Present: Warehouse location, London
T he warehouse is empty and looks safe — for now. We stuff the Mushroomers inside and Tom with them. Constance organizes everything and takes care of locking the outlets.
Jack carries the March to the bed I made for him from roses. He is breathing, but still unconscious. His body seems weakened, but we don’t have food to feed him. I can’t imagine what he has been through.
I sit next to him and pat him, “You’re going to be all right, March.”
“A child in an old man’s body,” Jack commented. “I wonder how they had the heart to torture him in the asylum when he was patient 14.”
“Black Chess doesn’t give a damn,” I say. “Or whoever wants those Six Keys.”
“The Pillar told me that Lewis gave you one of the Keys,” Jack says.
“Yes,” I let out a colorless laugh. “That was my first mission. The Pillar showed me the Tom Tower where I could cross over somehow and see Lewis.”
“We’re too far to go there now.”
“Lewis gave me a Key. Later, the Pillar took another Key from the Queen, the one I found in the basement from where I was raised,” I gaze into Jack’s eyes. “Which reminds me of Lorina and Edith.”
“What about them?”
“You like Lorina?”
Jack rolled his eyes, “I was acting. I had to be believable to the Queen.”
“Yeah, right,” I roll my eyes back. “I bet you still like Lorina. Boys always like her.”
“Liked you mean.”
“What?”
“Lorina and Edith are dead, so is Margaret. The Pillar killed them.”
I am in loss for words. With all the terrible things they have done to me, I am shocked. “He killed Lorina and Edith? I can understand Margaret, but my sisters?”
“They aren’t your sisters,” Jack sits next to me and hugs me tight. “And they don’t deserve your sympathy,” his hand runs through my hair, his eyes not giving up on mine. Slowly, he leans forward and —
“When I said get a room I didn’t mean next to the March,” Constance interrupts.
I bury my head in Jack’s chest and laugh.
“How is the March?” She asks.
“No signs of waking up,” Jack says.
“Could this thing on top of his head be the cause of all his misery?” she kneels next to him.
“You think?” I leave Jack and look.
“Could be, right?” Constance says. “Maybe all we need is to remove it.”
“It’s stuck,” I say. “When we were in the asylum, he asked me to mush his head so he can remember. I can’t believe I did that. What was I thinking?”
“But it has been there before, right?” she says.
“Yeah,” I tell. “I think it’s always been there. The way the screws are bored into his head, I mean they’ve been there for years.”
“Poor March,” Jack says.
Constance kneels to inspect the cap on the March’s head, “I have a feeling this is what keeps him from remembering. Those screws are so tight into his flesh. Are those what gets attached to the electric pods?”
“Yes,” I nod.
“They are practically suffocating his head,” Constance says. “This is it. No two ways about it. Let me see if I can find any tools in this warehouse. We have to unlock it.”
“Wait,” Jack says. “Before you go, shouldn’t we try to think about what he said in the helicopter?”
“The mushroom hallucinations?” she asks.
“He wasn’t hallucinating,” I tell her. “He said he would remember when sees the mushrooms.”
“Which is total bonkers, and means nothing at all.”
“He said someone told him that,” I tell her. “I think it might be the Hatter. In the asylum, he had this episode when he remembered how he loved the Hatter.”
“I am not following,” she says. “How can someone remember something when he sees the mushrooms?”
“Maybe we should get him mushrooms,” Tom suggests mockingly.
Constance has her hands on her waist, but she isn’t going to hit Tom this time. She looks back at me, “Do you think it could be that easy?”
I tilt my head. “Mushrooms to remember? It doesn’t make sense. If it were true, then anyone could have given him mushrooms for the last two hundred years. With all this torture he must have told Black Chess about the mushrooms at some point.”
“Girls,” Jack interrupts. “I have been listening to you, waiting for this to go somewhere, but we’re forgetting something.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“He said the mushrooms are somewhere in London.”
Constance mops her head with hands. “Stupid me. Yes, he did. So he is talking about certain mushrooms. This makes more sense.”
“Whoever helped him forget, made sure a certain mushroom brings back the memory,” Jack explains. “The March didn’t remember where the Six Keys are but how to remember where they are. Brilliant.”
“I agree,” I say. “Who could that be? Who planned it so meticulously?”
“I hope not the Pillar,” Constance says.
“The Pillar wanted the Six Keys like all of us,” Jack says. “It’s probably why he stuck with Alice all of this time.”
My heart tells me this isn’t it. Though all evidence points to the Pillar being the scum of the earth, a manipulator, and partially a devil on earth, I feel otherwise somehow. But I don’t comment.
“So?” Constance asks. “Are we going to play survival all the time, hiding in this warehouse? We need to have a plan. Apparently waking the March up isn’t a definite option now.”
“You’re right,” I agree. “We have to get moving, especially now that he’s given us a clue.”
“A clue to mushrooms,” Tom snickers in the back.
“It’s not a clue to mushrooms,” I stand up. “It’s not exactly about mushrooms.”
“What?” Jack and Constance ask.
“Mushrooms in London, you know what this is?” I ask them. “It’s an address.”
Constance hits her forehead again. She has to stop that. “You’re right. We need to find a place in London that is famous for mushrooms.”
“That’s why he said ‘his designs,’” Jack says.
I feel so stupid. Maybe we’ve all been exhausted and couldn’t think straight. The March told us most of what we need to know in one simple sentence.
“Stay here,” I tell Constance. “I am going out. I have to find that place.”
“I am coming with you,” Jack says.
“No,” I stop him. “They need you here. If I don’t make it, Constance is my second best. Take care of her.”
On my way out, the door to the warehouse is slid open. We all go for our guns, but then stop. Our intruders are more than just a surprise.