PARKING LOT, UN HEADQUARTERS, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
“I had to find you so I could finally kill you, Alice Wonder.”
I am about to laugh at him. “That’s not even my real name.”
“You’re right,” he says. “I needed to kill you with my own hands, Mary Ann.”
He begins approaching again, his balloons showing the night all around me. I wonder if they are some kind of weapon. He sounds so confident.
“Back off.” I point my umbrella at him. “Or I’ll shoot.”
“You know the Bandersnatch bullets won’t kill me.”
The worst thing is that I do know. What could possibly kill Carolus?
“I thought Lewis told you how to kill me.” He stopped again. Carolus surely likes to chat a lot.
“Everyone keeps telling me Lewis must have told.” I am going crazy. “But he hasn’t.”
“Maybe he did, and you just missed the message.”
“No! He didn’t.” I take a deep breath after losing control for a moment. “He showed me to his studio. I saw one of the doors to Wonderland. I saw the rabbit in his pocket. I saw the photographs of the girls he took. He talked to me, and he was nice to me.” I realize tears are about to trickle down my cheeks. I can’t help it. “He never even told me about you.”
“That’s because I am the part he likes to forget the most,” Carolus says. “Like everyone else, no one wants to admit their dark half exists.”
“You sure do talk too much.” I hold back the tears. “What do you really want? You would have killed me already if that’s what you planned all this for.”
“I like a fair fight,” His shoulders twitch now. “It th-th-thrills me.”
This is when I realize the full beast is facing me now.
“How fair can this get? I don’t remember how to kill you.”
“So-so let me remind you.” The grin on his face could kill a few people in this life alone.
“Tell me.” I am reluctant, but if he wants to play, let’s play.
“Lewis must have given you something precious and told you not to tell anybody about it.”
“He did,” Sorry, Lewis. A lot of people know about the key. It’s too late to pretend I don’t have it. “A key.”
“Never realized what it’s for?”
“No.”
“How about you check that small button on your umbrella weapon for a start?”
“Button?” I look and find it instantly. I remember pushing it before. It opens a small groove where a bullet should fit in, except no bullet ever did.
“Now, try to load your umbrella with the key.”
My heart races. I pull out the key, about to fit it in.
“Not all keys open doors, Alice,” Carolus says. “Some keys open skulls.”