Unforgettable - Heartless

Chapter Three - The Sisters of the Treacle Well

"There's no more need for this," Alice reprimanded and pushed Cath back, who allowed herself to be pushed back down on the grass. Raven had at some point, transformed and stood, his stance tense and ready to intervene if it got too out of hand.

Cath didn't care, and she glowered at Hatta for the rest of the night, which Hatta returned with equal ferociousness. The tension was soon too much that Alice called it a night and Raven transformed back before flying to a perch so he could sleep. Cath and Hatta got ready to sleep too, moving as far away from each other as they tucked in for the night.

Cath wasn't sure if her words got to Hatta, but she meant every single word. Hatta was ignoring his own association with Jest's murder, but she was not fooled. He was deflecting his own guilt, and was killing himself from the inside out, just as she was now. But Hatta did not seem to realize that, and Cath could care less. She would not help him, just as she said. She would not be his way out of the quicksand. She would not help him out of his own grave since he was not helping her out of her own.

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"So this is the Treacle Well?" Alice asked, trying to desperately diffuse the tension.

"Yes. I wonder if the drawings are still here," Cath mumbled, her eyes scanning the ivy-covered walls.

"The Sisters always take down pictures. I doubt ours are still here," Hatta said flatly.

"I'm sorry, did I ask for your opinion?" Cath shot back in irritation.

Hatta didn't respond, just went to the well and called for the Sisters. "Elsie, Lacie, Tillie, we've come to ask about Time."

"Hello Hatta, it's nice to see you not mad," A girl with a pixie cut climbed out, which Cath remembered as Elsie.

"We don't give without payment remember?" Lacie came out next with her ankle long hair.

"You of all people should remember that, you've come here the most," Tillie was the last, her hair going down the middle of her back.

"Payment?" Alice asked nervously.

"It's always something the person wouldn't mind losing, remember?" Catherine whispered.

"Ah," Alice had a pained expression. "You traded your heart to them, which means your heart was useless to you."

Cath stayed silent and just watched as the Sisters chatted with Hatta. He seemed to be getting more uncomfortable by the second, which Catherine found amusing in a sadistic way.

"Look, Sisters, we're here to ask why you sent us all that prophecy, and where Time is so we can fulfill it," Hatta said firmly.

"We'll tell you if you all give us five minutes of your time," Tillie said with a hollow smile. Catherine shivered, remembering the last time she was here, Jest had kept her grounded through it all. So who would keep her grounded now?

Hatta released a puff of exasperation, but nodded all the same, and took out his pocket watch, pushing the minute hand five minutes ahead. Cath felt a weird, breezing sensation, as if she'd lost something important, but not enough of it to worry. So her Time had been taken too when Hatta moved the hand, and she suspected the same for Raven and Alice.

"Now, before we lead you to Time, we must tell you a story," Lacie said, sitting down with what could've been considered as excitement.

"Thank you for the offer, but we're okay-." Hatta started, but Elsie interrupted him with a shake of her head.

"It'll tell you why you are here, and help you figure out how to save the Martyr," Elsie said. "Your story has always started with The Murderer, The Martyr, The Monarch, The Mad. But ours started way before there was such a thing as you."

"The Murderer, the Martyr, the Monarch, the Mad
Their tales had ended but now they will rise.
Through Alice an ending will solve all their plights.
The hopeless now hopeful, the bonds now reborn
And they travel through Wonderland to save their one own
Live backwards through destiny, find Time by themselves.
They'll lift away the curse, they forced upon themselves
Let them unwind Fate, let the tale unfold,
As they search for an ending that before was untold."

"Your stories had ended, allowing Alice's to start, but she never finished her story. Now it has allowed you to finish it, with a more desirable ending," Tillie continued. "But you can only achieve that if you know how to unwind Fate."

"We three were triplets once upon a time, playing by a well where we would grab water from," In frightening unison, all of them said everything like they'd practiced telling this story multiple times before. Cath could feel however, with an eerie certainty, that this was the first time their story had been told.

"Time hadn't liked us living like that. So we died one day, together, falling through the well. It was a painless death, and we all awoke one day in the Forgotten.

"Time soon decided, however, that it would grant us a second chance, not as living, but as Fate. It told us that if we exchanged living in the Forgotten, we could play together forever. If we stopped living off of being forgotten, and instead, lived off of offerings others gave, we could live as Fate itself. The Three Fates, it said, with an amusing tone. The Sisters were what we were dubbed as afterwards though.

"We agreed to the offer, and Time had us transported to a small part of the Looking Glass Maze. There, it made us the Treacle Well, and we have lived here since. We play and draw, prophesy and chant, and let Fate guide our travelers through the maze.

"Every time you give us one of your belongings that you no longer need, we live off of those offerings. If we were to stop gaining things from people who pass through the Looking Glass Maze, we would fade out of existence and return to the Forgotten, because we would be forgotten again.

"The key to unwinding Fate is not letting us tie your knots again, but stopping us from tying the knots if you do not like where we cut your strings.

"To save the Martyr, you can't just make him unforgettable. If it's a fact that he's died, you have to have him live off of something rather than being forgotten, just as how the living lives off of Time."

The silence after the story was deathly. The four of them had been rendered to confusion and a strange sense of understanding on a deeper level than they should be. It was hard for Cath to explain, but she knew what the Sisters were talking about. It still didn't solve how they were supposed to save Jest however, all it did was make her understand how Time and the Sisters tied into everything. But she could only guess how they would complete their fate and save Jest.

Suddenly, all three voidless eyes turned to Alice. Alice flinched in surprise, and averted her gaze to the ground, the sky, the walls, anywhere but the Sisters.

"Alice, you are the moving piece that will determine all your fate. Your choice will see whether the sacrifice is big, or not." Lacie spoke in a stringy tone, like the story had taken all of her energy.

"'Through Alice an ending will solve all their plights.'" Elsie stated, firmly even with her weak tone.

"You are the key Alice, and it'll be down to your choice whether your curse is a blessing, or a true setback," Tillie explained enigmatically.

"Come now, Time awaits for no one," Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie all disappeared down the well, and when Raven, Cath, Hatta, and Alice peeked down, the Treacle had disappeared and in its place was a spiral staircase that lead down to the abyss.

"You ok?" Cath whispered to Alice, who looked a little shaken from the special attention.

"Yes...I'm fine," Alice replied, her voice wavering with unmistakable tension. Cath did not push it though, because there was nothing she could do.

But as much as the Sisters were an enigma, they had shared valuable information that would, in the long run, help them. Cath knew that much. That was why she was the first to enter the well and head down the stairs to what would hopefully lead towards Time.