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“Again!” the Red Queen’s whip slices across my back. This time, the strangled cry doesn’t escape my mouth and she praises me, flicking the propellor atop my hat with the crop in her other hand. Quite the sadist, and that’s without mentioning what she does with the heads she cuts off. Things a ten-year-old shouldn’t know, but my innocence is far behind me now.
Rocks cut into the knees of my sweatpants; the uneven path cold beneath my overheated palms. Blood trails through my torn t-shirt and down my shoulders, webbing my shaky arms like veins. Blinking sweat from my eyes; I peer up at the entrance to Diamond Maze. A brass statue stands either side, the face of a playing card staring down at me. When I don’t immediately follow the Queen’s order, they shift, pointing their sharpened spears in my face.
“You heard her, Dumb-ass,” the King of Diamonds kicks my ribs. “Go again.” My body falls to the side and this time, I can’t hold back my whimper. A brass spear jerks my head upwards, a trail of blood spilling from the fresh cut beneath my chin. Between the dirt, sweat and blood, I doubt I’m recognizable from my twin, but the King knows. He continues to mock me with my name and laugh when I peer up at his with tear-filled eyes.
“Looks like you picked the wrong champion,” he chuckles, turning to the Red Queen. She glowers at me, her forearm resting over her baby bump. I know that look. I see it in my nightmares, whenever sleep eventually comes for me.
Dragging myself up on wobbly legs, ignoring the burn of exhaustion, I push myself into a jog. Past the card statues who have resumed their posts, into the depths of the maze that chews you up and spits you out if you don’t find the center in time. A buzzer rings out, although mostly lost to the rumbles of thunder overhead. Rain patters onto my flaming skin. Chewing the inside of my cheek to focus my pain away from my legs, I turn a corner and disappear from the view of those watching on.
At first, it started as a joke. See the fat boys run. Watch them waddle, tumble and struggle to get back up. Then came the royal wager, and that changed everything. The sneakers on my feet skid on the tiny rocks in my path, the laces so frayed, they won’t hold their knot. Grabbing a tall hedge of leaves to get my balance, it shrugs me off and groans. I shrink back, not wanting to be expelled already. Not wanting the Queen to lash me all the way back to the dungeon cell I now call home.
The maze may be ruthless, but at least there’s light. The air is fresh enough to burn my lungs. It’s unknown how long I’ll be locked away before my next trial, and my new motto is I’ll rest when I’m dead. These days, that final breath can’t come fast enough, but I’m not living for me.
“Dee!” I shout, hoping to sweet hell my brother’s lack of appearance means he’s made it to the center. Slipping through a gap in the hedges, I sneak my way onwards, retracing my steps. This time, I know not to take the next left and find myself at a dead end. Dead ends mean game over here, and as the maze’s difficulty level increases, eventually game over won’t be an ejection. It’ll be an execution.
Turning right, walls of green block me in. I blink, shrinking back but the maze shifts, closing me inside a leafy cage. I gasp, my heart beating in my throat. This isn’t…this wasn’t… A hand the shape and size of mine shoots through the branches, fingers outstretched. I grab the clammy palm, feeling the soft tug of Dee’s weak pull. Diving through the hedge, I collapse to the ground as the sound of walls snapping shut echoes behind me.
“Dee,” I clamber up his body. My limbs are shaking, not just from exertion now. The maze tricked me. Tried to kill me. I’m not surprised but I am scared. We’ve entered a new phase of test, most likely upped by the King of Diamonds in his rush to prove himself right. He doesn’t believe my brother and I can be trained into soldiers, and he’s probably right.
Green eyes stare back at me, Dee’s crimsoned cheeks puffing in and out. Helicopter hat upon his head, his slender body movements mimic mine, our hands still clasped. Two years of starving and regular beatings makes for a fantastic weight loss routine, though not one we would have opted for.
“That was a close one,” he mumbles. I shake my head.
“Contrariwise. If it were close, I’d be scrambled egg.” Movement shoots from the side, a vine shooting between our faces. Near enough to nick me with thorns when retracting, Dee’s face falls to horror. Without warning, I tug him to fall into step, running at my side. There’s no use being cautious if the maze is set on torturing us. We can only delay the fact.
Turning one way and another, round and back, we race as speedily as our legs will carry us. Branches lash out, trying to knock us down. We duck and jump in unison, a pair of synced spirits seeking an unreachable final line. Over my shoulder, the vines have taken chase, thundering along the ground like snakes. Dee releases my hand to grab the back of my neck and heaves me aside. I lose my footing, slamming onto my side.
“Dum,” Dee groans, on his back, still holding me down. I spy with my weary eye, three thick branches, studded with diamond thorns have whipped out. There was no way over or through them, the glint of stone promising a swift death. Swallowing thickly, I follow Dee shuffling beneath the hedge’s limbs. He prefers to remain on his back while I army crawl to freedom, hopping up on the other side. The chasing vines halt, not continuing beyond the barricade. I exhale loudly.
“Shall we?” I hold my arm out for my twin’s. Dee winds his inside, jutting his chin upwards when I do. Mirroring each other, step for step, we continue on. Two unsensible boys in a battle we can’t win.
So much has happened since Alice left, not that we think about her. Tweedle pact. She was here, until she wasn’t. Those are the facts. Dee and I thought we’d unknowingly entered a game of hide and seek, looking for her for weeks. We lost. The Red Queen scooped us up in Tulgey Wood, declaring us her prisoners. Great fun, as you’d imagine, telling stories and playing charades in a cell. Dee and I were best at entertaining ourselves. Until the torture started.
A sharp slap cracks across my cheek, one I couldn’t anticipate. “You’re thinking of her again,” Dee frowns at me. Rubbing my face, I nod and we continue on in silence. No use lying. We share the same thoughts, and then it’s my turn to frown.
“As were you!” Twisting to bat hands with Dee, keeping our closest ones interlinked, a growl sounds on the other side of the wall before us. We freeze. An exit sits to our left, but from stupidity and curiosity, we stand and wait for the danger to present itself. A worm the size of a dragon shoots through the hedge, mouth wide and missing me by inches.
Despite the large glasses over his lack of eyes and fancy necktie, he swiftly turns and snaps his toothless mouth. His lips slap together, catching the back of Dee’s t-shirt. I yank him free, dragging him behind me as I run. Dee isn’t as fast as me, but through sheer will, I force him to keep up. The worm slams from wall to wall, blindly rushing close behind. Contrary to his lack of senses, his blood-instinct is on point.
Fumbling from one alley to the next, the pathways beneath our sneakers shift and change. From reddish and rocky to white and slippery, we stumble into unfamiliar territory and my heart hammers for another reason. I’ve not entered this part of the maze before. The blunt head of the worm skims my back, its body crashing aside as we twist around a sharp corner. Dee rushes to run past and I grab the back of his t-shirt.
“Hold up,” I grit, tugging him back a step. Damp asphalt assaults my nose, the grainy texture before our feet bubbling. Quicksand. Trying to retrace our steps, the worm is there, hanging tall over us. For a creature without lungs, his body heaves as if he is breathing, inhaling our scent without use of a nose. Gripping the material at Dee’s chest, I hold him still. He tries to jerk against me, making a run for it but I keep us steady. Silence weighs heavily on my weak shoulders, a tremble working through my limbs.
The worm thrusts forward. Shoving my twin aside, I jump into the closest hedge, parting like a banana peel. My stomach growls, intensifying the ache that lives there as I tumble to the ground. The worm dives through the center, his diamond print tie flapping in the wind as he lands in the quicksand. It takes hold almost instantly, clawing around the slimy body fighting to be free. Staring on, a judder rolls through the worm and too quickly to track, a mouth appears at its butt end and clamps down on Dee’s leg.
He screams. I scramble. Grabbing his arms, I tug him backwards, filling the air with more shouts of pain. Toothless or not, the worm has a vice-like grip. It jerks, twisting Dee’s leg at an unnatural angle. The color drains from his face. I panic and my grip slips. Dee is torn from me, tossed aside into the quicksand and the worm shudders again. White asphalt has clawed around his body, dragging him under. Spitting, the wobbling surface settles where the worm so recently was, bubbling occasionally. I stutter, crawling backwards.
“Dum, go,” Dee cries desperately, tears spilling from his eyes. He’s a few feet away, my fingers just short of reaching him if I stretch. The rush of blood fills my ears. Shaking my head, I push myself to stand. “Go already! You must win.”
Win? There is no winning without him by my side. But the sand is moving quickly, Dee’s frail body sinking. Biting my bottom lip, I drag off the stupid helicopter hat they force us to wear and toss it aside. Then, I turn on my heel and run.
“Really?!” Dee yells. “You’re actually going to leave me here?!” Retracing my steps on swift feet, I only make one wrong turning to the wall of diamond studs. Vines wind through the gaps, slithering and snapping as I near. Not wasting time, I grab the longest and wrap it around my wrist. Then I tug. It tries to pull me forward, to impale myself on the sharpened stones. Bracing my feet on the wall of branches in between them, I yank with all the might I have left until it snaps. I hit the ground hard but there’s no time for pain.
Returning to Dee with the cut vine still flailing wildly, I gasp to see his body almost completely sunk. His nose and mouth, one hand and two feet are all that remain. Whipping the vine towards him, it rears back and punches me in the face. I try again, kicking it straight with my shoe and toss it in Dee’s direction. Detecting the foot on his broken leg, the vine settles long enough to wind around his ankle. I heave, a scream drawn from Dee’s exposed mouth. Guilt slices through me, but it’s dragging his broken leg to safety or say goodbye forever. It's a no brainer.
Dragging the vine over my shoulder, I force my legs to move. Each bellow is another blow to my ears, my eyes burning with tears I won’t let fall. Finally, the feel of his body meeting solid land has me dragging the vine free of his ankle and I toss it into the quicksand. Dee rushes to scrape the sand from his eyes, curling on his side. My hands hover uselessly over his leg, twisted at the knee.
A caw comes from above, the shadow of a giant raven dropping onto the maze’s hedge. I steel myself for another challenge. Not having time for pleasantries, I grab Dee’s thigh and shin, I snap the joint back into the position they should sit in, really hoping I haven’t done more damage. No bones broke free of his skin, so there’s that. The sounds that come from Dee, however, drown out the raven’s croaks. Taking Dee’s arms, I link them around my neck and pull him onto my back. My own legs threaten to buckle, my body quivering. Skidding a foot forward, I continue on.
