Merry Christmas? | Oneshot
Inhaling delicately she winced as the pain in her sides intensified. She didn't come here to attend her Grandmother's annual Christmas ball, she had simply wanted to spend time with her family but she wasn't even allowed to do that. Alice soon found her mind wandering and it came upon Mad. Her heart quickened just thinking of him and she began gnawing on the inside of her cheek to keep herself from speaking aloud. Was it a bad thing, to have kissed him the way she had? Did he not want her too? If he didn't then why had he kissed her before he went upstairs to check on Thack?
Thack...every single word the boy had spoken to her came rushing to the forefront of her mind and her mouth fell open into a gasp and her hand came to rest on her exposed chest as the world seemed to spin around her. The glass fell from her hands hitting the hardwood floor with a loud SMASH that seemed to reverberate through the entire room. Every eye was suddenly on Alice and she clawed at her throat and chest willing her lungs to begin working again. N-no this is all wrong. It's wrong! The heated glare she was receiving from her Grandmother caused the dark haired girl to finally stammer out, "S-sorry for r-r-ruining your night...please excuse m-m...me!"
Lifting the skirt of her gown she scurried from the room and pressed her back against the wall of the hallway her chest rising and falling with every labored breath. "Oh, Alice...why must you get yourself into these situations? Why can't you just be normal?" Tears were creeping down her painted cheeks ruining the make-up Margaret had spent an hour perfecting after she had done significant damage to her younger sister's scalp. She thought back on something Mad had told her;
'Margaret is a kiss-ass idiot and your Gran is an oblivious idiot my dear.'
It caused a chortled giggle to burst from her lips, she then had the thought that it sounded almost like a dying cat. She shook her head so hard pieces of her hair fell out of the elaborate twist to hang in front of her face. "Maddy...how could I have ever hurt you? I don't want to hurt you...I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone! You...Cheshire...n-no one..."
Her nails were pressing so hard into her chest in an attempt to calm her racing heart that it was drawing blood but Alice never even noticed, nor would she have cared. It was helping, just like when she was little and she imagined the deaths of every single person who had ever teased her had helped her then. That was back when her 'friends' weren't so nice. They told her to do things she didn't really want to do. She just didn't understand, she didn't understand why Thack felt the way he felt, didn't understand why it seemed so wrong for her to feel the way she felt about Mad, why Cheshire seemed so upset with her all of a sudden as well. Alice just wanted it all to stop, she wanted it all to end. She didn't want to be here anymore, she raked her nails across her chest wanting to feel something other than this intense pain in her heart. This pain that seemed to radiate through her entire being. "STOP!" She screamed hands covering her ears as if it would stop the voices from becoming amplified.
It just seemed to make things even worse, everyone just started talking even louder. Their voices a loud purr coursing through her mind. Alice started clawing at herself like a madwoman, nails raking over her face, arms, chest, anything that was exposed.
"Alice!" Margaret screamed racing to the where her younger sister had fallen to her knees in the hallway. "Stop it, Alice! ALICE!" Grabbing the dark haired girl's wrists the blonde wrestled her hands to her sides, her breathing coming out in pants from the struggle Alice had put up. "If Grandmother knew I allowed you to do this I will never hear the end of it."
Alice simply sobbed gut wrenching, heart shattering sobs that made her unable to breathe properly. She sucked in a breath and what came out was a shrill cry. The front of her gown was covered in rivers of bright red blood and it was completely ruined, something Margaret muttered to herself as Alice attempted to halfheartedly break free of her sister's grasp. "Stop it Alice." The woman snapped, she wasn't their Grandmother. She wasn't about to sugarcoat anything for her deranged little sister. "God, why do you have to come in and ruin everything? You should have just stayed home. Grandmother was so happy to see you decide to come to the ball but I knew."
Margaret's voice was harsh and full of unadulterated malice. "I knew you would ruin it." She leaned in close so their noses were touching a sadistic grin on her face. "You're so fucked up...you know that Alice? Those kids way back in school-" At Alice's whimper, as all of their faces came to mind made Margaret's grin bigger and she hissed. "You know the ones. They should have beat you so hard they beat you normal. Instead they left you like this. All they did was muddy up your stupid little dress."
Their eyes met, eyes that were the only similar things they had to one another. Alice's were full of hurt while Margaret's were full of spite and pure loathing. "You're so pathetic. I don't get why Grandmother even bother's with you still. You're a lost cause." She sneered the more she spoke and her grip on Alice's wrists was becoming bruising. "You're weak, you're worthless, mother and father managed to escape you and so I got stuck with you." Her voice went up a few octaves as she mimicked their parents. "Take care of your sister Margaret. She's your little sister. Isn't she sooo precious. Be a good big sister."
Alice shook her head her bottom lip trembling violently as the instinct to flee started becoming overwhelming. "I-I...I just want you to-"
She was cut off by Margaret's cold laughter. It echoed through the hallway and seemed to stab Alice in the heart. "Love you? No one will ever love you. You're so broken no one will want to attempt to fix you." She laughed again as Alice started muttering to herself shaking her head no violently. "Oh yes, dear sister. You will die alone, with no one around you. No one wants you, no one desires you and no one is willing to waste their time with you. Why would they? You can't do anything right. You could never act like a proper lady no matter how hard Grandmother attempted to teach you. Grandmother was always scolding you for showing up to dinner with your stockings muddy, you put your feet on the furniture, talked to flowers as if they would talk back! Who would ever want you to be their wife?"
Reaching up the blonde Hart looked at Alice with mock concern placing her hand against her cheek in an almost comforting motion, the other hand resting on Alice's shoulder as if to hold her steady. "You know I speak the truth Alice. You may have bought a Cafe but it doesn't make you a success." Her eyes narrowing as she sneered once more she drew her hand back before bringing it across Alice's cheek in a fierce slap.
The ravenette cried out and fell over from the impact, laying crumbled up on the floor immediately drawing herself into the fetal position in hopes of making the torture stop. Her entire frame shook wildly as Margaret rose to her feet and slowly stepped forward to tower over the smaller girl. "You disgust me." She growled before kicking the fallen girl hard in the ribs a few times. "Don't ever come back here again! This is my domain and you're not going to ruin it with your fucking crazy like you did school!" Finally stopping her abuse the blonde inhaled deeply before a twisted smile came to her lips. "Oh, and Alice," She crouched down so she could whisper almost lovingly into her ear. "Merry Christmas, dearest sister."
Turning on her heel abruptly she stalked back to the party leaving Alice to lay in the hallway hysterically sobbing unable to move without pain coursing through her entire system.
