Present: The Wonderland War, London
I snatch the sword from the kid and stare him in the eyes. He folds his arms with a smug look on his face.
"Is everyone in the bus dead?" I ask.
"That'll be five pounds if you want an answer," he says.
The March Hare pulls me away from the kids but I resist.
"Alice," he insists. "We don't have time. I need to tell you what I know."
The kid spit out a few obscene words at me and hurries away. I let go and give in, almost numb to my core. The Vorpal sword is heavy in my hands but it somehow gives me the strength to cope.
I follow the March to a huge mushroom broken in half.
"Let's climb on top of it," he shows me how. "Broken mushrooms don't come back to life. We can talk on top of this one. It's a good spot to see any danger coming our way."
I follow him and stand looking down at what's left from this world.
"The secret Lewis kept with me is about the Looking Glass," the March starts. "A mirror that once belonged to the Evil Queen from the Snow White fame."
"What?" I blink, unable to connect the dots.
"It's the first mirror ever made. At least the first-ever sold by a German scientist called Justus von Lieblig ."
"Okay?"
"It's said that Justus wasn't aiming for a reflective surface for us to look at ourselves," the March explains. "He wanted to visit other worlds through the mirror."
"Excuse me?"
"Justus was an evil magician. Some say he was the devil."
"Where is this going? We don't have time."
The March doesn't even address my complaint. "Something inside the mirror killed him. Then the mirror landed in the hands of the Evil Queen."
"That's assuming she isn't a character from a book," I say.
"You and I are characters from books so don't fret, Alice."
I can't argue with that, so I shut up and listen.
"The mirror showed the Evil Queen how to kill Snow White, then the mirror was abandoned until someone brought it over to sell it in an auction."
"How and why did this mirror come from Germany to London?" I'm just playing along, seeing where this is going.
"Sotheby Auction House was the most famous in the world. It attracted the richest of the rich," the March catches his breath. There is so much info-dump he has to vomit in my face. "The Pillar knew about the mirror and wanted to buy it, among others like Lewis who were fascinated by it."
"The Pillar wanting to buy an evil mirror makes sense to me. Lewis has always been curious about the occult and the unknown. Go on."
"Long story short, the mirror was sold to a mysterious woman in a red fur."
"You mean the woman we met at the mushroom house?"
"Yes, the Red Queen. She bought it to go back to where she once lived. It's a long, complicated story. All you have to know is that the mirror is a window to other worlds, other times, sometimes the same world we live in but with different scenarios."
"I'm confused again."
"Don't worry. What you need to know is that Lewis, and his trusted Illustrator, crossed over to the other side through the mirror."
I shrug. Lewis never told me that. So Lewis visited other worlds than Wonderland and the Real World? "This mirror is the Looking Glass mentioned in Lewis' book then?"
The March nodded in agreement. "He even hints at the fact it once played a part in the Snow White story by having Alice -- you -- own a cat named Snowdrop."
"Snowdrop?"
"Snowdrop is the realistic translation to Snow White in old German."
"Okay. Okay," I raise my hands in the air. "What's this all about then? Why is it important? Why was this a secret Lewis had to keep with you for all those years?"
The March swallows hard. He wipes sweat from his forehead. "Lewis and his friend came back from the other side different people."
"How different?"
"Lewis came back with Carolus inside him."
I suppress a shriek. So Carolus hadn't always been inside him and wasn't a product of his addiction to mushrooms, or the migraines. It's actually a dark entity from a world beyond.
"And his friend came back without a soul."
"His illustrator friend?"
"Yes?"
"Does he have a name? Do I know him?"
The March's eyes moisten with fear, devastation, and hopelessness. "His friend is Mr. Jay."
"Mr. Jay? The head of Black Chess?" I sound like I'm asking but I'm not. I'm reciting facts that go back to the beginning of all this mess between good and evil. "Lewis and Mr. Jay were friends?"
"Close ones. Then they entered the mirror and came back Dark and Light. Love and Hate. Black Chess and Inklings. That was Lewis' biggest secret. Going in and out through the mirror, he became a conflicted defender of light, and Mr. Jay the opposite. He became darkness itself."
"Why hadn't Lewis ever mentioned Mr. Jay in any of his books?"
"He did."
"He didn't."
"The poem."
"Which poem?"
"Mr. Jay is the Jabberwocky who you will have to fight in the end."
It's hard to tell why I'm not surprised. In fact, I feel stupid and naive having never figured out Mr. Jay was the Jabberwocky. Too much was going on in my life, I guess.
Still, I need a minute to digest the whole story. A man and his illustrator enter through a dark mirror -- something like a wardrobe in C. S. Lewis' books -- and come back with evil in them. They end up fighting each other in an ancient war between good and evil -- and probably the power to teleport between worlds.
Still, a question remains, "What were they fighting about, March?"
"Children, Alice. It should be crystal clear by now. Lewis spent his life entertaining children to keep their minds away from the Jabberwocky trying to get to them, either in their nightmares or by ensuing poverty in London. Remember the times when most children were poor and homeless. That was the Jabberwocky's doing. He wanted their hearts and souls so he could spread his kingdom of evil. Lewis fought back by writing books and entertaining them…"
"No," I interrupt him. I do that because I get it. I get what Lewis was doing all along now. I understand. "Lewis protected the children with madness."
"What?"
"Insanity, imagination, and stories were Lewis' way of occupying the young mind and keeping them entertained, far from the darkness of the real world. That's why Lewis comes across as a child. He himself used this strategy in his own life. Burying himself in insane, implausible books to keep his mind off the real insanity in the real world. I think it's genius. I think it's why we all read."
The March Hare looks starstruck. He never thought about it, I guess.
"So I have to fight the Jabberwocky?"
"Him or the Pillar."
"Why the Pillar?"
"That's Lewis' secret, that at the right time after you go through a journey of suffering and growing up, you will be apt enough to use the Vorpal sword and kill the evil men from Black Chess. Lewis hadn't been sure. He said you must kill the Jabberwocky, but then said the Pillar might do as well."
"Do it for what?"
"To save the children."
"How?"
"Once you kill the evil source, it will be shown to you how to save them--and save the world."
I look up at the ashen sky but refrain from taking a deeply polluted breath. I close my eyes. Part of me feels old and hectic and confused. That part wants to find a place to sleep and forget about the world. The other part is grateful. At least now I know how to end this mess. How I'm going to kill the Pillar and the Jabberwocky is beyond my understanding--especially the Pillar.
But then I lower my head and face the March again. There is one last question left, "What happened to Lewis and Jabberwocky on the other side of the mirror?"
The March shrugged his shoulders. "No one knows."
I nod.
"If anyone knows, it should be you." He adds.
I tilt my head, incomprehensible. "Me?"
"You were the third person to enter the mirror after them," the March dared not stare me in the eyes.
"What did you just say?" I don't remember any of this, of course.
"How do you think Dark Alice happened?" He says. "This is how you…"
"How I what?"
"How you lost your mind."