“If forgetting me is going to make you happy, I don’t mind,” he says. “I see you have a thing for this boy you met.”
“Boy? You mean Jack Diamonds?” I laugh. “No, he’s a loon. I don’t even know him. I swear.”
“It’s alright to meet other people after my death, Alice,” Adam says. “It’s really alright. I think he loves you dearly.”
“What? How can you say so? I told you. I don’t even know him. He is really weird. He doesn't even know me. I love you, Adam.”
“You don’t even remember me.” He laughs from under the hood.
“I don’t remember your face, but I remember you in my heart somehow,” I say. “It’s a feeling I can’t escape.”
“Then I will always be with you.”
I say nothing. A tear trickles down my cheek. “Will you be with me when I face the Cheshire tomorrow?” I ask him to make sure he means it. Maybe spirits can still protect their loved ones after death.
“I will be, but there is something you have to know,” he says. “The power the Cheshire is after is scarier than death itself."
"Do you know what it is?"
"I can't say. You have to figure it out. The power he is after surpasses any imagination. I mean any imagination. He will be the scariest face of evil in the world."
"You're scaring me, Adam."
"I am, because I care about you. If you're going after the Cheshire, you need to know the kind of danger you're facing. The Cheshire is going to perform a forbidden ritual tomorrow. You have to stop him, or..."
"Or?"
"It will be the end of the world."
"What kind of ritual, Adam?" I feel like waking up from my dream, but I try to do my best not to. The plants in Oxford's garden are drowning in water all of a sudden. A crazy flood swarms the university. Its tides are really high. Is this the end of the world Adam talked about?
When I open my eyes, I am all wet in my cell. Waltraud stands above me with a bucket of ice cold water. "Vake up, Alice," she laughs. "Time for some shock therapy."
Chapter 52
The Mush Room, Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum
Ogier rubs the two electrodes together as if he is a child with a fork and spoon in his hand. The sparkle he creates send shivers down my spine. I take a deep breath before the electricity reaches me, reminding myself that this is my new life. A hero by day, a mad girl by night.
Waltraud laughs each time I shake and shiver. She is still smoking her cigarette, watching me as if I were her favorite TV series. As electricity surges through me, I remember what the Pillar told me on the way back. He was talking about the easiest way to tell if someone is insane. It's not the way they look, talk, or behave. The most common trait in insane people is that they think they aren't insane. According to the Pillar's nonsensical logic, we're all insane. The only way to survive insanity is to admit it.
"You know that I am not being examined by a specialist when I leave every morning, right?" I tell Waltraud, still sweating from the buzzes. "You know I save lives in the outside world, don't you?"
Waltraud almost chokes laughing at me. "But of course, my dear Alice." She keeps on laughing with Ogier. "I also know you're a princess in the real world."
Ogier buzzes me again and all I can do is laugh with them. It's a hysterical moment. We all laugh, and we don't know why exactly. Am I laughing at the fact that there is no way in the world they'll believe me. Maybe I am laughing because I am really insane.
"Seriously," I hiccup between the laughs. "You must have seen me on TV. My picture was everywhere yesterday. I am the girl who ate a block of cheese in the Great Hall in Oxford University that morning."
"Cheeeeees?" Waltraud kills her cigarette on the floor. Every big thing in her body is vibrating from laughter. "Why did you eat the cheese, Alice? Are you a rat?" Ogier laughs at this part. Sometimes he reminds me of Frankenstein.
My laughing suddenly stops and I stare at them. They sound like they really haven't seen me. Could it be they never watch the news while living here in the underground ward?
"You seriously didn't see me?" My lips are dry when I say that. And my head is still buzzing.
"I think this is enough therapy for her today," Waltraud tells Ogier. "She is losing it." She tries to cup her hands over her mouth to keep from laughing.
"My God," I say. "You didn't see me."
"Of course, we didn't," Waltraud says. "Christ Church was closed yesterday. The police needed to collect evidence for the Cheshire murders. No students or tourists were allowed inside."
Chapter 53
The Pillar's Private Airplane - On the way to Belgium
It’s early morning. We’re on the Pillar’s private plane, heading to the town of Ypres in Belgium. I am not surprised when I find out that his whimsical and speechless chauffeur is our flight attendant. But I am quite surprised when I learn he is also the pilot.