Page 63 of Escaping Wonderland

A few of the people weren’t wearing anything at all.

There were interactions and conversations happening all over. A few of the people were talking to themselves, while others danced wistfully to inaudible music. One man was even smacking his head against a wall, over and over, his lips moving as though he were muttering. If the king had arrived in Rosecourt, he clearly hadn’t been here yet.

This was closer to what Alice might’ve expected to see in an asylum. Not what she’d witnessed at Hatter’s Tea Party.

“Why is everyone so different here?” Alice asked.

“Different how?” Shadow asked. He maintained his easy pace, leading her along as he gracefully wove between the people crowding the street.

“They’re…troubled.”

A dancing woman spun, eyes closed and a joyful smile on her lips, as Alice passed her.

“Well, not troubled,” Alice continued, “but…some of them seem closer to the sleepers than they do to the people that were at the Hatter’s. Like they’re not entirelyhere.”

Shadow hummed thoughtfully. “Perhaps. But there are many more people here than at the Hatter’s; it’s only natural that you’d see more of the crazy ones. Just a matter of population density, I imagine.”

“How many peoplearehere?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not sure anyone does, really. Thousands, tens of thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands? It’s difficult to say. I don’t believe anyone even really knows how big Rosecourt is.”

Alice hadn’t seen the asylum from outside, though she supposed even if she had, it wouldn’t have helped her guess how many of those pods were inside. If there really were hundreds of thousands of people in this simulation—and she couldn’t bring herself to believe that was true—it was highly unlikely that theywere all linked in from a single facility, but she simply didn’t know either way.

“So, what do we do now?” she asked. “We came here to find the king, but if he’s not here…”

“We go to the likeliest place for information. The Stark Rave.”

Shadow’s words from Jor’calla’s—it seemed like that had been a lifetime ago—drifted back to her.

See? Stark raving mad.

“The Stark Rave? That…doesn’t sound very appealing, does it?”

Shadow shrugged. “I think people are more interested in what they candothere. What it’s called isn’t very important.”

They came to an intersection, and Shadow turned left. The next street was just like the last—not that anything was actually the same, but it was equally colorful, disjointed, and crowded.

“The Stark Rave is just like Hatter’s Tea Party,” Shadow said. “Just no dollies and infinitely more drugs. It’s run by Bokki and Grithis; they’re friends of the Hatter’s. But we don’t need to worry—that mean woman with the bird mask, Cecilia, is never there.”

“And you think they’ll know something?”

“People are in and out of the Rave constantly, and they’re always high while they’re inside, so they talk. Bokki and Grithis make a point of keeping abreast of all that talk. Jor’callaknewthings, but those twohearthings. Everything.”

Alice’s brows lowered. “That doesn’t mean they’ll just tell us.”

Shadow’s lips stretched into a slow, wide grin.

“Okay, so maybe they will,” said Alice. “You seem to put fear into everyone here, and I’m sure they’ll only be more scared with the threat of true death.”

“I’m not frightening, justpersuasive. But I probably ought to inform you that I’m not actually welcome in their establishment, so we’ll have to avoid entering through the front door.”

“I’m sure that has nothing to do with you being scary, right?”

Shadow shook his head. “Not at all. They were just upset that I continuously came out on top in our games.”

Alice stared at him. “You killed them, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but they always came back!”

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