He doesn’t stop laughing. As if my pain, and his amusement, gave him means to live again. “It turns out I really never lose a game of chess,” he says. “Because I will die without telling about them. I will take it to my grave, and I will always be the Chessmaster who never loses.”
In spite of me holding onto him, wanting to squeeze out answers, the soul inside him departs his body. It’s like he’s been waiting for this last moment to declare his winning, and leave me hopeless, helpless, and lost without knowing about my real family.
Chapter 79
Lifespan Hospice, London
Inspector Dormouse was still intoxicated with The Pillar’s happiness with Alice’s survival. It even seemed like a weak point in the professor’s attitude, enough to encourage Dormouse to attack him. But the Inspector’s out-of-shape body wasn’t going to help.
“Close the door behind you,” The Pillar demanded. “Before everyone wakes up.”
Dormouse couldn’t oppose the notorious monster by the name of Carter Pillar.
“Step in closer,” The Pillar said.
Dormouse did, his mind trying to figure out what was going on. There was this one possibility. A flicker of a thought. A slice of an assumption. A far-fetched idea he didn’t want to think about it. All the way driving from Oxford to London, he’d been thinking about it. He just couldn’t swallow it.
Now, staring right into The Pillar’s face, the idea surfaced. The Pillar wasn’t the most honest of men; his moral code was shabby, and to the police force he was downright a serial killer. But if there was one quality about The Pillar, one which Inspector Dormouse had witnessed over and over again, it was this: The Pillar cared about Alice. He would die for her.
The look on The Pillar’s face simply exposed him. And Dormouse, being a father, knew how precious of a look it was, unconditionally caring about someone.
“Who are you, Professor Pillar?” Dormouse had to ask.
Half of The Pillar’s face shone in the weak yellow under a lamp. The other half loomed behind the dark. He looked like a ghost, one who’d disappear any moment, but leave his scent behind, forever haunting you — in good ways and in bad.
“I will give you the precious chance to leave this office right now,” The Pillar said. “I will never hurt you. All you have to do is go back to your sleepy life and never mention whatever you’ve discovered. Believe me, you don’t want to know the truth.”
Dormouse hesitated.
“Go back to your daughter, Inspector,” The Pillar advised. “I’m not a sentimental man, and will shoot you dead if you dig deeper into things you shouldn’t.”
Inspector Dormouse nodded, turned around, and paced toward the door. What was he really doing here, digging into secrets of Wonderland? He was better off going back home, enjoying a nap among his family members who loved him – and were much saner than the world outside.
Inspector Dormouse even made it so far as to grip the doorknob on his way out. But then the conclusion hit him hard, a revelation so intense and surprising he feared he’d never be able to sleep again.
He turned around and faced The Pillar. “Oh, holy lord of rings,” he said. “I know who you are.”
The Pillar titled his head with pursed lips. He even shook his head in a ‘no’. “Don’t do it, Dormouse. Don’t think too much. It may cost you more than you can handle.”
“Let me rephrase it,” Dormouse insisted, unable to suppress his thoughts. “All of us have been mistaken from the beginning, questioning who you really were.”
The Pillar said nothing.
“We were asking the wrong question,” Inspector Dormouse said. “The right question was who you weren’t. And who you aren’t.”
The Pillar squeezed his eyes shut, and let out a long sigh. He gritted his teeth, his hand tightening on the gun. “Don’t say it, Dormouse. Just leave.”
But Dormouse’s excitement and curiosity took the best of him. “You’re not The Pillar. You have no relation to the monster Carter Chrysalis Cocoon Pillar, whatsoever.”
The Pillar opened his eyes, looking angry, like a hangman sad he had to pull the lever, and pointed the gun at the inspector.
“In the name of Wonderland, Alice, Lewis Carroll, and all the mad people in the world,” Dormouse said. “Who are you?”
“I’m the one who unfortunately needs to put you to sleep – forever,” The Pillar said and shot him dead.
The END…