AFTER A VERY VERY LOOOONG TIME

insert usual disclaimer.

Alois froze, perfectly still, and, for a moment, considered whether or not this 'Valentine' was telling the truth. He would have pondered on this thought longer had it not been for two things; The first being the sudden realization of just what was happening hit him dead on in the face. He was standing here in a forest that looked like it had been colored by a child who didn't know which colors were for what, having just lost his parents then being told that they weren't his parents, watched as his grandma/mother was turned to dust by a freaking pocket watch and now...now he had made a bet that could result in him becoming lunch for an enigmatic cat-man.

Speaking of Valentine, he was now looking right at Alois with an expression of curiosity mixed with a supercilious, condescending smirk. "Yoo-hoo, Wonderland to Alice? Come in, Alice?" He raised a clawed hand and patted either side of Alois' face.

The blond growled as his temper began to rise. "yeah, yeah, I hear you! And my name is Alois. Not Alice."

Valentine rolled his eyes skyward. "Right. So, Alice, I'm guessing you lost your brain function a little after I said 'we've got company', eh?"

Alois frowned. "whats that supposed to me-"

But the teenager never got to finish that thought. There was a sharp whistling noise and the delicate skin on his cheek was easily sliced by a sharp object that was thrown. He had turned his head just in time to avoid it but the heavy THUNK that followed told him that if he hadn't, he'd be deader than dead.

He turned toward the sound slowly and swallowed hard past the lump that was rapidly forming in his throat. In the tree trunk just behind his head, a long, cleaver-like knife was imbedded deeply in the thick bark. A red, thick liquid seeped down the tree's trunk to pool on the ground.

"The trees bleed...?" was all he could manage to say.

Valentine shot him an exasperated glance. "Of course they do, aren't trees on the upside alive too? Anyway, we've got two bigger things to deal with."

"You mangy feline! I'll skin you alive!" said a deep voice with a heavy accent that Alois couldn't quite place. The blond turned again and followed Valentine's lazy gaze to the owner of the voice. Or, rather, owners.

Not far in front of them, partially hidden by the shadows of the trees, stood two people, identical to one another in every aspect. They were both short compered to Valentine, but taller than Alois. They were both very fat with dark ugly faces, covered in scars and marks. They wore striped shirts under dirty tattered suit jackets with a name tag on each of them. The one on the left read "Tweedle Dee" and the other read "Tweedle Dum".

They stepped into the full light simultaneously. I felt a shudder run through me. In each of their hands, they held sharp knives just like the one that had almost his Alois in the head. Their shirts were stained with blood and dirt and it seemed that they were literally conjoined at the hip. Not naturally, however. there was a long sloppy stitched scar connecting them and, judging by the blood and bits of intestines leaking from them, the stitches were loose.

"We've been sent by the queen to kill this one!" The one named Dee shouted, pointing one of his blades at me.

"No, no, no!" disagreed Dum loudly. "She wants him alive!"

"No, we's s'possed to kill him!"

"No, stupid!"

Valentine seemed to grow weary of this. "How about this, I'll kill the both of you for trying to take away my dinner."

A simultaneous "Huh?" issued from both of the Tweedles as Valentine was suddenly mere inches from them, drawing two thin silver daggers from two thigh sheathes one on either of his legs. The two twins brought all four of their weapons up to block but they were much to slow. Valentine's movements took less than a split-second and Alois knew that if he blinked, he would have missed it. The cat-man had flipped both his weapons in his grip to stab instead of cut. He plunged the blades up to their hilts into the chests of the twins. Alois watched in awe as the life drained from their bodies and they slumped limply like heavy sacks of potatoes. Valentine's nose wrinkled in disgust and he tore his daggers from their corpses. He wiped the Tweedle's blood off of the slim silver blades on the grass and sheathed them once more.

"Well, then." He turned back to face Alois but when he did, a purple smoke began to swirl up from the corpses, enveloping them both. Alois suddenly found it impossible to breath. His eyes drooped and his head spun. He heard Valentine's voice, filled with subtle anger and disappointment. "Dammit, this again...?"

The voice rang in Alois' head as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Valentine thought it a good time to vanish.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"March! March, come over here and look at this!"

"Hm?"

"That's a human, March. An upsider! Do you think this means the Queen has taken another Alice? She must be getting weak!"

"...Viktor..."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Light shone through onto Alois' face.

The warm glow woke him gently from his blackout. His cerulean eyes fluttered open and his vision cleared slowly. He stared up at a white ceiling with a large skylight. The sun shone in from above. The sky was blue and cloudless.

Hmm...? Was it all a dream...? My math class has a skylight like this... He relaxed into the comfortable bed beneath him. He let out a sigh of relief but froze as his happy thoughts came crashing to a halt. Wait...bed...?

He shot up into a sitting position and looked frantically to either side of him. The room he was in was completely unfamiliar to him. It was clean and plain with white walls and hardwood floors with a large, blue, plush rug. There was a large dresser in the corner and an uncluttered desk against a wall. There were two, wall-height bookcases, completely full.

The door creaked open and a person walked in. It took Alois to fully comprehend this person. They were tall, but only a bit taller than him. Their height was exaggerated by high-heeled boots. They wore tight-fitting black leather pants and a loose, black, off the shoulders top. They had long, choppy-cut, red hair. A very pretty face with deep black eyes looked at him expectantly. Going by the look of the person's face, they must be a girl and a few years older than Alois.

She was carrying a tray of food over to him, bare feet hardly making a sound. Two long soft-looking rabbit ears stuck up from her head, the color matching her hair. She set it down in Alois' lap and turned to leave.

"M-miss! Wait! Wh-where am I...?"

She turned back around and raised a crimson eyebrow. "...Human...Follow..."

He stood up and set the tray of food aside on the desk. He followed the girl out of the door and into a hall then out a glass door into a cultivated and beautiful garden. There were bushes of hundreds of different colored roses. In the center stood a young man with long black hair in a pony tail. He wore a tailored orange vest with a bright blue tie and lime green suit large top hat that sat on his head was a swirling mix of green, red and purple. He turned his ice-blue gaze towards Alois and smiled.

"Ah, you're awake."

The girl raised her hand steadily to point at the strange man. "...Viktor..." She labeled him and turned away. Walking back to the house.

Alois blinked. "M-miss, wait!"

The man called Viktor chuckled. "Don't pay any mind. That's just March. Very anti-social." He shook his head. "And by the way? March is a boy."