Hatter:Only the Best Are Mad... (The UnFairytales Saga, Book 1)

Chapter 1 - Hatter

I woke up in a cold sweat.  

Breath still heavy, I managed to pull myself upright in my bed. Just as any other night, I replayed my dream over and over again, etching it into my mind. It wasn't a normal dream, although to normal people it might be. No, for me, this is one of my worst nightmares. Visions of the beautiful blonde haired girl fill my head every time I close my eyes. Tonight, it had been the day she left Wonderland.  

The day she left me. 

She had just slain the Jabberwocky, and all of Wonderland was rejoicing. The celebrations were sure to go on for days. She had changed out of the armor she had mercilessly fought in, the battleground cleared of all traces of the fight. I had found her dancing with Tweedledum, carelessly spinning around and around again. I waited until the song was over to approach her.  

Her hair was flying in loose curls in the wind, and her eyes held a playful glimmer. I sat on the bench next to her, basking in her happiness. She smiled at me with that gleeful, contagious smile. I said nothing, but reached into my pocket and pulled out a thin, silver chain. She gasped in delight. The small top hat hung from the center, spinning this way and that in the cooling breeze. She gently touched it before taking it in her hands.  

"A forget-me-not in case you forget." I whispered. 

I took the thin chain and slipped it over her head. 

"I'll come back to Wonderland. I promise." She whispered back, kissing my cheek. 

That was two years ago. 

I threw myself out of the bed with a low growl. Two years. It has been two years since she promised she would come back. Two years of endless, agonizing, heart wrenching pain; of sleepless nights. Two years of silent, gut-wrenching sobs over someone who has probably never thought twice about Wonderland. Never thought twice about me.  

Two years. 

Twenty-four months. 

One hundred and four weeks. 

Seven hundred and thirty days. 

Nineteen thousand, five hundred, thirty hours... 

"No! Get a grip, Hatter!" I shouted at the walls. "You will not lose your mind over a girl, especially not one that is never coming back! You shall lose it the same as every other mad man." 

And with that, I stopped pacing. Taking a few deep breaths, I quickly changed into something suitable for public eyes. Stopping for my hat and stick, I marched out of the door, not even bothering to close it behind me.

~*~

I slouched down into the lime green and gold velvet chair. 

"Hatter, my boy! I'd begun to think you had drowned yourself in tea!" Wolfsbane exclaimed in his thick Scottish drawl, clamping a half-human hand on my shoulder. 

I examined my friends, all seated around the lopsided table. Wolfsbane, for being a werewolf, was shockingly the most proper of the bunch, although he has broken more teacups than I would like to recall. His glowing red eyes held kindness and laughter, two things you would least expect.  

Pete, although most gloriously - in his mind - known at Peter Pan, hovered in the air just barely above the small stool. The "boy who never grows up" had actually grown quite a bit since he first landed in Neverland. His red hair now flopped down over his ears and eyes, making the blue irises even more youthful. He laughed at something said, and his ears wiggled back and forth, as if they were little wings.  

I move my sight to Alexander, also known as Snow White's Huntsman. He had his feet, crossed at the ankles, propped on the edge of the table. His chair was tipped back so that it was only balancing on its two back legs. One of his bulky arms was thrown across his face. If I didn't know any better, I would say he's asleep. 

"Hey, Hatter, what's with ya? Tink gotcha tongue?" Pete asked, leaning his head against his fist.  

"Nothing more that always." I pour a cup of tea, making sure I never meet anyone's eyes.  

"Nonsense!" Wolfsbane growled as he slammed his fist into the table, shaking the china. 

Leopold, my pesky little dormouse friend, peeked his head out of his teapot. He stretched his arms, yawning, as the lid teetered on his head. "What's with all the racket?" He asked, scratching his whiskers. 

"It was nothing, my little companion." I sipped my tea, not even tasting it. 

"Hatter has gone mad over that Alice girl again." Everyone turned to Alexander. His arm was still over his eyes, but he clearly wasn't sleeping.  

"I'm not mad." I said firmly. The huntsman smiled, knowing he hit a soft spot. I hadn't even spoken her name since she left. 

"Oh, really? What else would you call yourself?" His thick English accent put me even more on edge. 

"I'm not mad," I continued, ignoring his questions. "Because I know I'm mad. You are only truly mad when you do not realize that you are." 

"Quite true, my friend," piped in Leopold. "Quite true." 

"Well, when you put it that way, even the Queen's must me completely bonkers!" Pete laughed.  

Soon, you heard nothing more than the sipping of tea and the clattering of metal on china. Every now and then, there would be the sound of someone pouring another cup of tea. The silence was unnerving. It left a man to his own thoughts, and that was not somewhere I wanted to be. Thankfully, Wolfsbane broke the silence. 

"What are we going to do?" He stared down into his empty cup. 

"Gonna do about what?" Pete asked, leaning both elbows on the table. 

"Our stories. Time is running out and none of us have found our Other Halves yet." 

"We still got enough time, don't we?" 

Pete looked a little worried. In fact, they all looked worried. Wolfsbane was right. We don't have much time. Things in each corner of the Realm have started looking less and less like they should. 

"I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait until the last bloody minute to find my Other Half." Huntsman finally sat up, joining our conversation. "Look at every other corner of the Realm. Everyone has found theirs. Beast married Belle. Charming and Cinderella are engaged. We've even been outdone by a mermaid! How much longer are we going to have to wait?" 

"What exactly happens if we don't find our Other Half's in time?" Pete asked.  

"We disappear. Our stories will be erased forever." Wolfsbane murmured. 

We all sat in silence, taking in what the werewolf had just said. 

"May I make a suggestion?" A tiny voice asked. 

I had been wrong in assuming that Leopold had gone back to sleep. He had sat back, listening to each person's side of things, carefully taking in each detail. He stood up on the lid of his teapot, making sure that he had his balance, before he began to speak.  

"It has come to my attention that, just possibly, your Other Halves are not in the Realm." 

"Where else would they be?" Asked Pete. 

"Land of Mortals, Land of sleep." I murmured. 

"Precisely, dear friend. And you know who you have to see in order to get there." 

"I am going nowhere near those blasted Queen's again!" The Huntsman cried out. 

"Unless you want your story to end, you have no other choice. But, you do not need to confront them yet. They only see the one with the greatest need first." 

"Who would that be?" Wolfsbane asked, curiosity and apprehension prominent in his red eyes. 

Leopold turned to me. I know even before he said those three little words who it was. Despair his me like a Jabberwocky.  

"The Mad Hatter."