Malice in Wonderland Prequel Read Online Free PDF

out to them, asking them to take her to the Queen of Heart’s dungeons.
    The Queen of Hearts was about to visit, she’d been told. There was a knock upon the iron door, then the Queen of Hearts voice announcing her own presence: “Her Highness is coming in.” The door opened and there was the Queen of Hearts, with an unreadable expression upon her face.
    The Red Queen called, “Welcome, Your Highness, to my humble abode. I’m afraid I can’t speak long, as I’ve got to go somewhere.” Then suddenly remembering, the Red Queen said, “Sorry, force of habit.”
    “Yes,” said the Queen of Hearts as she stepped into the room. She left the door open. There were guard cards stationed outside. But the Red Queen had little to fear, because after all, she had chosen to be imprisoned.
    The Queen of Hearts looked pointedly at the stone walls of the small cell. “I daresay, if you get to going where your legs seem to want, you shall run right smack into that wall.”
    “True. Even so, I quite enjoy focusing upon my running, despite what folly it might seem to you.”
    The Queen of Hearts said, “Well I thought it would be remiss of me not to at least welcome you to my dungeon. I know we have not always been on the best of terms.”
    “Yes. We were mortal enemies, but those days are no longer. Now I wish solely to focus upon my running. You may go about the business of your running, running the kingdom that is.”
    A wicked grin formed on the Queen of Heart’s face. “So you relinquish your crown?”
    “I concede to your authority. You may go ahead and be the Queen of all of Wonderland. It’s all quite a bother, anyway.”
    The Queen of Hearts scowled. “That’s it? How anticlimactic.”
    “Well I don’t wish to fight you, if that’s what you mean. No, I’m perfectly content to stay here in your dungeon. In fact, it will be good for me. I daresay I much prefer it.”
    The Queen of Hearts huffed in frustration. “We have a long rivalry, you and I, so I can’t pretend I’m not disappointed that I won’t get to behead you. You know, I know it’s not your fault, but I’ve grown quite irritated over the years over the fact that some citizens of Wonderland have come to think of you and I as the same person!”
    The Red Queen chuckled politely, while still running. Always running. “Yes, it is quite irritating.” She laughed at a thought in her head.
    “What is it?” said the Queen of Hearts.
    “It’s just that once I heard of someone asking, ‘have you ever seen them in the same room together’? And now here we are, finally, in the same room.”
    “But no one can see.”
    The Red Queen said, “So perhaps the rumors shall persist.”
    “Perhaps,” agreed the Queen of Hearts. “But I don’t see how they could confuse us. After all, I am not the one who continually runs in place. I’ve always wondered why you do that. Don’t you know you’ll get places faster, if you actually move forward?”
    “Of course I know that,” the Red Queen snapped. “You just don’t know where I’m coming from.”
    “Where you’re coming from?! My dear, you’re always in the same place!”
    “It hasn’t always been thus. You don’t know my situation.”
    The Queen of Hearts smirked. “Should I run a mile in your shoes then?” She laughed a little at the pout that formed upon the Red Queen’s face. “Oh, don’t be such a priss. Why don’t you just tell me, then?”
    “You wouldn’t understand.”
    “I shan’t leave until you tell me.”
    The Red Queen sighed. “Very well! I have had much time to think about things, and the inner workings of my own mind and my reasons. I’ll tell you succinctly: I am running from the past.”
    “The past? Is it so terrible?”
    The Red Queen said, “Yes, for I betrayed the man I loved.”
    The Queen of Hearts laughed. “The man you loved? You mean that little pawn you had a fling with?”
    “No, that was a grave mistake on my part. The man I loved is my husband and