Matilda Hatter's POV

Numb was one way to describe how Matilda felt. She didn't get much sleep after her friends hauled her back up to her bedroom. Her heart felt hollowed out, her only sister was gone. Just like that. Now sitting on the rooftop of Ever After High, she only felt more lonely. So many people—students who didn't even know her or used to criticize her for being so "madheaded"—had come forward and given their condolences. I used to love Claudia so much, one told her. Or I'll miss her so much, we were practically best friends said by another.

Liars. They were all snakes who seeked attention, they hadn't known Claudia at all.

"Tilly?" Alex Lidell's voice came from behind her. The rest of Matilda's Wonderland friends were on the rooftop with him; they had all agreed to come to their hangout spot to debrief on Claudia's death. "I'm sorry, Honey isn't budging."

"It's okay, it's not like I expected for Cressida Lockes out of all people to take it down anyways." Tilly hugged her knees, staring out in the distance. Below her was the Forever Bridge, the same place where her sister had drowned. "More articles are going to come anyways, you know?" She refused to meet Adelaide's eye as everyone sat down.

Adelaide was right about Claudia, the girl always there to correct Matilda's wrongs somehow. Infuriating, but also defeating. "So, how do we start?" Matilda asked her friends, an uncomfortable feeling pooling inside her stomach. This was already starting to feel like too much. Closing her eyes, she could practically see Claudia in that moment. Head underwater, her skin pale, her body sinking to the bottom of the river.

So unalive, so horrifying.

"I can't believe she just committed like that," Bianca White said, uneasy. She wrung her hands as she sighed. "I mean, we're the ones to blame, right? We hadn't seen the signs."

"What signs?" Cadien Cheshire protested, throwing up his hands in the air.

"Well, a sign of suicide is a drastic change in appearance. Didn't Claudia cut her hair to her shoulders?" Claudia had long hair to her waist all her life, until a few weeks ago when she had a huge haircut. But Matilda hadn't concerned herself with it, it was Claudia's hair and life after all, plus her sister was spontaneous like that. Have I been that self-absorbed that I hadn't noticed these signs?

Adelaide spoke up. "Lately, I've noticed that she's been sleeping less and less in our dorm. She likes going out on nights, coming back at ungodly hours. Plus, I hear her whimpering at night, I think she was having nightmares." Nightmares? "And, well... something strange occurred two days ago."

Normandy Caterpillar's brows flew up. "Strange?"

"Well, more strange than her regular madness." Adelaide's frown deepened. "It was midnight and Claudia just woke up and went berserk. She started screaming and... and she threw our things around the room. Then she collapsed onto the floor and started wailing. I tried my best to comfort her, but..."

"You suck ass at comforting?" Cadien ventured.

Adelaide glared at him. "Not helpful, but yes."

"So Claudia just went, well, mad?" Matilda asked. Although Claudia was the next Mad Hatter, she would never do anything life-threatening, especially not around one of her best friends. She had limits too, despite her "insanity," and Claudia had an episode like that.

"It's not like her to get so angry though," Alex told Adelaide.

"I know, but she was more hysterical than rageful. I managed to coax her back to bed, but it was unsettling." Adelaide exhaled a sharp breath. "What I say next might sound insensitive, but I don't think Claudia killed herself."

The silence was all too loud.

Matilda was the first to speak up. "I... We had a fight a week ago, Claudia wanted to go back to Wonderland," she said quietly. They had yelled and bickered, calling each other horrible names. They had arguments before, but nothing like this. "I saw the fear in her eyes; it was real. God, Claudia was terrified. She said that Book End wasn't safe anymore and she wanted to take me away." She let out a hollow laugh. "I told her to go away, I said I didn't want to leave Ever After High without my friends."

"And then...?" Bianca asked hesitantly.

Now, Matilda felt a bit ashamed, guilt flooding back to her. "I avoided her for the next week." She unlocked her phone, showing her friends the string of unanswered calls from her sister. What if she was trying to call me to ask for help? What if she was calling because she was in danger? What if I could have stopped her death? She pocketed her phone, shaking her head. "Something was wrong with Claudia, she just suddenly wanted to go back to Wonderland."

"And why did she deem the Village of Book End dangerous?" Jace Kane said, wistfully thinking. It wasn't out of place that Claudia had some mild dislike for Book End as so many people treated her differently—considering that she was the next Mad Hatter—but to want to leave out of the blue?

Something more sinister was at hand.

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Bianca White's POV

"Good Godmothers, go easy on the place, will you?" Adelaide snapped once everyone started to rummage through their dorm. The police had come last night and looked around, but they didn't know Claudia like they did. The cops would be sure to have missed something. It was a bit awkward to look through their dead friend's things, but there was no other way to know what was going on with her.

Bianca was sifting through Claudia's wardrobe when her phone buzzed. She checked her SpellChat, smiling a bit at the screen when she saw who messaged her.

TW (@the_weaver): Need answers for the upcoming Chemythstry exam?

BW: Are you a hacker or something? Yk what, nvm, don't answer that.

TW: So do you need them or not...?

BW: No, cheating's dishonourable.

TW: Ur so boring.

*@the_weaver sent a document in the chat*

TW: Thank me when you get an A+.

Suddenly, Cadien Chesire popped up from behind her. Bianca flinched and immediately hid her phone as if she was caught doing something wrong. Nothing is wrong with messaging someone you know, she thought. Well, kind of know. She cleared her throat, pocketing her MirrorPhone. "Need something?" God, she had forgotten that Cadien could disappear and be invisible whenever he wanted, that made privacy a scarce thing.

"Who are you texting?" he asked, a mischievous grin growing. Bianca rolled her eyes and pushed past Cadien. Look, Bianca obviously knew the dangers of the internet and online safety, she had met someone a few weeks ago. A wrong number at first, but Weaver—for some reason, he wouldn't tell her his name, which did ring some alarm bells—had grown closer with her. Friends, even.

There was nothing wrong with talking anonymously, right?

"Found something!" Hailee-Diane said, holding up a tiny journal that she found under a floorboard. "God, Claudia must be the mastermind of hiding spots." As everyone gathered and surrounded Hadie, she flipped through the pages. Oh my Grimm...

There were thousands of scraggy-drawn, disturbing sketches in her diary. Acts of violence were spread on each page, overlapping each other. Words in messy handwriting were also there, it was awful.

"What the hex...?" Tilly whispered, horrified. "My sister... No, Claudia isn't..." She turned around, almost too disgusted by the horrific drawings to see them. Bianca soothingly patted her back to comfort her. To be frank, she was revolted by the countless violent drawings in Claudia's diary.

"Shit, shit," Adelaide muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "This only proves the theory provided by Grimm and the police that we're trying to oppose. By the looks of it, Claudia was..." She sighed, shaking her head. "Mad."

"She's the Mad Hatter," Alex reminded her before a defeated look came upon him. "Or, well, used to be anyways."

"Yes, Claudia was mad, but this diary proves otherwise. She wasn't just the Mad Hatter, she was mentally ill. Clearly, these drawings are works of her delusions," Adelaide said, gently taking the diary from Hadie's hands as if the object was glass. She thumbed through the pages, an unflinching expression plastered on her face as she glanced at each monstrosity.

"So was she delusional?" Bea asked with uncertainty.

"My sister isn't delusional!" Tilly cried out, eager to defend her elder sister. "I mean, she was, but in the Wonderlandian way! In a good way! Claudia wasn't... she wasn't... whatever that is!"

"Hold on." Adelaide's voice caught in her throat. She flipped the diary to face us and on the last page of the journal was a poorly drawn sketch of Claudia herself. Except, she was drowning; she was underwater and her legs were drawn in a motion to show signs of struggle. "This can't be possible. Look, the page's date was marked March 21st."

"Three days before Claudia died under the Forever Bridge," Bianca gasped, her eyes wide with terror. As the others murmured about theories, Bianca tried to steady herself. That was impossible; how could Claudia draw her death before it occurred? "Maybe she marked the date wrong."

"It can't be a coincidence though," Cadien said with urgency, peering over Adelaide's shoulder to see the drawing better. He pointed to the corner of the page, narrowing his catlike eyes. "Wait, look, Claudia wrote something, just barely legible."

Adelaide read aloud, "'I see the Companion in my dreams, and it makes me want to cry. I don't see them with care anymore, but with a burning passion of fear. I don't know if I can trust them, but I love them. I can't trust myself, oh God, I can't. The Companion's watchful eyes trace my skin until it feels like they're poking bullets into my body now. They drown me, they watch me, they kill me. I want to scream so badly—and cry for my friends and family—but I can't.'" She had to stop, clearing her throat. Everyone watches her in anticipation, all misty-eyed, as Adelaide continued, "'I know, I'm paranoid, I know. But I can't separate madness and reality anymore. Because when I wake up, alas, I know I am one with the Companion.' That's it, that's all she wrote."

"D-Did she just describe, or rather predict, her own death?" Bianca whispered, terrified.

"Seems like it. She describes that everything feels like a dream, so that would explain the nightmares and violent, panicky episodes she has," Adelaide replied before her brows furrowed. "But who the hell is the Companion?"

Alex's eyes lit up. "You know how Claudia is super passionate about Old Riddlish Literature? Back in the day, they wouldn't use names or pronouns, hence why the Companion is nameless and only referred to as 'they/them.'" Alex listened to Claudia's rambles about Old Riddlish often, maybe too often.

"But..." Ruby's eyes glazed over the page. "Clearly, Claudia was in distress."

"Because of the Companion, whoever they are," Bianca finished. She and Ruby weren't exactly on the best terms even if they were cousins, they were complicated. Bianca didn't even know when the hatred started, she just knew that it was what their mothers expected of them. "So what does that mean?"

"That means we've got a murder on our hands."

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The Weaver's POV

I picked up on the phone after a few rings, finally deciding it was better to entertain than to ignore her calls. "Hello?" I asked lazily, leaning back on my armchair. Almost instantly, the caller blurted out:

"Claudia Hatter."

"Good evening to you too, Adelaide."

"Tell me you didn't have to do anything with it." It wasn't a request, it was a demand. Adelaide always wanted to get straight to the point, she never wanted to have fun with anything. It wouldn't kill her to be more playful and less uptight. Yet, she sounded far more distressed than the last time she called me. "Promise me."

"I swear on my life that I didn't have anything to do with Claudia Hatter's suicide," I replied boredly, inspecting my calloused fingernails. Still, my jaw tensed as I said 'suicide.' Perhaps there was something amiss and suspicious with her death, but it wasn't my affair to deal with.

"Don't lie to me."

I grinned, I couldn't help it. "Why would I ever lie?"

"Because you're the Weaver, isn't that the whole point?" Adelaide Hearts was unfortunately the first person to discover my true identity, much to my dismay. I was supposed to have the upper hand, not her, but we did come to an agreement.

If I went down, so did she.

"I didn't do it. Whatever you're thinking of, I didn't."

There was prolonged silence on the other end of the phone. I could imagine her now; sitting on her bed, her eyebrows deepened in thought. Adelaide could be predictable, other times, not so much. "Fine." She didn't sound very happy with the answer she received. "If you hear anything about Claudia, report back to me." Again, not a request, but a demand. That's how they worked well together—everything was strictly professional and transactional.

Well, almost everything.

I shifted the phone to the other ear. "Done. Though, I suspect you didn't just call me for this."

"I know you've been talking to Bianca, I thought I told you to leave her alone."

I barked out in laughter. "Jealous?"

"As if, your tacky and rather frequent love life is none of my concern. My only concern is that you're getting too personal with my friends. I told you to stay away from them, they don't need to know anything." Ah, and there she was! Adelaide Hearts, always trying to play the hero card. Please, I knew that Adelaide was just as possessive and tsundere as I was.

"Trying to save your own skin?"

"No. Trying to save them from your chaos."

"Name one time I was 'chaotic,' you little liar."

"You're always so fucking reckless with everyone else's hearts." Then Adelaide hung up, leaving me in the silence of my own dorm. I pocketed my phone, feeling a sense of anger and guilt hanging in the air. It wasn't my fault that Adelaide was power-hungry—okay, that's another lie, I may have also influenced that—and was constantly secretive from her friends. She dug her own grave, didn't she?

Still, I felt a bit of remorse for her, and then I opened up my laptop. "Time to get to work," I muttered, my fingers flying across the keyboard. Adelaide was still my friend, I needed to help her. Okay, so friend isn't the best word to describe our relationship. Ally? Co-worker? Then the word clicked.

Companion.

A/N: *Gasps* Wait, Adelaide knows the Weaver? Wow, it's not like some sort of complicated relationship or plot armour is going to occur... Make your theories about who's the killer, I love reading all of your comments at the end of each day haha <3