimed, "God, I hate that thing."

"Well, why don't you tell me how you really feel?" Hatta scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Sorry. It's not your fault, really," Jest reasoned. "It's just unbearably hot, and the hat doesn't help."

"Whatever," Hatta sighed, rolling his eyes. "Let's keep moving."

"Great. Now you've got him mad at us," Cath whispered to Jest as she stood and pulled him up with her.

"Mad at us or mad in general?" Jest smirked, beginning to walk after the hatter and Raven at a slow pace.

"That depends on which definition of mad you're talking about,"  Cath chuckled.

"Will the two of you stop talking about me and keep up?" Hatta sighed from a few hundred feet ahead.

Raven perched on his shoulder. "I agree. This is no time for jokes," he chimed in.

Jest and Cath looked at each other for a brief moment before shrugging and picking up their pace.

Cath smiled halfheartedly. It felt good to have Jest back, but knowing that she would once again belong to the King the second they stepped into the land of Hearts made her sick. All she could do was silently reprimand herself for going back to save Mary Ann.