Hatter

JABBERWOCKY

Aether crumbled to pieces.
He stood there, watching his world spin round and round like some sick rabbit hole descending into madness; cracks swirled in the castle floor, and shards of the castle wall cascaded down in a waterfall of debris. His eyes darted to March Hare and the Queen of Hearts, then to Dormouse and finally Cat. Words like hang in there and Sebastian, you're going to be alright and I'm here for you, don't worry floated past his ears in a confusing mess while lights blared into his vision from all directions in pulses of reds and blues and greens. His home was dissolving before his very eyes.
He clenched his fists.
Hatter couldn't do anything.
His gaze flicked to the Queen as she fumbled for her non existent staff. Was Aether connected to her, and when she lost the source of her power it had started to destroy itself? No, that wasn't it- the Queen's staff hadn't been connected to the Queen of Hearts.
It had been connected to Hatter all along.
Everything he had seen and experienced, from the bloodhound at the doorway to the Bandersnatch Absolem had killed, hadn't been the product of their enslavery to the Queen; it had been him who had been creating them instead, shaping them and weaving them to be monsters, and bending them to his will. He knew that now, and he knew that everything Aether stood for was somehow connected to him- somehow connected to the world that existed beyond his own.
It wasn't the Queen who pulled the strings. It was him.
Lucius became distant... would lock himself in his room and not eat or drink for days.
'Cath, stop, please-'
Distant. Ceiling fan.
'Cath, Cath, I'm begging you-' He was screaming now. The chaos in his ears reached an ear splitting crescendo.
It was no accident that killed him.
No accident.
No accident.
No-
'No,' Sebastian whispered. 'No, no, no.'
Tears pierced his cheeks like stabbing knives. He crumpled to the ground, sweaty fingers clasped round his ears so hard droplets of blood began to line his nails. His voice cracked and choked up.
Around him, his world burned.
The castle fell. He was outside in the blazing storm, watching shards of ice hit his skin and leaving raw marks all over his body. The air was immeasurably cold, but it felt like every gust was a whip of scorching flames that scalded his cheeks and ripped gashes over his exposed hands.
There was no escape.
He was all alone.
Hatter leaned over and vomited. Tender fingers mopped away at his shirt with a cloth. His head spun. He was moving, moving, moving- where he didn't know, why he didn't know.
A shadow fell over him, and he looked up to stare at the Jabberwocky.
It was strange, really, how the rest of the world seemed insignificant compared to it. The Jabberwocky towered overhead in imposing majesty, with the air of a regal king about to deliver verdicts to his people- but where its long slender body exuded stately supremacy, its talons reminded Hatter of fear, and of the terror prey felt when it was cornered. Its leathery wings extended across the dark horizon, eyes peering at him behind a sharp-toothed smile.
Then it parted its lips and began to speak in a grating voice that echoed from every corner- a voice that felt strangely, inexplicably, familiar.
A voice that belonged to his brother.
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son,' it cooed in a lilting, jarring tone. 'The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!'
Hatter's ears bled. Sparks danced before his eyes and he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
'Beware the Jabberwock, beware the Jabberwock-' and on and on went the voice, each echo growing louder and louder.
He had heard this before. A long time ago, when Absolem used to scare him every night before bed by telling stories of monsters and demons. The Jabberwocky was a beast that looked like a bit of everything, and it was a culmination of humanity's fears condensed into a defined form.
Hatter had been terrified of it.
And now that it stood facing him, he realised he still was.
A beeping sound reached his ears. There was a monitor in front of him, with a thin line that dipped up and down erratically with his every heartbeat, and there was an oxygen mask covering his face. A long tube extended from his arm.
Hospital, he thought groggily. I'm... in a hospital.
His sword lay glistening next to his bed. He closed his fingers round its hilt, and he was transported back to Aether where he had a battle to fight.
The Jabberwocky's grin widened, and for a moment its face flickered into Absolem's, into Lucius's. It edged closer, claws raking across the ground in a chalk like screech.
'Hatter,' it crooned. 'You won't leave your home, will you? You won't leave your brother, or your family, or your friends? Didn't you promise that?'
He swallowed. His grip on his sword tightened.
'My name isn't Hatter,' he said calmly. 'Not to you.'