The Adventures of Alice and Max
Chapter 40: Alice and Max Chase the Sinister Sisters
Chaos ensued.
Alice deflected a blow with her golden sword and socked a guard in his ugly face. She hit and spun and kicked and slapped many men of the Guard, killing and maiming all in her path. She was determined to see her father one last time. That was her last wish.
Hacking away endlessly and mercilessly, Max chopped all of the Guard to bits and pieces. He hit and cut away at them like blocks of stone, carving out his sins and transgressions on the rock of depravity. Blood was on his hands.
Alice saw her best friend, slice and dice his enemies until none stood anymore. She had killed a few and injured some, but he murdered all of his victims. He even went back to them and wailed on them with his sword, now become scarlet. He went to Alice’s injured and executed them coldly.
“Max…” Alice began. But he shoved her away.
“No,” he muttered under his breath. “They don’t deserve anything. No funeral, no burial. Nothing, Alice.” He stabbed the last one in the heart. The guard choked on his own vomit as he wailed and died.
“How are you better than the Queen? What makes you different?” Alice asked.
“What does that have to do with anything? They’ve terrorized us, Alice. They’re the ones who have to pay. You hear me, Alice? They are going to pay!”
“Why? Why Max?” Alice said softly and deep in sorrow. “What good would it bring?”
“Good? What is good? Nothing’s good, Alice! Look around us! Death is everywhere. There is no goodness, there’s only who lives and who survives. Everyone dies so why not the Queen and all of her people?”
“Remember, Max,” Alice said with glazed eyes. “Remember what Mr. R said, about you’ll know goodness when you see it? Remember? God, you have to remember. It wasn’t that long ago.”
Max hesitated and then held back tears. “But he’s dead, Alice. Mr. R is dead.”
“I don’t believe that, Max.”
“You don’t believe that? We both saw him! He was stabbed in the heart. He died and we went on. We have to go on living for his sake.”
“Yes, he died, Max. But what about after?”
“After? Gosh, Alice, no one lives after. Come on! We have to grow up and stop believing in fairy tales. We gotta wake up to reality.”
“What if the reality is that there is a life beyond? Just like the Light.”
“Oh, stop with that, Alice. We don’t have time for this. We gotta find the Queen now. Come on.”
“Well, first…”
“What?” Max demanded.
Alice said, “Max, the kids!” Max felt horrible, he had nearly forgotten the kids who were trapped in water tanks, who didn’t even know they were sleeping and slowly dying.
“You’re right,” Max said sighing.
But just as they lost hope, the King’s men burst through with raised swords and saw the kids.
Ferdinand screamed, “What’s going on?”
They came together and Alice said, “The Queen just escaped! We gotta go after her and her sister! But look…” She motioned to the thousands of tanks all lined up in an endless store of dreadful trinkets.
Douglass said, “Have no fear. We’ll try to save these kids and bring them to safety!” The many soldiers all began to untie and undo what the Queen had caused to the innocent orphans.
Suddenly, the double doors swung open and Alice and Max got ready to strike but then they stopped short. Richard, the butler came flying out as he collapsed into Alice’s arms trying to speak. His mouth was closed shut. Sewed shut to be exact. Horror filled him as his eyes told their story. He knew Alice, really knew her but still, his blazing eyes would enter into confusion randomly. Then he pulled away from her and hid in a corner.
“Dad, dad, dad,” Alice said speaking tenderly to him. “It’s OK. We’re going to stop her.”
Mumbling and muttering, he shoved her away, fearfully. His eyes told her, he didn’t know who she was.
“Why is he shooing you away?” Max asked. “What’s wrong with him?”
“I think… Maybe the Queen’s powers are too strong. Maybe it’ll only stop until she’s dead.”
Alice and Max nodded to each other. Then Alice said to her father, “Don’t worry, Dad. We’ll be right back. Stay here. Then we can get you out of here. We just have to stop her first.”
A loud blast echoed from above. They heard screaming of tens of thousands of men, running and charging. Guards yelled in fury and pain. The Free People, the large horde, it seemed, had burst through the Castle’s gates.
“The staircase, Alice.” Max pointed to where the Sweed Sisters had escaped. Running frantically, they chased them down. In hot pursuit, they climbed higher.
Eventually, as they came to a door, Alice peeked out. She saw, the ensuing mayhem: The Queen’s soldiers being overtaken by Edward and his men. The Free People were prevailing. They had successfully infiltrated underneath in the sewers as well and burst through the floorboards and erupted from the dungeons and cellars. They came in like rabbits racing inside their hole homes.
Quickly, Alice closed the door and said to Max, “We gotta find the Queen but we’ll have to fight through first. Ready?”
“Ready, Freddy,” Max said winking. Breaking down the door, the children sliced and hit and struck everything that looked like a Queen’s soldier, a cadet of the Guard. But as Max again hacked away brutally like a barbarian with no mercy and no compassion, only the need to breathe in blood and human flesh, he turned and saw a terrible sight.
Massive trolls with huge maces charged the halls of gold and black. Swinging mercilessly, four giant trolls with spiked armor and spiked maces splattered and battered the Guard and the Old King’s People alike, showing no partiality.
Alice grabbed Max’s hand as she cried, “This way!” She pulled him through a side door as Ferdinand killed two white uniformed guards, protecting the children. He called out as they were eaten by the darkened doorway, “Don’t worry, Alice and Max, we’ll keep ‘em at bay! You find the Queen!”
They chased the twisted sisters down corridors and tangled corners. Despair was close at hand because they found nothing but darkness.
Finally, coming to a dead end with a red brick wall in front of them, they heard a sliding sound. Turning, the kids saw to their detriment another brick wall closing in on them that was about to squash them like pancakes.
There was a single door a few yards away. The wall was coming down fast and they weren’t gaining any closer to the door so they ran for it. Running and running they broke down the door and was missed by the wall of death in time. But the door they walked through was a darkened bedroom.
They looked around and nothing was out of the ordinary. But then they heard a chuckle, a child’s laughter. At first, it was cute and sweet but after a few minutes, it became eerie. The kids tried to find a way out and tried the light but no switch flicked on. The invisible child continued to laugh amused at their blunders. It became increasingly louder as the volume reached an astronomical level that they couldn’t hear anything else. The voice became deeper and pierced their eardrums with immense pain.
They held their ears as the laughter became unbearable. It still kept raging until Max broke down the closet door revealing a red room. Max kicked the rest of the way through until they made it all the way into the red room dancing with shadows from a roaring fire. They made it around a bend in a living room when they found two chairs and two dark figures seated in them. Queen Jewel and Miss Sweed were sitting in cozy armchairs sipping tea as they turned. Surprisingly, they were delighted to see them.
“Oh, so good of you to join us,” Queen Jewel said, beaming again like a fallen angel.
“What’re you doing to us?” Alice asked, out of breath.
“How about take a seat,” she said again, smiling warmly. “Please.” She gestured.
The kids decided to sit in two small plastic chairs behind the sisters, facing the large hearth and blazing fire. In order to escape this madness they had to listen to at least what she had to say.
“Biscuit?” She offered them a tin of cookies.
They both shook their heads, glaring at her.
“I know, you two are upset. But we’re going to play a little game, huh? You children like games, don’t you?”
“If they’re fair,” Max said flatly.
“How about a riddle?” The Witch chuckled.
“Get on with it,” Alice said. “I need this to end.”
“Oh, but I don’t think this will ever end for you, dear little Alice,” Queen Jewel said.
“What’re you talking about?” Max demanded.
“If you can’t figure out my riddles then you’ll have to go through another set of trials. And then you’ll come back here and will be told a new set of riddles over and over and over again.”
“Riddles,” Alice asked, snarling. “What kind of riddles?”
“The ones I make up, dear.” She spoke softly letting the words resound and echo. She waited for an answer.
As the two children looked at each other, Alice finally said, “Fine. But when we win, we go home free.”
“As you wish,” Queen Jewel said, smiling wide and big. “But if you lose, you’ll be mine. Forever and ever.”
To Be Continued…
