Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 67: Ch65. Back and forth

Chapter 67: Ch65. Back and forth

Sarissa sat in silence, her fingers pressed lightly against the table, her mind still reeling from everything Cheshire had just told her. The weight of his words settled in her chest like a stone, cold and unmoving. She had expected cryptic nonsense from him, riddles wrapped in half-truths, but what she had received instead was something far more unsettling.

It was truth, brutal and raw like only her regressions had shown her.

She exhaled sharply, pushing back the sudden wave of frustration that threatened to rise within her. She had spent too long in this room, trying to keep herself one step ahead of everyone else through her memories. And now, out of nowhere, this damnable cat had purred his way into her domain, dropping bombshells that she wasn’t sure she was ready to process.

Her fingers twitched against the table as she finally spoke.

"You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?" Her voice was calm and measured, but there was an edge to it. Something sharp, mysterious.

Cheshire, still lounging effortlessly on the table’s edge, looked at her seriously this time, his grin curling downward.

"Oh, but not this time, my dear... I can’t deny that it’s not often I get to watch someone’s entire worldview shift before my very eyes, but... Something tells me that, although you’re quite shaken by what I said, you’re more used to the unusual than most."

"And yet, despite all this... you still haven’t answered my most important question." Sarissa’s jaw tightened.

"Oh?" Cheshire feigned curiosity, flicking his tail lazily. "And which question would that be?"

"What do you really know about me, and what is this [Wonderland’s Treasure] thing that I never get to understand, no matter how much I think about it?"

Cheshire looked at her dead in the eye, his own eyes gleaming as the sun drifted nearer the horizon, something shifting behind his eyes that made a shiver run down Sarissa’s spine.

"It’s not something that I can explain with words that you will easily accept." Cheshire got up and stretched, cutting Sarissa’s words before she even began to rebuke. "However, I can show you... If you allow me to do so."

She lingered for a moment, her breath caught in her throat, pushing back the words she was trying to say before the cat interrupted her.

"How?" She sneered.

"I need you to say yes or no, first." Cheshire’s grin returned. "Do you allow me to show you?"

"What’s the catch?" Sarissa’s eyes narrowed.

"Why do you people always think there’s a catch?" Cheshire sat on his rear legs and looked at his claws as if pretending to be nonchalantly offended. "First, it was Miles. And now you? Do I really look like a trickster?" Sarissa opened her mouth to retort. "Don’t answer, my dear, please..."

For the first time in gods knew how long, Sarissa let out a laugh. A sincere one that caught even her by surprise.

"I’m sorry." She covered her mouth with one hand. "It’s just that... Never mind." Her expression became grim as the memories of before The Glitch permeated her mind. A cozy movie night with her family, watching rubbish comedy, drinking soda, and eating pizza.

All gone to waste because of this damn game.

"Yeah... Never mind." She reiterated her impenetrable mask of arrogant indifference back over her face in its full glory. "You were saying?"

"Well..." Cheshire let out a sigh, jumping to the floor and slowly walking toward Sarissa’s legs, against which he rubbed his side, making Sarissa flinch ever so slightly, raising an eyebrow after noticing that the cat actually meant no harm. "Whatever happened, I’m afraid I must tell you that it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. If there is even a chance of such a thing happening. But anyway, it’s like a contract. A deal, just like the one I made with Miles."

"A... Deal?" Sarissa’s brow went even higher.

"Yes." Cheshire purred nonstop. "I asked him to bring me here, because I needed to find you... I mean, I didn’t know it was you until I saw you, but I had to find you." He paused for a moment, sitting back and looking up at Sarissa. "It was her... Alice’s final wish."

Sarissa’s eyes widened ever so slightly as she looked out the window. Night was already falling, and her stomach was growling, signaling that it had been a while since she last ate, but...

Was food really important, now that she felt like she was so close to finally acquiring some information about her Attribute?

Sarissa let out a deep sigh, summoning a few silvery wraps from her inventory.

"Alice’s final wish?" She said while tearing one of the wraps, unveiling three reasonably large crackers softly colored in a brownish hue. "Are you saying that she’s dead?"

Sarissa was still looking at the window, observing the sun get closer and closer to the horizon, giving way to one more night. So much so that she only noticed the strange silence a few seconds later.

Looking down with her brows furrowed, she saw Cheshire looking at her hands, his eyes fully black, as though his narrow pupils had become to deep pits of absolute darkness.

"Wha-" She looked at her own hands and, seeing the crackers from the [Novice’s Ration Pack], her eyes widened slightly, the corner of her lips curling upwards without her even noticing.

The flick of an idea sprouted in her mind like the smirk on a playful child’s face, and she moved her hand to the left.

Cheshire’s eyes followed as soon as she began moving. Then, she moved it more slowly, to the right, and Cheshire followed her movement with the same speed as hers.

’Don’t tell me...’ Her lips curled up even more. "Do you want some?"

Was it her mind playing tricks on her, or did she just see a little bit of drool on the corner of Cheshire’s lips, as the cat’s eyes became even blacker, his pupils dilating even more, as if it was even possible.

She took a cracker out of the wrap, and slowly reached it to Cheshire.

Opening its maw, full of razor-sharp teeth, the cat practically inhaled the cracker, munching on it as if it was a piece of heaven itself.

"How come you like it this much...?" She asked, baffled.

"It’s the best flavor in the world!" Cheshire spoke through the crunching sound. "I didn’t imagine you’d like the liver-flavored ones..."

"What?" Sarissa mumbled, munching on one more cracker. "It’s nutritious, despite its size."

Cheshire chuckled, and after Sarissa threw one more cracker down on his mouth, she spoke.

"Yes..." She hesitated a little bit. "I’ll allow you to show me whatever it is that I can’t understand with words."

Cheshire’s pupils narrowed immediately after hearing the girl’s words, as if he had not been almost hypnotized by the crackers just a second ago.

"Well, well... Buckle your seatbelts then, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye..." He suddenly became a storm of bright blue sparks, and disappeared in front of Sarissa’s wide eyes, as she raised her sword, striking nothing but thin air.

"Wha-" Before she finished her question, though, she felt it. And as soon as she felt it, the system echoed in her head.

[You have received an artifact: Cheshire’s Gleam]