Present: Yellow School Bus, London
T he bus is empty.
It takes me some time to register what I’m looking at. There is blood and chaos everywhere. But there are no passengers. None. Nada.
How is that possible?
Did someone steal the bodies? For what? And if they all survived? How? Where did they go?
I jump in and look for clues, wondering if anyone left something recognizable behind. All I see is blood on the seats, floors, and windows. Also fragments of mirror shards.
If they lost so much blood how are they alive?
I feel stupid, standing in the middle of the bus with my sword. Either I’m too dumb to understand or I have to accept that the nonsense will never stop.
As I’m attempting to climb out, I hear someone calling my name.
“Alice,” the voice says from behind a seat in the back.
I shiver in place. Not only does this sound like a scary scene from a horror movie when a ghost from the past calls your name in that hissing tone, but there is something about the voice that is truly unsettling.
Frozen in place I can’t even move. I don’t bother turning around. This isn’t happening. This. Isn’t. Happening.
“Alice,” the girl’s voice behind me whispers.
My knuckles whiten, gripping my sword.
“Turn around and look at me.”
I don’t turn around. Where have I heard this voice before?
“It’s time, Alice,” the girl says. “Did you really think we were never going to meet?”
“Not like this,” I tell her, listening to her move. She is probably standing up behind me. Does she have a weapon? Even if she has, does it matter?
How is this possible?
I know this is a mad world. I know I have good and evil in me, but how can this be happening?
“All you have to do is look at me,” the girl’s voice is so real it kills me.
I don’t answer back.
“Don’t worry,” she says. “No mirror’s needed this time.”
What she says explained it. Still, I have to ask. “What do you mean?”
“The rabbit in the mirror,” she says. “The one that makes you fear mirrors. The one that makes you drive yellow school busses over bridges and kill people you love.”
“What about it?” my mouth is dry. The question I asked isn’t quite a question. Who am I fooling? I know what she means. My God, this voice of hers. How I have known it for years. How it’s been in my head. In my heart. In my soul.
“I’m the rabbit, Alice,” she says in a voice that implies subtle mockery. As if she has already won this round between good and evil.
“I know,” I nod my head. “I just hadn’t put two and two together. I should have known.”
“You’ve always known,” she is approaching me from the back. Soon I will have to turn and face my darkest fear.
“I have,” I admit. “Only I never thought we’d meet.”
“We’ve met every day,” she is right behind me, whispering in the back of my neck. Her scent is so familiar. More than familiar.
“We did,” I shiver to her unwelcome breeze. “I never thought we’d meet like this.”
“It had to happen,” she says. “What do you think the mushrooms represent in this world?”
I’m not sure what she means. Goosebumps are all over my arms and I weaken my grip on my sword.
“Mushrooms bend reality by penetrating the earth from its core and splitting it open,” she breathes in my neck, even closer now. “And what happens when we’re split open, Alice?”
“We’re exposed,” I agree.
“Our darker side shows,” she says. “Cause none of us is who we think we are. None of us is one person. We’re always two, Alice. Always.”
This is when I turn around, slowly.
If I’ve cried an hour earlier at the Pillar’s doing, I am not going to cry now, but I was almost going to vomit, looking at the girl up close and personal.
Nothing special about her looks. I knew how she would look. I’ve known her since long ago.
It’s her eyes that scared me.
It’s my eyes that scared me.
It’s her that scared me.
It’s also me .
The girl in front of me was simply me. The Dark Alice in me had split into a physical presence. The same that happened to Lewis with Carolus when we both returned from the Looking Glass.
“Alice!” Another sweeter voice calls from behind me.
I turn back without hesitation and head back to Constance. I squeeze her so hard in my arms, I’m about to chalk. She wants to speak. To tell me what happened, but I give her no chance. It doesn’t matter. What matters is her being Alive.
“Alice, you’re chocking me,” she laughs.
“Sorry. I thought I’d never see you again. I was trapped here with this…” I turn around to look at Malice, but she is gone.
“Talking? To whom?”
I shrug and look back into Constance eyes, “No one. I must have imagined stuff,” I shake her shoulders. A crackles escapes me. “Tell me all about you, little Warrior. Tell me what happened here.”