ALICE'S CELL, RADCLIFFE LUNATIC ASYLUM
H ours later, after Fabiola told us about the Cheshire, I am dreaming in my cell again. It's a dream about my boyfriend, Adam. He is still wearing his hood, and I can't see his face. We're alone in Christ Church's garden.
"Am I insane?" I ask Adam, not sure why I do.
"It depends," Adam says.
"It depends?"
"On whether it's more important to know if you're insane, or to know who you are," he says.
"You're talking in riddles, just like the Pillar."
"I am not the Pillar, Alice," he says. "I'm Adam. The love of your life."
"I still have a whole life in front of me. How do you know you're the love of my life?"
"I know you will never love someone the way you loved me."
"Why don't you show me your face, then?" I ask. "I need to see the face of the one I loved."
"You still love me, Alice," he says. "I'm still madly in love with you." He stops for a moment. "I'm not hiding my face from you. This is my face. Maybe it's just you who doesn't see me."
"Me?"
"I don't know why you do it, but it seems that you're not ready to see me." He sounds sincere. Again, I love his voice. It reminds me of a lullaby I can't remember from when I was a child—if that makes any sense. "I think you're afraid to remember me and then have to deal with my absence. My death was really hard on you."
"So I either remember you and a great pain comes with it, or forget you and great madness comes with it."
"If forgetting me is going to make you happy, I don't mind," he says. "I see you have a thing for this boy you met."
"Boy? You mean Jack Diamonds?" I laugh. "No, he's a loon. I don't even know him, I swear."
"It's all right to meet other people after my death, Alice," Adam says. "It's really all right. I think he loves you dearly."
"What? How can you say so? I told you. I don't even know him. He is really weird. He doesn't even know me. I love you, Adam."
"You don't even remember me." He laughs from under the hood.
"I don't remember your face, but I remember you in my heart somehow," I say. "It's a feeling I can't escape."
"Then, I will always be with you."
I say nothing. A tear trickles down my cheek. "Will you be with me when I face the Cheshire tomorrow?" I ask him to make sure he means it. Maybe spirits can still protect their loved ones after death.
"I will be, but there is something you have to know," he says. "The power the Cheshire is after is scarier than death itself."
"Do you know what it is?"
"I can't say. You have to figure it out. The power he is after surpasses any imagination. I mean any imagination. He will be the scariest face of evil in the world."
"You're scaring me, Adam."
"I am because I care about you. If you're going after the Cheshire, you need to know the kind of danger you're facing. The Cheshire is going to perform a forbidden ritual tomorrow. You have to stop him, or…"
"Or?"
"It will be the end of the world."
"What kind of ritual, Adam?" I feel like waking up from my dream but do my best not to. The plants in Oxford's garden are drowning in water all of a sudden. A crazy flood swarms the university. Its tides are really high. Is this the end of the world Adam talked about?
When I open my eyes, I am all wet in my cell. Waltraud stands above me with a bucket of ice-cold water. "Vake up, Alice," she says, laughing. "Time for some shock therapy."