Past: Wonderland
C arter Pillar puffed his hookah’s smoke at the mirror in front of him.
He had once read about the Evil Queen in that Snow White fairy tale, talking to her favorite mirror and asking for guidance. He wasn’t as powerful as the Evil Queen, but he was certainly an embodiment of evil.
Neither the Queen of Hearts nor The Duchess could match his level of darkness. None whatsoever.
All but one—if not darker.
Mr. Jay.
That blunt blotch of morbidness lurking in Wonderland since so long. So much that it was doubtful that Mr. Jay actually had a soul.
But today the Pillar was about to put an end to it.
How? By staring into a greater darkness on the other side. By staring into the Looking Glass, one of his most precious artifacts—and one he later lost to Einstein and other humans.
The Looking Glass was the height of a normal human being, and as wide, enough for most people, unless they were giants, to pass through. Rumor had it that the surface rippled into water as one passed through. The Pillar couldn’t confirm it though. He never dared to cross over.
Neither did anyone he knew. Again, all but two—and even that was doubtful.
Lewis Carrol and Mr. Jay.
Light and Darkness.
Good and Evil.
Noble and Trash.
Some people blamed the Looking Glass for making Lewis lose his mind. That it wasn’t the mushrooms the Pillar fed him nor the migraines nor seeing Alice lose her family to the Pillar and Mr. Jay’s doing. It was simply the cross-over that turned Lewis into a stuttering lunatic who photographed children and wrote nonsensical books while still serving as a priest
It was said that Carolus was what Lewis brought back with him from the other side of the mirror.
A whole different theory was told about Mr. Jay though. He didn’t bring anything back with him from the other side of the mirror. On the contrary. He actually left something behind. His heart and soul. And came back void of feelings. Came back as darkness itself.
The Pillar still puffed in the mirror.
He was thinking.
He didn’t think about crossing over, but about making the mirror help him be the number one villain in Wonderland.
How could you top off Mr. Jay? The answer was almost ‘you can’t.’
But the Pillar had another plan. He knew he needed time to ask the mirror for the gift of immortality.
A simple dark magic he had learned. He had prepared the ritual and sacrificed many souls to have the mirror talk back to him.
And it did.
“I can’t make you immortal, Pillar,” the female voice of the mirror said. “Not in a soul and physical way, but in perspective.”
"Perspective?"
"I can make those you hurt you never forget you, Pillar," the mirror snickered.
"Nah," he waved his hookah in the air. "I'm not concerned about that. I've done so much to Fabiola, Lewis, and the Hatter, I know they will never forget me. At least I'll forever be in their nightmares."
"But is it enough?" the mirror said. "You know one of them will end up killing you, don't you?"
"I know," he said.
"Not just them, but also Alice might be the one who kills you."
He snickered back, "Don't worry about Alice. I'll always have her under control."
"You're sure about that?"
"I know her weakness."
"May I ask what it is?"
"Why should I tell a useless mirror like you?"
"Because you're lonely and have no friends?"
"Good one," he chuckled. "I like being alone."
"Maybe you should tell me because you need my help."
The Pillar considered. He had always feared whatever lurked behind the Looking Glass. Another world? Hell?
But if so, what was that world like? What would it mean to cross over? Why did Lewis lose his mind and Mr. Jay return without a heart and soul?
He reckoned he better toned down his arrogant voice when talking to the mirror. "Alice's weakness is her goodness and fierce loyalty to those who help her. People with good in their heart are weakened by the need of wanting to help--and forgive."
"I see," the mirror said. "And that's what you've done with her?"
"That's what I will always do. Past, present, future," he took a long drag from his hookah. "She is a powerful girl but she doesn't know it. Whenever I meet her I'll play father or big brother. I'll teach her one thing or two until she totally trusts me. She is a powerful girl. To suppress her powers, you need make her think she needs my power."
The mirror said nothing.
The Pillar felt like he gave away too much. He put the hookah aside and wiped his lips with the back of his hand as if hungry for a big meal.
"So what were you offering me again?" he asked cautiously.
"Now you want to know?" she teased.
He nodded in silence.
"How about a curse that makes whoever kills you have to wear your face and body for the rest of their lives?" she said.
Never had the Pillar heard such a proposal. He needed a moment to comprehend it. What kind of dark magic provided such a twisted curse?
But then he slowly smiled. He liked it.
Imagine my enemies who hate my guts being punished by looking at my face instead of their own in the mirror every day.
"That's cruel," he said with a grin.
"And you thought you are the embodiment of evil."
"Touché," he tapped his hat for her then picked up his hookah and leaned back and took a long drag. "Imagine the smile on my face when my enemies kill me. I bet that's actually what you call priceless ."
The mirror allowed Pillar his privacy while his imagination ran wild. The girl inside the mirror thought: Poor Pillar, you have no idea what's going to happen to you.