Malice in Wonderland Prequel (3 page)

“Ha! So you are both a liar and a coward!”

“I did not lie.”

“Well I admit, maybe I don’t know the whole story, and perhaps my father wasn’t perfect. But he was
my
father, and you took him from me. The blood debt must be repayed.”

“I will not fight you. What can I do—”

“Oh shut up, won’t you?! We
will
do battle, because I have been studying your jabberwock code. And I invoke my right of child’s retribution. You killed my father so I challenge you to duel to the death.”

The Jabberwock tried to hide his surprise that a human would know the ways of the jabberwock code. He tried not to be patronizing as he said, “Do you realize what you’re saying?”

She met his eyes with a cold intense stare. “Yes, the debt shall not be settled until one of us is dead.” She raised her sword—it was her sword for now, but if he defeated her, it would become his—and she said, “Prepare to die.”

She charged toward him with a yell and swung at his leg.

The Jabberwock no longer had a choice. He was now bound by the code to fight her to the death. He could no longer show her any mercy.

They squared off. The girl swung again, lightly cutting his left arm. She was highly skilled—a worthy opponent, especially with the vorpal blade, comprised of a charmed metal that easily sliced jabberwock flesh.

But she was growing fatigued. The vorpal blade wasn’t very heavy but she was just a little girl…

He feinted to her right. When she moved her blade to parry the blow, he moved inside and slashed her arm to the bone, severing tendons and rendering her left hand useless. As she struggled to readjust to a one-handed grip, he smacked the blade out of her hand.

She met his gaze with a wide-eyed look of terror.

Then with a twinge of sorrow, he impaled her with his claws and drew upward. Her torso became drenched in red.

He withdraw his claws, and watched her, wary of any desperate last attack she might launch.

She began to cough up blood. A look of confusion came over her face, then she looked down at her mangled body.

Then she collapsed and was still.

And the Jabberwock became filled with guilt. He didn’t know why he felt that way, but it was overwhelming.

“Oh god,” he mumbled, then launched into action. He had to act fast. He felt for her pulse—there was none, and she wasn’t breathing. They had fought to the death, honourably, and the blood debt had been settled, so she was no longer his enemy.

In a panic he tried to lift her, but his injured arm was still useless. “Oh god oh god.”

He began dragging the girl along the ground, toward Alice’s hut.

Laricia, daughter of Herbert the Jabberwock Slayer, opened her eyes, thinking she was awakening from her nightly sleep.

Then she grew confused—it was bright and warm here, the middle of the day.

She looked around and saw trees. She was in a forest, lying on a curious substance. She felt with her hands and realized she was lying on leaves.

Then she remembered she’d fought the Jabberwock and lost. She took in a sharp gasp of breath and felt the panic surge within her.

She felt dizzy. She touched her belly and when she pulled her hand away, her fingertips came away coated in blood.

She sat up.

“I should be dead,” she muttered to herself. She looked at something lying on the ground.

It was a notepad with a message written upon it—she saw the feather quill pen a short distance away, the tip of it pointing out from the leaves.

She had a hard time reaching the notepad without falling over—she was still tipsy.

She had trouble focusing her eyes—the words were written in blood, she now saw.

Written on the paper were these words: “You fulfilled your duty, for you gave your life defending his honour. Let us not fight anymore.”

She grunted in disgust, and looked around for the vorpal sword. Of course the disgusting beast had taken it. She screamed and tore the note in half, then she shouted at the top of her lungs, hoping he was still close enough to hear: “One day, Jabberwock!…I will come for you!”

Her voice echoed throughout the forest.

A short distance away, the Jabberwock heard her—heard that hatred in her voice and stopped in his tracks. He lowered his head, staring at the ground, then continued walking toward his post outside the Eighth Square.

Alice heard the voice of a young girl and raised her head. She stared out the window for a long time, remembering her little sister, who she hadn’t last seen alive since she was still a baby.

CHAPTER THREE

The Black Butterfly

When Alice was 7

Alice was going about her daily rounds. The next stop was a visit to the Caterpillar.

He liked to sit atop his mushroom with a hookah and smoke various spices. He liked to try numerous and new varieties, which he often tested on Alice first. Sometimes the spices were fun and sometimes they were horrifying or made her sick.

Since the Caterpillar was an ordinary-sized insect, she had to shrink down to his size to interact with him. That’s why she carried a piece of his mushroom. It had magical properties so that it could shrink or enlarge Alice.

On that particular day, as she looked down, she could see that the Caterpillar had a visitor—a black butterfly who was resting on the ground in front of him. They seemed to be talking, but as large as Alice was, their voices just sounded like tiny insect murmurs that she couldn’t make out.

She nibbled on the mushroom piece, then began to shrink.

She was behind the Caterpillar and he didn’t even seem to notice her presence.

The Black Butterfly noticed Alice but didn’t acknowledge her. There were a couple of peculiar things about the butterfly. She seemed to be wearing two tiny shoes upon two of her legs—they looked like Mary Janes. And the butterfly seemed to be glowing with a kind of aura…of goody goodiness.

“Ahahah!” said the Black Butterfly. “Look at you, still sitting up there like a grub on a log. Still too afraid to metamorphosize?”

“Quit bullying me! I’ve already told you I’m not afraid! I just like being a caterpillar.”

“No, you’re just too scared of growing up! All the other caterpillars from our egg batch have gone on to be butterflies. Except you. What’s wrong with you, that your progress is so…delayed? Hmm? Maybe you’re too dumb to figure it out.”

“I’ll transform someday, when I feel like it. What does it matter to you? None of the other butterflies give me a hard time about it.”

“Awah. I’m just trying to help you not be such a loser. They all talk behind your back, but I’m the only one nice enough to say it to your face.”

“No, you’re just a vicious harlot. With wings of black.”

“Yes, I definitely stand apart. I’m not ordinary, like all the others.” She sneered.

Alice continued watching silently, not knowing what to make of it all. She couldn’t understand the goody aura around the butterfly, since she didn’t seem so very goody at all. The Caterpillar still hadn’t noticed her standing behind him.

“One day,” the Caterpillar said, in a whiny voice, “the other butterflies will banish you just like they banished the black rose that transformed you.”

She chuckled. “Pish posh. I am more powerful, and much more vicious than any of them will ever be. They are too afraid to ever do anything against me. But even as pathetic as they all are, they are
still
above you, you lowly grub!”

The Caterpillar drew back and whimpered. Alice felt sorry for him, and for a moment thought about stepping in and saying something, but then she thought that might be too humiliating for him. The Black Butterfly winked at her—she seemed to be putting on a cruel show for Alice’s benefit.

The Black Butterfly cackled. “Well, I have other things to do than stare at you, pathetic grub. So I just dropped by to hear you say it before I go back to my tree. So are you pathetic?”

The Caterpillar didn’t respond.

“Say it! Or I’ll beat you up and take whatever stupid spices you’re smoking!”

“I’m pathetic,” the Caterpillar muttered.

Alice watched on with her eyes brimming with tears of rage.
How dare that Black Butterfly be so mean to my Caterpillar!

The Black Butterfly cackled loudly then took flight, swooshing through the air and fluttering briefly over the Caterpillar’s head, where she stroked against his face with some of her legs.

“Ow! Stop it!” he whined.

“I’ll see you later, grub,” the Black Butterfly mocked, then flew off. As she passed over, she gave Alice a vicious smile, then she was gone.

“Oh why won’t she just leave me alone!?” the Caterpillar called out.

Alice had never seen the Caterpillar like this, so vulnerable. She knew that he could be mean sometimes, but now she had a better understanding as to the reason why. Maybe he only picked on others because he himself had been picked on so much. She felt sorry for him, and she yearned to go to him and comfort him, but still, she thought it might be best to respect his dignity. She didn’t want him to feel ashamed.

And so she quietly backed away to a distance where he couldn’t see her, then enlarged herself once again.

She was furious. Alice was determined to go have a “discussion” with her. The Black Butterfly needed to learn that it was really mean to pick on others like that! Why, how would she like it if
she
was being picked on?

Alice looked in the direction the butterfly had flown. She was surprised that she could see a glowing kind of trail floating in the air. It was the goody goody energy that she was sensing, she realized, leaving a trail like a scent for a bloodhound. She giggled at that thought.

And so, like a bloodhound on a trail, she followed it, not knowing what would happen when she got there, but she felt like more than a match for a little butterfly. Why, she could rip off her stupid wings if she wanted. But no, that would be mean. It wouldn’t solve anything. Maybe she could reason with the Black Butterfly—explain how she had hurt the Caterpillar’s feelings…

And so she followed the glowing trail and soon it led her to a tree and a little nook inside the tree.

She knew she should perhaps be more cautious, but she was still absolutely furious at the Butterfly for treating her friend, the Caterpillar, like that—okay, so maybe he wasn’t exactly her friend—he was more like her tormentor, but he was
her
tormentor, and she was possessive.

She grabbed a hold of the tree trunk and clasped on, then she ate a bit of the mushroom to shrink herself. She began to shrink in comparison to the tree and scrambled to keep a grip upon the bark. She managed a fair job of it. She stopped shrinking, holding onto the tree just below the nook entrance.

She hooked her hands onto the edge, then kicked up and hooked her foot and pulled herself up and over.

She peered at what was inside.

It was a cozy little abode indeed. The inside reminded Alice of a cave. She saw the Black Butterfly standing in the nook, asleep. Behind her were two most-peculiar objects—they were two human-sized Mary Jane shoes that looked quite enormous compared to the Butterfly. The two shoes glowed with that same “goody” energy Alice had seen before, but the glow was very strong emanating from the shoes, and she deduced that that is perhaps where the “goody” energy had originated from.

She paused for a moment, steeling herself for what she would have to do next, because she wasn’t normally a very mean person, but this butterfly had been bullying the Caterpillar. So the Butterfly had to be taught a lesson, and unfortunately that might mean being a little cruel, but it was for a good cause against a mean insect, she told herself, which justified it somewhat.

Her black dress contained many secret pockets capable of holding much more than seemed possible.

She reached into her pocket and crept silently as a cat up to the sleeping Black Butterfly.

She pulled out the little baggy of spice that she had secretly stolen when the Caterpillar wasn’t looking. She didn’t feel all that bad about stealing it, since the Caterpillar had judged the spice to be inferior and had essentially thrown it away.

It was the Spice of Paralyzing Terror and Nightmares.

Alice knew firsthand its effects, because the Caterpillar had tested it on her.

Alice stepped up to the dozing Butterfly. She reared back and smacked the insect across the face, hard!

The Black Butterfly startled awake! “What?” her wild, bug eyes, struggled to focus on Alice as she poured the powdered spice into her hand, then she leaned forward and blew a cloud of spice into the bug’s face.

The paralysis it caused was instant. It caused all body movements and functions to freeze except for things like blinking, breathing, and curiously, talking.

If the same thing happened as happened to Alice herself, the waking nightmares would soon be coming on. That was what had happened to Alice the three times the Caterpillar had tested it on her. It had been torturous, but informative.