AUTHOR'S NOTE

Greetings from Nuggland! :D Hello, everybody! I'm back for the time being... You see, school and people and blah. It's been rough, but thank you so much for being awesome and loyal and great commenters, because each and every review contributes to my mental-health, you know! I love productive, good-quality criticism, so gimme gimme. :3 Anyways, it's 10:20 p.m and I finally finished this chapter...it took me a while, but it's done... And you know what? This story doesn't seem to have a legit ending in my mind... Because who knows where Ana could end up next? Wonderland is a whole new world (ignore the Aladin reference, please. And I know I can't spell Alladin right...)! There's so much to discover, so much drama to understand. Lots of stuff that Ana is yet to know about! So just stay tuned, and I hope I didn't lose some of you, because I love chu all. Thank you for sticking around! :D Here's chapter 24!

Chapter 24

The first person to greet me as I entered the castle was William. Yes, William. He surely wasn't someone I was actually expecting to see, but I wasn't disappointed. It was a pleasant surprise. He was in a maroon waistcoat with a crisp black shirt underneath. It looked nice, but I preferred the blue one he had on earlier. It made his eyes pop.

"Outfit change?" I laughed lightly as I gave him a small hug.

He stiffened. "Ah, well, the Queen didn't like my color scheme." He whispered, chuckling a bit. He gently pulled away to study my traveling group. His blue eyes widened as he caught sight of Tarrant. "Oh, wow, Tarrant, you're back." He commented thoughtfully. "Good to see you."

Now, I knew William didn't ever speak this formal. It must have been the setting—we were, after all, in the walls of the Queen's castle.

"Yep, yep." Tarrant grinned and gave Bunny Boy slap on the back. "Ditto to you!"

After cringing at the harsh slap, William shifted his gaze to the girl on my left. "Hello. I don't think we've ever formally met, but I've seen you around before."

"I'm Nettle," Nettle giggled, swaying her arms forward and back. "Yeah, I've seen you before too. You're the Queen's assistant or something, right?" she wondered.

"I guess you could call me that." He chuckled. "Nice to meet you. I'm William."

"So why are we in here, again?" Nettle questioned, raising a thin eyebrow at me.

Before I went on to reply, I took note that William didn't even mention that he preferred the name 'Will' instead. "We're going to have some custom made foods for Demmy-" I coughed. "I mean, Demetrix."

Tarrant and Nettle grinned excitedly while William looked kind of nervous. "You're going to the kitchen?" he asked. Well , duh. That's where food is typically made. After I nodded, he took a deep breath. "Are you sure about that?"

How ominous. "Relax, William-"

"If it really is trouble, we could just go get some stuff from the marketplace. I'm not poor!" Tarrant blurted.

"No, no," Nettle concurred calmly. "Demmy deserves the best, right? Tarrant, he was so worried about you. Searching all over the place to find you. That's a real friend. So we're going to need to get him a real feast."

I glanced at Nettle. "Uh, right. You two don't need to worry about a thing. The Queen said that I'm always welcome here and stuff. She won't mind if I ask for some food."

A long pause.

"Fine. I'll show you to the kitchen, then." William finally gave in, and I was grateful for that. He took my wrist for a moment, then let go. Being in the castle truly made Bunny Boy formal… I didn't like it very much, but it was how he kept his job, I guessed.

We walked straight down the corridors, passing the grand staircase and into the kitchen. It was connected to the dining hall: a large room full of black chairs and red tables on one half, and red chairs and black tables on the other. There were white doilies going across each rectangular tabletop, and a vase with a variety of fake flowers in the center of each as well. At the far end of the dining hall, opposite of the entrance, we two eggshell-colored doors. We entered the kitchen through the left door and were greeted by the cooks. They all wore black, their names embroidered on the pocket of their apron in red thread. There was one young man in red with black writing that read: Cruze. I assumed he was the master chef—he stood out from the rest. Not just because he was the only one in red, but because he was very eye-catching. He had beautiful curly obsidian hair and light brown eyes. His skin was caramel, but more on the dark side. He looked about six feet tall with an additional two inches. His eyebrows were slightly bushy, but totally suiting his look.

I watched him as he speedily picked up his hat from the corner of the kitchen where the lockers and little closet was. He didn't seem to notice us yet. His hair was soon covered in a thin hairnet, then his chef hat. He turned on his heels, glancing about the steaming kitchen, and then laid his eyes on me. He mouthed something to one of his coworkers and then headed straight for us. "Chef Cruze," He told me, clearly making a quick introduction. [Cruze is pronounced like the word cruise.]

"Anastasia Liddell. Please call me Ana," I answered rather quickly. He seemed to be busy. I gestured to Tarrant and Nettle. "My friends,"

His eyes widened for a moment. "What can I do for you, Ana?" He fastened the last two buttons of his jacket.

"My friends and I are going to throw a little get-together in honor of someone special, and we would very much appreciate it if you could prepare some nice dishes for it." I tried to keep confident and focused, just like he was doing (without trying, of course).

Chef Cruze crossed his arms patiently. "Do I know you? Have we met before?"

Before I could even think about my answer, William cleared his throat. "Ah, you two haven't formally met. Ana is one of the Queen's special quests."

"The Queen never mentioned anything about special guests."

"Well-"

"So why am I making my cooks stop what they're doing to work hard to fulfill this girl's orders? We've had special guests in the past before, but I never had to take orders from them. I work for our Majesty, William." He explained, stiffening a bit. Surprisingly, his tone was relaxed and informative—he didn't sound irked or annoyed. He kept his cool.

"You three, stay here." William looked over at me for a brief moment, then back at the tall young man in front of him. "Chef Cruze, can we talk for a minute?"

"If the conversation is productive, then yes. Otherwise, my break starts in two hours."

The two walked past our group and into the dining hall.

I slumped my shoulders. "This can't be good."

Nettle awkwardly grabbed my elbow. Well, she did it casually, but I found the gesture awkward in general. "Don't worry about it. Let's just get the food prepared and then leave. No drama is needed. It can't be that hard for professionals like these guys!"

Tarrant nodded excitedly. "She has a great point, Ana! These cooks work for the Queen. They must be the best, so it shouldn't take long for them to make a little something for good ol' Demetrix."

My blue eyes looked over at the two optimistic teenagers.

"Come on. The sooner, the better." Butterfly Girl chanted as she sauntered over to the sink where a short little chef was positioned. She bent her knees a bit to be at the worker's eye level. "Hi. As you may have already witnessed, my friend here is a special guest of the Queen. We would hate to give negative reviews to her majesty, and we'd like this to be quick. If you could grab a few friends to make some sweets, we'll be sure to boast about you to the Queen. Wouldn't that be great? I'll even mention your name specifically…" she trailed off, looking over at the word sewn into the black jacket. "Fern. I'll be sure to mention your name to her, Fern."

Fern blinked her dark eyes, tilting her head to the side to show her confusion. "I'm sorry, but if I'm mistaken, the only special guest would be the blond one over there." She pointed over at me.

I rushed over to them (it wasn't much of a distance, actually). "It's true. I'm the only special guest here today. But this girl and the boy behind me are my guests, making them an extension of me. So they're special guests as well. On a broader spectrum."

"I'm sorry. I just can't fulfill your orders unless they come straight from Chef Cruze. He's the boss of all of us."

"Sure, but isn't the Queen the boss of all of you? And since I'm her special guest, and she wants to keep me pleased at all times, you'd have to listen to me for her sake?" I pondered. I didn't mean to sound stuck-up. In fact, my tone was pretty down to earth, if you ask me.

"She would inform Chef Cruze about your presence and what to expect. What to do and what not to do." Fern blushed slightly. "If you'd like, I could ask for someone to clarify who you are and what the Queen wants for you."

"T-that won't be necessary." A shy voice squeaked from behind the four of us.

I slowly turned on my heels to identify who spoke up for me.

A petite girl in a red and black French maid dress stood quite stiffly. Her light brown pixie-cut hair was slightly disheveled, most likely from cleaning. She timidly gazed down at her feet, which was decorated in little charcoal slippers. I bet she was a size-five. "H-hello, Miss Ana," she murmured. "It's been a long time."

"Clare!" I gaped, throwing my arms around my friend. Ah, we knew each other for only a brief moment at the time, but I appreciated her a lot. I mean, she kinda had some dirt on me—she witnessed Halil and I kissing…

"W-what brings you back?" Clare asked, hesitating to hug me back.

I smirked and quickly pulled away. "Food. And I wanted to visit two very special friends of mine. You've just been checked off my list, though."

The cute little maid blushed at me. Aw, she got so flustered all the time. She simply turned to Chef Fern and bowed her head a bit. "Chef Fern, Miss Anastasia is a special guest of the Queen. Make whatever she requests…" she smiled. "With discretion, of course."

"I'll keep everything reasonable," I added quickly, trying to keep on the good side with this Fern girl. I had nothing against her, and so I wanted to make sure she had nothing against me.

Chef Fern hesitated to speak, but she finally gave in. "Alright. I'll take your word for it." She looked over at the fellow nosy chefs and gave them the nod of approval. They all held up their hand, palm facing me. Then lower them.

I blinked. Well, how was I supposed to react? Was this how they showed that they were under my orders now? "Okay, listen to my friends, please." I informed them, then poked Tarrant and Nettle's arm. "I don't really know what Demetrix has a taste for, so you two are in charge of this whole directing-the-chefs thing." I whispered as I began to scurry to the exit door.

"Wait! Ana! Where are you going?" Tarrant called out.

"Are you leaving us here by ourselves?" Nettle asked in shock.

"No, of course not. I'll be back. I just have to go catch up with someone." I told them before slipping out of the room and ramming into Will. See, I didn't know he'd be right by the door. Chef Cruz wasn't anywhere in sight, though.

"Oh, hey Ana." William took my wrist, taking a few steps away from the door so no one else would butt into us. "He left to go talk with another guest." He informed me with a soft smile.

Ah, he was beginning to act more down-to-earth like he used to. I preferred it this way. "Who's the other guest?"

"There have been plenty of guests in the castle. Tons." Will commented with a casual shrug. "I can't really pinpoint who it could possibly be. But whoever it is just checked in a few minutes ago."

I could only imagine. "So who's this Chef Cruz guy anyways? He seems really-"

"Uptight?"

"I was going to say a stickler for rules but uptight works too."

Will shrugged his shoulders, finally allowing himself to let go of my hand. We ended up strolling out of the dining hall and into the main corridor of the castle. There were maids in black and red, hustling and bustling about as they scurried to clean whatever looked slightly less than perfect. I'd hate to be a maid. Most of them were distracted, but the few that actually spotted us sent us a polite smile or a bow of the head.

"Chef Cruz has been with us since he became an adult."

That didn't seem very long to me. He looked maybe eighteen years old… "Is that supposed to be impressive?" I wondered. Not to be rude.

Bunny Boy raised a blond eyebrow. "Well, yes. Working since he was thirteen? Five years of cooking in the royal castle? That's pretty impressive, Ana," he chuckled.

Oh. They're considered adults when they turn thirteen? Is that why a bunch of them are teenagers living on their own? Because it was legal?

We continued to walk around the castle, as if I needed a tour. Everything looked familiar, but I was still fascinated nevertheless. The color scheme of the building was just so bold: red and black. It was everywhere. The uniforms, the furniture, the floors, the walls. Will and I ended up in one of the hallways, except this particular one didn't have a single soul in it. Actually, it seemed more familiar than the other places we walked through. I realize only seconds later that this was the hallway that contained the door to my guest room.

"Hey, my room is down here." I commented, nodding down the hall.

Will smiled and reached out a hand. "Yeah, I know. I'm the Queen's assistant, Ana. I know almost everything around here."

I blinked at his hand. It took me a bit of time to understand his gesture, but I did result in placing my hand comfortably into his. "I like it when you're like this."

Bunny Boy leaned his back against the wall and we slowly slid down to a sitting position. He turned to face me so that his shoulder was now pressed against the wall, but I remained facing forward, hugging my knees to my chest now. He was still holding my left hand with his right. "When I'm like what?"

"When you're all casual with me." I replied quietly. "It reminds me of home."

A smile began to crack on his young, kind of beautiful face. "Home? What is home, exactly? You never really told me about it."

"I guess I haven't actually told anyone about it." I pointed out. "Well, I live in a smallish town. Chesterton. We own this really cute Victorian house. Two floors. No siblings, so I have my own room."

"Oh yeah? That's cool. I used to share a room with Mercy before we went our separate ways."

I nodded at this information, and then continued. "And I go to this Catholic, all-girls school, but not too far from it is the complimentary all-boys academy. We join together for lunch time, festivals, events, and dances."

"Anyone special?" Will quickly asked, scooting a bit closer. He was definitely feeling curious.

"No," I murmured, blushing just a teency bit. Matthew did pop up in my mind for a moment. Wow, I really missed him. He was my best friend. He knew everything. I told him everything, and I'm pretty sure he told me everything as well. Sometimes people our schools would come up to us and ask if we're dating, and Matt would joke around and say not yet. And for some reason, I couldn't help but smile a little when he said that. But once again, he was my best friend. "No, not really."

Will let out a sigh. "Cool," he said rather slowly. He didn't seem to believe me fully. "So how do I remind you of home again? Because I see no connections yet."

I laughed, playfully elbowing him in the chest. "It's just that since our town was smallish, everybody knew everybody, or at least has seen that person's face before. We're all pretty casual with each other. And you're just so easy to talk to, it just reminds me of my neighbors and friends back in Chesterton."

"Do you want to go back?" Will suddenly asked, his blue eyes gazing into mine.

"Go back?" I croaked. "Go back home?"

"Yes."

"Well…" I trailed off, slowly slipping my hand from his grasp. "I don't know. I mean, I've met great people here, I really have. That includes you, by the way. But, I have to see my friends and family back home, you know? Do you know what the last words my mother said to me?" I didn't bother to wait for his guess. "She told me to leave. That's it. She said leave."

"Funny. My mom said the exact same thing before I left home to find a better life within Heart Kingdom. You and I both ended up in this castle, huh?"

His mother told him to leave? But he's so kind and good-spirited. I couldn't imagine him doing something get-out-of-my-house worthy. I really couldn't, but I was kind of glad that we had something like this in common. "What a coincidence," I smiled at him, reaching for his hand now that things weren't as intense again.

Then, it all happened so fast. I glanced up at the ceiling of the hallway, just enjoying our little bonding time when I felt a hand on my knee. It wasn't alarming. It was actually quite comforting. Next, Will slid even closer to me, taking both of my hands, forcing me to face him. I didn't mind—it was a nice view either way. We both knew what was about to happen. I saw his chin angle down to my level, his mouth slowly getting closer and closer to mine. I even helped the situation a bit by tilting my head to the side so our noses wouldn't collide. Our lips curled into a smile as I felt one of his hands inch over to a strand of my hair.

THUN! THUN! THUN!

Aww, fudge. It was footsteps. Will immediately jumped back, unlocking his hands from me and scooting away. He scrambled to his feet before pulling me up to mine. "Typical crap," he grunted underneath his breath, taking a depressingly large step away from me.

I folded my hands behind my back and tried not to think about what could've happened. It would've looked suspicious if the footstep-maker saw me flustered. I turned my head in the direction of the noise.

Then the footstep-maker emerged from down the corridor, turning into our hallway.

He couldn't formally greet me by words, and so when he was close enough to Will and me, he bowed down. We stared at him in silence. When the knight stood straight, I let out a gasp.

"Halil, what happened to your face?"

There was a black, scorching burn in the shape of a heart on his currently blood-red cheek.

And he looked angry.