Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 23 Hatter

We walk back to the tree that we came from and I show Cheshire the paper.
"I'm hoping that you know what this means. It's all gibberish to me." He hops back up on to my shoulder.

When we emerged we were on the same street we had seen Alice and Jack on when Cheshire   had used his magic to try and track her in this world while we were in our own.
"How did we end up here?" We got lucky and the street was empty so no one was going to question how we appeared out of thin air, but it was starting to get dark and fast. Unless we found Alice in her home then we're going to be lost in the dark.
"Don't you remember? When we saw her on this street her hand was bleeding. She left her blood on this tree so she must have left some of her magic behind and since I was using mine to hunt her down it must have mixed some of mine in there too. We must be close to her home though. I can see faint traces of the paths she would take. Let's start walking and we'll see where it leads us. She said she rarely walked unless it was to her job or that pizza place. So our chances are good we won't have to wonder around in the dark." I start walking down the street with Cheshire still on my shoulders. The flowers that bloomed on these trees are quite lovely, the colors are muted compared to the ones back home, but I could still see how Alice might find some beauty in them.
"There's something oddly familiar about these trees. Can you place it Cheshire? It almost feels like home, but not quite." He looks at the trees and stays silent a moment.
"They almost look like the trees from the garden in the Hearts estate. Their colors are different, the Hearts preferred reds and pinks. The whites and purples are lovely too though. Beatrice had insisted on alternating the trees between the fruits and the flowering trees. She said she wanted life and beauty surrounding her home. Alice is a lot like Beatrice. She'll never see it, but I see it."
"Why would she run? None of this makes any sense." My steps slow down as I finally ask the question that's been plaguing my mind this whole time. I feel Cheshire dig his claws slightly into my skin making me stop completely.
"If she's not in her home, I'm afraid she didn't leave by choice." His voice is hardened and cold. And I can feel a sense of dread creep down my spine. Who would want to take her though? Only a few people knew of her being in Wonderland. That narrows down who I would have to beat to get the information we need.
"What was the name of that place she said made her favorite meal?" Cheshire's voice snaps me back to here.
"She never said a name. Why?" He nudges my head towards a building with a sign that reads "Romeos Pizzeria".
"Her magic is heavy here. We should go in and ask if they've seen her."

We walk into the shop and immediately I can smell something amazing that I've never smelt before. An older lady comes from behind a swinging door and smiles at me. I remove my hat and return her smile.
"Well well well.  As I live and breathe. The Hatter and of course the one and only Cheshire cat. It's lovely to see you both." Cheshire and I exchange shocked glances before we hear the lady laugh.
"Little Alice has shown me her drawings of you both. And a Spade could never forget one of the guardians. You both can call me Mrs. Leo." Cheshire quickly jumps from my shoulders and sits in front of her. He eyes her up and down and she just looks back at him.
"How is it possible?" His voice is shocked, almost as if he can't believe it.
"Only the magic knows. Maybe we got stuck on this side to look after the other lost line." Cheshire draws back. Completely shocked that she could understand him. We all stand staring at each other while we processed the information.
"Come along boys. We can sit in the back and talk. Papa Leo has Alice's favorite in the pizza oven now. We have some things to talk through. And I know you both have questions." We follow her into a closed off back room. The room is simple with only one long table in the middle of the room. It reminds me of my front garden where my tea table is set up.
"We have this room for private bookings or meetings. We mainly use it for family dinners these days. Please. Sit." She gestures to the empty seats as she sits at the head of the table. We sit and she just looks at us.
"I'm assuming since your both here alone then Alice is elsewhere. May I ask what's happened to her?" Before we can tell our story an older gentleman walks into the room and just smiles warmly at us. He has a bottle in one hand and a few glasses in the other hand.
"Well mamma. I guess Alice finally made it back to her homeland. Finally, no more secrets from our girl." He smiles at us before he moves to Mrs. Leo's side. He places everything down on the table and gently kisses her cheek.
"Where is our girl anyways? She never misses an opportunity for her favorite pizza and dessert." He looks back towards the door before his wife grabs his hand.
"Grab the lunch my love. We have much to discuss and from the looks on their faces, we need to makes this quick." He nods before leaving the room again.
"My husband and I have always known who she is. Hence why we made sure to treat her well and keep her close. Especially after we learned about her childhood." She uncorks the bottle and pours out a sweet smelling wine into the four glasses.
"We keep this wine in the cooler for when Alice sits down and eats instead of take out. It's her favorite. And knowing the history of your magic Hatter I know you'll be able to recreate her favorites when she cant come to visit us." She slides the glasses in front of me and Cheshire before she takes her first sip from her own glass. I smell the sweet wine before I taste it, it's nothing like I've ever had before. I can taste the tart apples with a sweet finish on my tongue. I can see why Alice loves it so much. My mind suddenly wanders to the recipes I could pair with this just for my love.
Mr. Leo comes back in the room with a dish that smells of dough, tomatoes, and some sort of cheese. This must be what Alice called pizza. It smells heavenly.
"You must not have had pizza before. Its an honor to introduce you to this, though I do wish Alice was here to savor this with you. She always enjoys introducing Papas cooking to new people." She sighs before she continues. "She wasn't born into royalty as she should have been, but she's regal in how she carries herself anyways. Her family was not equipped to handle her when she came into her magic. That's why when she stumbled into our restaurant and I felt the magic she carried in her, I knew we had to keep our eyes on her. Then we got to know her over the first few months and I saw her drawing on of the guardians from memory I knew, she wasn't just a descendant from a normal line. So I dug deeper into my magic and it showed me who she truly was. A descendent of Beatrice herself." She placed food on plates for all of us as she spoke. Her husband sat back and sipped his wine as his wife spoke. I could see the love he has for her even if she wasn't fully from the world he knew.
"How did a Spade end up on this side? I thought the last of your line got lost in his mind and never recovered." Cheshire doesn't touch any of the food or the wine, no doubt he has no appetite since he's lost Alice yet again. Mrs. Leo looks at him before she drains her glass.
"He did loose his way. Though it was his own foolishness that brought him to this side. With Beatrice gone and the magic unstable the damned fool thought if he dream walked to her then he could convince her to come home. He wasn't talented enough or strong enough mentally to make the journey. So when he woke up he was stuck on this side. Didn't the guardians think it odd when you never found a body?" He looks at her with no readable expression.
"You would be surprised at how many people don't leave a body when they fully loose their minds. It's a curiosity that not even we can explain. We may have been around since the beginning of our world, but not even we have all the answers. The magic can be fickle and unpredictable so the most we can do is track the ebb and flow and keep notes of important events." He's reserved as he talks.
"And we're loosing time to find her. She disappeared while she was asleep with Hatter. I couldn't even sense who else had been on the property when I came back. She's not with her family at the farm. How do we get to her home?" I can see the worried expressions on their faces as they look between each other.
"I need a drop of your blood. Both of you. I don't know if you're aware Hatter, but us Spades are trackers. Since you both were with her the most then I can try and track her in this world or yours." She winks at her husband before she reaches out her hand. I watch as Cheshire uses his claws to prick his paw pad and lets a single drop go into her hand. He turns to me and I offer my hand, he quickly sticks my finger and I let the blood drop next to Cheshire's in her palm.
She closes her eyes and starts murmuring something that I can't understand. Cheshire whispers to me.
"Spades are some of the last of who can still speak in the original tongue." I continue eating my food as she keeps weaving whatever magic she needs. We're all sitting and eating in silence as we watch as she gets more and more frustrated as time goes on.
Suddenly she slams her palms on the table and shouts in frustration.
"I can't find her. I've dug deeper than I've ever gone and I can't feel her on the other side. I know she hasn't crossed to this world yet or I would have felt her. I've been keeping track of her to keep her safe. Where ever she is in Wonderland then someone has to be concealing her magic so she can't be tracked. She's not dead or I would have felt the little magic I have on her snap." She slumps back in her seat and her husband offers her a glass of wine. He whispers in her ear and some of the tension in her face eases a bit.
"If someone is concealing her magic then we need to return home and start looking in places where they may have hidden her. Who would want to hide her? No one should really care that she's come back, if anything they should be overjoyed that we may get some more balance in our world." Cheshire sounds distant. Like his mind is already wandering through where we need to start looking. Finding her is our first priority now, but the question of who would want to hide her from me is still buzzing in the back of my mind.
We quickly say our good byes and I promise to bring Alice back once she's found so they know she's safe. The Leo's feel more like her family than her own blood does. We leave an head back to the tree we traveled from when I'm stopped by a vision of Alice.
She's on her knees with a gag in her mouth, her hands are bound in chains and her eyes are closed. She's concentrating so hard that her face is deeply pale and she's covered in sweat. She's dressed in my shirt and a pair of my pants. She looks weak. The vision fades and I look at Cheshire who also looks like he's seen a ghost.
"Did you get that vison too?" He nods and I can hear a low growl in his throat.
"We need to find her. She's exhausting her magic trying to reach us. I know who we need to talk to first." He digs his claws into my shoulder and I clench my jaw as well. I know exactly who he's talking about to.

Hare.