Hatter

RABBIT HOLES

"Well, Madame Lilith, how is my friend June?" Sebastian asked.
Although it seemed like a harmless question, it felt as though someone had stuck a knife in Lilith's cold-heart. Lilith sat at a distance from him on the opposite side of the white marble table. Her eyes were on her notepad and she was writing slowly, but as soon as Sebastian uttered those words her hands came to a stop. She did not look up from her pad, but even a blind mouse could see the pain in her face when he asked that question. All that could be heard was the faint chatter in the hallway and the slight humming of the air conditioner until the silence was broken with a short reply.
"He is fine," answered Lilith curtly. "Now, Mr. Baxter, I would like to ask you some questions about Aether," Lilith continued in a monotone voice, not looking up from her pad. As she wrote, her hand trembled slightly; the shock of the previous question seemed to have not worn off.
"I will if you answer my questions first and refer to me as Hatter," said Sebastian, folding his arms.
After the previous events, Lilith was ready to compromise to an extent, as this might help clear the fog covering the past of the peculiar Baxter family; she said yes, unaware of the questions that would come after.
Hatter smiled at her. "Why does June despise you? I, for one, despise you for your personality and your general demeanor as a person, but you treat June with kindness. Yet he despises you more than anyone- why?"
Lilith became perfectly still; her expression seemed like that of a porcelain doll, timid, and meek. She looked up from her hands and smiled at Sebastian. "He despises me because I love him."
Sebastian looked at her in astonishment, wide-eyed. He then chuckled a bit. "It seems as if the Queen of Hearts may be the maddest person in Aether."
In usual circumstances Lilith would enter a fiery rage; however, this time she sat still, almost unmoving like a statue while Sebastian passed his comments.
He looked at his lap and began chuckling again. "It seems my one question has brought the Queen to her knees- this only shows me that an evil tyrant like yourself may know how to love, too."
When he looked up again, he did not see a despicable monster, but a broken girl. Lilith's shoulders drooped down, her scarlet red hair falling over them. He looked at her face and noticed something- her amber eyes had lost their fire, and tears rolled down her cheek even though she seemed emotionless. Sebastian felt that he was drowning in her pain.
She then spoke with a smile: "Your friend June is my husband, and he doesn't remember me most of the time because he suffers from a disorder just like you. He has Alzheimer's. His memory is slowly leaving him, and he's forgetting everything; he wants me to forget him, but I can't, and that's why he despises me so that I would forget how to love him." As she said this her voice broke, and her tears began to fall down like waterfalls.
Sebastian looked at her in both remorse and astonishment. "There, there," he comforted. "I'll make you a nice hat; don't cry now. After all, you're supposed to be a tyrant, aren't you?"
Lilith looked at him with beady eyes and nodded.
"I just have one more question- what did you say to March Hare before you brought him into this second dungeon of yours?"
Lilith sat blank for a minute, tears still on her cheek as she recalled the events of the past.
"Oscar, remember what I told you. Try to get close to Sebastian by talking to him. It won't just benefit you, but it'll help me find out more about him too, and you want to help me- don't you?" She smiled at Oscar, his hand intertwined with hers.
He replied, "For you, I would go as far as the depths of hell itself. After all, you've done so much for me, my love." Oscar beamed at her.
"Just remember not to provoke him," said Lilith, wriggling her hand out of Oscar's hand and wondering how clingy he was.
"Looks like the Queen is in her own daze," said Sebastian, smirking. One could say she was as mad as the patients she treated; well, at this moment, at least.
"Nothing that may concern you."
"Well that's a shame," said Sebastian playing with a piece of thread dangling from his hat.
"May I ask my questions now?' said Lilith, slightly irritated. Her softness seemed to have faded away. Sebastian nodded.
"What is Aether to you, and who is Absolem?" asked Lilith.
He smiled. "Aether is my home, which you are corrupting for reasons I can't fully comprehend; as for Absolem, well he's my brother."
These few sentences brought great clarity to Lilith, and then she asked her final question for the day: "Do you remember Lucius Baxter?"
Sebastian smiled and said, "I can only answer that question if you can answer me this riddle." He leaned forward. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" he spoke in a clear tone, looking at her eagerly; his greenish-blue eyes were wide like a child's. She opened up her mouth to answer; alas, another interruption occurred.
As always Henry barged into the room, full of panic he said, "MADAME LILITH YOUR HUSBAND HAS CALLED FOR YOU."
Sebastian smiled, "Looks like we will have to continue our meeting another time, Lilith."
Lilith was baffled she never thought Sebastian would call her by her name but something even more startlingly her husband had called for her.