Miscreant

[Narrator]

Later in the evening when the bar was closed and everyone else went home, The Court assembled to discuss the evening and await Bunny's arrival in return to their own home.

But once the group assembled, they would realize one of them was missing.

"Where's Dory?" Caterpillar immediately asked.

[Alice]

Alice was, of course, next to Cheshire. She seldom strayed too far from him when the Court was in assembly.

"Last I saw she was with you, asleep on the bar." She looked to the others for more insight.

[Basil Benson]

"Yea, Peter. I thought you were watching her." Cheshire commented.

"Should we look about?"

[Alice]

"Are we allowed to? Are we supposed to call this in?" She looked to the Caterpillar and the others. "You guys have done this before, what do we do?"

[Narrator]

Caterpillar looked concerned, and began to ponder out how to follow up on this.

"Do a perimeter search. If any of the girls are still hanging around outside and ask them if the saw her. Do not stray more than 100 feet from the building."

[Alice]

"How will we know if we're close to going too far?"

[Narrator]

Caterpillar paused to come up with a solution. "Maybe don't go much beyond the workers." He clarified. "You'll see here if she's within the immediate area. I'll check out back."

[Alice]

Alice nodded. "Right then. Maybe we can get access to the cameras too, see if she left with anybody."

[Narrator]

Knave tilts their head curiously, a crude mouth splitting across their featureless facade. They spoke in the American accent that they seemed to fall into when not affecting another.

"I'll check it." They replied, moving away to go do just that.

[Hatter]

"Knowing her, maybe she just sleepwalked out of range," Hatter said, perhaps disturbingly indifferent to the idea.

[Basil Benson]

Cheshire stared at Hatter for several pregnant moments before turning away.

"Come Ms. Alice. Let's go search outside and talk to the ladies." He finally stated, leading the way outside to see what they could find.

[Narrator]

Caterpillar let Hattie just hang back while the others went to work. Once they were gone however, he spoke up.

"You know Hattie... I adore your complete apathy towards other people's suffering... But have you considered that perhaps that's the reason he chose Alice over you?"

[Hatter]

"Perhaps I just don't care about any of you," she smirked, though it did get under her skin a little as suggested by the slight twitch of an eye.

[Narrator]

Caterpillar shrugged. "While I can certainly understand that sentiment, normal people tend to gauge people's capacity to love by how that person treats others."

[Alice]

Cheshire stared at Hatter for several pregnant moments before turning away.

"Come Ms. Alice. Let's go search outside and talk to the ladies." He finally stated, leading the way outside to see what they could find.

Alice of course went with Cheshire to ask around about Dory, though she couldn't resist speculating with him some.

"Do you think she made a break for it? I was under the impression that she'd been on missions before, so I dunno why she's wait until now."

[Basil Benson]

"Maybe she did, and she just didn't want to anymore." He replied in a whisper. "Do you know how long she'd been doing this?"

[Alice]

Alice shook her head. "I don't think any of them know. If there's no calendars, no holidays, no weekends... how do you keep track? Hell, there's no sun or moon, you can't even tell if you're on a 24 hour clock."

[Basil Benson]

"Attrition can play a factor in mental health. Perhaps she felt she did the only thing within her power." Cheshire paused before adding.

"I can't say I hadn't considered it myself a time or two."

[Alice]

Alice gave Cheshire a bit of side eye. "You're not suggesting that she..." She rubbed her nails back and forth along the length of her wrist.

[Basil Benson]

"Mmmm. " He replied with a vague nod. "It's really the only thing that makes sense to me about why she'd do something she knows is dangerous."

[Alice]

"Well I hope that thought hasn't crossed your mind since you met me." Alice said, sounding a little stern. There was more that she wanted to say, but without the safety of the showers she feared being overheard. But she was trying to make it clear that she didn't like the idea of him doing that now.

[Basil Benson]

"Never you fear, Alice. I made you a promise, and I am a man of my word." It probably wasn't the exact answer Alice was looking for, but it was perhaps better than she would have expected.

"I don't see anything out here, and neither did the workers. Let's see if they saw anything on the cameras. "

[Alice]

Alice snuck her hand into Cheshire's and gave it a firm squeeze. Maybe this was a topic they would discuss later, in private... or maybe it was best to just drop it. Maybe he could tell from the look in her eyes that she wasn't going to give up without a fight, and she wasn't going to let him either.

"Right. Maybe she got into a cab or something. They still have those, right? Anyway the cameras should at least give us an idea of what direction she went, however she went it."

[Basil Benson]

There was something strange in Cheshire's eye as Alice took his hand to hold it. He looked down at her hand a smiled in a way that suggested sadness, but brushed his thumbs across her fingers after he squeeze.

"Yes, I think that's the ticket."

He would allow her to keep his hand if she wanted, and lead her back indoors.

[Narrator]

As Alice and Cheshire returned inside to report nothing outside, the assembled four would hear a crash in the back office.

[Hatter]

Hatter jumped a little in surprise.

"What in the blazes was that?" she asked, cautiously moving to investigate.

[Narrator]

When Hatter went to investigate, she'd find documents strewn about the office from Knave punching a hole into a filing cabinet. They were seething.

"That fuck who kept talking to Alice took her!" They exclaimed from their crude mouth slit. Hatter could feel eyes that weren't there boring a hole into her.

[Hatter]

Hatter put her hands up in a warding gesture, "Don't look at me like that, I was busy doing my own job."

[Narrator]

Knave didn't much seem to care about blame shifting, too upset to really focus on Hatter doing so. They slide in a creepy, boneless fashion past her to run back the feed and show Hatter what they found.

Dormouse steps out first, and bums a cigarette off one of the workers outside the club. The even light it for her. The silent feed shows her then wandering off. After several moments, Will is caught in profile exiting the club. At first it's not even obvious he's following her at all. But then, just when Dory reaches the point where it seems like she may become too far away for the camera to make out.... she passes out. Will runs to her aid. After several pregnant moments, the pair of them slide out of view.

[Alice]

Alice peeked into the room through the doorway, not wanting to go inside while Knave as being... Knave.

"One of the patrons took her? Do you think they slipped something into her drink?"

[Narrator]

"She wasn't drinking. She was holding down the fort, as she does."

[Hatter]

"Could he have taken her to a hospital? Wouldn't be the first mutant to have a savior complex."

[Narrator]

As Caterpillar, Knave and Hatter discussed the issue, the door of light opened up in the office to bring them home. Late, as always.

"Where's the others? It's time to go back."

"We've had an incident. Dory walked, and someone took her corpse."

Bunny didn't seem overly surprised by the statement, though she was quiet for a moment as she mulled on it.

"We don't have time to do anything about it now. She wants us back."

" So what, we're just going to leave her?!"

" She made her decision when she walked. We can't do anything to help her right now."

"Fuck that, I'm going to go find-"

"If you do, you're as good as dead yourself." Bunny interrupted. "Go home Knave. We'll deal with this when we can."

It was clear that Knave was livid. But Bunny was right, and there was no arguing that would fix the situation they were in. Knave's 'mouth' molded back into their smooth featured face, and without another word, Knave stalked through the portal-

Followed by Caterpillar.

Bunny went to lean out of the office door and summon the other two, presuming Hatter wasn't going to give her a fuss too. " Alice? Cheshire? It's time to go."

[Alice]

Alice glanced at Cheshire. If there had been an opportunity that night, it had passed. Better to go back and try again next time. She stepped in through the portal and back into what the others called home.

[Basil Benson]

Cheshire took her by the hand, gave her a reassuring squeeze, and lead her through the door.

Not now, but soon....