The next day was Friday, and I had to go through life like nothing had happened. I walked to school with Chess, and we planned our weekend. Today was our UnBirthday, and we would have been celebrating. But our celebration plans were disrupted by a more important mission. When we arrived at school we met up with our friend Carrots. She's actually called Cerys, but we just call her carrots. The usual people who mill around at the library were there too. Queenie came along and sat with us.
"What'cha reading?" Chess asked Carrots. Carrots showed us the book. Another horror story. What less could be expected. I didn't fancy reading, and began sketching. I drew Chess, Queenie and I when we fell down the rabbit hole. People I knew crowded round to watch. I ignored the chatting and just drew. Catty Jones suddenly burst through the crowd and purposely knocked my hand. I'd now made an inscision in Chess' tail. I felt my temperature rising. I flung away the pencil and stormed after Casie, but Queenie stopped me.
"Your eyes are going again," she whispered. I let out a breath and cooled down. I'd get her later. Pretty boring day really, but I kept noticing something weird. Wherever I went, it was like someone was following me. In maths the door kept opening and closing on a completely windless day. People got pretty distracted by it. I hate maths anyway. In English I thought I saw a sword left in my pencil case. It would have creeped out most people, but it made me feel safer.
"You alright?" Rabbit asked as I stared into space. Rabbit is another good friend of mine.
"Yeah," I said half heartedly. "Just daydreaming again."
"About what?"
"Stuff. Tim Burton. Cheesecake. The usual." Rabbit laughed, but then turned her head.
"What the heck was that?" she cried.
"What?"
"I swore I saw something in that tree! I must be going loopy."
"Welcome to my world," I laughed. When I was sure Rabbit wasn't looking, I glanced up at the tree. The Cheshire Cat winked and grinned. I waved shyly.
The day kind of went on like this. Mostly I got up to my usual stuff. Had a poking war with a friend, drew Manga with March, punched my friend's arm when he tried to block me.
"You're such a boy beater!" Chess laughed when I told her.
"What? He was winding me up!"
"Right. Like the last one you punched."
"He got what was coming to him!" We'd got a little late out of school that day. As we walked down the alley, it seemed unusually quiet. The teenagers that hung out there were all missing. There were no cars in the street. The crazy old man who moans when I walk on his garden wall was nowhere to be seen. As we crossed the road I stopped.
"What is it?" Chess asked.
"Remind me of what Tarrant warned us not to do, Chess."
"Not find ourselves alo- Oh dear god." She grimaced. "We're in big trouble aren't we?"
"Very big trouble."
The Knave stood behind us, swinging his sword, whistling.
"Ah come on!" Chess cried. "Since when was he on their team?"
"Ilosovic Stayne," I breathed. "I suspected you'd chose a side sooner or later." The Knave laughed.
"Too bad you chose the wrong one," I said.
"I think it's you, Miss Hightopp, that is on the wrong side." He raised his sword and lunged at us. I wasn't quick enough, and he pinned me down with his sword.
"It's not too late to change Harriet," he said, smirking. "Come join Carlotta's army. We could use someone like you." I spat in his face.
"I'll die first!" Stayne grunted and raised his sword. Of course, he ever counted on Chess. She leapt onto his back hissing, and from nowhere claws appeared. She scratched at The Knave's face and limbs. He dropped the sword and roared in anger. I rolled aside and grabbed the sword. Chess jumped away growled. He turned to her, and I kicked him where it hurts the most. He collapsed to the ground in agony. I held the sword to his neck.
"It's not to late to change Stayne," I mimicked. He growled, then began laughing. I was so shocked by this that I was caught off gaurd as he snatched the sword from me. As he was about to get up, Tarrant appeared from nowhere and landed right on top of him. He slammed his feet into the Knave's head. There was one last cry from the Knave, and then he was silent.
"Knocked out cold," Chess remarked.
"It seems you girls can take care of yourselves," The Hatter laughed. "But all the same I think I'll stick around. How was school?" I laughed loudly. We walked along, and nobody else appeared. The Hatter walked us to my house, where Chess was staying that night.
"We'll be keeping an eye on you," he said, before he flew up and disappeared from sight. We hurried into the house.
I'll skip the sleepover details and go straight to Saturday. It was a a gorgeous day, the kind of day I would have liked to have been at the beach, but I had a mission. There was no time to waste. We'd all told our parents we were going to the beach, but we had other plans. We met Queenie at the bus stop and we all got the bus to the castle. We came up to the gate, which was locked.
"Damn," I muttered.
"Looks like the castle's closed at weekends," Chess stated.
"That sucks eggs," Queenie said. I laughed. We looked up at the gate.
"Couldn't climb it," Queenie said. "You think you could get up there Hatter?" I shrugged.
"Dunno. Do our powers even work in the human world?"
"Tarrant's did." I nodded.
"I'll try." I stiffened my body and relaxed my thoughts. I lifted off the ground a little faster than before. I was improving. I got halfway up when I remembered the other two. I returned the the ground and grabbed their arms. We floated up, and over the fence. The castle grounds were deserted. No use guarding a ruin. I turned to Queenie.
"Can you find her?" Queenie pressed her fingers against her temples and squeezed her eyes shut.
"Its a little fuzzy, wait! I've found her! Come on!" We ran up the hill to the ruined castle. Although it didn't look so ruined anymore. The bricks looked cleaner and neater. We all gasped when we reached the top of the hill. We weren't stood by a ruin anymore. The castle was completely rebuilt. It was a huge, intimidating castle, black as the raven's feather. Queenie ran to a huge wooden door and pulled it open. We quietly slipped inside.
The stone castle was exactly that. Bare walls, bare floor. And yet a light was coming from somewhere. Queenie took our hands and led the way. For the first time I noticed how Chess' eyes glowed in the darkness. We walked in silence for a while. We walked up a spiral staircase. I found this place eery. Finally, we came face to face with a worn brown door.
"She's in there," Queenie said.
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Oooh! Interesting. What's gonna happen? I don't know I'm making this up as I go along!
Q: I know what's gonna happen!
H: Shuttup Queenie you'll spoil it! Plus you're phsycic!
C: More like phsyco!
Q: Chess? When did you get here?
You get the gist. I still haven't told you about my spoon!
