Heartland

“Do you know what that was?” Alice asked Jack.

“It’s none of your business.” He replied and just continued walking.

They were walking down the empty hallway of the castle. It was once filled with laughter and colors. It was once filled with pink and white flamingos, strippers, and people walking on the ceiling. But now, it was just them and their voices and footsteps.

“Jack. Look at me.” She hissed at him.

He turned around and looked at her blankly

“I’m looking.”

“We don’t know whether we’ll live or not after this, Jack. It can be and will be my damn business as well.” Alice stood her ground, with her feet planted on the ground and her hands on her waist.

Jack’s breath hitched a little.

“This all started a decade ago, when March Hare or Marche, his real name, was still a child with his family. He came from a family of Counts and Countesses, Dukes and Duchess, Prince but no Princesses, and Nobles. In other words, he came from a very rich and prestigious family.”

He laughed all of the sudden and then asked, “Can you imagine that? The March Hare wearing a tie or a bow or a tux, a proper tux?”

Alice looked at the ceiling for a moment or two then shook her head, “No, I suppose I can’t. I may be scarred forever if I do. But please, do continue.”

Jack coughed then straightened himself.

“They were a family of five, excluding their parents. He had 3 half-brothers and 2 half-sisters. They all hated each other and tried to kill one another except for March Hare, his half-sister Mary and the March Fox. They tried to kill them too of course but March hare was the only one with the right sanity to consider them as siblings and family still. They all came from different mothers or wives of his father. By the time he was 12, his father became delusional and mad. He proposed a contest; which was a game of thrones.

Everyone in his family young enough or strong enough to compete joined. He was 12 when he saw his brother, The March Fox; kill their brothers and sisters, his aunts and uncles, and his cousins all for a worthless treasure until he turned against them and killed their mothers one by one in front of their eyes.

March Hare was strong but weaker that the Fox by physical means but he wasn’t stupid as he. The March Fox killed Mary in front of Marche, driving him into vengeance and lost of his sanity. The March Fox took it all away from Marche. He took his home, his sister, his mother, and his father. It was a devastating thing to experience. That’s why he masks himself with his insanity.” Jack explained.

He looked down as if he was going to cry. But he can’t. Not now at least. He started to walk but stopped.

He turned to her and gently placed his hands on her face. He looked at her dead in the eye and said,
“I don’t know why I’m being chivalrous all of the sudden but we really need to win this war, Alice. I’m not a chivalrous person or a knight in shining armor. It’s quite the opposite really. I’m a murderer and you’re a cold-blooded serial killer.

But we have to win this war for this place. Didn’t you have fun in this place? Do you want these all to go away and go back to that world where you came from? This is not an imagination because if you’re feeling something twists inside of you, so do I. I want to kill that bastard of a person. That’s why I’m here holding your face and saying this damn speech.” He looked at her once more, searching her eyes for something.

Then he let go of her and walked away.

Alice looked away. She felt something twist inside her.
Was it pity? Was it sadness? Was it guilt? Was it chivalry?
Whatever it was she shook it off and continued walking with Jack.