Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 108: Ch106. Pain as a teacher (30) - Pain as a teacher

Chapter 108: Ch106. Pain as a teacher (30) - Pain as a teacher

Miles’ breath came in ragged gasps, his limbs still locked in the Hatter-Miles’ spiked chains. His muscles screamed, his skin burned, but the pain was secondary now.

The moment the Hatter spoke those words, everything else faded into the background.

A deal...

Miles’ stomach twisted. He knew better than anyone what happened when you struck deals with the Devil. And if the Hatter-Miles in front of him was not a devil wearing his own skin, then Miles had no idea what a devil was.

Yet, his tone... It was different.

Not just mocking, not just playing. There was something else laced beneath it. Something reluctant.

The chains in his flesh did not loosen, but they did not tighten either. They pulsed like breathing iron. Waiting.

The Hatter-Miles leaned forward, resting an elbow against the long, grotesque tea table, his fingers drumming against his cheek. He regarded Miles with something dangerously close to amusement.

"You’re thinking it over," the Hatter purred. "How delightful. I do love a mind that works before it breaks."

"Fuck. You." Miles spat blood onto the pristine tablecloth.

The Hatter chuckled, but his chuckle trembled ever so slightly.

"Oh, I knew you’d say that. I knew you’d say something, although I told you not to... But you’re missing the bigger picture, dear boy." He lifted the delicate white teapot – still floating, still pouring its endless black liquid – and tipped it slightly, watching as the ink-like substance sloshed over the edges.

The liquid hit the table, but instead of spreading, it sank into the wood like blood into thirsty soil.

Miles’ gut clenched.

He was not just talking about a deal. The Hatter-Miles was weaving it.

"You do know," the Hatter continued, his voice silken, "that you can’t keep fighting me forever. You’re strong, yes, so much stronger than I thought, and I’m glad you are. I really am... But you’re burning. I can feel you burning. Even now, your body is struggling to hold me back, and oh... Wouldn’t it be so much easier to just..." He made a flicking motion with his wrist.

"... Let go?"

A pulse of something dark rippled through the air, and suddenly, the chains pulled tighter. Miles choked back a scream as the iron dug deeper into his shoulders, his wrists, his ribs.

’He’s testing me.’ Even Miles’ thoughts were choked against the Hatter-Miles’ power.

The realization struck hard, though. He was pushing, pressing, just to see how far he could go before Miles snapped.

Miles gritted his teeth, his head pounding. But something deep inside him felt different, like an ember being blown over. Even though just enough to shine a light again.

"You want something," he forced out. "You wouldn’t be offering a deal if you didn’t."

The Hatter’s grin widened.

"Now we’re talking."

With a flick of his fingers, the chains around Miles’ throat slackened, just enough for him to breathe properly again.

"Tell me, boy," the Hatter said, tilting his head. "You already know the system locked me away. But now, do you even know why I brought you to The Horizon?"

Everything changed, and the pain became just part of the background once again. Just white noise.

"You... Brought me here?"

The Hatter gestured grandly to the twisted Wonderland around them.

"This place wasn’t just a prison, dear Miles." He leaned closer, his stitched grin inches from Miles’ face. "It was a battlefield, a part of a world far vaster than you can comprehend now..."

Miles’ heart slammed against his ribs, and the Hatter-Miles chuckled at his reaction.

"Oh, my dear boy, you thought the system trapped me? That I was some poor, unfortunate soul caught in its web?" He let out a breathy, delighted laugh. "No, no, no. The system didn’t just lock me away." His silverware clattered as he grinned.

"It tore a piece of my home-world away after it fought me."

Miles’ blood turned to ice.

The Hatter leaned back, sighing dramatically.

"Oh, those days were so much fun. The system tried so very hard to erase me. To fix me. It sent its little pieces after me, its rules, its laws... But you see..." He tapped a gloved finger against his temple. "I was already part of the story before the game ever began. And you can’t rewrite something that existed before the page was ever turned."

His words sent a violent shiver through Miles’ entire being. The Hatter was not just some anomaly, no.

He was not just a bug in the code.

He was something older. Something the system had to fight against for... What for?

"So, what do you want?" Miles swallowed hard.

The Hatter’s smile sharpened.

"What do I want?" he echoed, dragging the words out. "Ah, Miles, my dear Miles... The real question is... What do you want?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Miles scowled.

The Hatter-Miles spread his arms wide, the chains rattling around him.

"You want to survive, to clear the game, to find out what comes next, to figure out a way to rewind time back to those days of old, when you still had mommy and daddy to blame for your own mistakes, don’t you?" His voice dipped lower. "You want to win. And yet, here you are, running on fumes, barely holding me back. You think you’re resisting me? HA!" He let out a soft, pitying laugh.

"You’re drowning, dear boy. And you’re running out of air."

The weight of his words settled over Miles like a lead coffin.

The worst part? He was not wrong.

When he used the Hatter’s abilities, when he called upon the cloak, the hat, he could feel it. The strain. The hunger.

He had let the idea fade away in the beginning, but now... Now it was more of a truth than anything else he had ever faced in The Glitch, even though it had been only a few months.

Like something inside him was waiting. Growing.

And if he kept resisting forever... He would eventually break.

"...You want me to stop fighting you." Miles said, his voice quieter now.

The Hatter’s grin stretched impossibly wide as the Hatter-Miles took off the mask, revealing a grotesque version of Miles’ own face. One that even though he could discern the features of, he did not want to.

It was too much for his brain to handle.

"Not quite." The Hatter-Miles tapped his temple again. "I just want you to listen."

The chains twitched.

"I want you to understand."

"And if I refuse?" Miles gritted his teeth.

The Hatter chuckled.

"Oh, my dear boy." He snapped his fingers, and the chains ripped him apart.

Miles screamed.

The world exploded into light, darkness, into raw, writhing agony. His skin tore, his muscles pulled apart, his bones snapped one by one. He was unraveling, breaking, being unmade from the inside out.

The Hatter-Miles’ voice hummed through the torment, lilting, singing.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star..."

Miles thrashed, his voice raw, his mind cracking at the edges.

"How I wonder... what you are."

The world folded around him, and just as his mind snapped, just as he was about to lose himself entirely... Everything stopped.

The pain vanished, the darkness fell away.

Miles gasped, his body whole again, his breath ragged, his mind barely holding together. He was back at the tea table, covered in cold sweat and gasping for air.

The Hatter-Miles was still seated, watching him with eerie, unreadable eyes. And then, he spoke.

"Now..." The grin disappeared, for the first time. "Let’s talk about that deal."