Hatter's Heart - Erin Bedford Page 0,17

pockets. "I know I be havin' it somewhere. Ah, there it be!" He pulled a shiny key from his pocket and walked up to one of the walls surrounding us. Red furry moss covered the wall and eyeballs buried into them stared at us in wonder.

Mop tickled one section of the wall and a hole appeared. He inserted the key into the hole and turned it. The wall gave way to an opening, dark and not at all suspicious.

Shoving the key back into his pocket, Mop walked into the room with his head high. I didn’t like how unworried he was about all this. Trip apparently felt the same way because he hopped in after Mop like we were going on holiday or something.

I glanced around the area one more time before taking a deep breath and walking into the opening. The ground which had been hard and solid sunk beneath my feet almost making me lose my balance as I became adjusted to the strange consistency.

"Ugh." I groaned, pulling my hand away from the wall I had grabbed for balance. From top to bottom it looked like we'd walked into someone's mouth and it was just one giant tongue. Pink and red colored muscle lined the walls and floor, strange vein-like pieces rippled as we stepped. My stomach rolled and I tried my best to keep the bile down. It would not do to throw up in someone else's body. Certainly not one that might eat me at any moment.

"It not be that bad, lass." Mop glanced over his shoulder with a condescending tone. "Ye live with Hatter and I be knowin' him longer than ye. He be doin’ a lot stranger things than this, eh?"

I plugged my nose at the pungent smell coming up on us and mumbled through my closed lips, "Not like this."

Now it was Mop whose nose curled up with disgust. He froze in his tracks and peered deeply ahead to the other side of the room. Whatever it was he saw had not been good because he broke out in a run. Or what he called a run, he was more of a toddler with his short legs and pudgy body.

Trip and I hurried after him, the stench became worse the further we went. Finally, we stopped before a gaping hole in the wall. Here, the muscle had turned grey like meat that was on the turn. Little flies buzzed around what had once been the great Teeth.

"I have never met Teeth, but I do not believe he is supposed to look like that." I pointed at the slits that were not much more than gaping holes instead of eyes. The sharpened points of the larger hole were not so menacing as it might have been had Teeth been alive and well with a good size chunk missing from here and there.

"No. No. No." Mop shook his head back and forth, his hands on his face. "This ain't right at all. I just saw 'em the day before last. He be fine then!"

I stepped closer to the greyed muscle and even went so far as to poke at the side of what I thought might be his face. Nothing. No flicker of life. No anything.

"What could have done this?" I wondered aloud, quickly stepping back from the creature. "And why is it only on this side of his body and not the rest of the room."

"It's the sickness, it is!" Trip grabbed his ears and pulled them over his head with a whine.

"Knock it off!" Mop glared at Trip. "Ye be overreactin'"

"The sickness?" I arched a brow and cocked my head to the side. "I have never heard of such a thing here."

"That be 'cause there ain't no such thing." Mop shot another warning look at the quaking Trip. "Not in a long time in any case." Shifting around, he pulled his hat off his head and closed his eyes.

I waited for him to finish paying his respects before asking, "Then how do you know it is not what is causing this?" I gestured to the grey wall, covering my mouth and nose when I took too big of an inhale.

"I donna know." Mop shoved his hat back onto his head and narrowed his gaze. "But speakin' it into existence wonna do us any good willa it?" Not waiting for my answer, Mop cautiously stepped up to Teeth's gaping mouth and then tiptoed over the entrance. When he was on the other side, he