by Ninja Cat in the flesh >:)

AN: HA
HAHAHA
I FINISHED A DAY EARLY :D
My goal today is to go to the library and maybe finish an entire second chapter before Monday. WOOOO~!
muwahahaha, a Cheshire chapter, as I promised. :) Patience is a virtue.
Fun Fact: I started writing this chapter on my laptop at a friends house. It was....eleven o'clock I think? Yeah. I'll let you imagine how that went.

I feel like I had something else I needed to tell you...hmm. Guess not :)
Well, thanks for clicking, reading and then COMMENTING because I will have no idea if you did any of these things unless YOU COMMENT AND TELL ME~!

The Author is Listening To: Bad Apple~Orchestra Ver. LINK  (I will pay someone good money to actually do this live and give me tickets <3) 

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Chapter 37
Double Agent

            If you have ever woken up to the sight of a teenage boy leaning over you, eyes glowing like golden embers in the moonlight and grinning like a maniac, then you can probably understand why my first instinct was to scream.

            However, the grinning teenage boy in question quickly clamped a graceful hand over my mouth; stopping the imminent scream in its tracks. With a closed-mouth smile he pressed a finger to his lips.

            “Please excuse the rude awakening, darling.” Cheshire whispered pleasantly in his deep, baritone voice. “But to be frank, I didn’t really trust you to keep quiet. 

            I clenched my jaw beneath his hand, but let my glare do the talking. The shock of being woken up so suddenly was wearing off into a growing annoyance…and fear. 

            “Now,” he said concisely. I watched his tail eagerly flick back and forth in the shadows behind him. “If you promise not to do anything stupid I’ll let you go and we can get on with things, alright?

            I glared, but winced when he dug his long nails into my check. Hastily I nodded.

            He grinned.

            “Wonderful.”

            He hopped up from his crouched position above me and strolled away. Inhaling sharply, I scrambled out of my bed roll, which was something Hatter had salvaged from our luggage, and tried to organize my reeling mind.

            I spent about ten seconds just staring at the ground in front of me before I shook myself awake again. Feeling panicky, I jumped up from my spot on the ground and whirled around to see where he had disappeared to.

            “I’m right here, Kathrin,” he said calmly, raising a hand slightly, “No need to panic.”

            “Cheshire,” I hissed, for Hatter was still sleeping only a few meters away. Kai was still knocked out cold, but Hatter was a painfully light sleeper and I didn’t want to risk waking her up. “Cheshire, what on earth are you doing here?”

            I strode over to him, glaring up at him fiercely. But he ignored me, preferring to stare at the scenery rather than look down at me.

            “Don’t worry,” he said after a moment, “I’m not here to kill you or anything obvious like that.” He examined his nails and then flicked his gaze to me, a grin spreading across his face. “Just business, I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

            I made a scoffing noise, but he ignored me.

            With a sigh he put his hands deep into his pockets and sat back on his heels, looking more serious than I had ever seen him before.

            “Until recently, I was employed under a certain benefactor whose name I will not mention. It was she who told me to find you and find you I did,” he said with a light, unconcerned tone, “But it was then that I discovered that my employer had not been as honest with me as I thought.”

            “So,” He quipped, looking back at me again with a smile, “I guess I’m here to tell you that my allegiances have changed.”

            “Is that it?” I asked, unimpressed, “I don’t want anything to you with you anymore, Cheshire. Why would you bother with me?”

            He only grinned wider and I trembled a little inside.

            “Because what kind of investor would I be, Alice, if I didn’t keep track of my assets?”

            I shut my mouth into a tight line to prevent me from saying anything else. All I had to do was shout Hatter’s name and I wouldn’t have to look at that boy’s lying face ever again. But…something held me back.

            “I don’t trust you.” I said finally, folding my arms across my chest as a chilly wind rushed through the long grass.

            At this, Cheshire chuckled, low and deep in his throat. “Then you’re a wise young woman, Alice.”

            I grit my teeth. “Then why are you here? Why do you even bother talking to me if even you admit I can’t trust you?”

            “Because you’re interesting, Alice,” he responded simply. When I only looked at him in confusion he rolled his golden eyes. “You could say that I’ve come with the intention of offering you…some assistance.”

            The words struck me like a punch in the gut.

            “Not even that, really,” he said after a moment. “More like a piece of advice…a little hint.”

            He continued talking, oblivious to my shocked reaction. “I’ve told you before you’re an interesting young woman, Alice. Some very important people in very high places have a lot riding on how far you’ll make it in our world.”

            “My employer was one of those people,” he said, his tone suddenly very serious, “But I came to the decision that I didn’t like the side she had chosen.”

            “So…now what?” I asked, finally able to get my breath back and trying to sound more in control of the situation than I actually felt. “What makes you think I want your advice?”

            “You don’t want my help, Alice.”

            I raised an eyebrow.

            “You need it.”

            Seeing my obvious confusion Cheshire grinned wider. He began to saunter around me in a slow circle, like a shark around a wounded fish.

            I had a really bad feeling that I was that fish.

            “Danger waits around every corner in Wonderland,” he said from somewhere behind me and I resisted the urge to whirl around and face him. “Especially for someone like you, Alice.”

            “Even your own companions,” he said as he came around in front of me, eyes wide with mock fear. “Can you trust Kai or Beatrice? Can you trust Hatter?”

            “Can I trust you?” I countered.

            “No.”

            “Then what’s the difference?!”

            Cheshire smiled and as he turned the moonlight gave his face a sinister shadow. “Because I know things about Madeline,” he said darkly, “Things that would make your head spin.”

            “Then tell me!” I whispered harshly, “If you know so much, tell me something I don’t know about Hatter!”

            The sudden grin on his face made me regret my words.

            “She ran away when she was barely older than you,” Cheshire said, his tone almost nostalgic. “She left everything behind; her mother, her sister, her younger brother…all in search of her brother. But her brother was a dead man.”

            “He had been recruited long ago,” he continued, “And no one had seen or heard of him since that day. Madeline went in search of him, since she was the only one in her family with the will and the capability.”

            “Obviously,” Cheshire said waving a distracted hand in my direction as he turned in a thoughtful circle, “The recruits wouldn’t allow her in as a woman, but I’m sure she’s explained to you how she did it.”

            When I looked at him in confusion he only smiled knowingly.

            “Her disguise, I mean. It was very well-done, I’ll grant her that,” he said. “But, if not for the protocol, she could have gotten in with her fighting skills alone.”

            “Of course, they rejected her multiple times. But she was determined…”

            He smiled at me in the moonlight, “Determined to become an M-CARD.”

            I sucked in a tight breath, but didn’t really feel that shocked. Everything drew together like the pieces of a puzzle. The woman’s words the Bainen market, Hatter’s obvious skill with the sword, her disguise as a man and her connection with Beatrice…it all suddenly made sense.

            “There’s more though,” Cheshire said, raising a finger. “Hatter was an amazing soldier. Disciplined, precise, obedient, the ideal M-CARD; she rocketed through the ranks until she could go no higher.”

            He paused for effect, his golden eyes arching back to look at me over his shoulder. “That, Alice, is where I come in.”

            “At the time, I was the leader of the Spade division of the White Queen’s army. I had watched this soldier ‘Matthew Hadder’ with great interest and suspicion. And it wasn’t long before I met her and saw right through her disguise.”

            “I warned her,” he said with an almost apologetic shrug. “I told her there was no way she could keep something like that hidden forever. There would be war, she would get hurt and people would find out who she really was.”

            “And that’s exactly what happened.” He turned to me, a mocking expression on his face. “But what was I to do? Matthew, or rather, Madeline was my most valuable soldier. I wouldn’t give her up, not in the middle of a civil war.”

            There was an odd silence where for a moment I thought I saw actual sadness on Cheshire’s face, but it might only have been a trick of the shadows. “And that’s when the insanity came.”

            Insanity?

            “An M-CARD by definition is a machine,” Cheshire said flatly. “In battle they are steely, unreachable, and ruthless. It’s a defense mechanism. The stronger the mind, the stronger the body and if your mind and conscience are impenetrable then you are less susceptible to danger.”

            “For most soldiers in the Queen’s army…this is merely a mask. It’s an internal shield they wear during every battle. But somehow for Hatter, the line between the mask and her true self became blurred.”

            I took a deep breath. I wanted to prove him wrong; I wanted to say that Hatter was fine. But I knew she wasn’t. I had seen it with my own eyes…I’d watched her mask blur until there was nothing left but a machine.

            “You can’t deny it, can you?” He asked over his shoulder.

            I wanted to smack the grin right off his face.

            “Madeline doesn’t share her past with just anyone,” Cheshire said, turning slowly to face me full on, “And with good reason.”

            I glared at him, too angry to say anything and knowing that any words I used would be simply turned against me.

            “So, here is my advice to you, dear,” he said taking a few steps closer to me.

            I stood my ground, but felt my heartbeat accelerate as he leaned in close to my ear. “Be careful who you trust, Alice. Because everyone in Wonderland has a secret…it’s just a matter of when you discover it.”

            I jerked away, glaring hard at him, but he only grinned at me in return. He backed away slowly, arms spread wide as if showing surrender. Slowly he turned and began striding back through the grass lazily. His hands were in his pockets and he looked up at the sky thoughtfully as if contemplating something important.

            “Where are you going?” I asked, my voice trembling a little.

            “Home.”

            “I thought you said you were going to help me!” I cried, a little louder than I intended. Carefully I listened to see if I had woken Hatter, but the only sound was the wind in the long grass.

            “I will,” he assured me, “All you have to do is ask.”

            “What? Am I just supposed to snap my fingers three times and call your name or something?”

            “Something like that,” He said over his shoulder casually.

            Frustration growing I said, as loudly as I could while still whispering, “I don’t trust you!”

            At this he finally turned around. His mouth was spread into an impossibly wide grin that showed what seemed like every one of his sharp teeth.

            “I’m a double agent, Alice,” He said, “You’re not supposed to.”

            And with those words, he slowly faded into the scenery like a disappearing dream…

            Though I swear his wide smile lingered a little longer than the rest of him.

  © Copyright 2011 Samantha M.