THE PRESENT: OXFORD
T he Cheshire was going mad — well, at least madder than he already was.
Jack's voice in his head was killing him. At first, he thought he could know why Jack came back for Alice. But the little piece of information didn't present itself. Instead, Jack turned out to be in real love with Alice, thinking about her all the time. Remembering how they met. All those late-night phone calls. The walks. The talks. And the romance.
The Cheshire felt like he was going to vomit from the clichés and cheesiness. Humans pretended they were superior in their feelings toward each other.
But then the Cheshire remembered the youngsters he'd just met and gone to the movies with. Maybe he really had to give humans a chance.
At least guys like Jack.
How was it possible to really think about someone this way? How was Jack benefitting from loving a girl who’d killed him?
It drove the Cheshire mad. But he decided he had to figure it out. Starting with sorting Jack's mind out.
Like a cabinet full of curiosities, he wanted to locate Jack’s memories with Alice. The memory on the bus where she killed him and the other students.