Page 14 of Escaping Wonderland

The bed creaked again, and there was a whisper of something across fabric. A moment later, the flat of the knife—now dry—slid along her forearm from the inside of her elbow toward her wrist. Alice flinched, unable to hold back a whimper.

“Do you feel that?” he asked.

“I-It’s still not real.”

“How is it not real if you canfeelit?”

“It’s a simulation. We’re in an asylum.Noneof this is real, they just want us to believe it is.”

Why is he acting so different? Why does hesoundso different?

He took hold of her chin with his long, strong fingers and turned her face toward him. She swore she could feel the light press ofclawsagainst her skin. He tenderly stroked her cheek. His velvety touch was strangely familiar—but not from when he’d thrown her onto the bed and restrained her.

“Open your eyes,” he coaxed. “They’re far too pretty to keep them hidden from me for so long.”

For one terrifying, gut-wrenching instant, Alice envisioned him gouging her eyes out with that blade. “What are you going to do to me?”

“I didn’t really have any plans. Was there something specific you wanted done to you?”

“Let me go. Please, just let me go.”

The flat of the blade trailed in the opposite direction. “Are you going to open your eyes or not? It’s not helping me assess you as a rational person when you’re sitting here with them squeezed shut ranting about how reality isn’t real.”

Steeling herself, Alice opened her eyes, and was completely caught off-guard by the face in front of hers.

“It’syou,” she breathed. She hadn’t been insane, hadn’t been seeing things.

She’d seen those eyes and that grin before—and not on the Hatter. This was the stranger who’d been in the crowd when she arrived here, the stranger with whom she’d briefly made eye contact. The stranger she’d been compelled to seek out afterward.

Though his face was human-like, he undoubtedly wasn’t human. His jaw-length black hair was sprinkled with strands of gray, hanging in tousled locks from beneath the brim of the Hatter’s top hat. Long, feline ears jutted from either side of his head, and his face was dominated by that wide, fanged grin. His intense eyes—intent upon her—were aglow in that vibrant teal. Despite his alien features, he was handsome.

That attractiveness, however, didn’t take away from how unsettling he was.

“What a silly thing to say,” he replied.

Alice’s brows lowered. “W-What? What’s silly?”

“Of course I’m me. Who else would I be? Are you not yourself?”

“I…I thought you were the Hatter.” Her eyes flared as she stole a glance at the open doorway. “The Hatter! Where is he?”

The stranger’s grin tilted to one side as he lifted the knife away from her and spun it between his long, dexterous fingers. He raised his other hand and tipped his hat forward, hiding his eyes behind the brim.

Alice’s heart skipped a beat when she realized that the top of the hat was glistening withblood.

“You don’t need to worry about him for now,” the stranger said. “Though, perhaps, you can take some satisfaction in knowing that he’s going to be late for his own party this evening.”

“Who are you?”

He arched a brow. “I thought we’ve already established that I am me. Really, are you payinganyattention?”

“You never…you never told me your name.”

“Well that’s a little more complicated than simply asking who I am, isn’t it?” He leaned forward slightly. “What’syourname? I’m fairly certain it’s not Little Dolly.”

“Alice. My name is Alice.”

“Alice,” he said, putting more gravel into her name than she’d thought possible. Were his voice not quite so deep, she might’ve considered it a purr. His eyes drifted toward the ceiling, and his brow furrowed as though in contemplation. Then he nodded. “It suits you. I approve.”

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