Once Upon A Fairytale
Broken Hearts Are A Sign Of Madness
The Hatter sat on the floor in his throne room, swaying side to side thinking of his latest encounter with Alice. They had not always been enemies when they had first arrived Alice was the only thing that kept him sane. The madness had definitely progressed faster once she had left. He just couldn’t resist the power the way that she had. He crossed his legs and rocked backward and forwards. He closed his eyes and remembered the day that he and Alice had found the magic like it was yesterday.
The young girl gripped his arm as they wandered through the forest, looking for a way home, or at least someone who would be able to help them. The trees seemed to have eyes, watching them as they roamed deeper into the dark forest and the flowers whispered dark secrets around their feet. The lack of quiet somehow made them feel more alone than they had ever felt before. He cursed the old man in his mind, he had tricked him.
“Look!” Alice gasped. He followed her gaze to a gap in the trees where there was a bright, shimmer coming through a parting in some overhanging leaves. Alice let go and began walking toward the far away glisten. Johnny cautiously followed behind her. Pushing the curtain of leaves aside, Alice disappeared beyond them. She made no sound when she had passed through to the other side, making Johnny nervous.
“Alice!” he shouted hesitantly. She reached a hand back through the leaves for Johnny to take. He paused for a moment before sliding his hand into hers and letting her pull him through. Once on the other side he stood and stared in awe at the sight before him. Unable to speak, unable to blink, just about able to remember to breathe, they were mesmerized.
They had found themselves stood on the shores of a lake, only it wasn’t a normal lake. It had the appearance of millions of tiny diamonds and sapphires glinting in the sunlight. They poured down from a gap in the rock face like a waterfall into the sparkling pool. Neither of them spoke for what seemed like a lifetime, too confused by what they were seeing with their own eyes.
“Maybe we should take some… In case we need money for anything...” Alice murmured, her eyes never leaving the glittering jewels. Johnny nodded and knelt down on the edge and put his hands into the pool, thinking of how much money the diamonds would be worth. He didn’t pull out diamonds from the water, rather he pulled out a handful of money. They stared at each other and the money in silent amazement, wondering what to do next.
“Maybe we should make camp here for the night?” He suggested as he lay the money on the floor. He reached in again, pulling out a tent, two sleeping bags and some other items that would help them for the night. And that was it. They didn’t leave after that.
The hatter grinned to himself as he thought of all the magic – power – that he had found all that time ago. He stood and skipped over to the window, looking out across the dark green trees that had turned a burnt color under the orange sky. He thought about the lake in the clearing. He hadn’t been there in a while, the last time he had been it was far too painful, bringing back the memories of Alice when she had loved him. Before he had time to talk himself out of it, he skipped to the door that had appeared on the opposite wall, opened it, and he was outside. He continued remembering as he walked playfully toward the lake.
They had been there for a while when the others began arriving. By this time, Johnny and Alice had built a life on the banks of the lake, using it to bring things that they wanted to them, reveling in the magic that they had found. He had been in the forest, just going for a walk when he had spotted the two men, the tall skinny one, and the short built one. They had been wandering alone, unsupervised. His first thought was that he didn’t want to share his power with them, he would have to lead them away from the lake.
Approaching them slowly he spoke
“Hello, are you lost?” He spoke confidently with an air of superiority.
“Yes, we were up… Uhm,” He looked up and pointed slowly, “There, and then we fell down a hole… and now, we’re… here…? Where is here?” One of the men replied, his voice shaking slightly with confusion, “There’s more of us back at the beach.”
Johnny smiled with a faux friendliness.
“Yes, that’s how we got here too. I’m afraid there’s no way back that we’ve found, and we’ve looked all over the island.” The men looked horrified as he continued, “If you go to the east, you may be able to find things to make your own camp, so that you may be comfortable while you’re here.” They stared back at him.
“Would it not just make more sense if we stayed together?”
“No!” Johnny replied, a little too quickly, with slightly too much force. A suspicious look crossed the faces of the two men, he quickly composed himself, “I mean, my girlfriend, Alice, she is unwell with a foreign disease from this land. I seem to be immune but it may spread if others come into contact with her.”
The larger of the of the men, although he didn’t look completely satisfied, grunted in response, and the other just followed suit. Johnny continued, “If you wait here, I can get you some supplies that we’ve found that we have spare?” The men hesitated and then nodded appreciatively before Johnny turned his back and ran back toward the lake. On his arrival, he saw Alice asleep next to a book that she had conjured last night on her favorite fluffy blanket under a tree. He admired her beauty for a moment before sneaking over to the lake and lowering in his hand, thinking of what he wanted. He wanted something to make the new arrivals do what he wanted. Like, servants. Or pets. He pulled out his hand and a small vial of purple powder was in his hand.
The hatter smiled to himself as he sauntered down the path. The purple powder had been an accident, he hadn’t been clear in what he wanted and it had given him a mix of both. When he had blown the powder in their faces they had become ugly, they had transformed into half animals that were ready to do his will. At first, he had felt a little bit guilty, but he had soon realized that it was necessary to the preservation of their island, to make life better. The lake had been good and useful, but they couldn’t pull a home from the lake without having to build it themselves, that’s where he had gotten his plan from.
He sent Alice off every morning and made his new helpers pull blocks from the lake to build a castle with. He would have surprised her and she would have been so happy, they could have lived happily ever after in wonderland. Until she found out what he had been doing. The Hatter remembered the look on her face when she had seen some of the people he had transformed. He felt an ache slowly creep into his heart as he thought of the way Alice looked at him now, how it was so far from how she had looked at him all that time ago when they had been falling in love. When she had left all he had left was the magic and he had let it consume him and make him what he was now.
Johnny walked slowly back to the lake, the wounds to his heart raw and exposed. Alice had said that she hated him and he was a monster. Was he? He questioned this as he retraced the steps they had taken together when they had first arrived. His footsteps sounded louder now that he was alone. His heart ached now that he was alone. He pushed the overhang aside and walked to the edge of the lake. This was all he had now, magic. The beautiful diamonds that gave him everything he wanted. A small smile spreading across his face, subconsciously, as he thought about the power he owned, he leant down and dipped his hand in not thinking of anything, just wishing to feel the power in his hand. But something happened. He pulled out his hand and he was wearing a white and green striped glove. He stared at the glove in silence, confused as to why that would have happened when he heard the voice behind him.
“It’s not only what you want that Wonderland gives you.”
Johnny jumped at the sudden break in the silence and whipped his head around to see who had intruded on his moment. He recognized the figure instantly and the anger rose inside him, making his face hot.
“You bastard!” he spat at the man in the suit before him. The man just smirked before continuing.
“The glove,” Johnny’s eyes flicked down to his hand and then back to the man questioningly, “Wonderland will give you what you need as well.”
Johnny laughed, it was a cold, bitter sound. “Right now, that’s not important-,” but Mr. Rabbit cut him off.
“You’re wrong.” He said, sharply.
“And you’re a liar.” Johnny retorted just as bluntly. The smirk returned to Mr. Rabbit’s old face and he took a step closer.
“I didn’t lie; you just didn’t ask enough questions.” His voice was back to the calm tones that it usually took on, but this just made Johnny angrier.
“I wanted to meet her. That was all I asked.”
“And you did, did you not? I just added something extra to the end to make the story more interesting.” Johnny didn’t even know how to respond to this, although he didn’t have to because the old man continued, “Now, back to the glove. Wonderland is trying to heal you and you need to let it.”
“Heal me?” He couldn’t help himself from asking. Although he knew the man was a liar, he knew more about this world than Johnny. “How?”
“You’ll see. Fall back into the lake.”
“Are you crazy?” Johnny was snapped from his curiosity, he and Alice had discussed what could happen if their whole bodies had entered and the unknown had been deemed too risky. The thought of Alice brought on the sharp pain in his heart again, followed by the realization that there was nothing to stop him taking a risk if it were to kill him, he had nothing left to live for anyway. Not waiting for the man's reply, he stood in front of the lake, stretched his arms out and fell.
At once he regretted his decision, he had fallen in and been dragged down by a force. His body stung in the diamond lake as something strange happened, but all he could think about was the growing pain in his lungs as he held his breath. He felt a sense of desperation and panic rising in him as he was quickly running out of oxygen. He would have to breathe. His lungs gave out and he sucked in. It wasn’t like breathing in water, but the stinging that was on the outside was now on the inside. As the diamonds reached his brain all of a sudden he knew what it was. It was magic, he was being filled with power. The only place that the magic couldn’t seem to reach was his heart… his heart still ached with the pain of Alice.
Then it was over. He opened his eyes to be laying on the bank next to the lake. The man was nowhere to be seen, now he was just a powerful man with a broken heart, but he would push his heart aside and just focus on the magic. And that’s what he had done ever since. Whenever he had seen Alice after then he had acted over confident and cocky because that’s what he had to do.
He stopped a few steps away from the overhang that led into the clearing. He didn’t often think of his past, he didn’t even really feel as though that was his past anymore, it just seemed like a story he had been told a long time ago that he had never forgotten. The ache, though, that was still as fresh as it was all those years ago. Even worse now that he knew he would never see her again.
He had been sitting in the throne room when the Rabbit had appeared. Johnny may have been replaced by a different man now, but he still despised the old man.
“Hatter. It’s time.” He had said from the door. He had been looking out the window when the Rabbit had spoken. Tilting his head to one side, the Hatter looked over his shoulder with a sly smirk.
“Time. Have you forgotten Rabbit, you’re in Wonderland? Time does not exist here.” The Rabbit had ignored him, but the Hatter didn’t care. He simply meandered around to the other side of the chair and draped himself across it with his legs hanging over one of the arms and his back against the other.
“You are to capture the… Beast…” The Rabbit’s face contorted in disgust before he continued, “That will arrive on the beach today and keep him until Alice comes to rescue him. Then you will let him, Alice and her companion go and tell them that there is a boat belonging to a pirate from another land on the beach, which they are to get on.”
“And why would I do that?” The Hatter’s eyes flashed, “What do I get from this?”
“You get to live.” The Rabbit said simply before disappearing.
So he had done as the Rabbit had said and directed Alice to the beach so that she could leave. Why, though? How would the Rabbit have killed him? He doubted he would have had the power to kill him before the Hatter could have stopped him. He wished he hadn’t let Alice go and that he still had her. He wished she still loved him. That was something he hadn’t been able to admit to himself for a very long time, but now she was gone, he felt as though it was staring him in the face.
“You can have her back you know.” The quiet voice that broke the silence drew the Hatter from his thoughts. He looked around, expecting to see someone, yet he saw no one standing anywhere. Had he imagined it? He wouldn’t put it past himself, he was insane, even he knew that.
“Up here.” The voice said again. He looked up and there she was. A small fairy like creature, she was stunningly beautiful, inhumanly beautiful, like no one he had ever seen before. She wore a red dress, that glistened with small golden hearts in the light.
“And how do you figure that, fairy.” He scoffed. He had dealt with fairies in the past since being here and knew that in Wonderland fairies were known for making deals with humans that led them astray.
“I’m not a fairy. I’m Angelina, the Queen of Hearts, I am called to mend broken hearts.” She gestured toward the Hatter’s chest, “As hard as you will probably find it to believe, your heart, while it has been in pain for a very long time, it has only just broken.”
The Hatter was suddenly overcome with a surge of hope and excitement, “How will you stop her from leaving?” His eyes were wide, making him look even more insane than usual.
“As long as you can lure Alice to you, I can make her love you.” She said simply.
“And how the bloody hell…” He was interrupted by a loud laugh coming from the lake that stole the Hatters attention. Without hesitation, he ran into the clearing to find six men gathered around the lake. Fury rose through him and throwing up his hands he froze them in their place. He walked closer to them as their eyes followed him, the rest of their bodies held in place by the spell. Scanning their clothes, he analyzed them for some evidence as to who they might be. White ragged shirts, black boots with swords at their side. Pirates. Pirates from another land. From the boat, Alice would be getting on. He smiled evilly as his eyes flashed red.
“Never mind. I can do that no problem.”
Notes
This is all I wrote two years ago, so this is now on my list of stories that I will try and update as regularly as possible <3
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Lola xo
