Page 73 of Escaping Wonderland

Shadow glanced down to see his hands in the same position over the fabric of the green hospital gown he was dressed in. He moved his hands aside; there was no wound beneath, no tear in the fabric, no blood. But the scent of blood filled his nose—herblood. He looked up as his ghost, the body he’d inhabited during his entire stay in Wonderland, swayed. The light was gone from his ghost’s eyes, and no hint of the grin he usually wore was present. The empty shell, the shadow, collapsed, barely making a sound as it hit the ground.

Shadow—he knew it wasn’t his name, especially not in this body, but he couldn’t remember what his name was supposed to be—shifted his gaze to Alice, who lay on the ground nearby his discarded ghost, unmoving but for the erratic rise and fall of her chest with her shallow, labored breaths.

He longed to lift her up, to soothe her, to kiss away her pain, but there was no time. He had to be quicker than the king.

“Not real, not real,” he repeated. His hoarse voice cut in and out, burning in his throat. This pain felt real and immediate.

“Wake up, damn you!” Shadow pinched his arm, pushing one of his claws through his skin. Warm blood oozed from the small wound. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!” He lifted a hand and slapped his cheek hard. The sharp sting was a shock, but not enough of one to accomplish his goal.

His eyes fell on Alice again as he grasped fistfuls of his hair and tugged on the strands. Despite the cool air, pinpricks of heat danced across his skin. Each of his thundering heartbeats was one closer to losing her. To losingeverything. And if he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, how could he hope to help her?

Shadow’sotherlay beside her, lifeless and still. What if that was the real him? What if he truly was a ghost now?

“No,” he growled. “I’m real.Youaren’t!”

He dropped to his knees and closed his hands around the ghost’sthroat.

“Not real. This…isn’t…real!”

He tightened his grip and released a wordless roar. The world around him rippled, and a sudden sinking sensation made it feel like he was falling despite the solid ground beneath him—falling impossibly fast, impossibly far. He was falling into an unfathomable abyss, into a lightless void; he was falling out of existence. He turned his head to seek Alice, hoping that seeing her would ground him in reality.

No.Thisisn’t real.

The darkness devoured Shadow; it didn’t seem to care whether it was real or not.

CHAPTER 20

Shadow opened his eyes and sucked in a wheezing breath. He tried to sit up, but there was something solid over him; fortunately, his hand struck the obstruction before his head could. The darkness receded as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. His breathing echoed around him, amplified by the tight space, as his vision wavered and spun, blurring and focusing wildly for several seconds.

When he could finally see clearly, he realized he was looking up at a small window. The soft, weak light originated from somewhere beyond the window. He shifted to get a different angle, hoping to see more than a shadowed, featureless ceiling, but a series of aches and stings cascaded through his body and halted him before he could.

He gritted his teeth and dropped his head onto the padded cushion beneath him. Everything hurt, everything felt heavy, and he had no idea where he was—apart from someplace cramped and dark.

I know this place. Alice told me about it.

And I…Iremember.

Images flashed through Shadow’s mind’s eye—halls with dull artificial light, men in strange uniforms, a chamber filled withlong, silent pods. These images had never been wild imaginings; they were memories from when he’d been brought here—from when they’d locked him in the dark.

Lifting his head again, he looked down at his prone body. His gown—which should’ve been pale green—was made gray by the poor lighting, and his feet were lost entirely to the lingering darkness at the opposite end of the pod. Various tubes and wires were embedded in his body along the way. He could feel their points beneath his skin, shifting with his every tiny movement.

He willed himself out of the pod, seeking that strange energy that had allowed him to phase in Wonderland, but it was gone. It didn’t exist here.

The king is hunting…and Alice needs me.

Those thoughts sliced through his confusion and fear. His heart sped as he groped in the blackness with both hands, sliding his palms and fingertips along the walls and ceiling of his pod. He stilled when his claws caught on something—a handle of some sort. He curled his fingers beneath it and yanked it down. There was a hiss of air being released, and the lid rose, allowing more light to flow in around the edges.

Shadow planted both palms against the lid and shoved up against it. He felt it strain as he pushed it faster than it was designed to move. Once it was high enough, he sat up.

Though his range of motion was limited by several of the connections embedded in his skin, his head spun, and his stomach flipped at the sudden movement. With shaky hands, he clawed at the tubes on his forearm, pulling one loose; the needle that slid out of his flesh as he tugged on the line had to be at least three inches long.

“Emergency disengagement activated,” said a gentle, feminine voice from the lid overhead. “Please remain still to avoid injury.”

The color of several of the tubes changed, and something icy cold flowed through his veins, washing away his lingering disorientation. A moment later, Shadow’s throat constricted in panic as the remaining lines and tubes moved on their own, producing fresh, dull pain as they withdrew from his flesh. He watched them recede with wide eyes. It wouldn’t take much of a leap in imagination to see them as living creatures, as writhing parasites that had been feeding off him from the inside.

After the final connection—this one at the base of his skull—had withdrawn, the voice said, “Please remain in your immersion chamber. An attendant will be with you as soon as possible.” There was a brief pause before it added, “Your wait may be prolonged due to a communication error with our monitoring systems. Thank you for your patience.”

Shadow raised a hand to the back of his neck. Apart from a small lump, there was no sign that anything had just been buried in his skin—in fact, the spot was now oddly numb.Allthe spots where a needle had been injected were numb but for the one from which he’d removed the first tube, which also seemed to be the only one that was bleeding.

---