The Adventures of Alice and Max
Chapter 38: Alice and Max Meet Their Match
The children, Alice and Max, couldn’t believe they were foiled by the evil Witch, Jewel.
Being driven by the Queen’s magical powers, they floated along in the air, following behind the tall Queen as she explained all things to them precisely and articulately.
“You children have no understanding of the way my Kingdom works. But first, I will show you my palace!” They went through long hallways decked with chandeliers and paintings from ancient times. Portraits of kings and earls and princesses hung on the black walls.
“These were all the past subjects. The different rulers throughout generations going all the way back and ending with that King Lucius of Briarwood.”
“You killed him, didn’t you?” Alice asked. “The Old King? Edward’s father.”
“Oh, yes,” Jewel giggled. “Gladly. He was such a weak man. Had a kind and warm and pathetic heart for his people. But you must rule with an iron fist or else the whole world will fall into chaos. The world will consume you eventually. That’s what I always told him. And that is what I will show you, children.”
Floating along, the duo tried to break free from her dark abilities but her mind and strength were unmatched. So the children eyed the other and waited for an opportunity when they would foil her plans and when they would arise and fight. They would stop her, possibly kill her. But until then they waited and watched as she pummeled them with illogical and insane ideologies and musings that only came from the pits of a dark hell.,
Passing through dark hallways and tight corridors, finally she showed them a great hall and said almost singing, “This is where the greatest of dances were held. Before my time, all was spent doing miserable tasks and unimportant duties. Before I warped the minds of the Guard, before I had seized control, this room was full of peoples from many nations, all different beliefs and creeds and customs all huddled together like sardines pressed tightly into a small little metal can. What horror! The purity stained with disgusting blood, with impure people! Before all of this, we danced and danced until the early morning. We would sleep in late and then worship the Sun, give thanks to its purest heights, and sing hymns and ancient songs from of old.
“Oh, how I hated those piercing songs that haunted me in the dead of night. How I couldn’t sleep for my Master grew inside of me more and more each terrible day. He said, they were useless fiends, who didn’t know anything but how to prolong business and how to spend wealth. They grew fat and comfortable in complacency. The men became like pigs and dogs. The women became like sluggards, stalking the halls in a daze like walking corpses. So I had enough. I said, ‘To hell with it all! I am the Queen, aren’t I? I am the rightful woman to command all things.’
“Naturally, I told this to the King, my husband, the one who was to comfort me, the one who was to hold me, to protect me. He was too good to me, you see. That was his downfall. His guard was down, his vulnerability did him in!
“Do you know what he said to me? He said, ‘If this be your wish, my Queen, I shall surely grant it.’ And just like that children, by the power of his word and authority, he handed the Kingdom over to ME! The Dreadful Queen Jewel in all of her filthy glory! The clever triumph over the meek. The cunning climb up to the mountains while the humble remain where they always will be: under my foot.” They came to a wide and tall window as she looked out over the horizon, to the blackened void, where no light swooped in and no brightness shone.
She turned to face the children as she said, “I was the one who cursed the sky, who shielded the sun from our eyes because of its beauty, because of its hopefulness. To flourish, humanity must have hope. Needs to see true beauty. That is why I have shielded the light of the morning Sun from our eyes, to have control, to stunt the growth of hope! Don’t you know, how in the morning one is light and warm but when the sun sets especially in the winter how one becomes saddened by the darkness? Oh, how I desire all of this world to be. In utter despair.”
“Why?” Max asked horrified. “What would make you do such a thing? I-I don’t understand.”
“Because I like it!” the Queen spat. “I think you’ll understand in time, child. I’m miserable, the whole world is miserable and if I can’t have peace then no one can, little Maxy! No one!
“And now after I am through with you and the Old King’s People are vanquished and that little Prince, his stupid and vain son, Edward is killed, then I shall continue my tirade on the rest of the world. Just you wait, Alice and Max because your little adventures are soon coming to an end! But to end it, I have a special surprise, a going away present for you both to enjoy together!” She cackled like a wounded rooster.
Opening like a mighty metal curtain, two double doors slid open magically with a loud thundering clang as she continued to wail like a banshee. Then, just before they entered the dungeon, the butler, Alice’s father, Richard, peeked his head out and asked, “Great Queen-”
Befuddled, the Queen turned around and said, “What do you want?”
“I have a question-”
“Your questions can wait, butler.” She turned her wand on him as his mouth closed immediately. He tried to open it with his hands but it was no use. He fell to his knees and panicked.
Alice called out, “Dad! No wait! Help us!”
But the double doors slammed shut, leaving Alice in the literal dark about her father.
Disturbed, the children were forced to descend into a deeper part of the castle. Down, down they went further into a blackness. As they crept further down, torches were lit suddenly down the spiral staircase until they came to another corridor. Glass beakers with unborn babies, and organs and hearts, and livers and skulls filled with murky water were raised on stone platforms, gawking at poor Alice and Max.
Suddenly, the Queen snapped her fingers as another set of black doors swung inside to a gigantic and vast basement room. The three entered. The children saw the horror. The sheer horror.
Inside the large room held shelves lining all across and down endless aisles with water tanks. Inside the tanks were the living and breathing bodies of children, hundreds maybe thousands of kids all hooked up to wires and breathing masks. They were all strapped inside asleep as syringes were injected into their veins and fluids of their blood and water were taken and filtrated into many giant tanks. Where those tanks went to or what purpose they were for, the kids had no clue. They trembled nervously and horror pulsed through their bodies and pierced their troubled souls as they watched on in dread.
What did this mean? What was the Queen planning? Why did she have thousands of children held hostage as she studied them?
What does all of this mean? Alice thought. These thoughts streamed line in Alice and Max’s brains as they tried to reason with an evil and maddening Queen.
“What is this?” Alice asked. “What have you done to them, Queen?”
“This, dear little Alice,” she began tenderly. “Is what I wanted to show you. This is what I have in store for you.”
“I thought you were crazy before, but this,” Max said, gazing up around the whole dreadful space. “This really shows that you have no soul.”
“Did it take you that long, Maxy?” she taunted the boy. “This is where all of the lost kids go to from that orphanage, the orphanage run by Jezebel Sweed, huh?”
“Oh, my…” Alice began. “That’s where they go? Here? To this place?”
“Precisely, child. Here is infinity. Being held in a dreamless sleep for all eternity. While I take their bodies and personalities, I clone them. They shall produce a zombie army of strong and fearsome children!”
“Clone them for an army!” Max said. “You are nuts! Children aren’t a great substitute for an army, you know.”
“They will when I modify their bone structures, making them unstoppable, nearly invincible. It works when this army is my secret force. Ready to kill and destroy at will. When the King and his men break-in, then I will unleash my secret weapon. Being unsuspected, they will fail and DIE!”,
“But how did, Miss Sweed, allow you to do this? Why would she agree to this? Money? What did you promise her?” Alice asked.
“Oh, Miss Sweed, well, she is a charming woman, if I dare say-”
“Charming? She’s nuts!” Alice shrieked. “You’re just like her and-”
In that instance, then she realized. She saw the face, the familiar pale face of the Queen, and recognized her. It was the same wrinkly pale skin as she had seen on Jezebel Sweed, the caretaker of the orphanage on Platform B-12. “You… You’re… her?”
Guffawing madly, Jewel said, “No, but she’s my sister! My twin sister! Oh, Jezebel? Where are you?” She called out into the gigantic vast basement. It echoed all throughout as the Queen giggled again. “You two are fun, don’t you think? I could never have gotten away with that. I can’t be in two places at once. But my sister Jezebel works perfectly. Together, we dominate the market, she raises good, healthy, strong, and disciplined children in her orphanage. While they grow and after they are done being used, she sends the orphans straight to me!”
“WHY!” Alice cried in misery. “You’re awful, Queen!”
“Oh, I know, little girl! Jezebel… Come here! NOW!” she demanded. Then Jezebel came out of the shadows and grinned madly with her dark black hair and pale skin, smiling with her red lips painted like a mannequin.
“Jezebel is shy. But she is a good little worker, isn’t that right?”
“Yes, dear sister,” she said, smiling madly. “I will gladly do anything for you.”
“Miss-Miss… Miss Sweed!” Alice said. “What… Why are you doing this?” Alice begged.
“Alice, in time you will understand,” she said plainly, with no sympathy.
“When Jezebel was a child, being a few minutes younger, she went out to play. But after dark, when she came back, she was different,” the Queen caressed her cheek and then patted her head as she studied her sister like a dummy used for display. “A creature she said spoke to her out there, out in the dark woods. He said he could help us. He could help our family. No one had helped us. My mother died in childbirth. My father couldn’t bear it, he blamed us for her death and shortly afterward hanged himself.
“We were alone, abandoned, and hated. Where else were we to go? He was our refuge when no one else took us in. He was our lifeline. So naturally we made an altar, an altar to the ancient beast below.
“As we sacrificed animals to him, he ate them, wanting more and more. He is never satisfied, children, as he is always looking for more. So we started to feed him babies, and then children. He helped us, he has always promised he would take care of us if only we give him what he wants: the blood of the innocent.
“Wouldn’t you? And so we take these orphans and give him their circulating blood and fluids. They seep down into the deep earth where the beast resides. He is near and watchful always wanting more and more, feeding always, always hungry for more.
“As we sacrificed living souls to him a,nd he in turn paid us handsomely. So as we gained in status and gathered more possessions and resources, making deals with kings and princes, dukes and councilmen, we rose slowly but steadily. We gathered in nations’ cathedrals and houses, celebrating banquets and parties. And growing older and wiser, we gained access to higher positions. And that’s when we came to King Lucius and began our legacy.”
“Queen, please…” Alice began.
“Please?” The Queen said as she bowed low and then smiled cruelly and cleverly. “It won’t matter, dear little Alice. No ‘please’ can change my black heart.”
Jezebel said giggling, “My sister is the most vile and most wicked of them all,” she chuckled. “But please, look around at them all, they are merely sleeping. They don’t feel a thing. They are breathing all good and well as you can see. Nothing shall hurt them. They are serving their purpose.”
The children could see the sullen faces in the water tanks. The abandoned kids floating inside the isolated tombs of loneliness. The Queen had forced these kids into inanimate objects as things to be used and discarded. She kidnapped them and tortured them. It didn’t matter what she told them. Max and Alice knew she needed to be stopped. What more could be said? But how could they be freed from her magical grasp, they thought?
“Serving their purpose?” Alice asked disgusted. “They are children! They need to run and be free and play! They need a mother and a father, they need to be held and loved and kissed. They need to go outside and play in the fields! They need to know they’re loved and they need to freely give love. They cannot be locked in cages like animals! And I won’t stand by while you and your stupid powers hold us here!” She tried to break free, screaming at the top of her lungs. But the Queen, amused, laughed cruelly.
“Again, you have no imagination, Alice! They will be used and discarded just like everyone else in this pathetic little world!”
“No, but Queen…” Max began. “Queen, just…”
“What? Just what?” the Queen asked curtly.
Alice asked sincerely, “Please, Queen Jewel, you can… You can stop all this.” Alice said, pleading. “You can stop it with the beast down below. You don’t have to do this. I know you’re hurt and what… Whatever you’ve done… You can be forgiven. You can start anew… Just stop doing these evil things, I beg of you, great Queen…”
Queen Jewel glared at her and stopped for a moment. And in that hesitation, Alice saw a flash happen in her eyes like a quick lightning strike for a second. She could see deep in those black pupils that maybe the Queen hated what she had become, that maybe she regretted her evil ways, that maybe she was truly sorry. But for whatever reason, the Witch suddenly burst out and laughed gladly, happy for destruction, screaming, “Who cares what you think, child? I am the Queen of the King’s City and no one can stop me. I rule in this Dark Age, I am the Queen of the Platforms! I shall have control of all lands when I am through with you little pests!”
Finally and abruptly, the Queen snapped her fingers and released the duo as Alice and Max tumbled to the ground. Then they looked up and saw the Queen floating up in the air as she waved her oak wand and the double doors behind her swung open. Then two figures wrapped in shadows approached the children.
“And now I shall release you so you two can properly die and fight your worst and strangest enemies yet!” Cackling, she unleashed lighting from her wand as the electricity zapped the ground and almost hit Max. He dodged and got a hold of himself as he recovered and then yelled in fear, backing away.
Alice turned and knew why Max had shouted and why now she yelped in horror. The two dark figures staring menacingly at the kids, were none other than themselves, reflecting what they hated about themselves back at Alice and Max.
To Be Continued…