Chapter 25

                                    

                                          
While Chesh fought of some guards with swords, I grappled with a soldier trying to pin me down. When he finally pushed me on my back, he queen stepped on my hand, causing me to scream as the bones smashed and pain shot through my body. 
                          
"Alice!" Cheshire tried to get to me, but was pulled back into battle when a card soldier swiped at him with his blade, nearly catching Cheshire's neck.
                          
The queen bent down and glared at me. "I hope you tell my sister everything that you saw. I want her to know what's happened to her beloved kingdom while she hid herself away," she said.
                          
As the queen stood tall again, towering over me, I felt terror filled me. My eyes landed on Cheshire a distance away as he was slammed into a pillar, a sword pressed insistently to his throat. I turned and saw Rab, his face all scratched up and he tried to protect the twins who were throwing rocks at their assailants. Everyone was fighting their hardest... and losing. I didn't know what to do. I fought to get away from the solider, managing to kick him off balance, and scrambled over to help Chesh. I grabbed onto the guard's arm, distracting him so Cheshire could knock him out.
                          
"Alice, we have to get away from here," Cheshire said, pulling me towards him. "Now!"
                          
"You're not going anywhere." The queen stood in front of us, blocking our way to the rest of the group. "I have spent my whole life trying to make Wonderland mine, and I won't let you ruin everything I've worked for!"
                          
The queen shoved Chesh as hard as she could, throwing the both of us on the ground. She grabbed me by my neck and squeezed, getting dirty enough with her fighting that I felt her nails drawing blood. I scratched at her hands, my air quickly running out. "Let go...!" I wheezed.
                          
Suddenly, Chesh pulled her back, allowing me to gasp for air as I sat up. Hazily, I spotted the queen and Cheshire rolling around, each one trying to get the upper hand. My head was spinning, but I grabbed a spear from the ground and ran to help. I swung it as hard as I could, eyes closed in fear. The next second the queen toppled over, her eyes closed. 
                          
For several moments, I simply gawked at what I had done. Then I dropped me my knees. Did I kill her? Was I a murderer? Cheshire didn't let me think about such things for long as he pulled me to my feet. "Come on, we have to hurry," he said.
                          
The portal was pulling everything loose, even some trees. All of it was being swallowed by the massive whole in the earth. I only took one step when a branch flew into me, sending me flying back towards the portal. Cheshire, who'd been holding my arm was dragged back with me, and we found ourselves falling over the edge of the portal.
                          
Cheshire managed to grab a rot at the portal's edge, his knuckled turning with the strain of holding the both of us. "Hold on," he said as he pulled me up and held me around my waist.
                          
I looked up at the clouded sky, the whirlwind of distruction that the portal had brought upon being opened, and I yelled. "Rab! Help us!"
                          
In a matter of seconds, Rab's face appeared at the mouth of the portal. "Oh, my God," he said as he reached down and tried to grab onto Cheshire. However, as he tried to pull us up, Rab's hand slipped and Cheshire lost his grip on my waist as we dropped several feet. Chesh barely managed to grab my hand again as we dangled down, now too far out of reach for Rab.
                          
Cheshire winced as thorns from the root he had been forced to grab cut into his palm and fingers. Seeing he could no longer reach us, Rab's eyes filled with worry. "Cheshire!" he said. "You have to let go of Alice!"
                          
"What?!" Cheshire glared at him. "Are you crazy?!"
                          
"Chesh, if you fall, you'll die! You know that!" Rab insisted. "Please, let Alice go! He'll be fine!"
                          
Realizing what he meant Cheshire to do, my eyes widened in fear. I looked at Cheshire; he returned my look with a hardened frown. "I won't," he said. "I'll never-"
                          
"Let go," I said. "Please."
                          
Cheshire's eyes filled with betrayal. "No! No way! I just got you back!" he said. "If you fall, you can never come back! I won't let that happen!"
                          
"If you don't let go, you're going to die," I said.
                          
Stubbornly, Cheshire's grip tightened and he tried to pull me up again, grappling with his already unsteady grip. The root thorns cut deeper into his hand, making him begin to bleed, the blood dripping down his arm. "Chesh-" I started.
                          
"I'm not letting go!" he cut me off. At that moment I saw the tears forming in the corners of his eyes, threatening to fall. "I have too much to say to you, too much to show you..." he said. "I can't let you go now...!"
                          
"I have a request for you. You're the only one who can do it," Jabberwocky said.
                          
"What request?" I asked.
                          
The stranger sat back and stared up that sky. "My brother is very hardheaded. This has gotten him into much trouble as a child and it may cause trouble for you in the future," he explained. I sat quietly as he continued. "There will be times when you may hate him or wish you'd never known him, but no matter how many people tell you not to, or how many times you fight..." Jabberwocky leaned forward and took my shoulders gently, "please, Alice... love him. Love him with all your heart. It is something our mother and I could never give him, and I am afraid it may have caused him great sorrow."
                          
"Cheshire had never been loved before?" I asked.
                          
Jabberwocky looked regretful. "Cheshire has tried to fill the void in his heart so many times, but every failure to do so has merely blackened it further. So much so that I feared he might never be the little brother I longed to grow up with. He needs you, Alice. Never forget to tell him you love him."
                          
I took a deep breath. "Cheshire, please let go," I said, voice shaking.
                          
"No!" he refused.
                          
"I promise you I won't go back! I would never leave you here!" I said.
                          
"How do you know that?!" he asked. "If you fall, you'll be sent back to your world and you'll never be able to come back!"
                          
"No, I won't!" I said.
                          
"How do you know that?!" he asked for the second time.
                          
"Because..." I stared up at him. Then I loosened my hold on his wrist, feeling my weight slip down. "Because I love you," I said.
                          
His eyes widened and I barely stopped to smile gently at him before I reached up and pried his hand off, my body immediately beginning to fall. Cheshire made a feeble attempt to grab me, but he was too late. In a moment, I was already too far away for him to reach. Cheshire and Rab slowly shrank as I fell, and everything around me turned black as the abyss of the portal shrouded the space around me. I felt tears flowing down my cheeks, but I wasn't sad. In fact, I couldn't have been happier. The last thing I heard as I fell was Cheshire's beautiful voice calling after me. "I love you too, Alice..."

                          
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