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“Look, I’m not powerful,” I confessed. “My family is, but I’m not. I’m a laughing stock. A complete joke. And I’m definitely not lucky. Not at all.”
“Things are different in Wonderland,” said Winston. “Your luck may very well be about to change. That’s why I was able to find you after all this time. I’m still willing to bet on you, Alice.”
“As am I,” said Chess.
“I’m still deciding,” growled Callister.
I stifled a burp and rolled my eyes. Something hellacious was going on with my stomach. Unlike the men who surrounded me, this sensation didn’t make me feel good at all.
“If this would’ve been so much easier when I was still a kid, then why the hell did it take you so long to find me?”
Winston gave me an apologetic look.
“I’ve been searching for you for years, but someone’s been dimming your light...essentially hiding you away from our view.” Winston’s eyes narrowed in frustration. “I think I know who’s to blame.”
“You do?” asked Chess. Winston nodded while casting suspicious glances at his companions.
“When I found Alice tonight, she was with Dinah.”
“Dinah? Well, that explains everything,” said Chess with a little snarl.
“I’m not following,” I piped up. A fierce expression darkened Chess’s green eyes.
“Dinah works for the Red Queen. She’s most likely been keeping you distracted from visiting Wonderland.”
"Wait, what?" I blinked in confusion. "Dinah is my friend! She’s my personal assistant! Why would she..."
Before I could finish my sentence, another round of nausea hit me like a sledgehammer. Doubling over, I heaved a few times onto the ground, then found myself staring at the bright blue pill that Dinah had given me to forget my humiliation.
To my horror, it grew bigger and bigger, quivering on the ground until it transformed into a shimmering fat worm and started to crawl away.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Callister mused under his breath. “I do believe it’s heading for the Red Queen’s castle.”
“What the hell is that thing?” I gasped, my voice shaky. I felt as if the ground had completely shifted beneath my feet.
“A blue pill,” he sneered before stomping it to death under his shoe. He wiped the goo on a moss-covered log before looking back at me. “It seems your 'friend' has a hidden agenda."
“A blue pill makes you forget everything that matters,” Chess told me with a forlorn expression. “If Dinah told you to swallow that, she’s not your friend. Has she given them to you before?”
“Yeah. Lots of times,” I admitted. There was a sick, sinking feeling in my heart as I began to realize Dinah might be like all my other ‘friends’—as fake as a fifty-dollar Rolex.
“Does she regularly give you anything else to eat or drink?” Winston asked. Callister and Chess both leaned closer to hear my reply.
I nodded, fighting back the tears of betrayal that were starting to sting the corners of my eyes.
“She makes me superfood smoothies every morning,” I told the boys. “My freezer’s full of them. Do you think she’s been putting stuff in my food?”
“Without a doubt.”
“It’s not even a question.”
“No wonder I couldn’t find you for all these years,” Winston confessed with a weary sigh. “There is a light within you, Alice. A strength that connects you to Wonderland. But those blue pills from Dinah have blocked your connection to us here, which made it impossible for me to find you sooner. If you stay here long enough, you’ll start to feel that strength, that connection once again.”
And even though my mascara was running and I’d just puked all over the ground, my stomach started to feel better. I started to feel stronger. Even the air didn’t smell that bad anymore.
“Well, if the Red Queen hasn’t heard about your arrival yet, she will soon enough,” Callister said, glaring at the blue smear on his shoe.
Winston shuddered.
