When we walked inside to hear people shouting about something to each other. Inside the shop, everyone was split in two and sitting at tables. The ground between the two areas with the tables was dirt like they never finished building. The building was longer than it looked and behind the small guy sleeping at a podium with a sign behind him. The sign was scrolling through different emotions: Bliss, Ecstacy, etc. Most of them had numbers with +'s or -'s next to them. On one wall a man was changing numbers under the names of different emotions as men and women called out to him. On the opposite wall, people were looking through bottles that had feelings on them: lust, passion, excitement. Suddenly, a mallet slammed down, and everyone quieted down and paid attention to the sleeping man at the podium. He slammed the hammer down again and looked up at all of us.

"I have an important announcement! A new tea has just come on the market!" he called out. "Ever get the guilty feeling? Huh? Maybe abandoned the wife and kids and left them without a crumb to split between them. Or maybe you killed someone. A relative. A neighbor. And it's left that wiggly feeling in the pit of your stomach that's growing little by little into a dull throbbing pain, gnawing away at you. Undermining your confidence and making you feel sick and worthless and fearful. Well, fear no longer because Clear Conscience has finally arrived! Haha! That latest wonder of wonders from that remarkable wonder of all wonders, the Hearts Casino!" With that said, he fell asleep again, and people started shouting trying to buy the new "wonder". The man from before stepped up to Alice's side and looked at the both of us.

"This way." He took us to the back area on the dirt to see what looked like an office filled with white furniture. The white chair behind the desk was turned away from us.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" a man asked us.

"No thank you," Alice told him.

"Who are you?" I asked. He turned his chair around so we could see each other.

"A friend," he answered. "I hope."

"I imagine not many people would want to be our friend," I commented.

"I'm not like most people," he replied. "I run this tea shop." The man from before took off the rag from Allice's arm and showed off her weird green symbol.

"See?" The man looked at the two of us before getting up from his chair and turning his back to us again.

"How did you break out of Scarab?"

"What? The beetle thing?" Alice asked him.

"Yeah."

"We used a hairpin to open the bottom and..."

"Fell," he finished.

"Obviously," I said giving him a look.

"As you can see we are drenched," Alice said, and he slowly nodded looking us over. "But this place, where-what is it?"

"Oh," the man said as if he'd forgotten he hadn't told us anything. "Wonderland."

"That's a story in a kids book," Alice told him.

"Does this look like a kids story to you?" he asked her.

"This really is Wonderland, Alice," I told her quietly. "All stories have to come from somewhere."

"How do you know?" she asked me but I stayed quiet.

"It's changed a lot since the first time someone named Alice came from your world and helped ours," he told her.

"So you're saying that is was real?" Alice asked him confused.

"You Oysters don't know how to find us," he told her coming closer with a magnifying glass. "Excuse me." He took her arm and looked at the green mark. "You tell yourselves we don't exist, and, quite frankly, I'd like to keep it that way." He dropped her arm and moved to me.

"Why are we oysters?" she asked him as he looked me over. "What this?"

"That's not going to come off. Sorry," he laughed as she tried to scrape it off with her hand. Where's yours?" he asked me.

"I don't have one. I didn't get touched by the light," I lied.

"Only people from your world turn green when burned by the light," the man told her. "And everyone gets burned by the light."

"Well, not me." He continued to stare down at me before going back to his grassy office area. "It's the suits way of branding their catch, and they call you oysters because of the shiny little pearls you all carry inside."

"What do you mean pearls?" Alice asked.

"Emotions," I said remembering the bottles and the bidding war going on just outside those doors.

"But she's Alice," the man from before told him. "Tell-tell him who you are."

"Wow, really?" the man asked before he started to circle us. "Woooo," he laughed before standing next to the other man. The other man joined him in laughing, and he made a disgusted face before placing his arm around the man's shoulders. "Ratty, here, thinks you're Alice. Of legend."

"Who?" Alice asked him confused.

"The last, um," he removed his hand and looked down at it. "The last time a girl called Alice came here from your world she brought down the whole house of cards, oh yeah," he told us, circling us again until he was standing right in front of us looking at Alice. "Made quite an impression. Although it was 150 years ago. It can't be the same girl. Oysters don't even live that long."

"I still want a good price," Ratty told him.

"Wait a minute, we are not for sale," Alice told him, but the man just held up a finger to silence her. He turned and looked at me before motioning his head towards Ratty with wide eyes as if he was annoyed with him. He went back behind his desk, and Ratty began to follow him.

"Not on the grass." Ratty stopped and moved off the grass. He went to the vials behind his desk and picked one up before looking back at us. He put it back and picked up another before moving towards us again. "Here we are. Pink Necter. Filled with the thrill of Human Excitement. 50 Oysters were drained of every last drop of halabaloo so that you, Ratty, can taste what it feels like to win just once." Ratty was about to take the bottle when the man pulled it back. "Warning: Don't take it on an empty stomach, and only one tiny little drop at a time otherwise the experience might burst your shriveled up little heart. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Go." Ratty took the bottle and ran from the room. The man smelt his hand and made a face. "He really smells."

"Oysters were drained?" Alice asked him. "What do you mean drained?"

"Not literally, Alice. If they were killed a lot more people would be missing from back home," I told her.

"Ratty tells me you two are looking for someone," the man said going back to his desk.

"His name is Jack Chase," Alice told him following him a bit. "He was taken by a man with a white rabbit on his lapel."

"I see," the man said drinking his tea. "The White Rabbit is an organization controlled by the suits after the death of the White Queen and the disappearance of her only daughter and heir."

"Death?" I asked, stopping his next words.

"The White Queen was the first person her baby sister executed in her traditional style now."

"Beheading," I said trying to control my breathing. The man stared at me before turning back around.

"The White Rabbits travel back and forth through the looking glass and vanish people from your world to ours."

"Why?" Alice asked him.

"To use," he answered. "In the Casino."

"Use?" Alice asked him.

"Did I say use?" he asked putting his tea back on his desk. "Sorry. Slip of the tongue. They're fine," he assured us. "They keep them alive and moderately happy."

"How do we get to this Casino?" Alice asked, and I looked at her surprised. I couldn't go to the Casino.

"That's the thing, you don't," he told her. "Way too dangerous for the two of you, but I know some people who know some, well, other people. If you know what I mean," he said getting right in my face. "It's one of the privileges of owning a tea shop." he popped the 'p' making me jump and him smile. "Lighten up." He turned and motioned for us to wait a moment before running to a rack of clothes. "You two should wear these." he pulled a maroon and black jacket from his coat rack and handed the maroon to Alice while holding the other out for me.

"Why?" she asked him.

"It'll cover the glow and stop the two of you from catching a cold."

"I have a little money, but I understand you don't use that here," Alice said.

"What? Bits of paper? Pointless." he moved so he was standing behind me.

"Then why help us?" I asked him.

"Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress and her friend?" he asked me, breath brushing past my ear making me shiver.

"Sister," I corrected. "I'm her sister."

"I wasn't talking about her." I quickly turned and looked at him. "Oh, I see. You don't trust me. Fine." He threw the jacket on the couch next to me before standing straight again. "I am genuinely hurt. Do you know why they call me Hatter?"

"Didn't know your name was Hatter," I said.

"Because you wear a hat?" Alice asked him. He paused for a moment.

"No, because I'm always there when they pass the hat," he said making us turn again. "So to speak. Philanthropy. Generosity. I mean you can call it what you will it's who I am, and right now looking at the two of you there, there's nothing I want more than to help you find..." he paused on Jack's name.

"Jack," Alice finished for him.

"Jack, and return you all to your charming world of children's stories."

"I don't believe you," she told him.

"I know what you're thinking," he told her moving closer to us again. "If I'm the frying pan then that out there is the fire. I'll be square with you. I know people who like you help your kind, and if every once in a while I scratch their back..."

"They scratch yours," I finished.

"Precisely," he grinned. "Lot of scratching." Alice put on the jacket and before I could grab the one he'd tossed on the couch he grabbed it and helped me put it on. "Do try to keep up," he called back to us as he made his way to a door. He opened the door and reveled the city and its height. I grabbed Alice's hand before we made our way to the door and into the city again.