“It started as a joke,” the Queen said. “At first, no one understood a person suffering from a mental disorder. Usually they thought those people were possessed by demons, causing to have those hallucinations. Then they thought of them as witches. In both cases, they were killed, if not burned at the stake.”
Tom was sweating by now. Surely he sat among the maddest of the mad in the world, but the Queen was also reciting the true dark history of humans, which had been repeatedly documented—only historians always preferred to stay away from it.
People with a mental illness were used as a tourist attraction, a means for entertainment, all over the years.
In his office, Tom had a drawing of people watching mad people for entertainment.
“Then when physicians began suggesting this was an illness, calling it the Invisible Plague, humans came up with this humiliating idea of gathering the mad in a prison, as if they had committed a crime,” the Queen explained. “And in a world were money dominates everything, there was nothing wrong with making a shilling or a buck on the side. The mad people were put into cages as a tourist attraction. People from all over the world would entertain themselves by watching them for a fee. It was like going to comedy movie.”
Tom reached for his pills and swallowed. A handful. Everything the Queen had talked about, he knew for a fact.
“So we, mad people, Wonderlanders, instead of being cured, were a source of a few laughs and snickers,” the Queen said. “We became the freaks in the circus.” She signaled for her mad crowd to sit again. “And now it’s time we have our revenge.” She clicked her remote and the screen flickered again.
It was time to see what she had on her mind.
Chapter 58
The circus
Time remaining: 6 hours, 47 minutes
I stand, staring at the crowd in the circus with my heart pounding in my feet. What are they going to do to me?
When I think of it, the only real human in the cage is Lewis Carroll. Still, they didn’t spare him. Of course, because he was defending the Wonderlanders—so Lewis didn’t always just think of them as monsters?
I assume they will do the same to me now.
Caught between running and saving those in the cage, I realize this is some sort of a memory. It’s doubtful I can change much about it. Whoever led me here wanted me to just see this.
Why? I have no idea.
Maybe he wants me to sympathize with Black Chess and their crimes in the real world.
I am confused. Who’s mad and who isn’t?
Those who turned evil after what happened to them in the cage, or those people throwing cotton candy at those poor souls?
“Run!” Fabiola shouts.
Her voice reminds me of the room she wanted me to see back in the maze.
I turn around and run, tears filling my eyes. On my way out, teacups smash all around me.
The way back into the maze seems easier. I think I know my way, and I wonder if any of those in the circus will follow me here.
As I run, I try to connect the dots.
So when I saw Lewis Carroll lock the Wonderland Monsters behind the doors of Wonderland, was he protecting the world from them, or protecting them from the world?
Fabiola said the circus happened in the last days before he locked them in, so it’s safe to think he was protecting them. Or maybe he was protecting some and locking up others.
I like this assumption better, because apparently not all of those in the cage turned out to be part of Black Chess. Fabiola isn’t, for instance. The event at the circus had a different effect on each of them.
Also, I am not sure why I haven’t seen the Pillar, but I could have missed him in all this mess.
Panting, I reach the door.
I turn the knob and step into a room where people are gathered around a meal in Lewis Carroll’s studio.
The image brings instant tears to my eyes, and I fight the weakness in my body that’s bringing me down to my knees.
Chapter 59
Meeting Hall, Buckingham Palace, London
Dr. Tom Truckle watched the Queen’s video with intent. It was hard to predict where this was going, but the crowd around him was shocked.
It seemed strange for a man like him to sympathize with the mad, but he did—at least momentarily.
He kept watching the video, eagerly wanting to know what the Queen had on her mind. What kind of revenge was she talking about? How did the mad have their revenge?
The video he was watching detailed what had happened to the Queen and Wonderlanders in the circus. The torture, the humiliation, and the human race’s fear of what was different or new to them.
Even Tom, a man who rarely sympathized with the insane, hated his own kind for the few moments he watched what had happened to the Wonderlanders.
Chapter 60
Behind the Door, the Maze, on the borders of Wonderland
Time remaining: 6 hours, 11 minutes
The people gathered inside Lewis Carroll’s studio are my friends. Those who, according to Fabiola, walked the white tiles on the Chessboard of Life.