Thanks to MourningBlack for telling me to update. Otherwise everyone would have had to wait for this chapter until after New Years. (I'm writing it by hand and I don't want to get ahead of myself on the computer.) ON WITH THE STORY!

Chapter 2

Alice headed into the woods in the direction of where she had seen Hatter Mansion out of the tower window. Unlike in Clover and Heart, when she reached the woods she was engulfed by darkness. It was almost as if it was always the dead of night in the woods. The disembodied noises of animals moving and calling each other in the darkness added to Alice's unease as she went further and further into the dark forest.

Alice was walking parallel to a tall bush that reminded her of a tall hedge. As she got deeper into the forest, she could hear something large following her on the other side of the hedge. She stopped walking, to her surprise, the thing on the other side of the hedge stopped too. Alice turned around and took one step towards the clock tower. She heard the thing on the other side of the hedge do the same. She started walking towards Hatter mansion again but stopped after two steps, turned around and headed back to the clock tower. The thing on the other side of the hedge did the same. Alice realized it was just playing a game with her and that it probably won't bother her if she ignores it.

So Alice decided to keep walking down the path and to ignore the thing walking parallel to her. After a minute, she was able to see a fork in the path where the hedge stopped. Alice stopped in fear, realizing that she was going to some face to face with whatever was walking next to her. She tried not to obsess over this as she started to walk again. By the time she was at the fork in the road, her thoughts went from "It's probably a bunny or something" to "Oh no, it's going to eat me if I go out there."

Alice stopped at the point where the hedge stopped and slowly started to look around the corner of the hedge. She ended up looking at the head of a blond boy with black eyes. She walked away from the hedge and he followed. When she could see his entire body, she stopped to look at him. He was standing but was in a crouch so that he could be eye level with her. He wore a leather jacket, black pants and no shoes.

He looked surprised to see her and he straightened up saying "Who are you?"

"I'm Alice," she replied growing a little nervous.

He looked impressed. "You're a foreigner, huh? It's nice to meet you. They call me Jay."

Based on his reaction to meeting her, Alice was able to deduce that this must be the Jabberwock that Nightmare had warned her about. However, he didn't seem like a bad guy at all. But she knew that looks can be deceiving from experience and she wouldn't make the same mistake again.

"Sorry if I frightened you. I thought you were Rose or Lily; they are the only ones who actually come into the forest on a regular basis. Most people stay out of the forest if they have a choice." he paused for a minute as though he was thinking about something and then continued, "Well I guess that it going to change now that the other roleholders are here. Anyway, are you headed somewhere Alice? You look a little lost."

Alice knew that she couldn't trust him but if he didn't help her, who knows where she would end up, she didn't want to take any chances of meeting something dangerous. "I'm heading to Hatter Mansion," she told him.

"What a coincidence! I was just about to head over there myself." Jay said with a grin not unlike the one that Ace's typical grin. There was something darker about it though. Alice didn't know what it was, but she found herself unnerved by it.

They started to walk down the path together. Jay spoke after a few moments of silence, "So Alice, in addition to me, who else from here have you met?"

"I've met you and Rose," Alice said.

"Hm," Jay said looking back at the way I had come. "So you are staying at Clover Tower?"

"Yes I am," Alice said.

"What can you tell me about Gray Ringmarc?" Jay asked turning to her suddenly.

"What? Well, um, I guess Gray kind of looks after Nightmare now." She said surprised.

"And?" he asked eagerly.

"Well he used to be an assassin. He does a lot of the work that Nightmare is supposed to do because Nightmare always runs away from his duties. He can't cook very well, and I think he is a very nice guy." Alice said simply.

"Really?" Jay asked disbelievingly.

Alice thought about a way to answer this. She couldn't come up with anything and ended up saying "Yes."

Jay thought about it for a minute and then said, "Well I guess the guy had to calm down in order for Nightmare to even consider hiring him. Anyway, we're here."

'Here' was in front of another tall hedge like bush. Alice couldn't believe he would stop here, unless his sense of direction was worse than Ace's. "Are you sure?" she asked him hesitantly.

"'Are you sure?' she asks. How cute." He scoffed waving his hand in while he spoke.

Before Alice could respond to being called cute, the hedge split in two. By the time the hedge stopped moving, it looked like the hedge had split into two separate hedges with a space in between them.

"How did you do that?" Alice asked in shock.

"It's my forest you know. That's just one of the things I can do here. I am the only one who can do that though, and it is going to be so annoying to have to put up with the roleholders I might open a permanent path to each territory." Jay said lost in thought.

"Hey look brother! It's onee-san!" a childish voice said.

"Yay, Onee-san's here!" replied a similar voice.

Two boys, one in red, the other in blue, ran up to her and hugged her. "Hi, Dee, Hi Dum," Alice said to them.

"I see you are in good hands. Until next time Alice," Jay said turning around and heading back to the forest.

Jay didn't even take two steps before a short girl in red with red hair and brown eyes ran out of the forest dragging Rose by the arm. Like Rose, she had a small crown on her head. It was silver with red stones on it.

"Hey Rose! I found him! Now Jay can help you get to Hatter Mansion!" the girl in red said happily.

"Lily, you're already there," Jay said gesturing towards the mansion.

"Thank you Lily. I appreciate your help," Rose said pulling her arm out of the red girl's grasp.

"Who's that?" Lily said looking at Alice.

"This is Alice," Jay said. "She is a foreigner."

Before Lily had a chance to reply, a voice called "Hey! Are you two slacking again?"

Dee and Dum detached themselves from Alice and picked up their axes from when they had dropped them.

"No we're not newbie hare!" said Dee, the boy in blue.

A man with blond hair, purple eyes and rabbit ears rounded the corner. He walked over to the group of people and said, "Hey Alice. Who are the rest of these people? What do you guys want?"

"Oh Elliot, Don't tell us you forgot about me and Lily already. Remember? I'm Jay, that's Lily and the girl in white is Rose. You've met Lily and I before, you should remember who we are." Jay said with that unnerving smile of his on his face.

Elliot's eyes flashed with recognition. He took his gun out of its holster and pointed it right at Jay.

Sorry about the cliffhanger... I'll try to update tomorrow (because there is no way I am going to spend all day watching football (american football) with my dad and brother)

Thanks for reading and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR!