Alice

22. Hope and Hopelessness

22. Hope and Hopelessness

I woke to Jack softly nudging me. "Alice," he whispered. "Time to get up. We have a visitor."

The word "visitor" is what snapped me fully awake. Who could be visiting us? I hoped it was somebody good. Especially since they were making me get up.

I sat up, although I didn't move too far away from Jack. I rubbed my eyes and blinked the sleep out of them. I looked through the bars. There stood Brokk, the White Rabbit.

I smiled. "Hi."

He blinked at me. He looked from Jack, then back to me, at our close proximity to each other. He looked surprised, which made me confused. Hadn't he seen Jack and me together a lot? We'd kissed and held hands in front of him many times. Then I realized that he didn't know that we both understood how each other acted after the ruby incident, and that we were together again.

Jack saw the look on Brokk's face and said, "It's okay, Brokk. We made up."

I had to smile at that. He made it sound as if the whole ordeal had just been our first fight. In reality, it had been much more than an ordinary fight. But then again, we are far from ordinary.

"Oh," Brokk said, looking confused at first, but then happy that his friends were together again. "Good. I missed you, Alice."

"Aw," I said. "I missed you, too, Brokk." It was true. I had missed my little bunny.

His whiskers twitched happily. Suddenly, he noticed Conrad. "Mr. Conrad, sir!" he exclaimed. "It's an honor to meet you!" Brokk dipped into such a low bow that his ears touched the floor.

Conrad chuckled. "Why thank you, Mr. Rabbit. And who might you be?"

Jack smiled. "Dad, this is Brokk. He's a good friend," he introduced the still bowing rabbit.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir. Jack talks about you all the time!"

Conrad looked at his son. "Oh?"

Jack blushed slightly. "Only sometimes."

"More than that!" Brokk said. "I heard about it constantly before Alice came. And then, she finally made him come and see you-"

"That was your idea?" Conrad asked me.

"Mm-hm. Your son can stand up to the Queen of Hearts, but he couldn't pluck up the courage to speak to his own father," I joked.

Jack smiled and shrugged. "Alice has way more courage than I do." Then he became serious and asked Brokk, "Is there any particular reason why you're here?"

"Maybe I just want to see how my friends are doing?" Brokk said. He tried to smile, but he looked too troubled.

"Well, that'd nice, but there's something else, isn't there?" I asked.

Brokk nodded sadly. "The Queen sent me. She said-" He swallowed, unwilling to let the next words out. "She said to tell you that you both have two hours...." He trailed off, unable to finish.

Two hours. That's all we have left. I slammed my head back against the some wall and shut my eyes. Don't cry, Alice, I ordered myself. Not yet.

I felt Jack stroke my hair.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Brokk went on, ".....And Mr. Conrad, she wants you present. For the- for when it happens.

Normally, I would have felt angry at this point. Enraged. Furious at the Queen for what she was doing. Not only was she taking Conrad's son away from him, she was making him watch her do it. But I couldn't find the strength to be angry. Instead, I just felt despair.