I land softly on my feet. Wow, this must be what it all looked like when it was brand new. This old Victorian house overrun with weeds, vines and boards missing was now clean with crisp new paint. The shrubbery all neatly cut into hearts, diamonds, clubs and clovers; big purple flowers surrounded them like an ocean. Houdini was sitting on a very detailed pattern of what looked like lightening fractals on a runner that was now glowing doing the table. Is he wearing strap on angel wings? I look to my left and Hatter was dressed in all black with an elegant cape and we are holding hands again; he almost looks...happy? What happened to the tattoos?
What I can only imagine how being struck by lightning would feel like; I get hit with a sharp pain throughout my body and land on my side. Houdini is in my face within seconds, sniffing and lifting my arm with his head and forcing me to pet him. I slowly sit up and hold Houdini, just taking a few stabilizing breaths. Looking around, everything is back to how it was; a home that had stood way past its prime. Houdini licks me and I realize the tattoo is back on my arm.
"What was it?" Hatter is off muttering and responding to himself, pacing back and forth in the air as he descends slowly to the ground. "Can't you be useful for once?" He put his hands on his hips in a disapproving manner as he looked down at the ground. "Not you," he looked a few feet over by the dry shrubbery roots that remained. Houdini started digging at my arms, so I gently lowered him down to the ground facing away from Hatter's nonsense. Houdini in typical fashion did what he wanted anyway and ran towards Hatter's feet, I ran up to try and stop him, but Hatter put up his hand to stop me. "Seems fragments do recognize each other," he snaps his fingers and a small brown rabbit appeared, about half the size of Houdini. "Fine, but you know the rules." Houds starts to binky real high and is terribly excited.
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"What did you just do?" I asked bewildered. How could this be...is that... Frankie? I rush over and drop to my knees, "Baby Frankie, is that you?" She ran to me, sniffed the air, ran behind me and started to chew on my shoes. I laugh, "Only you would be obsessed over getting to my toes to chew on, huh?" I twist around and pick her up by the belly, something only she would allow me to do. I cuddled her tightly against my chest. "How is this possible? Wait, did you call her useless?!" She was my first ever animal friend, the one who made me realize I'm not a cat or a dog person- I'm a rabbit person. I angrily look at Hatter who turns out had already been staring at me. The glitching around his face paused only for a moment, revealing a tender look. This time not at me, but at Frankie.
"Never! She's been my best girl for quite some time now. Though sometimes it feels like forever depending on which of us you ask. Ha!” His head had shifted through many hats very quickly, like multiple people were in on a joke that I knew nothing of. She was precious to exclusively me in my lifetime; why did she not seem afraid of him? Houdini still seemed, leery? I set Frankie down after a few kisses from her; she jumped to Houdini and the two of them just cuddling into each other's fur.
"Well you know what they say- Burning paper turns into lace!" Hatter laughed with his whole body as he headed into the house.
