She sat thinking of Alice and her silly nightmare Adventures, till she too began dreaming after a fashion.
Yes, the meat pie would be especially delicious and satisfying this afternoon, because—
The long grass rustled at her feet as a great Black Rat hurried by.
She snapped out a foot and stomped the nasty little thing until it was dead.
Yes, the meat pies would be wonderful today.
She wondered how long it would be before Alice, sweet, stupid little Alice, began to search for her kitten.
She left the graveyard, chuckling to herself.
After she disappeared in the distance, the cold wind moaned through the tombstones and weeds, whispered through the grass where the dead rat lay in a gory pool of its smashed innards and cooling blood. And after a moment, its whiskers began to twitch and quiver with renewed life. Its feet convulsed, scraping at the icy earth, digging little angry furrows and kicking dead leaves all around.
The Black Rat’s eyes popped open, bright and red with hungry fury.
About the Authors
Lewis Carroll was born in 1832 and wrote many beloved works of fiction throughout his life. Among some of his most notable works are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, and The Hunting of the Snark. He died in 1898.
Nickolas Cook lives in the beautiful Southwestern desert with his wife and three hungry pugs. He is the author of The Black Beast of Algernon Wood, Paint it Black, A Kind of Blue and Baleful Eye. When he is not writing fiction, he is the editor-in-chief of The Black Glove Magazine, a free monthly online magazine devoted to horror culture and entertainment.