Chapter 15 - Ghosts
“Prove what?” I exchanged a confused glance with Allie.
“That it is indeed her heart you carry in your chest. That she is not a mere ghost.” The Hatter folded stubborn arms across his chest. For a little man, he was quite staunch, I’d give him that.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, I motioned Allie closer. “Come here. Give me your hand.”
“Why?” Allie pursed her lips but reached out her hand tentatively.
I clicked my tongue, beckoning her over. “Just give it.”
Allie took a step closer to me and reached one hand out.
I lifted her hand and touched her palm against my throat, just above my chest. The warmth of her fingertips on my bare skin almost seared my neck.
“Does it beat, girl?” the Hatter wanted to know.
Allie almost gasped as the heart in my chest beat faster under her touch. A white light began to glow from my chest beneath her palm. Her wide-eyed gaze met mine in surprise. When she dropped her hand, the white light vanished.
The Hatter gave a satisfied nod. “Only the owner of the heart would be able to call upon it. Fascinating. Then you are not of the beyond.”
Allie scoffed in incredulity. “Yes. I am still alive. Obviously.”
The Hatter approached Allie as if to peer at her closely.
When the Hatter spoke again, my blood ran colder than the weather. “I sense power.” He sniffed the air around Allie, his statement directed at me. “Not your mediocre sorcery. I sense…a significance.”
I clenched my jaw. I knew the Hatter would be able to sense it. But I also knew it wouldn’t do me any good to fight the old man. We were likely evenly matched.
I might be the most powerful sorcerer in Wünder, but it appeared the Hatter held mystical powers of the beyond.
He controlled time and served ghosts tea.
“Look,” I began calmly. “There is no need to take this somewhere neither of us wants to go. We will leave peacefully if you just point us to the tree hollow.”
The Hatter’s eyes held a dark glimmer. “But you ask a favor. In the interest of fairness, perhaps I give you something and you give me something in return.”
Seething, I was going to surge forward to scuff him but Allie caught my arm.
Allie met my gaze for a moment before looking to the Hatter. “Perhaps we could make a deal?”
My expression grim, I growled under my breath, “He’s not taking you.”
“Not me,” she corrected. “The Hatter strikes me as a rational man,” she declared out loud to compliment the Hatter. “A man of science and many other fine pursuits. Surely, there should be something else we can offer him.” She met the Hatter’s gaze again. “Isn’t there, Mr. Hatter?”
“Something else, you say?” Studying the two of us, the Hatter chewed on his bottom lip. “How about a game? Let’s have some entertainment for the lively ones.” He clapped his hands.
I frowned. “What sort of game?”
“Ah!” He held up a finger, his eyes lighting up. “There is a treasure. In one of the hollows. You will know it when you see it. If you find it—ah, if you succeed in attaining it, I will give you this treasure.” He raised his arm to point a wrinkly finger toward one of the thick trees past a handful of tombstones. “You may begin there.”
“What’s the catch?” I raised a knowing eyebrow.
“Ah, see. The game is only fit for one.”
“Fine.” I stepped forward.
Allie tugged on my arm again. “Wait. It makes more sense for me to go.”
“How exactly does that make more sense?”
“If you go, and you get in trouble, I don’t think my knowledge of advanced nuclear physics will help you out. I should go.”
I groaned. “Oh god. I’m going to have to rescue you again, aren’t I? Why is it that every time you have an idea, I always end up getting hurt?”
“Bad luck?” She gave me a sheepish grin.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, great, are you a statistician now too?” I leaned closer to make my point. “I told you before, your life is precious to me. I cannot have you risking your life for any reason.”
“I’m not going to die,” she insisted.
Her arrogant, self-assuredness in risking her own life grated on my nerves. “You don’t know that.”
Allie threw up her hands. “It’s just a game, Rabb. I’m sure it’s going to be—”
Frustrated, I ran my hands through my hair. “You don’t understand—” I burst out, “I just want to live!”
My outburst gave Allie pause. The gears in her head were spinning again. “Wait.” She blinked slowly. “All this time, you kept saying you needed me alive. But…are you saying that you actually mean…if I die, you die too?” Her gaze slid to my shoulder and then to the many cuts on my arm. Her forehead creased as if the weight of the truth dawned on her just then. “I didn’t expect that.”
I averted my gaze. I supposed she could be thinking back to all the instances when it had looked like I was looking out for her well-being. She would be reframing the situation in her mind, why it seemed like I was taking care of her—the only proof she’d held that I cared enough not to harm her, to protect her. In fact, I was only looking out for my own well-being. There was a dull ache in the heart in my chest as the truth sank.
“Yoo-hoo!” The Hatter waved his hand, a wide grin on his face. “Come now and let’s start the game. The tea will get cold.”
Allie glanced back at him. “What happens if I fail to find this treasure of yours?”
The Hatter clicked his tongue as if aghast. “Fail, my dear? Think not of it. Why, if you do not succeed, then instead we shall celebrate your unbirthday! And you may stay here as my assistant.” He shrugged. “Who knows? You might find a place here.” He clapped his hands again. “Now the ghosts will want their party. Are you two quite decided?”
“Yes. I’ll go.” Allie’s voice was clear, steady.
I shook my head. There was little point in arguing.
She walked on without further ado, without even a backward glance.
To her credit, I didn’t sense fear in her aura. Her heart remained steady in my chest. As usual, all I could feel from Allie was a burgeoning curiosity about what was going to happen next. Such a level of curiosity, of reckless courage, would no doubt do her ill eventually.
Allie tiptoed across the grass, the fog swirling around her ankles as she made her way toward the large tree hollow amidst the garden graveyard.
As soon as she stepped past the dark spiral within the trunk of the tree, the hollow grew in size to accommodate her.
I peered through the burrow, past Allie’s figure as the growing doorway allowed a peek into a long, well-lit space. A hallway lined with different sizes and colors of doors.
“It’s a hallway of doors…” Allie trailed off, her voice like an echo. Walking past the first two doors and a little chair by the side, she craned her neck. “Oh my god, Rabb.” She pointed to the next teak door as she bent to peer through the small window. “This door looks like it leads to your desert. This place must be like a portal corridor!”
Relief settled in my chest.
Finally. Good news.
Glancing down, Allie began to fiddle with her collar.
What is she…I squinted to see and stopped short.
The necklace around Allie’s neck was glowing green.
It was that strange contraption that detected spaces and worlds that Allie had been testing in her lab.
All I need to do is find an intersect—a doorway... And once I do, I’m sure I’ll find a portal that leads all the way home…
The heart in my chest began to pound.
Allie’s gaze slid to the burnt orange door right next to her with another little peephole and bent down to look through.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
Her breath caught in her throat at whatever she was seeing through it.
Could she be right? One of the doors was a way back to Allie’s strange world?
Excited, Allie rapped on the door. “Rabb, I think this door leads back to my home. This is it! This door must be my way home.” Dropping her gaze, she murmured her analysis, “I suppose before, I must have somehow fallen through one of these and ended up here in Wünder.” Her voice nearly squeaked in her eagerness, as though everything was falling into place.
The Hatter had a sly sort of smile on his face.
“Is that the treasure?” I pressed him. There was no telling what sort of tricks the Hatter could be playing. Allie could be walking straight into a trap. “Did she find it? Did she succeed?”
Allie was turning and rattling the doorknob to no avail. “It’s locked.” She blew out a breath and cast her eyes around. Looking upward, she stopped short. “There’s a gold key on top of that giant glass table. Is that the—” She sucked her breath in again, her eyes widening even further. Pointing to the other end of what was above her, she cried out, “There’s a Heartlamp up there!”
My eyebrows snapped together. What? I slid the Hatter another glance. What the hell was he playing at?
“Allie!” I called out, tamping down the urge to run in there. “What do you see?”
“I think I see a Heartlamp! It’s on a ledge against the ceiling. It looks just like the one you used before at that kingdom, Rabb. I’ll try to get it.” Stepping back from the doors, she dragged the chair toward the center of the room so she could get higher.
My stomach turned. Allie had abandoned her task to grab the key to the door—her only way to get home, to fetch the Heartlamp for me instead.
A shuffling noise reached my sensitive ears. I glanced to one side, straining to hear, before I shot the Hatter another look. “What is that ruckus?”
The Hatter’s eyes had glazed over. “Ghosts.”
My eyes widened in alarm.
Surrounding the tree hollow Allie had gone through, shadowy figures emerged from beneath the ground, from beneath the tombstones around the backyard garden cemetery. Delicate white flakes of snow started falling from the sky.
“Time for tea,” the Hatter remarked with glee.
My eyes darted back and forth between the throng of ghosts and Allie still trying in vain to reach the Heartlamp propped upon the ledge. She didn’t seem to hear the dreadful sounds of the ghosts, bones creaking, gnashing of teeth, rattling of invisible chains…
I clenched my jaw. “Dammit Hatter,” I demanded. “What’s the solution? How does she get up to fetch the Heartlamp? Is there perhaps some sort of hidden potion or trick food to make her grow in size—what?” I shook my head in confusion. “Besides that, how do you even have an activated Heartlamp?”
“That’s what the Dormouse asked too before…before…” He trailed off, his face turning pale.
The ghosts were almost up to Allie. They were in the hallway of doors.
I grabbed the Hatter by his shoulders and shook him. “Snap out of it, Hatter. Tell me the solution. How does Allie win the game?”
A cackle tittered out of the old man as he met my gaze. “She doesn’t, my good man.”
An icy chill gripped me immediately. “What the hell do you mean? What does Allie need to do?”
“This was never about the girl, sorcerer assassin.” He gave me a sly smirk.
Stunned, I shoved him away and stepped back. “What?” Clenching my fists, I whirled around enraged. “What the hell are you playing at, you mad old Hatter?”
“I was never after the coeur, dear boy. This test was for you. You are one of the more fascinating specimens I’ve ever encountered. Your assassin aura is changed and I was curious. I wanted to try an experiment.”
I swallowed my unease. “What experiment?”
His grin was faint. “To see if you would run in there to save her life.”
My gaze returned to Allie as the first lot of the ghosts began to surround her figure. “Save her life? Is she in danger? Is she going to die?”
“Oh, most certainly. Only people with hearts can venture into the underworld unscathed. Those with no hearts will end up frozen in death’s sleep.”
The heart in my chest began to pound as the ghosts swirled around Allie. For mere wisps of air, they were quite capably thrashing her about. Trying to cover her face, Allie spun and spun as she tried to push back and away from the mob of spirits. The frigid weather began to blow into the hollow and the hallway of doors.
With a highly annoyed yelp, Allie whirled around to steady herself on her feet. She swung her arms in an attempt to fight them off, but her powerless fists merely passed through their smoky figures. More shadows arrived to crowd in with Allie trying to fight them off, but she was drowning in the dense gray fog amidst the developing whiteout.
The Hatter waved his arm.
Across the still-dewy green grass, a new cold tombstone shimmered out of nothing. “It seems we must celebrate another unbirthday.” There was a catch in his ominous tone as his beady eyes watched me. “Don’t worry,” he assured. “You should remain quite safe. The shared curse on that heart will not work in the underworld. It won’t affect you as long as you stay out here.”
Regardless, my throat tightened. I would no longer share Allie’s injuries as long as I didn’t go to that place inside the hollow? Could the Hatter really have that sort of power?
True enough, I felt no soreness, no hurt, from the ghosts harassing Allie.
I clutched at my chest. Only, I could still feel her feelings.
Allie was distressed, afraid, desperate…
Help me…
There was a dull aching in my chest and I dropped my gaze.
The Hatter peered at my face. “Was this not your wish? To be rid of the strange girl once and for all?” he prompted again.
I glanced into the hollow once again. I could no longer see Allie. She was completely overwhelmed by the ghosts. The heart in my chest pounded harder.
Dammit. Damn it all.
Letting out a huff of annoyance, I shot up off the grass and leaped into the burrow. Whooshing past the throng of undead, I skidded to a stop beside where Allie was. Grunting, I knelt by her side, shrugging off the pungent corpses clamoring all over me.
Immediately, ice shot through my veins and a wave of drowsiness threatened to overcome me as Allie’s injuries affecting me came as a sudden shock.
Gritting my teeth, I slammed my fist onto the floor and my magic sent out a powerful gust of air around us that blew all the ghosts back with a wave of flurries. I couldn’t kill them since they were already dead, but at least the ghosts were repelled by my magic.
Allie was collapsed on the ground, covered by a thin layer of snow, her eyes closed. Her lips were already blue. She wasn’t breathing.
If she died, all my magic wouldn’t even have a snowball’s chance in hell of reviving her.
And because I had swooped in here, instead of staying outside with the Hatter, I would now no doubt subsequently succumb to my own unbirthday.
The Heartlamp was still propped precariously on the ledge. I was going to fetch it but as soon I tried to summon the object with my magic, it whooshed away.
The hallway of doors expanded in length, one end pushing farther away, the gaps between the hallway doors lengthening. Then the hallway moved around us in a circle as bright lights popped up in a colorful whirl and loud whimsical carnival music began to play.
We were stuck in the middle of a merry-go-round. And the ghosts were slowly making their way back to us.
I froze on the spot as a flash of terrifying shadows and screams with the echo of a memory ravaged through my mind once more. I could almost make out the blur of figures in my vision, as though they were people. I couldn’t make out any faces but the immobilizing fear was as vivid as anything. It was as if the terrifying memory was happening again right then, triggered by the onslaught of Hatter’s ghosts.
My skin chilled in fear, in helplessness. My limbs fell slack, weak, as a painful constriction stabbed in my chest. It was as though my heart was being squeezed before splitting into a thousand tiny pieces.
No!I screamed in my head.
I couldn’t let myself get overwhelmed. I had to move. I had to save Allie.
I forcibly shook off the paralyzing cold dread. Steeling myself, I willed my consciousness to return to the present.
The frigid snowstorm blowing through the hallway of doors. The merry-go-round of tricks. Allie’s unconscious body lying on the floor.
Help me…
Narrowing my eyes, I cursed under my breath and tried to spot the teak door from amidst the dizzying, spinning colors.
Unaffected by the merry-go-round, the throng of ghosts began their assault once again, pushing, clamoring, wailing. This time, intent on clouding my view and covering Allie in darkness once more.
The Hatter’s cackle rang in the air.
I gritted my teeth in disdain.
Without hesitating further, I scooped Allie up in my arms. With another yell, I summoned another gust of wind. It imploded with a crackle around my form to sweep back another wide circle of the ghostly figures. Then, straining to time my shot correctly, I pointed my finger at the whirling array of doors to target the teak door to my home.
The wooden door shattered into shards, revealing the hollow portal before I jumped backward to fall through it with Allie in my arms.
I caught a glimpse of the Hatter above us, appearing as a tall, looming monster as he watched us from his tea garden. As though we were insects trapped in a giant glass bell jar. He peered down at us—his experiment, with curious eyes.
“Fascinating…” The Mad Hatter’s hollow voice echoed as his mad world spiraled in my view. His green beady eyes turned red, glittering fainter and fainter, farther away, until his form was reduced to a tiny black dot, and then nothing at all.