Page 3 of Madness

I open my mouth, intent on telling him, but my mouth snaps closed. There’s no use in trying to convince them of anything.

Between my madness and the crime I’m being sentenced for, I will receive no sympathy. I lower my head, resigning myself to the misunderstanding, and nod, moving forward carefully.

The chains around my ankle make it hard to walk, and they rattle with every shuffle of my feet.

I climb into the white van, rust forming around its hinges.

A shiver runs up my spine as I sit down, a sense of foreboding shifting in the air and the weight of the chains that wrap around me a reminder of my captivity.

Though have I ever been free?

“How easy it would be to escape!” the masculine voice whispers to me. “We just need to fly, fly, fly.”

“But we cannot fly,” I whisper back, forgetting myself for a moment.

“Poor kid stood no chance. He’s crazy—” The guard is cut off as the van door slams shut with a thud, and the engine roars to life, sending vibrations through the vehicle.

Poor Al... he’s just mad... crazy.

Chapter Two

“Off! Off! Off!”the voice I’ve deemed as Queenie echoes in my mind, shrill and demanding, as the guard cloaked in a crimson red uniform roughly drags me out of the transport van.

The vehicle creaks and groans, shifting from our weight, and the chains rattle as I shuffle my feet and walk down the narrow aisle between the leather seats. My feet stumble, and my wrists chafe against the cold metal ofmy chains.

I can feel the eyes of the other guards on me from outside of the van, and Queenie’s voice grows more persistent and urgent,“Off, off, off!”

“Come on! We don’t have all day!” another guard calls from outside. The guard by my side's grip tightens, propelling me forward.

Outside…

Something I’ve not seen much of.

The weight of that night lingers like a shadow, and I wish it never happened.

But our shared madness was bound to clash at some point, and I couldn’t cope with the darkness anymore.

Queenie laughs manically inside of my head,“We chopped off her head! Off! Off! Off!”and I grimace.

I want to shake my head, to bash my skull into the corner of the metal rust bucket we are in, but I refrain.

They already think I’m bonkers.

I jump down from the vehicle, stumbling slightly, unable to balance myself, and the guard’s hand tightens painfully around my thin arm.

The rough gravel beneath my feet adds to my instability, and I can feel the chains tighten when my legs spread in an attempt to balance myself.

A sea of red instantly surrounds me.

Guards are at my every side, and I don’t even get a moment to enjoy the rare moment of sunshine in England.

“Is this him?” a woman with ice-blonde hair and piercing blue eyes steps closer. A nurse in a snugly fitting outfit, a folder clutched tightly in her hands, scans me from head to toe with curiosity.

“Tsk. You don’t look like much. Perhaps we got the wrong Alice,” she mutters, more to the guards than me.

My lips part, intent on telling her that I am Alice, but my vision turns hazy, and when it clears, her head has swelled to three times the size as before.

Her eyes, now impossibly large, bore into mine with an intensity that sends a shiver down my spine.

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