Wonderland: 4.

It had been already a few minutes… Maybe an hour… Since the rabbit let the hatter in his new room, but still, he felt lost at the view of it and had walked away from the door no more than a few steps.

He could see the gigantic glass window at the opposite side of the door. The red sunset light entering the room made him feel like he was swimming in a pool of strawberry juice and for some reason, he was still to understand why, he liked it.

At his right wall, there was an enormous king-size couple bed. There was, as well, a small door that he imagined should take him to the bathroom, since he could smell a soup-like smell coming from there.

But it was not the right side of the bedroom that made him shiver; the left one did the trick. There, he could see a full-size-cloth-closet only for his personal use. A table full with every kind of needle, scissors and equipment he might need or think of using to sew and a bunch of places to hang his own hats.

It was paradise.

He walked, hat in hands, feeling the cloth between his thumbs until he reached the center of the room, just watching everything.

It was really beautiful. Maybe the queen had a better taste this time. Thinking about the queen again, he looked at the door, it was shut closed after he passed through and it didn’t look like nobody was going to enter soon. What might have happened?

She said the changes weren’t her doing, but that a lot of things were going to change. Not only that, but she also said she’d soon be the least of wonderlands problems… And he felt a shiver go up his spine when he remembered her voice screaming ‘off with his head’.

He gulped. He looked at his hands and removed his gloves. His fingers were so long now. It would be pretty easier to cut through his drawings now. He also passed his hand through his own hair… Silky and black. They had a smooth texture, good to touch. He touched his own face as well. His nose was not as large as a teacup anymore and it looked good. He walked to the glass window so he could look his own reflection. Very good. He noticed he had a few spots above his nose and cheeks.

- Are those…? – he hesitated… Touching it again and again, feeling his own skin. – Freckles…

He unbuttoned his shirt and revealed a lit bit of his chest. Yup. There were a little bit of them there as well. He removed his coat, his vest and shirt and watched his own nude upper body. There were only a few freckles on his chest, but there were some more on his shoulders.

He tried to stretch his own hands to his back, trying to discover by himself if there were freckles there as well, turning his back to the window and he was probably going to turn his face and look upon his shoulders, if it wasn’t for the image of the queen waiting for him to notice her at the door.

For a second there he tried to back away from her, but he stepped on his own old clothes, that he had thrown to the ground, and felt on his bums.

- I’m sorry. – not that she looked like she was – You were so… Entangled in your own body that I was actually curious. I wanted to see if you liked it.

- I did. Thank you, my queen.

- I already told you I’m not the one you should thank for that.

The hatter opened his mouth and then, closed it again. He was still on the ground, a single hand trying to cover his half-naked body from the queen, but he was still curious. If the queen was not the one responsible for this… Who was it then? And most important, why did it look like the queen was the only one that knew what had happened and even though she argued she didn’t have that much power… Why did she seem pretty comfortable with that?

She looked so changed. He was curious. He wanted to understand it all. It was madness, of course, but he was, after all, known as the Mad Hatter.

For a moment there, neither of them knew exactly sure how long that moment lasted, they only looked at each other. The queen didn’t look interested in approaching, but still, she didn’t look interested in going away either, the hatter, on the other hand, had his mind going over and over so many questions his cheeks began to feel as hot as a tea pot and his head way too small to hold them all.

Before he knew it, all of his questions started flowing over his mouth, like a river.

- How can that be? You’re by far the most powerful sorcerer there is! If it wasn’t you, who was it? Why are you acting so cool? How come do you know all of this? Do you think of forgiving us and letting us live even after we…!

He shut his mouth with both his hands, even though his mouth continued talking a few words after it. The queen watched it a little surprised at first until she took a hand to her own mouth, hardly covering it and started laughing.

It was not an evil-maniac-murderous-laugh. It was a laugh like someone who just had a lot of fun. A cute laugh, actually, and the hatter never noticed how his own cheeks got even redder.

- Oh, wow, that was unexpected. – she was a little bit pink as she seemed to be missing her breath after laughing so hard, but still, she looked him with a smile on her lips. – I will thank you for believing I’m the strongest in wonderland, but truth be told, wonderland is not like this. Power, strength, this kind of thing can’t be acquired here by normal means, even if you give it your best, you’ll only be as good as the wonderers believe you to be.

The hatter looked her with a confused gaze. She was not talking like the crazy-furious-murderous-queen he was used to, but even worst, she sounded complicated as the caterpillar. One’s power shouldn’t be calculated by other’s believe, that was non-sense, but the queen seemed so sure of it that the hatter felt like he was just a dumb kid not to follow her obvious thinking line.

He bit his lips as he continued watching her, in silence.

- Ah, and no, I won’t kill… I won’t hurt you. Nor the White Rabbit or your little friends at the forest. – she replied, her eyes only now letting go of his and looking elsewhere in the room. – I don’t need that kind of thing anymore.

- Need? – the hatter didn’t know where did all this courage come from, but without him even noticing the word had left his lips.

- Never mind that. It’s in the past now. – She looked to the window above him for a second. The sun was almost completely set and the hatter’s room had begun to go dark. The queen looked to the ceiling, where big pearl-like lights began to shine. Their colors, always in a pearly tone seemed to reflect perfectly in the quartz walls of the castle, giving it a calming sea-like glow. – Not even me may change the past, and believe me, there are things there I’d give my castle to change if I could, but I can’t. Thing is, I’m back and I won’t be making the same mistakes again. –her voice was powerful and decisive. – I know that my return may attract some people over, especially now that the castle floats. I used it to intimidate them, but still, the ones brave enough, might came. If anything were to happen with me, hatter, I want you to run. Before they take the castle and find you here. Before they have the genius idea to ask you things you might not know about, run. I don’t want anyone paying for my mistakes, never again.

The hatter watched her. She looked so powerful. ‘Like a ruler should look like’, he thought to himself. He was sure not many people would try and find a war against the queen of hearts, though, the army of hearts was well known all across the land by his size and by their merciless manners.

He didn’t notice how hard he was staring her until she faked a cough.

- Cahem. So, well, I guess I’ll be going. I just wanted to see if you liked your new room.

- Oh, yes. Yes, I do. I like it a lot. Thank you my queen.

- You’re welcome. – she smiled, once again. –I’ll be back tomorrow and every once in a while when I need new clothes. I hope you don’t mind.

- No, not at all! If you don’t mind using something I sewed, I’m sure you could be wearing something more worthy…

- Yours will be just fine. – she ended their discussion, calmly and with a smile in her face. –I’ll see you tomorrow, Vincent.

- I’ll see you, my queen.

He blushed once again as she called him by the name she gave him, but as the queen did exit his room, he kept staring the door a little longer. Things did have changed and he wanted to tell all of them to the Hare and Dormouse but still, there wasn’t much he did know, only what the queen had told him, which wasn’t much.

Thinking about it now, he didn’t have any proof, just the queen words and the queen didn’t look like the kind to lie, but, he did know little about her.

He got up and went to explore the rest of his bedroom. On that night, the hatter discovered a few things about the queen. She still liked red, although she looked to like pearly-pink as well. The new castle was much cleaner and brighter than the one before, because of the way his walls moved as if the mineral inside them was still liquid, it always formed different drawings on the wall. But most important of all, she had an adorable laugh and wasn’t carrying her husband around anymore, nor the old jacks and cards, making him wonder if the exile killed them or if it was something else entirely, like the queen killing then so she had something to eat…

He hoped it was not the last option.

#english #wonderland #aliceinwonderland #alicethroughtthelookingglass