Lili couldn't say she was unhappy with her life but she couldn't say she was happy either. She lived with her elder brother on a small farm near a pretty village that overlooked the caste. Ever since she was a little girl she had wanted to live in that castle. She wanted the easy life for her and her hardworking brother.

Vash was a jack of all trades. He was a handyman, hunter, farmer, and once a soldier. But for everything he did he was only paid enough to get by. They were luckier than most.

That is, until he traveled to a village in the north to help with a man who everyone thought had gone crazy. He came back with a broken arm and leg. He had been beaten with a pipe until he was on the brink of death. Since then their luck had gone down.

Vash recovered but the village found a replacement for him as he mended. They didn't need him. Tax collectors knocked on the farm house door every other day. Lili had to sell all their chickens and nearly every cow they owned.

But even with her rotten luck, Lili was content with her life by her brother's side.

"You're lying."

Lili snapped her head around. A little boy with blonde hair stood on a piano bench just inside a cottage. A green ace of clubs was twirling in his little fingers. Simple letters framed the picture at the center. She didn't recognize her surroundings. It was a strange village with dull eyed people.

"A-am I dreaming?"

"Yep! You catch on quicker than the others." The boy grinned. "I'm Peter!"

"Hello, Peter." Lili curtsied daintily.

"You're very charming, Miss."

"Thank you,"

Peter jumped off the bench to let a man in a dark blue suit sit down. Wondrously upbeat music filled the air. The dull eyed people began to brighten up. They danced and sang and seemed to be happy.

"Miss, you're lying to yourself. You aren't content. You want things to get better."

"I do…but there isn't anything I could do."

"Wrong!" Peter took Lili's warm hands. They twirled along with the villagers. "Dream of me and Wonderland and I'll give you your luck back! Maybe then you and your brother could go someplace new and find good jobs."

"H-how can that be?"

"I'm magic!"

Lili was passed to a large man with amaranthine eyes. "How?"

Peter smiled as he tried to twirl a beautiful woman with brunette hair. "'Cause I am."

Lili was dipped and as she laughed she saw no harm in just dreaming of this cheery place. "Alright. I'll dream of you even if what you say sounds silly."

Peter hugged the girl, "Thank you, Miss Alice!"

"But my name is not-"

"LILI!"

The girl jumped off the ground where she had been sleeping. She saw the farm house up the hill instead of Wonderland.

Vash was running towards her with his gun drawn. "Don't move."

Lili knew better than to go against her brother's orders; especially when his voice was that serious. However, she turned her head. A large snake was slithering down the tree behind her with bared, red eyes. By the markings on its body she recognized it as a very poisonous predator.

Vash's gun fired the moment the snake's jaw unhinged. The bullet ripped through the creature's head killing it instantly.

"Are you alright, Lili?" Vash asked as he pulled her to her feet. He winced as his once broken arm was strained.

"I'm okay," she replied shakily.

"What a lucky shot. That thing was about to lunge!"

Lili stared at the snake's corpse. She could have died. "Yeah…lucky."

"Where did you get that hat?"

Vash tapped the soft cloth that crowned his sister's head. Lili took it off to get a better look. It was a sailor cap of clover green felt. A little white ribbon hung off one end. It matched the one Peter had warn in her dream.

Days after Lili met with Peter, the handyman who had replaced Vash caught a nasty virus and was bedridden. Vash was needed again. An old farmer from a nearby village retired and was giving away his livestock. Lili got her cows and chickens back with the addition of a beautiful chestnut mare.

One day, Lili woke from Wonderland happier than usual. She felt like that day was luckier than others. She went to the village again with her brother and went into the music store.

A man in the back caught her eye instantly. He was listening to a sad song drifting softly from a phonograph.

"It sounds beautiful but so gloomy," Lili remarked.

The man smirked. His sharp eyes turned to the girl. "This is by Roderich Edelstein from a land not too far from here. All his songs were sad. This one is about death."

"Roderich…" Lili remembered the piano man from Wonderland. "Did he ever have happy songs?"

"Yes, but they never made it big."

"Oh…how disappointing. I'm scared of death. I try not to think about it so I can enjoy life."

The man turned fully around. He was tall and lean with a stiff posture and hair that had been styled so it stood on end. An old scar cut from his right temple to his eyebrow. Was he a soldier?

"Enjoy life, huh?" he seemed to think it over. "I haven't been enjoying mine for a while."

"I think it may be because you listen to this kind of music!" Lili jabbed a dainty finger at the record that still spilled out sorrowful, woeful chords. "Listen to something nice like those happy songs that never became popular."

The man cracked a smirk. It looked nice on him. "Quite brazen, aren't we?"

Lili smiled back. "I'm have a good day and I just want others to have one, too."

"You're quite charming miss. You could win over the entire kingdom if you smiled like that once more."

Just to play along, Lili smiled at the man brilliantly.

The man chuckled. "I like you. My name is Lars Van Dyk."

"I'm Lili Zwingli-wait! 'Van Dyk'?! Y-you're the prince!"

Lars smirked. "That I am. Say, would you like to be courted by royalty?"

Lili's face went red. "W-what?"

"You're so peppy and cute. Honestly, I haven't' been very interested in anything lately but you…you're different."

The girl fumbled with the edges of her white apron. Peter's hat id her face from view.

"What do you say, Lili?" Lars poked the hat so it slid away from her eyes.

"S-sure…"

"Thank you, Peter!" Lili hugged the little Dream tightly. "Magic is real! The most wonderful thing happened to me today!"

"What?"

"The Prince wants to court me! Thank you so much!"

Peter smiled widely, happy that his magic-for once-seemed to be improving not only his life but the life of his Alice. Maybe Lili was his true Alice.

Despite being crabby about it at first (Lars was older than her by more than five years, but Vash just wanted to gripe about something), Vash agreed to let the prince see his sister. She was a woman, she could think on her own. After a good year of courting, the prince proposed to marry Lili. Leaving the farm house was hard for the Zwingli siblings but hey adjusted to the castle.

It was everything Lili had dreamed about. Beautiful architecture, gorgeous views, maids and manservants who waited on her hand and foot. She had everyone at her beck and call.

Lars treated her as his most precious and dear treasure. He gave her everything he could. Lili wanted more and more, however. Greed ate away at her. She didn't want to give up her throne as queen. She had worked too hard to get where she was.

Lars began to fear that she might take the role as sole queen too far. When she gave birth to their twin boys he ordered two of his most trusted men, Arthur and Francis, to hide them. He then told her they had died and he even had graves made for them.

Lili would look at the graves rarely. She pondered how easily one could lose life no matter how healthy one was. One could have the best doctors and medicine but still yield to the cold touch of the Grim Reaper.

"I don't want to die, Peter," Lili confessed to the Dream. "I don't know what's beyond this world. Do you know?"

Peter shook his head. "No. but you won't die anytime soon, Mrs. Alice! You're still young and healthy."

"How long have I been dreaming of you?"

"A long time," Peter kicked his legs

"Nearly seven years,"

Having no knowledge as to how long that was Peter asked. "Is that very long in your world?"

"Yes. Very, very long. I am not that young anymore."

Peter grabbed Lili's face. "You're still young! I don't see any wrinkles."

"But they'll form soon enough," Lili said morosely. She looked around the village that now had a fair amount of treasure littered everywhere. The buildings were taller and fancier and the people were well dressed. It had changed so much, but Peter hadn't aged a day.

"Mrs. Alice?" Peter saw the spark in the woman's eyes. She wasn't' the same innocent girl. She wanted more and more. He knew she was going to ask something completely absurd.

"Peter," the queen stood to her full height. Her green dress glittered in wonderland's sun. The lucky four leaf clover she had about her regal, pale throat shone. "Use your magic to make me live forever-like you."

"I can't do that. My magic is good magic, not bad magic."

"I don't want to lose everything I have!"

Peter jumped when Lili disappeared. She had forced herself to leave Wonderland. No one had done that before.

Lars felt guilty that he hid their children form Lili, but he knew it was for the best. Lili began to research the occult. She had dark wizards come to the castle and ordered them to teach her about immortality. It was when he woke in the middle of the night to find his wife-his beloved queen- standing above him with a wicked dagger in her hand that he realized she wasn't the Lili he had fallen in love with.

Lili tricked everyone in the castle into thinking that an assassin had snuck into the royal bed room and killed King Lars Van Dyk. The autopsy revealed his heart had been removed.

In the dark of the night, the queen had drawn an intricate pattern on the floor boards. She lit candles and chanted words she had learned from the dark wizards and ate her husband's heart.

With all the magic in the air, Peter was able to step into the room. His eyes were wide and horrified. "Y-you're not my Alice…"

Lili paid no heed to him as he took the clover green hat back. She could feel her life lengthen in years. It was positively breathtaking. With this magic, all she had to do was eat hearts-the center of a human-to live longer with the face of a young woman.

Vash spotted Lili by the graves of her children and husband. She wore all green. Her lips were bulled back in a seemingly innocent smile.

"Lili, are you alright?"

"Yes, I am perfectly fine." The queen answered sweetly.

Vash shuddered. He sensed something wasn't right with his baby sister. "You have just lost your husband a week ago and you're 'fine'? Lili, when we lost our parents you cried for months. What's going on?"

"Things change." Lili turned to face her brother. Her big green eyes locked on him predatorily.

The older man stumbled back. His leg, the one that had been broken before, gave out at the sudden movement. He toppled into the springy, wet grass. In the rain, the green color seemed to glow a vibrant emerald hue.

"Is your leg hurting you, brother?" the queen approached slowly. Her hand dipped into the hidden pocket in her gorgeous gown. "I can help the pain go away if you do something for me. You'll help your little sister, the queen, right?"

"Lili, what are you…" Vash's muscles locked up upon seeing a wicked dagger emerge from the folds of his sister's dress. "Lili! Put that away!"

"You'll help me forever rule this country, right?"

"No! Get away from me! Lili, no!" Vash couldn't move. It felt as if his entire body was frozen.

The blood was washed away before the guards would reach the grave yard. Lili sat in the middle of a mystic design drawn in the mud, chomping on the last of her brother's heart. The guards couldn't do anything against their own queen. One: her royal status kept them bound as servants; Two: she was now known as a witch. Witches were not able to be killed so easily. Not when they ate human flesh.

Lili would forever rule over the strange country. In her rule, the capital city was filled with wizards, witches, and warlocks who all pledged their servitude to her.

Peter was sad that this Alice was also a failed one. When was he going to find his true Alice?