Page 9 of Madness Becomes Her

What was it Lewis said about the trees liking flesh?

I wonder what kind of flesh the trees deal in when I hear a voice from above.

My fingers pause on a berry I’d been plucking from a bush just beyond where the light touches.

“I wouldn’t eat that one,” it says.

Gasping, I look up.

Eye-shine and glistening teeth smirk wickedly at me, and I take two steps back.

“Or is it the other ones you can’t eat? Hmm, a riddle, indeed.”

“I have two kinds of berries in my basket,” I reply. I don’t know why I do. Everything I do here is strange. Everything I see here is strange.

“Well, one of them will make the soles of your feet itch. They’ll itch and itch until the very flesh runs away from your bones.”

“Which berry is it?” I lift my basket for the strange entity to peruse.

“Like I said, I don’t know.”

I sigh. “Well, then, I guess I can eat neither.”

“If you can solve a riddle, maybe I’ll tell you which berry is safe.”

“You just said you didn’t know…”

“Did I?” Tumbling from above, the creature sails to the forest floor, landing in a crouch as light spills through the trees behind me and casts over a man.

A very naked man.

He stands to his towering height, the same wicked grin on his lips. “So, do we have a deal? A riddle for a berry?”

I swallow, stealing a look over my shoulder toward Hatter’s house. “I think I should get back.”

“Well, when you feel like a bit of fun, come see me.”

Tossing the basket toward him, I take off, making it to the door right as Hatter opens it.

“There you are! I need your head!” He shuts the door, none the wiser at what happened with me and the strange man in the woods.

I’ve never been so relieved to be in the presence of a lunatic before.

CHAPTER THREE

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

Hatter went on and on trying different style hats on me after setting me down at the table with sandwiches, teas, and cakes spread before me. He never once sat and ate with me, like his work sustained him.

“Hatter,” I say, my head bobbing from the newest hat he’s ripped off and tossed aside.

“Hm?”

“What did Lewis mean about the woods loving flesh? Do they eat people?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking.”

Well, that’s helpful.