“Come on, Mom! Forget that picture already!”
“It’s much more fun to take your time, sweetie.”
In the next gallery over, children were pointing at the museum’s various exhibits. Alice saw a woman flash a pained smile at a boy holding her hand.
He tugged at the woman. “But I’m bored of that picture—the ones back there look a lot better! We’re finally inside the art museum, so let’s see the best ones!”
The woman sighed. “What am I going to do with you…?”
Alice’s gaze followed the mother and child, and then strayed off down a long hallway. What’s down there? she wondered. This place is big.
She hummed, enjoying the anonymity of wandering the art museum alone. She’d slipped out of Hatter Mansion during a mundane work shift, only telling her assistant maid that she was “going out.” That was technically following Blood’s orders that she not leave without permission, right? The maid would pass it on? And Alice’s feet had just led her back to Jericho’s territory.
“Mommy, a bunny! And over there! Here’s one, too!”
“Don’t run—you’ll trip and fall!”
Alice watched a rabbit jump out of a picture, then a little girl ran after it. Another rabbit—a white one—bounded over to Alice.
Alice knew it was probably out of the painting, but when she touched it, it felt soft and furry.
That…doesn’t feel like a painting.
She didn’t have time to be surprised as a shadow fell over her. She looked up into a familiar face.
“It is you.” Jericho tilted his head. “If you’re coming to visit, you should tell the staff.”
“Jericho, you’re working in the museum today?”
When Alice took her hand from the rabbit and stood again, the creature zipped to a corner of the room unusually fast. She turned from it to face Jericho.
“I didn’t expect to catch the busy museum curator just by showing up.”
He laughed. “Eh, I’m not good at sitting still—I changed the exhibits a little. Why don’t I give you a tour?”
Alice hadn’t come to the museum with any goal in mind—she’d just needed some time away from Blood constantly irritating her. A tour sounded like a nice distraction.
“Thanks,” she replied.
She followed Jericho down the hallway, and eventually into a room where a huge picture of greenery stretched before her. A lot of the exhibits had landscape paintings, but this one was on an entirely different scale.
Someone had painted a forest with sunlight streaming through the leaves on nearly an entire wall. The scene looked as if they had torn down the wall, and on the other side, a real forest stretched out.
Some people were sleeping under the trees, others sat on benches and chatted. Kids clambered up the trees as birds sang overhead.
Alice hummed under her breath. “I like it.”
“The theme of this exhibit is ‘healing,’” he explained. “And it’s titled Forest…which is maybe a little too on the nose, heh. There are rivers in the painting and a lake way in the back.” He gestured with his head. “You can step into the painting and take a break, if you want.”
She flashed him an apologetic smile. “Ah, no. I’m fine.” It was nice of him to offer, but she didn’t feel like it.
He smiled back. “Sure. But if you need a break, don’t overextend yourself. Just tell me.”
For a few moments, she just stared into the tranquil forest. Then she turned her gaze up to him.
“Jericho…”
His eyes widened at the look on her face. “What is it?”
“Um…are you really from this world?” she asked quietly. “Even if I’m an Outsider, you’re being so nice to me. It feels too…normal.”
She was used to every leader approaching her “just to see the Outsider.” The very few exceptions were the eccentrics or the bigots who wanted to close off Wonderland.
But from the very first moment that she’d met Jericho, he’d treated her like a human being.
Jericho shook his head. “I don’t know about ‘nice,’” he replied softly. “And I do more dirty work than you think I do.”
Alice wondered if he was talking about his work as a Mafia boss. Or the face he wore as the Gravekeeper, or working as the museum curator… Even Gowland, who ran the amusement park in Hearts, had been a leader involved in territory disputes. She was sure dark acts happened away from her eyes.
She sighed. “That may be true, but I still think you’re a nice person, Jericho.”
“You’re free to think what you want. But the extent of my time’s already been decided, so maybe that’s made me philosophical… No, that isn’t it.” His eyes lowered to his hand.
He clenched it and nodded to himself.
“One climbs up only to fall,” he said. “And if you think of it that way, the correct path is just resigning yourself to it. I’m simply awaiting my true end.”
Alice furrowed her brow. “The extent of your time’s been decided?” she repeated. She remembered that she knew next to nothing about this man.
The man who was already dead. Everyone always mentioned death around him. It was weird for Wonderland.
As Alice wondered whether to pry further, Jericho’s gaze focused on something past her head. He sucked his teeth.
“Great. Of all times…”
“Wh-what is it?”
A flustered man suddenly ran up, his hands gesturing wildly. “Mr. Curator!” he cried. “We have a problem!”
“Calm down,” Jericho ordered. “An attack, right? Tell me the enemy, the location, and any damage done.”
“It’s definitely the Mad Hatter, but we don’t know any more than that. No major damage other than a fence…but they’re in the graveyard, sir!”
“Fine. I’ll be there soon.”