Beatrice was stuck in Wonderland. There was no need for any pomp or grandiose explanation, you'd find it all boring anyway and likely don't care, all that mattered was she was stuck here. Now you've probably read all about the lovely opium dream that Lewis Carol wrote, but apparently he was a liar. The world was not charming, the denizens weren't stupid, and everything could and would kill you. And Beatrice, a young and completely normal human, had been dropped into it.

Literally.

And thanks to this drop she had broken her left leg. Fate didn't hate her enough to let her die, instead she had been rescued by one of the insane denizens of this world and rushed to a hospital in a nearby town. The doctor had been baffled by her injury, something about time changes, and was basically given to the cat boy Boris Airay. Her leg was wrapped up in a heavy cast, and she was carefully deposited on the cat boy's back, before being given a bottle of pills and sent on her way. The entire event happened in a whirl wind, and if she didn't know better she would have thought she was in an acid dream. All of the colors here seemed brighter, people lacked faces, and her sense of time was blown to hell and back when it became night then afternoon in the span of ten minutes.

As such she had been very quiet the entire time, not answering any of the doctor's questions, and not speaking to her rescuer. This didn't seem to deter him though, he'd kept up his idle chatter as if he didn't notice her silence. She shut her eyes and leaned her head forward, nestling it in the boy's neck. He smelled vaguely of something smokey, not like firewood, but with an almost chemical kick to it.

"Huh, you're falling asleep already?"

"..."

She wondered if she didn't answer him if he'd shut up, but she was proven wrong when he began speaking again. "Those pills the doctor gave you must work pretty well. I've never needed to go to the doctor before, so I wouldn't know. Heh, I take care of myself most of the time." He shifted his hold on her, gripping her thighs with his large hands. "You foreigners are pretty fragile though, doesn't take much to break you."

Her ears perked up at the word foreigners. She'd had thought it was all a dream when she was falling down the hole, but when she broke her leg she was thoroughly convinced that this was reality. When she was younger she'd broken her arm during ballet practice, she'd felt the same pain when she broke her leg, there was no way that was some type of mental mumbo jumbo. However that begged to question where on earth, if she was even there, she was. She knew this place was called Wonderland, and that she was in a place called Clover Country, but where was that exactly? The boy had only named the place, but hadn't been specific about continents or anything like that. Maybe she was in the center of the earth, wasn't there a movie about that or something?

"Do foreigners come here all the time?"

The boy jumped slightly, causing her to shift on his back. "I thought you fell asleep!"

"Sorry..." She placed her head back in his neck. "I'll finish my nap."

"N-no, stay up." He shook her gently, turning a few heads from the faceless in the city. "So, you haven't said much. Did it hurt that bad to break your leg, or were you in shock or something?"

"I was scared." She admitted. "It was really scary to be alone in the woods, but I was happy you found me and took me to the doctor. Thank you."

"No problem, kid." He took a turn down into a dark alleyway, making Beatrice stiffen on his back. Even though Boris hadn't done anything to her yet, he was actually a bit helpful, she wasn't so ready to trust him so easily. "So what's your name? I'm Boris Airay."

"B-Beatrice Libson."

"Beatrice," He tried her name, something she found a bit awkward if not forced. "that's a weird name." He suddenly stopped outside a dingy door. "Can you hold onto me with our good leg? I've gotta open the door."

She did as she was told, but was surprised when she found herself in a room full of crosses, chains, and skulls. Gold chains were attached to the ceiling, and crosses were attached to a locket and put in a few vases. Skulls were set on the bed post, and what looked like a lamp, and some were printed on a pirate flag. There was also splashes of fuchsia and black, helping to cement an almost punk theme. Boris went over to a purple couch next to a window, and carefully set her down, making sure to stretch out her leg so it wouldn't get injured again. "There you go, the Doc said you shouldn't be messed up for too long, so you can bunk with me until you're better."

"Thank you." She watched Boris go to a barrel close to the bed and fish around in it. After a few moments he managed to produce a bright blue bottle. She took it with a word of thanks and played with the edges of the old fashioned bottle top.

"You need help?" Beatrice looked up from her bottle, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she found his face so close to her own. "The bottle looks like it's about to kick your ass."

She held out the bottle to him. "Please?"

He took the bottle and brought it to his mouth, easily peeling it off with his teeth. Beatrice fought the urge to roll her eyes at the hyper masculine behavior, and eagerly took the beverage from him when it was presented. "Thank you! You really like to help me, huh?"

Boris sat down next to her, his own bottle of green liquid in his hand. "You're a foreigner, most of you guys can hurt yourselves really easily. Besides, you're a kid and a girl. I gotta look out for you, ya know?"

"Like a big brother?"

Boris stopped mid sip, his face visibly heating up. "Uh, sure."

"Can I call you big brother then?"

"Sure?"

Beatrice grinned and drank down some of her cherry soda. She had just acquired an ally in this strange world, and possibly a place to stay.

Shortly after her 'bonding time' with Boris, Beatrice went to sleep. When she woke up she found the room empty. Realizing Boris must have left for a bit, she decided to take the time to find out more about her new roommate. She carefully slid off the couch and grabbed her crutches, which Boris must have gotten while she was asleep, and balanced herself in a stable standing position. Once she knew she wasn't going to fall and break more bones, she hobbled over to the locker on the other side of the room. It opened with a low creak, and a flurry of dust, making her eyes water. However she was too stunned to do anything about them as she stared at the stash. She figured Boris would have something strange, after all he wore cat ears and a tail, but she thought it would be furry porn.

Instead she had found a massive cache of guns.

There were military type guns, hunting looking guns, and even a few old fashioned ones that looked like they belonged in a museum. It was clear that Boris was some type of gun nut, or he was a criminal, both seemed feasible. Actually, with all his punk imagery and his casual attitude she wouldn't be all that surprised if he was a loner. Maybe all of the guns were going to be used to shoot up his classmates or something. That was putting him into a certain stereotype, but she wasn't sure how things worked in this world. The doctor had acted very respectable and polite, so had the nurses, and a few of the other patients had acted scared around Boris. Maybe he had some type of reputation and they had something to do with these guns?

Beatrice shut the locker and hobbled back to the barrel and grabbed another drink from the same bottle type that she had earlier. She tucked it under her chin, and went back to her spot on the couch. Setting her crutches back in her spot, she then opened her drink and took a few sips of the cold beverage. She needed to figure out exactly where she was, but she needed to do so in a way that wouldn't seem off. Boris thought she was a little girl, so it would have to be in a way that didn't harm that persona. People tended to see children different from adults, if he thought she was older, would he allow her to stay here? He seemed like a genuine type of person, but first impressions had a bad habit of being manufactured. Maybe the next time she went to the doctor she would ask around, see what his reputation was with the...normal people.

She also needed to see what the child labor laws were. Even if she was playing the role of a child, she was still too young to actually work a job even though she had plenty of experience. She needed to make herself independent as soon as possible, that way she could hold her own, and not exhaust her connection so early on before she had a chance to find a way home.

The door opened, dragging Beatrice out of her thoughts. Boris came tumbling back into the room, in his hand was a pistol attached to a chain that was attached to the collar around his neck. She stiffened and backed further into the couch, her fingers gripping her bottle a little tighter. It was either the bottle or her crutches, anything else that was usable as a weapon was too far out of reach. "W-why do you have a gun?"

Boris' head snapped to her direction, a grin taking up his face. "Oh, I was just playin' at Heart Castle. Nothing important or anything." He shoved his gun away into the boa and chains that made up his outfit. "I guess you got bored when you woke up?"

Beatrice nodded. "I got another soda, was that okay?"

The cat boy hopped over the back of the couch and sat next to her. "Hey, we're roommates now. You don't need to ask to take from my stash."

"That rhymes."

He stared at her for a moment before a grin curled onto his lips. "Hey Beatrice, I'm tall when I'm young and short when I'm old, what am I?"

"Huh?"

"It's a riddle." He said. "Now try to solve it."

She mulled the words around in her head. Tall when young, but short when old? Her face heated up, and her eyes narrowed as she stared at Boris. Didn't he think she was a kid, why would he ask that kind of riddle? She flinched when he scooted closer to her, a hand gently touching her forehead. "You okay? Your face is all red."

"I-I'm fine." She waved a hand around, doing a poor imitation of a fan. "I think I'm a little hot."

Boris reached behind her and opened up the window. A cool breeze entered the room, as did the smell of popcorn and cotton candy. "Did you figure it out yet?"

"Ah," Screams and laughter filtered in, succeeding in distracting her as she tried to turn around and look out the window. "I dunno what it is."

"A candle!"

"A candle?"

"Yup," Boris pointed with his index finger. "A new candle is tall, but when you set it on fire," His finger curled. "it slowly becomes shorter until you have to buy a new candle all over again."

Beatrice stared at him for several seconds before she began to laugh. It was a pretty terrible riddle, but she guessed she should expect that out of someone who thought that they were the Cheshire Cat. "That's silly."

"Maybe, but I like them." He said, scratching the back of his head. "Riddles, puns, and word puzzles are some of my favorite things."The lighting in the room suddenly shifted from morning to early evening. "Alright, time to take your pills."

"Awe, but I don't wanna!"

"Don't be like that, you sound like that Caterpillar." He grabbed her nose. "Now open up!"

"No, ah! Big brother!"

Julius stared at Nightmare, his arms crossed over his chest and a blank expression on his face. "You brought another one here? One would think that you would get tired of breaking the rules and having to deal with the consequences, but apparently that's not the case."

Nightmare took the pipe from between his almost blue lips, allowing a puff of smoke to escape from his mouth. "Now that's not the case, I did learn my lesson." A smirk curled on his lips. "I just learned from my mistakes, this time things won't go so badly. I'm sure everyone is eager for a new game, especially you Julius."

The man's slender fingers tightened, but his face kept its blank mask. Even after all that happened in the last game, this man was intending to start this insanity all over again. It was dangerous, not only for the outsiders, but the denizens of Wonderland. To submerge them in the insanity all over again, especially during one burning fiasco that had yet to end, was utter insanity. But this was Wonderland, everyone was insane, even those who managed to interact with you without trying to kill you still had a festering top that wouldn't take much to rip off. Still, he wasn't in Clover Country at the moment, so hopefully the foreigner would finish up her business and leave before April Season came around.

"What I have in mind is far more permanent." Nightmare said. "This time things will go right, and then you'll have to admit that I was right."

The man's lone eye widened and blood spurted out of his mouth. Julius remained passive, clearly not caring about the man's well being. "You can try this experiment all you want, but I wouldn't fail if I were you. This type of thing isn't usually forced, especially when it involves a foreigner who's dead set on leaving, but you all ready know that."

Nightmare wiped some of the blood away with a handkerchief, his high and might attitude subdued. "Right, it'll be settled by the time you're back. Hopefully." He choked on the last word, and curled his legs to his knees as if in pain. "I-t'll be done, just stop trying to kill me!"

Julius scoffed, but didn't say anything as everything began to fade away, and the heavy curtains of sleep lifted.