“Of course,” his eyes are glimmering with some sort of mocking victory. “Your family, Alice. They’re the reason why you became who you are after the Circus.”
He doesn’t stop laughing. As if my pain, and his amusement, gave him means to live again. “It turns out I really never lose a game of chess,” he says. “Because I will die without telling about them. I will take it to my grave, and I will always be the Chessmaster who never loses.”
In spite of me holding onto him, wanting to squeeze out answers, the soul inside him departs his body. It’s like he’s been waiting for this last moment to declare his winning, and leave me hopeless, helpless, and lost without knowing about my real family.
Chapter 79
Lifespan Hospice, London
Inspector Dormouse was still intoxicated with The Pillar’s happiness with Alice’s survival. It even seemed like a weak point in the professor’s attitude, enough to encourage Dormouse to attack him. But the Inspector’s out-of-shape body wasn’t going to help.
“Close the door behind you,” The Pillar demanded. “Before everyone wakes up.”
Dormouse couldn’t oppose the notorious monster by the name of Carter Pillar.
“Step in closer,” The Pillar said.
Dormouse did, his mind trying to figure out what was going on. There was this one possibility. A flicker of a thought. A slice of an assumption. A far-fetched idea he didn’t want to think about it. All the way driving from Oxford to London, he’d been thinking about it. He just couldn’t swallow it.
Now, staring right into The Pillar’s face, the idea surfaced. The Pillar wasn’t the most honest of men; his moral code was shabby, and to the police force he was downright a serial killer. But if there was one quality about The Pillar, one which Inspector Dormouse had witnessed over and over again, it was this: The Pillar cared about Alice. He would die for her.
The look on The Pillar’s face simply exposed him. And Dormouse, being a father, knew how precious of a look it was, unconditionally caring about someone.
“Who are you, Professor Pillar?” Dormouse had to ask.
Half of The Pillar’s face shone in the weak yellow under a lamp. The other half loomed behind the dark. He looked like a ghost, one who’d disappear any moment, but leave his scent behind, forever haunting you — in good ways and in bad.
“I will give you the precious chance to leave this office right now,” The Pillar said. “I will never hurt you. All you have to do is go back to your sleepy life and never mention whatever you’ve discovered. Believe me, you don’t want to know the truth.”
Dormouse hesitated.
“Go back to your daughter, Inspector,” The Pillar advised. “I’m not a sentimental man, and will shoot you dead if you dig deeper into things you shouldn’t.”
Inspector Dormouse nodded, turned around, and paced toward the door. What was he really doing here, digging into secrets of Wonderland? He was better off going back home, enjoying a nap among his family members who loved him – and were much saner than the world outside.
Inspector Dormouse even made it so far as to grip the doorknob on his way out. But then the conclusion hit him hard, a revelation so intense and surprising he feared he’d never be able to sleep again.
He turned around and faced The Pillar. “Oh, holy lord of rings,” he said. “I know who you are.”
The Pillar titled his head with pursed lips. He even shook his head in a ‘no’. “Don’t do it, Dormouse. Don’t think too much. It may cost you more than you can handle.”
“Let me rephrase it,” Dormouse insisted, unable to suppress his thoughts. “All of us have been mistaken from the beginning, questioning who you really were.”
The Pillar said nothing.
“We were asking the wrong question,” Inspector Dormouse said. “The right question was who you weren’t. And who you aren’t.”
The Pillar squeezed his eyes shut, and let out a long sigh. He gritted his teeth, his hand tightening on the gun. “Don’t say it, Dormouse. Just leave.”
But Dormouse’s excitement and curiosity took the best of him. “You’re not The Pillar. You have no relation to the monster Carter Chrysalis Cocoon Pillar, whatsoever.”
The Pillar opened his eyes, looking angry, like a hangman sad he had to pull the lever, and pointed the gun at the inspector.
“In the name of Wonderland, Alice, Lewis Carroll, and all the mad people in the world,” Dormouse said. “Who are you?”
“I’m the one who unfortunately needs to put you to sleep – forever,” The Pillar said and shot him dead.
The END…
Alice will return in Family (Insanity 7)
Thank You
Thank you for purchasing and downloading Checkmate. The only book in the series without an epilogue – or two. Reason? I didn’t want to prepare you for the surprises. ‘Oh, now to the epilogue, the big reveal!’ I wanted the big reveals to hit you earlier than expected. I hope it worked.
Checkmate is my proudest Insanity book so far, and that’s because it’s a purely organic book, meaning events happened because characters said so, and because the logical turn of events and circumstances forced the story to go this way. After knowing about her past, Alice needed to prove to herself she can stand up to Black Chess by taking the harshest of decisions, and The Pillar, well, we need to know who the heck he is and what he really wants with her. All those chapters you’ve just read, trust me, I was only a means to writing them but they developed on their own. I really liked that.
However, there had been an epilogue, tying the loose end in the Cheshire’s story after meeting Mr. Jay, but I chopped it out because I didn’t want you to know whom the Cheshire will possess from now, not in this book. It will be explained in Family, the next book in the series. In many ways, Family is a continuity of Checkmate.
All puzzles and landmarks mentioned are real, so are the facts – I’m always happy when I receive emails from readers who’ve visited these places because of the books.
Characters like Mr Paperwhite and Father Williams are Lewis Carroll’s inventions. However, characters like Chopin the Chopper are mine (he just popped up on the screen and wouldn’t let go, and frankly I dared not chop him out of the story, because I feared for my fingers.)
Last but not least, I can’t express how much I enjoy writing this series. I probably enjoy writing it more than any of you enjoy reading it.
Don’t miss the Pinterest page, where you can see all the places and riddles Alice and Pillar visited (I’ve updated it tremendously, so there are whole new places to see.)
You can access it HERE (Pinterest) or HERE (Instagram)
Family (Insanity 7) will be released soon, so please stay tuned to my Facebook Page:
http://Facebook.com/camjace
or
http://cameronjace.com for more information.
If you have a question, please message me on Facebook; I love connecting with all of my readers, because without you, none of this would be possible. http://cameronjace.com
Thank you, for sharing this mad journey with me,
Cam
About the Author
The part that matters:
Cameron Jace is a Storykiller. He kills older stories, resurrects them into larger than life tales weaved within facts & fiction. With a nack for collecting out-of-print books, he is fascinated with both: folklore and those who wrote it. He wonders if it’s possible to track back the first story ever told.