“You always were evil, child. From the moment your mother dropped you off at these gates, you polluted the air.”
I pulled back a fraction. “You may well be right.” I smiled coldly. “I always had a penchant for the dark.” I shrugged. “And death . . . such sweet, messy, poetic deaths.”
With a quick slice of my hand, I slashed the blade across her throat and stepped back as Mrs. Jenkins clutched at her neck. Blood seeped between her fingers as her eyes fixed on me in horror, and she gargled, drowning before my very eyes.
I tilted my head as I watched her in fascination. Her legs shook, until they finally gave way and she plummeted to the ground. I crouched beside her, studying the body draining of life. She watched me, eyes meeting mine.
I never once looked away.
She gasped. She choked. Then with a final gargle, she stilled. Hands falling to her sides, her eyes frozen in their deathly stare.
I sighed and wiped the blood from my blade onto her clothes. “Just as I expected . . . highly disappointing.”
Getting to my feet, I reached into my vest pocket and pulled out the cards. “Queen of Hearts,” I announced, running my thumb over the card I’d made by hand, the perfect likeness of her on one side—Mrs. Jenkins’s pencil-drawn face staring up at me. My lip curled in disgust, then with a flick of my wrist, I sent the card sailing through the air to land on her bloodied chest. “One down, six to go.”
I moved back to Dolly, who was still sitting on the chair. The boombox continued playing her mama’s favorite tunes. I watched her fingers and saw them twitch again.
She was definitely in there.
Leaning forward, I placed my mouth at her ear. “Dolly, I’ve come back to get you, darlin’.” I closed my eyes when her rose perfume filled my nose. “Like I said I would.” I took a deep breath. “We’re going on an adventure, darlin’. Your White Rabbit is here to take you to Wonderland. I found the rabbit hole in this house. All those years as kids we searched for it, with no luck. But I’ve found it, darlin’. And soon, down the rabbit hole we will go.”
I closed my eyes and remembered those days . . .
“Today we’ll try the east wing, Rabbit.” Dolly pulled a hand-drawn map from the pink purse that crossed over her chest and laid it on the floor. “We’ll start here and move through every room, searching every nook, every cranny, every crevice and every loose floorboard.” She beamed at me in excitement. “Today’s the day, Rabbit. I can feel it!” She said that every time we searched the house, and grew sad when we found nothing. After every unsuccessful search, she would put her arm around my waist, cuddling in, saying, “The way to Wonderland is here, Rabbit. I know it . . . and one day we will find it. Find it and escape. You and me, Rabbit. We will have the greatest adventure of all. I just know it . . .”
Dolly’s head twitched, pulling me from the past. And I smiled when I moved back and blue eyes switched from the direction of the window to clash with mine. There was no life yet. Little real sign of my darlin’ beneath, but there was movement nonetheless.
She was hearing me.
There was a modicum of hope.
“Be right back, darlin’.”
I ran down to my car. I took what I needed from the trunk and rushed back up the stairs. Kicking back the carpet in the back hallway, I began cutting a hole in the floorboards with the saw. It took me an hour to finish. Next, I went into Mrs. Jenkins’s room. Predictably, her stash of cash was under her mattress: hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. All for feeding the wolves, unable to be deposited in a bank lest she would have to explain the source of the payment. Abusers furtively sneaking around in the dark.
Leaving the rope from my trunk by the hole, I went back to Dolly. I packed her lipstick and perfume into a bag. Packed her favorite book, what was left of the old doll she used to love so much, and her boombox and put them in my car. In minutes I was standing before her again. I lifted her in her chair, stepping over Mrs. Jenkins’s still-warm corpse and out of the door. I placed Dolly, still in her seat, by the hole and tied the rope around her waist. I guided the other end of the rope through the hole to the floor below, to exactly where I needed it to be. As I turned back to Dolly, I noticed her hand was clenched. It had been clenched the entire time. Looking into her downcast eyes, I reached forward and gently pulled her fingers from whatever they were clasping.