Interesting 'sequel' to Alice in Wonderland, where Alice and "the Hatcher" escape from a mental asylum, only to end up in the old city. Abuse, mutilation, rape, their world is grim.
Really well told.
Hatcher nodded. "Yes, I told you. I can't go back there. I can't abide the thought of four walls closing around me again. And they would separate us, Alice. No more comfort through the mouse hole. They would keep us apart, and I can't bear the thought of that any more than being trapped. So I'll sure, if there is no other way out, that I still have a way out. And I can do it for you too."
She knew what he offered. He would kill her first, with the gun or the knife or his fists if he had to, and make certain she was never trapped in that cage again. From another man this might be terrifying, that he would so blithely consider murdering his companion. But she understood that from Hatcher this was tantamount to an offer of marriage. This was what he could do for her, how he showed he cared.
"The knife for the Jabberwocky," she said. "The Magician's knife."
Hatcher looked from Alice to the Rabbit. "That was the knife you used on his eye."
She nodded.
"What happened to it?"
"I threw it in the river," she said. "It melted."
The Rabbit stared at her. "You threw a priceless Magician's artifact into the stinking river?"
"Yes," Alice said, "And now the Jabberwocky rampages through the City, and only the blade could stop him."
The Rabbit threw his head back again, and mirthless laughter poured forth. "Then it matters not if you will have mercy on me, for we are all dead."
