It’s hard for me to utter any words now. I realize what might be in danger is not the Pillar or me but Lewis’s key.
Staring at it, I don’t know where to hide it. Was it stupid of me to use it? Lewis was clear about not losing it. An insane idea hits me. What if I swallow it? I’ve seen them do that in movies.
But I am not going to swallow it. No way. I tuck it inside my shoe, wishing it to be a good idea.
The footfalls are nearing now. Everyone else in this festival has disappeared.
“Anything you want to say before you die?” the Pillar tells me.
“Not to you,” I counter back. ‘I hate you’ is what my eyes say. Even in this haze. Then I realize I’m curious about something. “Maybe it’s you who wants to tell me something before you die. The Executioner. What was going on between you two?”
Unexpectedly, the Pillar’s face changes. It dims in such an unhealthy way. What happened between you and the Executioner, Professor Pillar?
His dimming face doesn’t last long, though. His eyes widen as our pursuers show up from behind the haze of smoke.
I am surprised I recognize them. But I’m not sure how they fit into all of this.
“If I had a mushroom for every time I run into one of you,” The Pillar pouts, staring at the Reds.
As usual, they are dressed in their numbered, red cloaks, their faces hidden underneath them.
“You want to meet up with the Scientist?” one of them says, his voice deep and hollow, as if from another world.
“Yes.” I stand up straight.
“You will have to drink this before we bring you to him!”
The Pillar looks away from the drink. “I’m not drinking that.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“Hmm.” He hesitates.
“It’s the drink he made you drink in the rabbit hole in the Garden of Cosmic Speculation,” one of the Reds explains.
I sneer at the Pillar. He starts whistling, staring up as if admiring the night stars.
Then I realize I have to ask something, “And how do you, Red, know about that?”
“You don’t seem to realize who we are, Alice,” their leader says, his voice implying mockery. “Just drink this, or you will not see the Scientist.”
I have no choice but to accept. What harm will that do? I am used to seeing things bigger in scale. It’s not that bad actually.
But as I bring myself to drink it, the Red’s sentence rings in my head. You don’t seem to realize who we are, Alice.
Does that mean they’re working for the Pillar? Does that mean I have been fooled again?
Chapter 60
Somewhere in Alice’s mind.
The drink, unlike last time, puts me to sleep.
It’s a different kind of sleep because I know I am sleeping. I know I am dreaming. And I don’t like where my dreams have sent me.
I dream I am back in the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. I dream I am back on that couch in that dark psychiatry room.
I hate this room.
“So how deep have you gone into the rabbit hole, Alice?” the doctor, hiding behind his smoke and darkness, tells me.
“I want to wake up!”
“You’re not dreaming, Alice. This is your reality, like I’ve told a thousand times.”
“No, you’re a figment of my imagination. Some kind of a sick joke.”
“Alice. Alice. Alice.” The doctor puffs his pipe. “Haven’t we talked about this before? The rabbit hole. Remember when I told you I would let you delve deeper into your madness, until you couldn’t take the nonsense anymore? That’s the moment when you’ll realize you’re mad.”
“I don’t believe you. I’m not mad. I am saving the world.”
The doctor says nothing, trying to suppress a laugh, I think.
“Have you ever considered that you’re the mad one?” I say. “Maybe this is your rabbit hole, and you think you’re some psychiatrist in an asylum.”
“It seems that you haven’t had enough of the rabbit hole yet.” He sighs. “I think we’re done for today.”
“I think so, too,” I retort. “Because I’d really like to wake up to go complete my mission.”
“And where is it this time?”
“Brazil.”
“And you’re saving the world from what?”
“A plague.”
“What kind of plague?”
This is when I hesitate. I don’t even know what kind of plague this is. All I know is that it has driven people so crazy they’re killing each other all around the world.
In my moment of embarrassment and silence, I wonder what this plague really does to people. The Executioner said it’s something unimaginable. That’s why it has no cure. But really, what drives people mad enough to start killing each other all around the world?
“I take it that you don’t know what kind of plague.” There is victory all over the doctor’s voice. “I’ll have the wardens take you back, but I’m afraid you need a higher dose of your medicine this time.”
“Medicine?” I know in this dream I am always given medicine, but I haven’t paid attention to it.
“Your medicine, Alice.” He sounds impatient or disappointed. I can’t really tell. “The pill I’ve been giving you for two years now. It’s called Lullaby, if you remember.”
Chapter 61
Brazil