Page 48 of Madness Becomes Her

“Why have you broken away from the others to come here?” Lewis asks, dropping my hand to walk closer to Winston.

He’s a dark-colored dog with smatterings of brown freckles through his coat. His droopy eyes mark him as a bloodhound, along with his long, droopy ears. “I came to warn you.”

“Warn us?”

“The Red Queen found the missing scroll.”

Finlo straightens, and I wonder what underlying mystery I’ve wandered into. I thought that Wonderland was some world of whimsical mayhem with no rhyme or reason, and I seem to have stumbled into something far more sinister.

“She couldn’t have,” Lewis says.

“She has,” Winston replies quickly.

“She’ll kill Eleanor, Hatter,” Lewis says, and I take a step back before realizing I’m far too close to a tree.

“Yesssss, come closer, love. That’s it, one more step.” The tree moans.

Finlo turns, grasping my wrist and tugging me closer. “She will do no such thing,” he says, returning his attention to Winston.

“She will. She knows what happens before Frabjous Day. The prophecy alone has her in a rage.”

“How did she find the scroll?” Lewis asks.

“Not everyone is a friend,” Winston riddles.

Finlo tightens his grasp on my wrist, keeping me close. “Prospero.”

The bloodhound nods.

“What is Frabjous Day?” I ask.

“You knew keeping her here would only set things back in motion, Hatter. You should’ve returned her like the other times,” Winston says.

Finlo swallows, hanging his head in defeat. “What can we do? How do I hide her?”

The bloodhound only scoffs. “Still so in love that it blinds you.”

“The White Queen. She’ll know what to do,” Lewis says.

“The White Queen is days of travel,” Finlo replies.

“What other option do we have?” Lewis pins him with a no-nonsense glare.

I, who has no idea what’s going on, tug my wrist from Finlo, only to interlace our fingers together for comfort. “I think we should go to the White Queen and ask for help.”

Finlo eyes me, something warm bleeding through his gaze.

“As ignorant as I think this is,” Winston mutters. “I’ll come for you at midnight. Be ready to travel.” With that, the bloodhound turns and breaks into a run, shoving through the woods and howling as he rejoins the race to find Prospero.

Lewis excuses himself, telling Hatter he needs to prepare for the trip and says he’ll return to us at nightfall.

We walk a few more miles before I gain the nerve to speak. “What is Frabjous Day?”

“It’s a day that has been foretold since the dawn of Wonderland.”

Well, that gives me a lot of information.

“And what happens on this day?”