A bright and strangely luminous smile appeared beside me before I could become too despaired.

“I think you might need help, maybe? After all, I’m still with you, don’t worry.”

I sighed in relief.

“Zhou Mi…”

“What can I do to help you get out of here? But let’s not talk too loud so nobody else will hear.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know! That King… he really thinks I’m the Mad Hatter, right?”

“He is right that you are his arch enemy, but I’m surprised he discovered it so quickly.”

“What… what do you mean?”

“Don’t you know, you newcomer? Of course you are the Mad Hatter.”

“I am?! But… but…”

“I guess it’s pretty normal that you don’t remember, after all you’re still the newcomer! This cell is huge and many secrets are in it, just come with me, we’ll visit.”

I followed the cat who had appeared with his smile, and he took me to the back of the cell. His paw pressed one of the red bricks, and a part of the wall disappeared. He went through the hole and I followed until we reached a huge circular room with candles everywhere. In the middle of the room, there was a big box. A coffin. The cat’s smile was a bit sad now.

“Did you know, newcomer? Here rests in peace the Mad Hatter.”

He floated to the coffin, and slowly opened it. I thought there would be a skeleton, or at least a body slowly rotting, but no. There was a body, still intact. A man. A tall man, with dark brown hair, an old hat that would hide one of his closed eyes, his gloved hands with long fingers joined on his torso. His mouth was heart-shaped, and we could almost see a mysterious smile on his lips. But the thing that was the most impressing was that he looked exactly like me, except that he looked ten years older than me.

“He… is he… the Mad Hatter?”

“Here rests in peace the Mad Hatter, and the reason for the King’s anger.”

“He… he looks like me.”

“Didn’t the King tell you so? I thought you would already know.”

“Would it be possible? That I really am the Mad Hatter. This kind of stuff.”

“In Wonderland, possible it would be. Moreover, you come from another country.”

I stayed silent for a while, before reaching out to touch the delicate skin of the Mad Hatter. I almost feared that he would wake up and glare at me, but his skin was cold, freezing. Somehow, I felt something in me breaking, and tears started flowing on my cheeks.

“Ryeowookie…”

A voice - was it his, or mine? - resounded in the room. I fell on my knees as memories suddenly unlocked in my mind. Memories from the Mad Hatter, memories from the Hatter, memories from the Cat, from the Twins, from the Hare, from the Rabbit, the Knave and the King. Memories from everyone flowed through my mind, and I could only watch as part of the history of Wonderland was revealed to me.

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So this is a short chapter and all the next ones are going to be short, but that's because, you surely understood that, I'll write each character's past ~ Hope you're looking forward to it =) I'll try to write more tonight, because tomorrow I'm not home, so I won't write xD ^^