I wave hard and then...
And then...
I stop, midair.
How am I supposed to hurt an innocent woman working in a morgue? She is annoying, smokes too much, and doesn't take care of her health, I know. But I can't kill her. She hasn't done anything bad to anyone. And I am no killer.
Even though I killed my friends on the bus.
Still, I am not a killer. This isn't how I see myself. If I hit this woman, the Cheshire will probably beat me and possess one of the many dead people in here. Not that I know how he does it, but I can't do it. He has me cornered in a way I can't react to properly.
"That's why you aren't the Alice." His eyes scan me thoroughly. "The Real Alice would hit and never blink. Because she knows that evil has to be chopped off by the roots and burned so it never grows again. That was the whole point of Alice's madness. She was strong. Powerful. Never afraid." He says the words with much admiration as resentment. "She was M-A-D. That was her trick. But you're not her." His voice saddens. He wants me to be her. God only knows why he needs her that much. Tears begin trickling down my cheeks. I don't know why. Am disappointed I am not her? Am I disappointed I can't kill him and save the world? I just don't know.
"The Pillar will tell you it doesn't matter who you are," he elaborates. "That it doesn't matter if you're mad or not. I'd say it matters a lot. How can you take sides when you don't know who you are? You know what the world's most common sin is, Alice?" He reaches for the mallet to snatch it from me. "It's indifference. Indecisiveness. Hesitation when it's time for swift justice."
He is about to pull the mallet away from my trembling hands when something inside me surfaces. Something I haven't met or thought of before. A strong urge to correct things, to stand for something, and to help as many people as I can. A strong urge to see behind the Cheshire's mask.
I can pretend it's not me as I bring down the mallet on the mortician's woman's legs, enough to hurt her but not kill her. I can pretend I am not that kind of girl.
But it's me. Truly me. Maybe not the Alice the Cheshire is looking for. But the Alice I want to be from now on.
Chapter 20
A tear trickles down my cheek as the mortician woman falls to her knees. I do the unimaginable and catch my tear in the palm of my hand before it hits the ground again. If I want to win this, I can't cry. If I could squeeze that tear back in, I would. This tear is me balancing the insanity I am thrown into.
I help the woman in her fall so she doesn't hit her head against something. She stares at me with a horrified expression, unaware of what happened to her. The absence of a grin on her face tells me the Cheshire left her body.
Why not? He wants me to suffer the guilt of hitting an innocent woman.
The mortician keeps sobbing uncontrollably, more in need of an explanation than to mend her wounds.
The corpses have stopped singing and zipped themselves back into their death bags. I can't see the Cheshire anywhere.
"Who are you?" The woman starts to shake me hysterically. Her leg is swollen and bleeding.
"Please calm down," I tell her. "I need you to trust me. There is an evil presence in here."
The woman's eyes are wide open. She scans me from head to toe and then stops at the string wrapped around my toe. Slowly, she raises a reluctant finger, pointing at the empty death bag. "You're dead..." she stutters.
Before I can explain further, she faints.
I help her to the floor and pat her. I can't complain. She did me a huge favor and saved me a lot of time.
Turning around with the mallet in my hands, I look for the Cheshire. I don't know how his soul-possessing works, but he must be in the room because the door is still shut.
What kind of game is he playing with me now?
I walk slowly toward the door, the corpses supposedly resting in peace at my sides. Holding the mallet as if it's a sword does give me confidence somehow. It's amazing what fear does to you when you decide to finally face it. My bare feet, and my body, are still exposed to the chilling cold of the morgue.
Closer to the door, I hear my footsteps echoing. It's unexplainable, but I keep walking.
If the Cheshire has the ability to be invisible, then I really don't have a way to fight back.
Why am I hearing echoes of my footsteps?
I keep limping to the door with a mallet in my hand. Horror movies aren't even close to the condition I am in.
Closer to the door, I realize that what I am hearing aren't the echoes of my footsteps. They are someone else's. And they are approaching from the other side of the door.
How did the Cheshire leave the room without opening the door? And why is he mirroring my footsteps? He must be trying to scare me, that's all.
I grip the door handle, my mallet ready in my other hand. A deep breath helps me to lower my blood pressure, just enough to think straight. All I have to do is pull the door open and then hit hard. That's it. I hope I am really thinking straight. I have no combat training, after all—or if I did, I don't remember it.
I grip the door tighter, and then pull.
I didn't expect that. But like the Cheshire said, the door is locked.
The keychain in the mortician's hand!
I turn around to go fetch the keys from the woman's hands, only to see her standing on her feet again. There is a slight problem with her posture now. She has her head chopped off and holds it in one hand. The other hand holding the keys.
"Looking for these?" She grins.
The Cheshire is back. Who was approaching the door from the other side?
The horrible scene chains me for a moment. But I am about to run full throttle against the Cheshire and hit him. Let's get done with this.
The door behind me suddenly flings open.
I close my eyes, as I suppose another Cheshire-possessed human is behind me. How am I supposed to kill him? Am I supposed to kill the nine of them?
"Alice!" a voice calls from behind me. "Here you are!"
A hefty smile forms on my face. The voice behind the smile is so dear to me. It's Jack Diamonds.
Chapter 21
The mortician's face knots in anger when she hears Jack Diamonds' voice. Jack prefers not to enter the room. It's hard to understand why. He just opened the door from the other side. The Cheshire can't actually see Jack from this angle. I haven't seen Jack yet either; I've only heard his voice.
Please God, don't make it just a voice in my head. But come on, the door is open. It can't be a voice in my head.
It drives the woman mad that someone is saving me.
"Come on, Alice," Jack urges me. I can only see his hand, reaching out from behind the door. "It's so cold where you are. I don't think I can get in."
"But I have to kill him first, Jack," I say.
"Kill who? Is there is someone with you in the room?" He wiggles his hand. "They are all dead."
"Who are you talking to, Alice?" the Cheshire blurts in anger. "There is no one there behind the door."
"Don't play games with me, Cheshire." I raise my mallet, ready to strike, as he is approaching again. "Who else do you think opened the door from outside?"
"I don't know." He shakes his shoulders and puts his head on. Sometimes, I really don't understand his intentions. Is he trying to give me a message so I continue my investigation, or is he trying to hurt me? The more time I spend with him, the more nothing makes sense. "But I know there is no one out there." Now he grins again. "And I know you can't kill me. You might have wounded and injured a poor woman, but you can't kill me."