“I know that now. And I’m so, so sorry. I just love you two so much and you looked so happy, so hopeful,” the word spilled wistfully off her tongue, “I tried but… I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
Sniffling, Danika dabbed at the corners of her eyes. What she wanted to do was get on her knees and beg for forgiveness, it was one thing to lie to Galeta, she hated that over-inflated bag of poo. But to lie to these two, it’d hurt, and being forced to expose her duplicity now, it hurt twice as bad.
But she held little hope her words would sway them, once a liar, always a liar. Trust was blown. She could only hope that in time they’d at least manage to forgive her, understanding that it came from a place of love.
A few seconds later, a heavy sigh spilled from Alice. Standing, she walked toward Danika towing her husband behind her. Danika expected a slap, what she did not expect was for Alice to wrap her up in a scented hug of cinnamon and clover.
“Dani, we love you and though it pains me to know she’s been sick so long, please do not take our harsh words as us saying we hate you. It hurts, but I can understand. Can’t we, Hatter?” She looked over her shoulder at her husband who didn’t seem nearly as willing to forgive.
Alice poked him in the ribs. “As someone who very nearly died of cancer, and left her entire family behind without a word to let them know how or why, I know what it’s like to feel you have absolutely no choice in a matter. I do not like what you’ve done, Danika, make no mistake,” Alice gave her a stern look, “but we can understand. Can’t we? Dear?”
Eventually Hatter managed to choke out a garbled, “Aye.”
“She’s been sick since she was four then?” Alice asked with a soft sigh.
Eyes swimming with tears, Danika huffed trying to dry them. Her throat was scratchy as she said, “Yes. In the books once the curse manifests the time bomb starts ticking away. There was no way for me to judge that on the eighteenth year she’d flip, or trust me I would have stopped the party, I swear it by my love for Jericho.”
Hatter’s lips pinched.
No, he’d definitely not be as forgiving as his Alice. Not that Danika couldn’t understand it, she did, if she were in his shoes she’d no doubt feel the same.
“So essentially she’s as mad as I was,” he said.
“No, goddess I wish. No, Hatter, she’s much worse. The child seems to have lost all sense of reason. The bloody massacre she left in her wake,” Danika shuddered, “that is why I say I’m not sure she’s capable of choice at the moment.”
The room grew loud with the tick-tock ringing of clocks.
“What do we do then?” Alice whispered.
Danika shrugged. “I do not know, my dear. But we must do something before the Ten catch wind of—”
Just then a manic shrieking caused them all to cry out and twirl, looking around for the source of noise. It was the clockwork monkey, half its leg was caught inside the snapdragon’s mouth.
But the monkey wasn’t shrieking because it’d been caught, it was shrieking because it was trying to grab hold of Leonard—Hatter’s pet mouse—who was waltzing drunkenly across the floor.
His bow tie hung haphazardly around his furry neck. The golden spectacles Danika had fashioned him for his birthday was shattered, split down the center of the frame. One of his ears was matted with dried blood.
“Leo!” Alice cried, rushing to the wee mouse and picking him up before he dropped to the ground.
The furry, little thing was panting and grabbing hold of his chest. His velvety nose was bright pink, and he sounded winded as he said, “I saw ‘er I did.”
“Her? Her who?” Alice shook her hand just slightly, because the mouse was definitely blinking and looking for all the world as if he were ready to pass out. “My daughter?” she tried again. “Leo, tell me, did you see Chrysa?”
“Mmm,” he nodded wearily, his eyes were closed now.
“Leonard,” Hatter leaned over his wife’s hand, “did she do this to you?”
It took two painfully gasping breaths, before the mouse could speak again. “Aye. Mad she was. Looked at me like she don’t know me, then she struck. Grabbed me so quick I near to peed meself.”
A visible shudder rippled down Alice’s spine, her dress shifted from blue to gray to black, over and over again.
“But then she done the strangest thing. All sudden, she blinked and opened her mouth and told me, ‘RUN’. I was dead, I was. Weren’t no coming back for me.”
Danika wiped the back of her hand across her mouth as an undercurrent of excitement whipped through her veins. “When she blinked, Leonard, did she seem to recognize you? Was there any awareness at all?”
Opening his beady eyes, he looked dead at Danika and nodded. “Aye, godmother, I do believe she did. I ran and she howled, but she never came after me.”
“How did your ear get torn?” Alice cooed.
“Fell down an ‘ole full of brambles. Ran for me life.” He whimpered, hugging his arms to his fat little chest.