Chester Cheshire grinwild's Arc

Chapter 1 of 15

Chester Cheshire Grinwild stole the watch off the White Rabbit's belt because he wanted to see what would happen, and what happened was the page tore open under his paws and swallowed him whole. He landed on his back in black mud beside a lake that shimmered purple and blue like spilled ink. One green eye saw the mud. The other eye, the gold one, saw a kingdom. He sat up grinning. The watch ticked in his palm, cracked across its glass face, little brass rabbit ears twitching at the top like it could still hear its owner. The owner arrived two seconds later with a wet thump. Harrietta landed on her feet, then sat down hard, white coat smeared to the elbows. She snatched the cracked watch out of his paw before he could blink. "Mine. Mine. Give it. Where. Where is this. Ink. There's ink in the air. Ink, Cheshire." Her pink eyes flicked to the lake, then to him, then to the watch. Her ears flattened. Chester stretched out across the mud like a king on a couch. "This," he said, "is nowhere. I checked. It was nowhere a moment ago and now it has us in it. That makes it somewhere." He waved a paw at the dark trees, the still water, the empty sky. "Wonderland. I just named it. You're welcome." Harrietta wasn't listening. She had pulled a small glass vial from her coat pocket and crouched at the lake's edge, dipping it until the cork floated free. The liquid inside swirled pink and blue and angry green. She held it up to the watch and muttered. "Ink in the water. Ink in the gears. Time's wrong. Time's wrong here. Two minutes slow. Three. Four." She tapped the cracked glass. "It's bleeding." Her whiskers shook. "I have to go back. I have to go back before she notices. Before she—" She cut herself off and pressed her mouth shut. Chester rolled onto his belly to watch her. He knew who she meant. He had read the book. A queen with a loud mouth and a fondness for severed heads. He thought about Harrietta going back to that, and he thought about Harrietta staying here, where the only loud thing so far was him. The gold eye showed him a long table. Mismatched chairs. Steam rising from a hundred cups. Guests pulled from a hundred books, laughing at a joke he hadn't told yet. "Stay," Chester said. He sat up. "Stay and have tea. I'll pull the others in myself. One at a time. The best ones. A whole table of them." He grinned wider. "You really want to run back to her?" Harrietta didn't answer. She corked the vial, slipped it into her pocket, and stared at the broken watch in her lap. Her ears twitched once. She did not stand up to leave. Chester took that as a yes and started planning the second chair.