THE PILLAR'S CELL, THE RADCLIFFE LUNATIC ASYLUM, OXFORD
"A re you ready?" the Pillar says.
"I'm not sure. For what?"
"It means you're ready. Shall we start?" He pushes a copy of Alice's Adventures Under Ground toward me, as I stay right behind the bars. The copy isn't his. It's an old library edition, and it has a girl in a yellow dress on it.
"I always thought Alice wore blue," I comment, picking up the book.
"False myth number one," the Pillar says. "John Tenniel, who drew all the paintings in the book, depicted Alice in a yellow dress in the first released version in 1865."
"You're not serious, are you?"
"I am insanely serious. From now on, everything I say about Wonderland is deadly serious, Alice."
"Why yellow?" I glance at the cover again.
"Yellow was considered the color of madness at the time," the Pillar explains. "But let's not get lost in such debatable details now. Flip through the book, and tell me what you see."
"A regular Alice in Wonderland paperback." I tilt my head, then flip through it. "It's a library copy. It has a British Library stamp on it."
"Good." He nods. "Where is the British Library located?"
"In London?"
"Right. What else do you see?"
"Someone borrowed this book yesterday." I can see the date on the inlaid card. "I didn't know libraries wrote borrowing dates inside their books."
"They don't," the Pillar says. "Someone wants us to know the date. What else do you see?"
"There is a map tucked between the pages. It's old, and it looks like it's been drawn by hand. A map of Oxford University." I unfold it. "A place called Christ Church, to be exact. One location is circled in red." I stop and resist the peak in my pulse. The red circle has the face of a grinning cat on it. "Is the book another message from the Cheshire?"
"It is. What does it say under the cat with the grin on the map?" The Pillar doesn't waste time.
"It says: 'We're All Mad Here.'"
"Clichéd to the bone, isn't it?" The Pillar smiles faintly.
"There is an arrow pointing to a location underneath. What is all that? I don't understand."
"That's Cheshire the Cat's most recent message," the Pillar says. "He is playing with open cards now, knowing you and I are in the picture."
"Should we be looking for something where the arrow points?"
"Indeed," the Pillar puffs. "You're going to follow that trail today."
"I am? I thought it's my first day at college," I say.
"College sucks. The first days especially suck. Saving lives doesn't."
"Who said anything about saving lives?" I inquire. "It's just a map. I am assuming it leads to a treasure or something."
"You're wrong. This book was found in the hands of another dead girl this morning."
"What? Different than the one he killed in Christ Church two days ago?"
"Yes. In London, next to the British Library. They're going to announce it on the news later. For some reason, he left evidence to show the girl is dead but took her with him."
"Is that his way of mocking the world, sending messages with dead girls?"
"In his case, he is grinning at the world. He wants us to discover something in that location he circled," the Pillar says. "I believe it's another girl he has trapped somewhere."
"Why is he killing those girls? What does he want?"
"I have no idea what he wants with the girls. But I think he is also testing you, Alice."
"Why would he test me?" I feel anger seeping through my pores.
"He wants to know if you're the Real Alice." The Pillar's gaze is stripped of any emotion.
I consider all the possibilities of who I really am for a moment. "You realize it's my first day among sane people," I say, thinking about what I am getting myself into.
"If you've survived parasites and bacteria until the age of nineteen, you can survive sane people." He draws on his pipe.
"But you realize this is a bit too much for me. I don't want to end my first day being called insane in the sane world."
"You're caring too much about people, Alice," he says. "Take it from me: sane is mundane; insanity is the new black."
I can't even smile at his absurd comment. Saving someone is a big responsibility. I am not sure I can save myself. All that I can think of is this: What would the Real Alice do?
Save the girl, of course.