Inside, the receptionist tries to contact Margaret Kent to confirm our meeting, but my continued vomiting of marshmallows forces them to give us space. The Pillar shows them our fake IDs and they let us into the nearest bathroom, which we detour from, of course.
The Pillar wheels me into the nearest elevator, and tells me he knows exactly where to find the Duchess. He pulls out a hookah hose he had hidden inside the wheelchair and flashes a smile like a four year old. I grimace when I see him pull small parts from the actual hookah inside my wheelchair, too. He starts connecting them together, like Legos.
"Killers usually put together a gun silencer in this part of the movie," I mock him, wondering why we’re so compatible when it comes to lunacy.
“They don't call me 'Pilla da Killa' for nothing, Alice,” he says, fitting the last part in. “I advise you to suspend disbelief, because everything you'll see right now is going to be beyond crazy." My eyes watch the elevator's counter rising up, until the elevator finally stops. "Smile," the Pillar says. "It's Showtime." He wheels me into the corridors against all kinds of guards, who've been dispatched about us breaching in. A guard points his gun at us, but the Pillar whips him with his hose, blood spattering on the wall. Things start to get messy.
"You didn’t have to hurt him," I protest.
"Put your morals in your back pocket please, and get them out later," he puffs smoke from his hookah, and then breathes it back into the hall in great amounts. The smoke spreads all over the corridors. "I have a job to do," he pants.
People start coughing at first, some already fainting because of his wondrous smoke. A little later, after killing a couple of guards on the way, the rest start laughing hysterically. Instead of attacking us, they can't stop laughing ‘til their stomachs hurt.
“Is that laughing gas?” I say.
The Pillar doesn’t answer me and high-fives a happy guard instead, right before he kicks him to the ground.
"Why am I not affected by the smoke?" I ask. I feel like a spoiled kid rolled into a crazy funhouse.
"It's the marshmallows I fed you, baby doll," the Pillar kicks Margaret's door open and wheels me in. “It’s an antidote.”
I am not sure how to feel about being wheeled around by a killer. Am I really doing this to save a girl, or am I just a mad girl giving myself all the excuses in the world? The Pillar doesn't kill anyone with his surreal weapons. He wounds and sedates them on our way to Margaret. I do believe the Cheshire now, saying this Wonderland War is larger than anyone thinks. I don't even know what the war is about. All my thoughts are messed up again.
The Pillar doesn't stop puffing, or hitting guards with his hose. I am wheeling myself next to him by now.
"Can we just not hurt everyone we meet?" I plead, as I pant, wheeling the chair--I am so caught up in the moment, I forget I can walk and leave the chair behind.
"The real Alice wouldn't say that," the ruthless Pillar says, hitting numbers on a pad near a golden double door. "You think those are innocent people?" The door opens, and he wheels me in.
Chapter 40
Margaret Kent’s office, Westminster Palace
Pillar the Killer closes the door behind us and locks it by hitting certain code numbers on the digital pad on the inside wall. He turns around and stares at the woman sitting behind her luxurious desk. She is clinging to the sides of her chair. I can see a great view of the River Thames through the glass behind her. Once she recognizes the Pillar, she is sweating, the way I did when I was in shock therapy.
"Long time no see, Duchess," the Pillar spreads his hands. Something suddenly smells. It's his armpits. He sniffs them, and he blushes slightly when looking at me. "I guess I overplayed my part."
"Listen, Carter," the Duchess says in a challenging voice. I don't like her, but she doesn't look like a weak woman. If only the Pillar hadn't taken her by surprise. "Whatever you want, I can give you."