QUEEN’S GARDEN, BUCKINGHAM PALACE, LONDON
“W elcome back, Carolus.” The Queen of Hearts stood in the middle of the rain, two of her guards holding her umbrella for her. “It’s time we solve this matter.”
“What matter?” Carolus spat rain in her face.
“Your headaches,” she said. “You know, without me stopping the Executioner from giving Lewis his medication, you would have never been created in the first place.”
Carolus grunts, trying to step closer, but he was chained in heavy steel and guarded carefully. Finally Margaret did her job right, the Queen thought.
“I’m like your god, by the way.” The Queen smirked. “I could have given Carroll his medication anytime, and you’d have disappeared. You have any idea how unreal you are? You’re neither Carroll nor Carolus. You’re just a figment of his imagination that manifested somehow.”
“Don’t provoke me,” Carolus growled and broke free from the chains. The Queen’s guards stepped away immediately.
“Don’t threaten me!” The short Queen’s head ached, craning it up to him.
“What are you going to do? Cut my head off?” He laughed, still spitting rain at her.
“I don’t need to.” She grinned.
Instantly, Carolus’s migraine returned. He fell to his knees, gripping his skull.
“See?” the Queen chirped. “My men fooled you into thinking the pills they gave you were Lullaby when they only worsened your headache.”
“Stop it, please!”
“You should have asked for your cure back in Columbia instead of cooking up a plague,” she said. “But because you’re just a figment of someone’s imagination, you couldn’t think straight. All you thought of was ending the world for no apparent reason, just because you were in pain.”
“It’s not just that...”
“Stop it!” She kicked him in the foot. “Stay on your knees when I am talking to you. And listen to what I have to say.”
Carolus said nothing. All he could do was grip his head before it exploded.
“I will have the Executioner supply you with endless amounts of Lullaby.” She pointed her finger at him. “Under one condition.”
“I’ll do anything,” the vicious monster said pleadingly.
“If you tell me how to stop the plague.”
“I can’t,” he stuttered. “The plague is unstoppable. I just told you I knew because I needed my Lullaby pill!”