YAY! Thank you for your patience; here is the first real chapter. Hope you like it! *that would be a hint to review *

Victim #1: Tara

Tara took a deep breath, enjoying to cool autumn air. She was by a small lake on her school grounds, at a serene place hidden by the countless looming oak trees. Her private school, St. Luke's, was an honorary school for artists, named for the patron saint of artists. St. Luke's had a very beautiful campus. The campus had a large grove of oak trees with trails and paths for the students to enjoy at their leisure. Like many artists at St. Luke's, including Tara, were often inspired when isolated and/or close to nature. Therefore, the campus of St. Luke's had many hidden nooks and crannies hidden in the grove for people like Tara to discover them. Tara had found a few, but the lake was by far her favorite. This was especially so because she was the only student aware of its existence. Something like a lake usually would be a popular spot, but it was so far away from any of the trails, nobody else had stumbled upon it yet.

To accommodate for the artists at the school, St. Luke's had a strange school schedule to allow time for artwork that was not assigned from any class. Being an art school, all of the classes assigned art at least every once in a while for an assignment. Aside from this, there were many full art classes for students to take. This was yet another reason for St, Luke's irregular schedule. That way, students could take as many of the various art classes as they wished. Tara took a quite full advantage of this; she took the classes: advanced sketch, sculpturing fundamentals, advanced painting techniques, and home economics. Yes, cooking is considered an art. However, the class at St. Luke's was more concerned with the art part of it. Tara received extra credit if her creations actually tasted good, though. Luckily for her, she was and expert cook, but many of her friends direly needed the extra credit and couldn't quite get the recipes right. Home Ec also required sewing, a requirement that Tara fulfilled with costume and jersey design for some of St. Luke's companion schools: the St. Genesius School for the performing arts and the St. Sebastian School of Sports. Despite taking for electives, Tara's class schedule allowed for a lot of down time. She often spent this time by the lake, as she was now.

Tara reached into the messenger bag she had brought with her and pulled out a miniature painting canvas. Then she reached in and after digging for awhile, pulled out some paints and paintbrushes. Next, she even took out a fold-up easel from her bag and set it up. Tara's messenger bag was the Mary Poppin's suitcase of art supplies. Finally, Tara dug out a pencil from her pocket and began to sketch lightly on the canvas. She was sketching the oldest oak tree visible from her spot, but did not draw the scene around it. Instead, she gave it a new setting, turned it into something like a picture from a story book.

Tara heard a set of footsteps – two sets of footsteps – but did not turn around. She was too busy drawing.

"Looks like a fun onee-san, right brother?" one voice asked.

"Right. And boss says we've gotta find another onee-san, brother," an identical voice replied.

"Want this one?"

"Definitely. She's also pretty, so boss will like that. He might give us a raise!"

"Really? She looks like a pretty onee-san, but I can't tell.

While Tara wasn't paying attention to any of this, the twins Dee and Dum shrugged behind her as if to say, 'who cares?'. Dee and Dum walked up to Tara.

"That's a pretty picture you're drawing there, onee-san," Dee said.

Tara turned around to face the twins. They both looked around the age of twelve. They had short black hair, one with blue eyes, and another with red. Tara figured they must have been wearing colored contacts to be told apart. The twin with the red eyes wore red clothing; likewise, the twin with blue clothing was dressed in blue. She smiled at them and asked, "Oh, hello – are you here visiting your brother or sister?"

"Nope," Dum told her, grinning.

"We came for you," Dee said.

Without further warning, the twins lifted Tara up onto their shoulders. Turning towards the canvas, the sketch melted away to another picture, one that looked suspiciously like the Hatter Mansion.

"Time to go!" the twins chorused happily.

"Wait…what? No!" Tara protested.

It was too late. The twins carried Tara through the canvas. The trio instantly appeared at the front gates of the Hatter Mansion. Tara's eyes grew wide at this sight. She tried to ask how it was all possible, but she wasn't able to make a sound, save for a small squeak of helplessness. The twins grinned at each other and set Tara down. However, they still held onto her arms, just in case she was thinking about running away. The twins stared at her face, and then turned to each other.

"You were right, brother, she is pretty," Dee said.

"Maybe boss will give us a raise this time," Dum told his brother, ignoring the stutters and half-spoken questions from Tara, who at this point, was more than confused.

"Very pretty," Dee added, still inspecting his new foreigner.

Tara had black hair worn in two pigtails in front that fell a good half foot past her shoulders. Her pigtails curled slightly into a cone shape. She had a very light tan, and a few freckles. Her eyes – which at the time were wide with surprise and confusion – were a vibrant green. Tara herself was somewhat short, but that made it easier for the twins to drag her towards the mansion, which as of that moment, they were doing.

"Hey, wait! Where is this place? What happened to St. Luke's?" Tara protested, her voice rising as she asked each new question. She was trying to pull away from the twins, but to no avail.

A male voice yelled, "Hey, brats! Care to explain why you skipped out on your shift!"

Looking to the side, Tara saw that a man with somewhat long, orange-blonde hair had appeared by the gate they were now passing through. He wore a black shirt with a yellow sash design, and a black coat over it. The shocking feature of the man was his rabbit ears. They must have been fake, but they looked very real. Not to mention, Tara couldn't see any sign of real ears. She was sure that if she could look more surprised, confused, or shaken, she definitely would. His expression changed to that of surprise when his saw Tara.

"Did someone die?" he asked.

"Nope," the twins chorused, "She's our foreigner!"

"Huh?" Tara said. Of course, she was yet again ignored.

The man stared in disbelief. "But…what happened to Alice? Is she…" he gulped, "…you know, gone?"

The twins scowled at him. "Stupid newbie hare. We just got our own foreigner. Alice is still here."

The 'stupid newbie hare' then asked, "Then why were you able to get another foreigner?"

"Because Nightmare allowed it," a voice from behind said.

The twins turned around to face the source of the voice, turning Tara with them. Their grip on Tara's arms was still as tight as ever.

"Boss!" the twins chorused. They shoved the foreigner towards him. Tara would have fallen, but the man caught Tara before that could happen. The twins continued, still in unison, "We brought you a foreigner! Do we get a raise?"

"Yes, I can see that, and no, you do not get a raise," the man told them. Turning his attention to Tara, he said, "My name is Blood, and welcome to Wonderland."

Blood was, by any standards, hot. He had somewhat long black hair. He wore a cream colored shirt and pants with a long jacket over it. The jacket was also cream colored, with a yellow trim, and had the four suits of cards stitched along the sides. Blood wore a black hat that had the four suits of cards stitched across the top as well, and his hat also had roses ornamenting it. He carried a cane with a gem and a hat on top of it. What's with him and hats? Tara thought. And cards too?

"Eh?"

Blood chuckled. "I'll let Nightmare do the explaining. Come on inside," he said, gesturing towards the mansion that stood in front of them.

Tara hesitated. She still had no idea what was going on, and just blindly following strange men into a large fairy tale-like mansion could not be wise in any way. Then the twins, somehow holding axes, pointed two sharp blades at her back. Then she decided that she wanted to live, and followed Blood and the man with rabbit ears inside.