The Adventures of Alice and Max
Chapter 41: Alice and Max Trapped in the Halls of Madness

Queen Jewel smiled and nodded to Jezebel Sweed, her sadistic sister.
Quietly Jewel said while sitting in her big comfy rocking chair, “Right then. Are you ready?” She was smiling like a joyful chorus girl giddy with amusement as she clasped her hands together and bit her lip. She was eagerly awaiting the pleasure she would bathe in at the children’s dismay and danger.
Alice nodded for her to begin.
“Right. Now…”
I am neither in the sky or down below
I am on a pleasure treasure trove
Who looks for me when the Winter is cold?
Who desires to look for me when the roots are old?
Max turned pale. Alice swallowed hard but then shook her head and cried, “But what kind of a riddle is that?”
“A difficult one,” the Queen said, sipping her black tea.
Jezebel chuckled and clapped. “Good one, sister. Delightful.”
Defiant, Alice glared at Max who was staring off into space. “Max! Come on! Wake up!”
Being hit by small fists, Max said, “I was thinking! Relax!”
The Queen delighted, clapped her hands, and said, “You’ll never get it. Might as well give up now!”
“No!” Alice pleaded. Then she whispered to Max. “Come on, let’s think. It’s gotta be something easy like a… like a… Think, Max.”
Max pondered. He thought, mulled it over, and then eureka was animated in him as he said, “A… a pine cone.”
Dismayed, the Queen furiously said, “Nice one but I have a better one! A trickier one!”
“How many more do you have?” Alice said annoyed that the Witch was inventing rules at her own advantage.
“However many it takes! Listen to this one.” The Queen went on miserably.
What is black and gray and white?
What claws and catches and does bite?
What agrees to purr with delight?
Where does it go away in the night?
Max pondered for a minute while Alice caught her breath. But, Max, after a moment said, “Hmmm… I don’t know.”
“Come on, Max,” Alice said.
“Tick-tock, dears,” Jewel said.
“Oh, they’ll never get this one, sister,” Jezebel squealed gladly.
Alice couldn’t think. Nothing came to mind. But then she asked, “Wait, say it again?”
The Queen guffawed mightily and said it again but faster so she couldn’t take it in and mull it over delightfully like a great feast. Alice thought and thought. Then she smiled and said, “Ha! A cat! It’s a cat!”
The Queen then rose and said quietly, “And this is why I hate children. Oh, you are so clever, my dears.” She walked towards them backing them up to the front door that creaked and cracked as they were forced against it.
“But you’re not getting away that easily.” The Queen’s blue robes shimmered and rubbed against their faces as they were being suffocated. After a moment, they were pushed out through the door and collapsed out into a misty, dark, and cold night.
Everything had disappeared before their eyes. The house and fire and the Queen along with Jezebel and the front door vanished.
The two children looked around frantically and yelled out to the Queen. Their echoes went far and reverberated through the foggy chamber. It seemed they were lost in a deep dark blue haze, a lost nightmare that had now become reality.
Alice shouted, “Queen! Let us out! We had a deal!”
“Yeah, come out! Show yourself, you coward!” Max screamed.
They both held their swords up high as suddenly a voice echoed deeply and bellowed like thunder, “Oh, you think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Shadows moved and flowed like water around them, swimming in the chilly air like ghosts.
Then they formed into a black hideous figure of the Witch who said, “You know nothing. But now you will know my true dark powers in all of their dreadful glory!”
Her shadow thrust itself onto them as she wrapped them in her dark magic. It was a smoke cloud so thick, it smelled of sulfur and rotting animal flesh. It suffocated them and then it relinquished its slimy grasp.
Alice saw the terrible fog of blackness disappear. Then Max heard the Queen guffaw horribly. They heard her whisper, “I can change your vision into reality.”
Then the fog formed into doorways that suddenly opened. Multiple doors opened before them sliding off into oblivion, into the misty unknown of the Queen’s terrible and mysterious chamber of her own making.
Was it down in the dungeon? Were they outside? The children could only guess.
But as more doorways with their colonial frames and six panels opened and engulfed the kids, eventually, one ate them whole and transported the duo into an eerie dark forest.
A roar echoed in the distance and rumblings occurred underneath their feet. Something was charging straight for them. Fleeing, they never looked back.
They tried running but they only ran in place, never reaching any destination except death. Something huge and monstrous was heading for them.
Suddenly, they were transported back again staring at the endless doors opening as the children went through them.
“I have the power in my realm. I hold everything true. Here, anything can happen,” the Queen said in a strange echoing song. “I hold your pitiful lives in my hands.”
It terrified the children as again another door opened and they entered.
A loud thunderous applause hailed their names. A glorious red drape was seen before them as armed guards stood at the ready, opening the curtain for them. Crowns were placed on their heads by two servants who smiled at them warmly. Then as they approached a stone balcony, the kids saw in amazement that thousands of people were cheering for them. The sound was deafening but it was also welcoming. They saw the thousands of frenzied people. Happy mugs of fearful and ecstatic bodies flailed like the open sea, moving in a rhythmic symphony.
“In this world,” Queen Jewel said softly. “You shall be Prince and Princess. Then you shall be married to respectable courters and become King and Queen of this kingdom. You shall raise families and that shall be your legacy in this world, your mark on society. I shall make it so… If you only leave this world. Together, you shall rule this place in peace and in order. Just the way you like it. You can be kind and greet the people with tenderness. They will love you and praise you forever.”
Alice felt the chilly cold of the Queen’s breath crawl down her spine.
Max could feel the sudden surge of power in him. Power was within reach. It was so tempting, the mere thought of ruling an entire kingdom but then he looked back at where they came from and he could see a faint glimmer of the misty dark lavender room where they had been before.
Could the Queen conjure up this new reality? Or did she actually rule in another land and could simply hand off the other land to the children to rule in peace and harmony with the flick of her wand?
“So what do you say, children?” the deep voice said, grinning maliciously.
Alice thought about this as she could sense the Queen breathing down her neck again and literally. It tickled as it eventually turned warm but it was still unpleasant as it touched her skin. She hated it. At once, she turned around and scratched the black fog figure of the Queen who screamed in fury and pain.
The black smog then made everything vanish before the kids eyes as the black void suddenly overtook their whole being yet again. It consumed them as they appeared in ruins. Ancient ruins were before them as they saw beneath them a giant chasm of graying and darkening matter. It was an endless drop into oblivion and leading to their death.
Alice and Max could feel the strong winds billowing and capturing them in its wicked hold.
They saw the dark smoke of the Queen hurtling towards them like a raging cyclone, a tornado of doom.
But it stopped short and then the black cloud opened up and transformed into the evil Witch Queen Jewel. She laughed at them.
“Fools!” she spoke harshly and yelled over the annoying and dangerous winds. “This is your last chance! If you but throw yourselves down into the pit then I shall save you and you shall be mine and I can do whatever I want with you.
“But if you do not then you shall suffer in my Halls of Madness for all eternity! You will never get out. I’ll make sure of that, little dears! The choice is yours.”
Alice shouted, “That’ll be the day! When the King and his army finally break down that door, then we’ll see who’s laughing, Queen!”
In a furious rage, the Queen snapped her fingers as the scene ended. They were transported.
And the children fell but onto a wooden floor in a tower high above the Queen’s City. They were suddenly back inside the Queen’s castle. They were back to reality.
To Be Continued…