THE PRESENT: INSIDE THE INKLINGS, OXFORD
“Did we just get the keys back?” Mr. Tick squinted at the dying Alice on the table.
“I’m not sure, Mr. Tick,” his wife said. “Alice found the keys, but I think she threw them back to Jack.”
“She also looks like she is going to pass on killing her classmates.” Mr. Tick didn’t look happy about it.
“Can’t have all the cake, Mr. Tick.”
“Of course I can have all the cake.” He pointed at the brownie in his hand. “I always do. Figure out a way for Alice to kill her classmates and make sure she gets the keys.”
“I don’t know how to do that, Mr. Tick.”
“Mr. Jay will be very upset.”
“Margaret hired us to send Alice back in time to get the keys. She never said anything about keeping the timeline intact.”
“But this will change a lot of things.”
“I know, Mr. Tick. She will also die without killing her classmates. Because she will not have found her Wonder.”
“Which means we will not even get the keys, if she has them.”
“We don’t need to, Mr. Tick. We know that the keys are with Jack.”
“So?”
“Last I heard, the Cheshire managed to possess Jack’s body. With a few tweaks and digging into his mind, the Cheshire will know where they are.”
“That’s genius, Mrs. Tock. But how about Alice? Doesn’t Black Chess want their fiercest warrior back?”
“Can’t help her now,” Mrs. Tock said. “Like I said, if she doesn’t kill her classmates, she dies.”
“She is already dying.” He pointed at Alice on the bed. “Look at how fast she is bleeding.”
“Farewell, Bad Alice,” Mrs. Tock said. “We’ll miss you. You were real fun.”
“Look at the endless number of kids she inspired for a century and a half,” Mr. Tick said. “Did the kids know she was the Bad Alice?”
“Some did.”
Mr. Tick let out a long sigh, took another brownie bite, then combed his hairies. “I guess that’s it, then. Alice dies and we get the keys from Jack.”
“I believe so, too.”
“I’m just really unhappy with the passengers on the bus staying alive,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve seen someone capable of changing the past so dramatically. It’s always been a few small changes, but not enough to change the course of the future.”
“I agree, Mr. Tick. We all know those on the bus must die.” Then an idea hit her. She rested a forefinger on her lips as if she’d discovered time itself. “Don’t you think time won’t let her change the past?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that the future always finds a way to stay on course. Rule number 47 in the Wonderlastic Guide to Time Travels.”
“I read the rule, Mrs. Tock. But every rule has an exception.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “Maybe not.”
Chapter 82
THE PAST: BUS STATION, OXFORD
Instead of slowly withering away, the terrible Alice inside me surfaces again. I guess it’s because of my weakness that I can’t oppose her now.
With blood trickling down my cheeks, I stand up and push my future husband away, about to catch up to the bus I am supposed to kill everyone on.
Talk about schizophrenic.
The boy holds me back for some reason. “You’re still bleeding,” he says. “You need a doctor.”
I push him off me, realizing I still have enough strength to get the mission done. He falls back. “I really have no idea why I will marry you in the future,” I say, standing up.
“Wow, hold your horses, girl,” the boy says. “Not so fast. We were just fooling around.”
I don’t pay attention to him and run after the bus. All around me, Black Chess are still watching me, waiting for me to make it happen. Although I’m in evil mode, I wonder again and again why I have to kill those on the bus.
I run after the bus, realizing that I’m limping. Why not? I’m dying. Slower, I limp like a mad girl with blood on her face.
People make way for me. They don’t want to have anything to do with me.
The last girl gets on the bus as I cling to the rail on the back. I’m going to get on it. It’s the only meaning in the Bad Alice’s life. It’s the only way that I can live and return to the present, I suddenly realize. If I have no Wonder as a Good Alice then I bet it’s the Bad Alice with the Wonder of killing her classmates.
The bus starts up and I cling harder to the rail, my legs scraping against the asphalt.
My knees hurt like hell. I should be dead already. I am trying to gather the strength to climb up. The girls in the back window stare at me as if I am terrorist. Well, I am. A Wonderland Monster.
I manage to pull myself up, bending my knees, and begin to climb up toward the top of the bus, like a poisonous spider who’s come to finish the job.
“Let me in!” I pound on the glass. I must look like a demon now. “Let me in!”