“Curiouser and curiouser!” murmured Alice to herself, while her huge grey eyes scanned Principal Weems’s office.

The first thing she noticed was the large wooden desk in the middle of the room. And on the top of it, a porcelain mug with pastel rainbow decorations. Alice picked it up, smiling.

The rest of the room was dark and gothic, but that tiny piece of furniture added a nice splash of colour.

“Do you like it?” Larissa asked, taking off her long coat, placing it on the hanger.

Alice nodded, then her full attention shifted to the stuffed animals on the desk. Eyes wide and mouth ajar. “You’ve got two ravens on a writing desk” she pointed out.

“I…” Larissa joined her by her desk and lowered her eyes on the taxidermic ravens; it was the symbol of the Academy, after all… “I suppose I do” she simply replied, with a kind smile as she sat on her armchair, gesturing the other woman to do the same.

Alice sat in front of her, placing the mug down, but her eyes were still on the ravens. She was ignoring everything else, from the big stuffed bear by the entrance to the magnificent lit fireplace.

“I gather you like ravens?” Larissa smiled, ass she reached out for the papers that were sitting on the top of her desk and started reading them.

Once again, Alice nodded. “I like riddles,” she clarified, and then asked: “why is a raven like a writing desk?”

After a moment of silence, Larissa replied: “The answer lies in the quill: both may be penned, but they can never truly be captive”.

Alice blinked. That riddle was supposed to stay unanswered.

She had a few answers herself, of course, but she had never discussed it with another human being.

“Ravens and writing desks are both highly intelligent, found in a wide range of habitats, will eat almost anything and like playing tricks on humans” said Alice with a presumptuous tone.

“Also, outstanding bills are found on both of them” Larissa replied, without missing a beat, with a smug smile.

“And in French all the letters in bureau are contained in corbeau!” Alice straightened her back, a fierce look in her eyes. Was this a challenge? In her own territory?

Larissa relaxed in her armchair, the smirk still playing on her lips. She looked at the two ravens on her desk, then back at Alice. “The Mad Hatter didn’t know the answer to his own riddle, but perhaps The Raven came into Edgar Allan Poe’s mind while he was sitting at his writing desk”.

Alice fell silent for a while, contemplating.

After a long, heavy silence, she extended her hand to Larissa. “I quite like this answer. I’ll take it as the correct one. Until I find a more suitable one”.

Principal Weems shook Alice’s hand with a satisfied look on her face, then she went back to reading her files.

“You did a great job at hiding your tracks… who helped you?”

“Can’t tell. A friend… sort of… I don’t have friends, but I paid good money for the file you’re reading, so…” she was nervous, now. She felt exposed. The file was filled with lies, but she told herself that she was going to be honest with Larissa. Trust was important in her field of work.

“It’s really good. It’s not perfect, so it’s not suspicious. Good references, a nice background. I’d say I can hire you as my personal assistant without arousing suspicion” she closed the file and put it away, then she joined her hands in her lap. “Now, Alice… the real job interview…”

“I thought you already  hired me as a Hyde-hunter?” Alice voice trembled, she felt panic rising through her body. She didn’t like being questioned, not without warning.

“I hired someone who told me they were an expert in hunting Hydes, and apparently you are. But you’re also a Dodgson… which makes things a little more complicated” Larissa’s voice was calm, she didn’t seem upset, perhaps Alice could just talk to her…

The younger woman lowered her eyes. She hated the feeling of being judged.

“Charles Dodgson was my great-great-great uncle. My great-great-great grandfather was his brother, Wilfred” she knew the story by heart, it was a story she used to tell everyone at the school. Now, it was a story she was ashamed of.

“I thought the Dodgsons stayed in the United Kingdom?” Larissa tried to help her, her voice kind enough to encourage Alice to continue.

“A branch of the family, the Lutwidges, moved to the States in the 1930s – my family, however, stayed in the UK…”

Larissa nodded, mentally annotating all the information.

“It is common knowledge that Charles Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll, had a peculiar ability…” Larissa didn’t know hot to put it, without asking something that might cause embarrassment.

“He could bring life to the things that lived inside his imagination… he wrote a book about a Wonderland and the world was filled with impossible things” a small smile appeared on Alice’s full lips. “When he died, everything died with him”.

“But you have the same ability…” Larissa was extremely cautious, but from what she had seen, it was pretty obvious that Alice and her great-great-great-uncle shared the same peculiarity.

“Well, yes and no…” Alice sighed, wearily. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, then she stared out the window behind the Principal. “I can summon a few of the creatures he had created, but it takes a lot of energy… and I can’t always control them. Plus, if they get hurt, I get hurt… and the other way around”.

There was another long pause. Both women stayed silent, listening to the crackle of firewood in the fireplace. It was nice… it was relaxing.

Larissa was collecting her thoughts, gathering all the newest information. There were still a few questions that needed to be answered.

“How did you start your hunt for Hydes?”

A sharp intake of breath told the Principal that the question was an uncomfortable one.

Alice cleared her voice and shrugged. “You said it yourself. There are a lot of Hydes in my family. I don’t know exactly when it happened that Hydes started to breed into my family… but I know that my aunt was one. My dad’s twin sister” Alice started chewing on her thumbnail, nervously. “I was three when she snapped the first time and my father tried to protect me in all the ways that he could. He attended a school for outcasts in England, he was a telekinetic… but against a Hyde? He couldn’t do much… my mum was just… a little off. Outbursts of anger now and then, I have those too, but I’ve never turned into a monster…”

“Who doesn’t have an outburst of rage now and again?” Larissa interrupted her with a kind smile; she got up from her chair and went to the cupboard to select a bottle of wine. She decided that some alcohol was needed. After she poured two generous glasses of wine, Larissa sat back in her armchair.

Alice accepted the glass and looked at her reflection in the burgundy liquid. She wasn’t a fan of expensive wine, or wine in general… she preferred tea, but she didn’t want to decline her host’s kind offer. So, she took the smallest sip and tried not to make a face while the well known taste made her tastebuds go insane.

“My aunt killed my mother while she was transformed into a Hyde…” she said, with watery eyes because of the taste of the wine.

But Larissa misinterpreted her body language and thought she was crying from grieving. “Oh- I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to…” she sounded sincerely apologetic.

“No… it’s fine… it happened when I was six. Gosh this wine is awful!” Alice put the glass down and inhaled deeply, tapping the corner of her eyes with the rim of her coat. “Sorry… I didn’t want make a fuss; I just don’t like wine…”

“Oh- would you like something else, instead?”

“Tea?” Alice’s eyes beamed with joy.  

“Sure, any particular preference?” Larissa had a secret tea stash inside one of the desk drawers, for the times when her roots might be calling.

“Darjeeling tea…” said Alice, with a tinge of hope in her voice.

Larissa found what she was looking for and pulled out an electric kettle from under the desk, filling it with water from a bottle.

While they were waiting, Alice eyed the bright coloured mug again. “Can I use that?”

That seemed a peculiar question, it was Larissa’s personal mug, and the reason why Alice was so drawn to it was unclear. She simply liked it, to be honest… she liked cute mugs.

“Sure,” Larissa smiled again and when the tea was ready, Alice seemed comfortable enough to keep talking.

“I’ve started showing signs of my peculiarity when I was three. My father always encouraged me to grow it. I was one of the few Dodgsons in generations to share the same ability with Charles, at least a resemblance of his ability. I’ve never had a vivid imagination… so, my father and I had these training sessions, it was like a game to me. He would pick a book, he would read it to me and I would try and give life to the things he read. During one of these training sessions, my aunt had one of her episodes. She was jealous of me, of my ability, my ‘closeness’ to Charles. We had ways to calm her down, lullabies, poems… but by the time I was six my abilities grew and so did her jealousy. She turned into a Hyde and attacked us, my father told me to use my powers to protect us… my six-years-old mind imagined that only the hideous Jabberwock could fight a Hyde and win, so I focused as hard as I could and I managed to summon the Jabberwock… it was amazing. Its eyes were flaming, its tail looked like a furious snake. It fought the Hyde and won, it killed my aunt and once the fight was over I had no control over it… it killed my father in front of me, almost destroyed my house. I hid under the table and cried so much until I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was in a hospital surrounded by the police…”

Larissa listened to the whole story in awe, she handed Alice her mug and the younger woman took a tentative sip. Suddenly the room was colder, and a hot beverage was exactly what she needed.

“It’s good, thank you” Alice smiled, and Larissa responded weakly. There was a sad look in the Principal’s eyes, she didn’t dare say anything, not yet. “Anyway, my family decided that it was for my best interests to leave England and go live with my relatives in the US. For years I’ve had nightmares and suffered from PTSD, but my Rabbit and the Hare and a few more ‘imaginary’ friends helped me through my recovery. When my application to Nevermore was declined, I decided that it was time for me to do something about the family problem and I started hunting Hydes, I’ve been doing it for years, now… besides, Hydes have masters and I’ve never found my aunt’s”.

The mug was empty and so was Larissa’s glass. The office was silent again, it was a comfortable silence. Alice felt lighter, it was hard to find someone who actually listened.

“Thank you for being honest with me, Alice. I’ll do the same with you… the fate of the Academy and the outcast community is on thin ice. Your help will be vital”.

Before Alice could say anything else, there was a knock on the door. Larissa hid the wine – it was still too early in the morning – and gave permission to enter the room.

A redhead with huge glasses and big red boots was standing there by the office entrance, with an awkward smile on her face. “Sorry to interrupt, but we had a meeting…”

Larissa looked at her phone and realised she had stayed with Alice way longer than expected. She cleared her throat and stood up, nodding her head.

“Miss Thornhill, this is Winifred Donkin, my new assistant. She’s had an incident last night and our interview was delayed” she explained.

Alice shook the stranger’s hand and smiled awkwardly. Larissa was a giant, this woman was of average height and still managed to be taller than her…

“Oh, please, call me Marilyn!” she said, in a friendly voice. “I thought you were a new student!”

“The irony…” Alice replied in a flat tone, Thornhill didn’t understand.

“Principal Weems said you had an incident? What kind of incident?”

“I was attacked by a wild animal in the woods. My fault entirely… I’d suggest you don’t dwell in the surroundings of the Academy after sunset, but I’m sure you’re all more informed than I am…” Alice smiled again, her face started to hurt, she had never smiled so much in her entire life.

Larissa rested a hand on top of Alice’s shoulder. “Miss Thornhill, why don’t you show Miss Donkin around after our meeting?”

“Of course! It would be my pleasure!”

Alice was still bleeding from the attack; she was tired and exhausted both mentally and physically. The last thing she wanted to do was being shown around the Academy, but she guessed it was the right thing to do…

“You will find your bags in your room, Miss Thornhill will show you everything. Why don’t you wait outside? It won’t be long”.

A room. A bed. A shower, maybe? Yes! Finally!