Chapter-24

I stop just short of the wreckage, my gaze sweeping over the scene before me. The once vibrant, chaotic tea party has been reduced to something twisted, something wrong. The melting porcelain, the warped furniture, the eerie stillness—it all bears the unmistakable mark of the Shadow.

And at its center, slumped in the ruins of his own madness, is the Hatter.

His hat, once a symbol of his eccentricity, tilts awkwardly on his head, its edges frayed and blackened. His fingers twitch against the table, grasping at nothing, his lips moving in fragmented whispers. Occasionally, a laugh escapes him—hollow, sharp, wrong.

The Shadow's presence thickens the air, pressing against my skin, curling at the edges of my mind like unseen fingers. It is trying to seep into me, to find a foothold in my thoughts. I feel it, I acknowledge it—and I deny it.

The rabbit lingers behind me, small and trembling. It does not dare to get closer.

"Hatter."

My voice is even, unwavering. A statement, not a question.

His murmuring falters for a fraction of a second before resuming, his head tilting slightly, as if hearing me through layers of static.

I take another step forward, the ground shifting beneath me, as though the very earth is unsure of my presence. Let it wonder.

"Hatter," I say again, sharper this time.

His movements slow. His fingers still. And then, finally, he looks up.

His eyes—once filled with mischief and madness—are dark, unfocused. The pupils too wide, the whites stained with veins of black. The Shadow has hollowed him out, left something else in his place. And yet, beneath it, something remains. A flicker, buried beneath the corruption, waiting.

His lips part, and when he speaks, his voice is layered—his own, and something else. Something deeper, older.

"You shouldn't have come."

A pause. His mouth twitches into a lopsided grin, but there is no humor in it.

"It sees you now."

The air shifts, a ripple of unseen movement stirring the edges of the clearing. The Shadow does not like my presence. Good.

I exhale slowly, watching him carefully.

"Then let it watch."

The game is still being played.

And I never lose.