Chapter 86 (1/2)
Chapter 86: Chapter 9 Ye SoYoon-1
”Chester.”
Peter stopped walking and called out the raggedly dressed man's name. He greeted him in a bright voice as if he was a friend. The man, Chester, threw the corpse he was holding in front of Peter and gave him a crooked smile.
”I knew this would happen. Peter, there's always something about you that isn't quite up to par.”
The afternoon sun revealed the face of the corpse. His eyes were rolled up, but Peter knew this person. Peter's face stiffened like a statue.
”Was I already being followed?”
”No.”
Chester definitively negated Peter's question as he looked at Alice. It looked as if he had not washed his dirty blond hair for several days, and she could see his gray eyes under the bandages stare sharply at her. Alice got the sudden feeling that she had met him somewhere before.
”You're not the one being followed. She is.”
”What?”
Like a fog lifting away from her memories, she hazily remembered something from what Chester said.
Chester pulled out a flip phone from his jacket pocket. After pressing the numbers on the keypad, he shoved the phone toward Alice. His fingers were dirty with blood, and Alice stepped away in disgust, but Chester didn't pay attention to her.
After a few seconds of silence, several audio files started to play.
”We are currently at Central. Nothing major has happened.”
”She is healing a girl. It is a girl who had hurt her leg.”
”We are currently heading toward the house from Central.”
”She is healing a man. He has an illness. He looks to have come to her after hearing the rumors.”
”As long as nothing major happens, we will arrive at the house in twenty minutes.”
”I understand. If Alice pulls anything strange as we return, I will capture her.”
The audio files ended there. After standing numb for a while, Alice came to her senses and glared at Chester. But all he did was shrug.
”You may not want to believe it, but if you continue to go this way, you will get captured and potentially killed. I don't care if that happens, but...if you really can't believe it, you can try calling Heart.”
Alice hesitantly glanced at him and pulled out her smartphone from her clutch bag. Peter paced anxiously and tried to stop her as he glanced at his surroundings, but Chester pulled Peter away.
”Don't stop her, Peter. This girl needs to be aware of the reality of the situation.”
Peter could not take his eyes off of Alice, who pressed the home button on her phone. Alice ignored the pleading face that she could see by the light of her phone and swept her finger across the home screen to unlock it.
Then, they heard a low whimper near the men. She turned up her head reflexively and saw a knife sticking out of Peter's chest. Her eyes met with Chester's. Chester was smiling back at her joyfully.
Alice turned her body and started to run. But she was caught after only a few steps.
”Let go! Ahh! Help…! Oops!”
”I can finally greet you properly. Hello, Alice. It's been a long time since we've seen each other, hasn't it?”
She gagged. Alice looked up, trembling, at Chester.
He hummed and swept back his hair with the free hand that was not blocking her mouth. His hand, which was drenched in Peter's blood, was able to slick back neatly his thick blond hair and hold it in place. The homeless facade he had earlier was stripped away as he revealed his handsome profile and cold gray eyes.
”You still can't tell who I am, even if I do this? Or should I put on a pair of glasses?”
Swept back and matted with dirt and blood, his hair was light blond as it shimmered upon catching the light. Then there were his gray eyes and the glasses. Alice combined the three elements and came up with only one person who would fit that profile. Her eyes grew wide.
”You' re—you're not...Cheshire…?”
”Correct.”
Alice's legs gave way as she felt like a hammer had hit her over the head. Cheshire bent down and leaned into her, smiling widely.
”It's okay, Alice. I'm not here to hurt you. You and I have something in common that we both want.”
”Why—why now…?”
In the second half of the book ”Wonderland,” Cheshire kidnapped Alice and tied her to the sign at Wonderland's entrance. A lot of time was left before that was supposed to happen, however, and this was not how the kidnapping should have gone in the first place. Plus, the story always depicted him in a suit, and never in the original story did he show up in this sort of attire.