Present: The Wonderland War, London
T elling Malice that this was a war between fact and fiction isn’t a big deal to me. Maybe to her, but I am more concerned with Constance's health now.
I lay her down on the ground and breathe into her mouth.
"She’ll be alright," Malice the plant said, snaking her path through the air above us. "I just whispered something in her ears while I gripped her. I guess she couldn’t handle it."
"Why do that to her?" I shake my head and rub Constance’s innocent face.
"Well," Malice said. "The Jabberwocky is right about wanting to control children. It's hard to understand what's on their mind. I had to test her strength.”
"You mean you have to practice your authority as an adult on a helpless, young girl," I say. "Is there a way to wake her up?"
"You have to whisper an antidote in her ears."
"What antidote?"
"I'm Malice. I only know of poisons. Antidotes are your department. Good and evil, you see."
"Bitch!"
"Did you just call yourself a bitch?"
"You're not me."
"That's debatable," she snickers.
"What's the antidote?"
"You think about it."
"What did you whisper in her ears?"
"I told her who the Jabberwocky really is."
“He is Lewis’ Illustrator,” I say. “I know that.”
“You know wrong, darling.”
“He is someone else. Someone you know but also don’t know.”
I hate puzzles. Fed up with them. But what does she mean with the Jabberwocky not being Lewis’ friend. I’m sure of it.
She nods and dances in the air. “Constance was shocked."
"I can't think of whom else he might be," I tell her. "So my antidote would be what again?"
“Telling her the same name I told her."
"I don't know who the Jabberwocky is!"
"Guess. It’s a game… of life and death,“ she swung left and right, proud of her useless rhyme.
"How would me telling be different than you telling her?”
"When I told her, I said the Jabberwocky's real name and that he will hurt her," Malice says. "You’ll say the name and assure her that he will not hurt her."
"You want me to lie?"
"You want her to live?"
"So it's only a matter of perception to Constance. If I whisper the same thing in her ears, she will awaken, only because I promised her she will be safe?"
"Spot on," Malice says. "You see, Alice of Wonderland, we all know the world is a shit hole - ahem, pardon me - I mean a rabbit hole. Children don't need lies. They don't want you to tell them there is no monster. They want you to tell then there is a monster but that they will be alright. That they will be able to kill the monster.”
"Fact against fiction," I nod.
"Why do you think the human race invented books, movies, and games?" she asks. "To cope. They know the world is dangerous and hardly bearable. The books and movies are their fictional weapon against reality. Did you ever wonder why movies that end in a dark way are universally hated?"
It baffles me that my evil side is wiser than me.
"Wonderland and Real Life," she says.
"Fiction against fact," I say again, buying myself time to think.
"Nah," she corrects me. "Fact against fiction. Wonderland was once fiction, now look around, it's going to be a fact."
"Except that no one in the world ever imagined it to be that dark."
Malice's eyes shift back to Constance.
"Three whispers, Alice," Malice says. "You have to get it right at least once, or she will die."
"What?" my heart misses a beat.
"That's the game."
"Why are you doing this?"
"'Because I can," she says then descends closer to my ears. "And I love to make you suffer."
I grit my teeth.
"You know only one of us can outlive the other eventually, right?"
"I thought about it."
"Did you think you’ll fight me with your fancy sword? It's a war of the mind, darling, not of weapons," she retreats upward, watching me like an all-seeing eye from above. "Three guesses, Alice."
I have to guess the Jabberwocky's identity and whisper it in Constance's ear or she will die. In my attempt to trust my gut feeling -- and the logical turn of events -- I bend over and whisper in Constance's ears. "Carter Chrysalis Cocoon Pillar."