Death of the Mad Hatter (16 page)

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
N
INE

(
Ryley: Present Time)

That damn cat.

Three distinct bloody marks were scratched down Alice Mae’s leg. Chez scampered off before I could catch him. I swore that cat sabotaged my chance with Alice Mae on purpose.

“
Chez, the Super villain,” Alice Mae said.

She inspected her feline inflicted injury. Her hands smoothed over her legs, checking the depth of the cut marks. When she caught me looking, she blushed and
turned away.

“
I should really get back home,” she said, and headed off.

Just like that?

I raced up to her. With no shoes on, it proved to be difficult. My feet seemed to step on every rock in our yard. When I caught up to her, I reached for her hand. She stared straight ahead, but the edges of her mouth twitch when my fingers interlocked with hers.

“
I should probably walk you home,” I said. “In case any more crazed animals try attacking you.”

She nodded and appeared to be actually considering the possibility of being attacked again.
“It would be poor luck to be assaulted twice in one night.”

She stopped when we approached a puddle. She
pointed to my bare feet. “You don’t have shoes.”

“
It’s just water,” I said, trying to sound tough even though I cringed every time I stepped on a pebble.

She released my hand and dug
in her dress pocket. She pulled out a lemon drop. She popped it into her mouth and closed her eyes. I offered to take her wrapper, and shoved it in my jean pocket.

We continued our walk
, hand in hand. I shouldn’t have been surprised when her house was only a few blocks away from mine. One-oh-six looked like every other house on Sneve Street. There were white shutters on either side of the windows. It was painted a dull brown, so it blended in with all the other houses on the block. There was a line of shrubs along the sidewalk that separated the yard from the street. A single apple tree was in the front yard. A few fallen apples were scattered on the perfectly manicured lawn. Not a single board creaked when we walked onto the porch.

“
Thank you for your escort, Ryley,” she said, and opened the front door. She gave me a second glance before stepping onto the mahogany interior floor boards. The flicker from a candelabrum on an end table cast a soft glow on her face.

Refusing to end the night unsatisfied
, I grabbed her waist. I jerked her against me and kissed her like I wanted to—like I
had
to kiss her. Her sweet and sour kiss, compliments from the residue of her lemon drop, made my mouth water.
She made an eager sound and pulled on my shirt, dirtying it with the grime under her nails.

I
walked her backwards up against the doorframe, sandwiching her between it and me. I tried to control myself, but her kiss was so incredibly tantalizing that I needed more—craved more.

“
I’m not letting you out of my sight unless you promise me that you’ll be at school on Monday,” I said, gasping for air. I kept my eyes closed but didn’t pull away.

“Kiss me again, and I’ll show up every day next week.”

I
obliged.

She
held onto me like she would fall without my support. What surprised me was that I wanted her to come to me for help. I wanted to protect her. I wanted her to feel safe, and I wanted to make sure she was taken care of. I’d never fallen for a girl like Alice Mae before. Maybe that was why those relationships had never lasted longer than a few months.

“
You will be the death of me,” I whispered, breaking the kiss.

When I opened my eyes, the
world had transformed, blurring somewhat if I looked anywhere other than at Alice Mae. I untangled myself from her. She clung to the doorframe like she might fall if she didn’t hang onto it. She walked inside. She closed the rectangular door but didn’t shut it completely. Maybe it was because the frame no longer fit quite right. The top seemed narrower than the base; the door was built in reverse. Its top was wide but the base was narrow. There was a two inch space. Her explosive blue eyes seemed darker than usual, or maybe my vision was just messing with me. My mouth still tasted sweet and sour, from our kiss. Dropping my gaze to her swollen lips, I already knew that I would have a newfound love for Lemon Drops. Her lipstick was no longer drawn to create a pouty illusion. My cheeks warmed when I thought out how ridiculous I had to look with blue smeared on my lips. She bit her bottom lip. My stomach flipped. I clutched the offset doorframe for support. Forcing myself, I looked away from her delicious lips.

“
You’re making a mess of my plan.”

“
Good,” I said even though I hadn’t a clue what her plan was, but I didn’t care, as long as she didn’t take off for weeks at a time again.

She looked at me like she was trying to memorize exactly what
I looked like—from my disheveled hair to my bare feet. I wiped blue makeup off my lips, staining the outside of my hand with her lipstick.

“
My plan is… complicated and devious in nature. But that doesn’t matter. The day I must choose is upon me. I can feel it. I’m no longer a girl learning about Wrongdoings in Wonderland. I’m no longer the girl strapped to a flying a bird, destroying lizards’ homes, or talking to spiders. I’m no longer the girl in a mushroom house, weighing choices that no child should make. I’m not the same girl who painted the queen’s roses with poisonous paint. I’m not the same girl who watched a father rescue his son from behind a closet door. I’m no longer innocent. I let my friends pay for my mistakes. I won’t make only one Wrong decision. I’ll make many, but it doesn’t matter. Soon, I must choose where I’ll live, even if it’s the Wrong decision.”

I didn
’t understand about ninety percent of what she’d just said. But the ten percent that I caught, I didn’t like. She was going to move—choose a different place to live?

“
People move all the time. I moved twenty three times before my mom and I settled in Rockingham,” I said.

“
I’m afraid my residency will be permanent.”

Vida Maude flung the door open. For a woman wearing a nightdress, she was rather intimidating.
“Did you give him any of your sweets?”

“
No,” Alice Mae said, sounding weak and pitiful.

Ever
since I almost stepped on her bunny, Alice Mae had never given me the impression that she was submissive or weak. It made me wonder what relationship she and her aunts had.

“
He’s wearing your lipstick,” Vida Maude said, eyeing me over.

“
I’m aware,” Alice Mae whispered.

“
Well then he had a taste of your sweets!” Vida Maude glared at her niece and then me. “Drink something containing caffeine. It will offset the effects of the candy.”

That made absolutely no sense.
“What drug is in these candies?”

“
None.” Alice Mae and Vida Maude said, simultaneously.

I didn’t believe either of them, but it didn’t really matter. Vida Maude slammed the door in my face. I walked home,
which would have been quite disastrous if a talking toad hadn’t showed up to escort me back.

When I went for my morning run the next morning, the ceramic frog that guarded our front door was sitting in his usual spot. Grime and dirt covered the ceramic frog and floor boards around him. When I lifted him up, the floor that was covered by his body was spotless. It was as if the toad had never left.

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY

(
Ryley: Present Time)

Monday morning couldn
’t come fast enough. Alice Mae waited for me at my locker. When I leaned in to kiss her, she pressed her finger against my lips.

“
Both my aunts insist that I don’t kiss you during school hours,” she said, and then bit her lip. “They will know if we do.”

“
Because they have spies?”

“
Well, there is Chez…” she said, trailing off. “But, it would be quite disastrous if I attended school without my candy.”

Our classmates were
watching us. I spotted Becky down the hall. She was holding up her phone, probably recording Alice Mae and me.

I leaned in close so I only had to whisper.
“I thought you said that the candies weren’t narcotics. Still, I couldn’t fall asleep last night until I downed an entire jug of iced tea. Caffeine isn’t supposed to make you tired. So why did it? Is this some sort of Wonderland spice or something?”

“
The candy made in Wonderland is different from the candy here. Thus, the effects are different.” She sighed heavily. “Sometimes, candy can be dangerous.”

“
To whom?” I asked, mockingly.

“
Sleepy parents of rowdy, sugar-high children,” she said, and stuck out her tongue. “But that’s not to say all are that way. Some people react differently when tasting them. Some candy can be poisonous if the dosage is high.”

Poisonous?
I pulled away. It just clicked. My horrible date with at Little Italy…“Did you poison Courtney when we were on a date?”

She didn
’t respond. She didn’t move. She just stood there as if she was suddenly frozen.

“
You did, didn’t you?” I said, pushing away from her.

She shook her head. But, it didn
’t go unnoticed that she didn’t deny my accusation.

The first bell rang.
Everyone around us walked through the halls like mice in a maze. A thousand questions bubbled up, but I knew she wouldn’t answer them. Every single one I thought of sounded too vague, even to me.

“
I hate being late,” Alice Mae said and left for class.

Like a drone robot, I followed her to the classroom and chose a desk in the back.
I thought about tearing off a piece of paper and passing it to her, but Mr. Blanch prided himself on note-catching, like a recreational sport. When his back was to us, I slipped my phone out of my pocket and sent her a text.

Me:
Why did you poison her?

She jumped in her desk when her phone vibrated. Mr. Blanch
stared at her, waiting for her to make a move indicating she had her phone on. She’d get detention for sure; it was against school policy to carry your phone, even though most everyone did. She waited ten minutes before retrieving it. She glanced at the message and shoved it back into her backpack. Instead of replying, she drew in her book. Was she purposely messing with me? She used each of her colored pencils to doodle. By the time she was finished with her drawing all her pencils were covered in bite marks; she was nervous.

I felt
ill. I was totally and completely into the psychopath. And what was worse was that I jerked Courtney around. If nothing else, I owed Courtney an apology of epic proportions. So I flipped open my notebook and wrote that I was sorry—for everything. The more I inscribed, the less confident I became with my words. I shut the notebook, thinking that perhaps the words would come out better if I just told her the truth.

The bell sounded. I bolted out of my seat.

“
Courtney, wait up!” I said, rushing over to her.

She
acted like I had just called her fat. “What do you want?”

She turned around and walked out the door. That didn
’t slow me. “I’m sorry!”

“
Sick of sucking on the blonde bimbo’s jacked-up lips?” Courtney said, glancing back at me. She glared the kind of glare all women seem to have perfected by age ten. But, she wasn’t looking just at me. Behind me was Alice Mae, close on our tail.

Without
slowing her pace, Alice Mae grabbed my cap and took off running toward her locker. That girl—that infuriating girl—knew how to rub me the wrong way! It was idiotically annoyed that I was remotely into her.

Courtney
’s apology would have to wait. I took off running after Alice Mae. After a few strides, I easily caught up with her. But, she ducked into a janitor closet before I could wrap my hands around her neck.

“
You could have killed her!” I shouted as soon as she slammed the door shut behind us.

“
No, I wouldn’t. I have all the calculations memorized. I know just how much powdered sugar to give you if I wanted your stomach to merely be upset, how much would make your heart race, how much to make you hallucinate, and how much to kill you.” She handed me back my hat, which I immediately put back on my head. “So if I wanted her dead, she’d be six feet under.”

“
Why did you poison her in the first place?” I yelled.

“
She made me mad.”

“Mad? How? Never mind, I don’t care.
You’re going to jail for a very long time,” I said, and twisted the door handle.

She grabbed my hand. I tried to pull away, but she sunk her nails against my skin. I wouldn
’t have been surprised if she drew blood, but I dared not look away from her eyes. She studied me with an intense curiosity. There was no blue in the world that could compare to the brilliance in them. I hated that they were so enchanting.

“
If I’m to pay for any crime, it won’t be because I poisoned some silly high school girl. I guarantee Hearts will be my
get out of jail
free card.”

“
You work for her?”

“
If I was to answer that, you’d have a very different opinion of me,” she said, and then released my hand. “Go. Tell your little friends and their law enforcement.”

She didn
’t need to do any convincing. I pushed the door.

“
But then you’ll never know what I know.”

I stopped. Weighing my options, I jerked the door close
d. “I hate you sometimes.”

“
The feeling is mutual.”

“
Answer one damn question,” I said in a low voice. “How do you know my dad?”  

She smiled again, but it wasn
’t scandalous. It wasn’t pretty. I needed a picture book to decipher the differences between her smiles. But, if I were to guess, her smile was the kind people wore at a funeral. She smiled the kind of smile people do when they are trying to hide their sadness.

“
I met Robert Edgar on my first assignment.”

Recalling everything I
’d learned, about my dad, my uncle, the queen, and their murderous past I asked. “So you
do
work for Hearts. Why?”

“
That’s two questions,” she said. “And this particular assignment was
before
my alliance with Hearts.”

“But you do work for her now?
Are you one of her minions?”

Alice Mae
replied, but it wasn’t an answer to my questions. “Regardless of which side I’m on, your dad and I do have one thing in common.”

“
Humor me.”

“
We both want Hearts dead.”