The Mimsy "looked" around at its assembled crowd, no longer including Trick and Treat. Dice, the Snake, Dissonance, and the child possessed by It looked up at the creature on his throne. It leaned back, contemplating...
And suddenly it leapt out of its seat, its limbs flopping like a ragdoll. "The sins... they are here." The pumpkin grin lit his face as he stood before them.
Seven people faded into existence in the room: a blonde girl with a smug look, accompanied by a boy who was apparently her twin; a woman in a red dress with a hungry look;
a tall man with a long ponytail whose eyes gleamed violet; a young girl wearing a kimono and holding a pair of tailor shears; a young woman with bags under her eyes; a middle-aged man wearing a judge's robe and holding a gavel; and a green-haired teenage girl holding a revolver.
The judge stepped forward. "The Seven Deadly Sins, at your service. How may we corrupt you?"
"I'm already evil," the Mimsy replied. "I need you to go invade the privacy of some inhabitants of this land. They are in this maze right now. Hurry, for you only have until sundown."
"Hurry?" The tired woman yawned. "We just came all the way from Evillious. Do we need to leave again already?"
"Why should we listen to you?" the green-haired teenager said, suspicious. "Why do we have to take orders from you?"
"We should eat him," the woman in red said, licking her lips.
"Everybody listen up!" The smug girl stepped to the front importantly. "We do it and we do it now. If we do, that's more for the Seventh Circle."
"Aw, don't we have some time for you?" the tall man said, sweeping smoothly over to the girl and smiling.
"Keep away from the queen," her twin snarled, drawing out a long, thin knife. The tall man backed away.
"Don't you have time for me?" the kimono girl asked the tall man as he nearly bumped into her. "Why her?"
"Silence," the Mimsy hissed. "I want it done now, before sundown. Choose one and enter their mind and heart. You may do what you wish with them."
All eight grinned. "Excellent," they stated in unison.
Mary rounded a bend in the hedge maze and found herself at a dead end. Cursing and muttering to herself, she turned around... and saw Jace lying facedown on the ground, snoring. He had, by the looks of it, been sneaking up on her when he had suddenly fallen asleep. Since when was Jace narcoleptic? Mary wondered.
Up above, a ghostly version of the tall man hovered, invisible. He smirked. Interesting situation, for someone to mess with. And down he went, into Mary's heart.
Mary staggered. She had a strange feeling in her gut. She looked around at Jace, who was still snoring. She blushed. There was something endearing about the way he looked when he was asleep...
She leaned over him, looking at his face. In sleep, his usual neutral face was gone; he looked comfortable, even content.
Mary sighed dreamily. Then suddenly it occurred to her that she was acting very oddly indeed. Strange thoughts were creeping into her mind, things she'd never thought of doing with someone before. She leaned forward...
She shook herself. What the hell was going on? Before she could pull herself together, Jace yawned and said, "Hmm...? Are you the masseuse?"
"Yes," she responded without thinking. She facepalmed. "Uh... what now?"
"You give me a massage," Jace said comfortably, without opening his eyes.
"Alright," she said again without thinking. Her hands moved against her will...
Jace mumbled, frowned, then his eyes opened. "Mary?" He seemed to only vaguely know who she was.
"Yeah," she whispered. "Should I..."
"Stay here," Jace told her, closing his eyes and smiling for the first time that Mary had ever seen. "Nice and comfortable."
And so, as time brought intensity, two of the Alices were claimed by the Sins.
Corbin tread the paths of the maze, deep in thought. He had been thinking about the plan that Ambrose had come up with and contemplating possible outcomes, when suddenly...
A sharp pain stabbed at his ribs. He frowned. He never felt pain. What was going on now?
He became angry. Pain did not deserve me! he thought. Go away!
He became even more enraged. Letting out a snarl, he whirled the Vorpal Blade, slicing a bush to shreds. Panting, he turned, looking for a culprit. He scurried away into the darkness.
Emmily tapped Ambrose on the shoulder. "Where are we going?"
"Can't be sure, now that the checkpoints disappeared," Ambrose said. He had a strange feeling. He hadn't been hungry a moment ago, but now...
"Do you have anything to eat?"
Emmily blinked. "What?"
"I'm hungry. Starving. I need to eat."
"I don't have anything to eat."
"Then let's find one of that Mimsy's creatures," Ambrose said, walking forward without a backward glance. "I can eat that."
"What?" Suddenly Emmily was overcome with a strange feeling. "What about me? Don't you care about me? Forget the food!"
"I—" The feeling of hunger had left Ambrose, replaced by a feeling of desire. But not the kind of desire you should have for a person— the want for an object.
"Hmm, yes, you're right," Ambrose said, his tone odd. He turned around and walked back to Emmily. "All I want is you."
"Good," Emmily said crossly. "Now let's go—" She stepped forward, but her path was blocked by Ambrose.
"You can't go out there," he said, his voice concerned. "You'll be broken."
"What do you mean, broken?" She tried to shove past him. "Let me out!"
Ambrose hit her over the head. She collapsed, knocked out cold. "No," Ambrose replied, looking down at her prone form. He picked her up and started walking.
Corbin strode ahead, in a towering rage, when suddenly he tripped over something. He looked around, fuming, and saw something strange enough to snap him out of his anger for a moment. He walked closer, trying to comprehend what he was seeing.
Jace and Mary were lying next to each other on the ground, both asleep. They were in a very awkward position, and Mary's corset was undone. Corbin snickered. They looked like a couple of naughty Victorian-Age college students.
He turned around and continued walking, deep in thought. Why was everyone acting so strangely? Obviously he wasn't, because he was higher than that kind of vanity, but...
He frowned. Higher than vanity? He didn't have any pride to begin with.
"Hmm..." he grumbled. Pride, Anger...
An alarm went off inside Corbin's head. He swiveled around to look at the sleeping sex scene behind him. Sloth, Lust...
"Shit," he muttered, striding over to the Alices on the ground.
"Hey! Get up!"
Mary's eyes flew open. She looked down to find herself partially undressed and straddling Jace. She looked up to see Corbin towering over her, apparently very pissed off. She looked around for a reason to be woken. "Uhm... yes?" she said awkwardly.
Corbin rolled his eyes. "Have you even noticed that you're lying in the middle of a dirt path with your shirt off?"
"What's it to you?"
Corbin seized Mary by the throat, lifting her up to eye level with him. Her feet were nearly three inches off the ground. "Don't insult me," he growled. "I deserve to know..."
Suddenly, something strange crossed his face. He stared through Mary, lost in thought. Tossing her aside, he strode away.
Mary sat up. Her lip was bleeding. She wiped it away, looking at it and wondering what was going on with everyone. She turned back to Jace and shrugged to herself. Nothing better to do.
Ambrose trudged along with Emmily on his back, stopping occasionally to check whether she was awake yet. He had been walking for a very long time, and it was nearing sundown. He could tell that he was getting closer to the center; the hedges were becoming wilder and more overgrown. Some even had thorns growing on them.
Ambrose stopped. Behind him he heard another set of footsteps stop just after his had. Slowly, casually, he set Emmily down, at the same time drawing out his Crystal Rapier. He paused, then spun on the spot, his sword slicing through the air. The black-clothed being that had been following him backstepped, avoiding the blade with ease.
Ambrose squinted at the figure before him. It was a slim creature that appeared human but was almost certainly not. It was dressed in a cross between a straitjacket and a black prison jumpsuit. Its hair was long and matted, but Ambrose could still see its yellow slit-pupil eyes.
"So, what are you?" he asked it.
It licked its lips with a forked tongue. "Need I tell you?"
"Yellow eyes, slit pupils, forked tongue... a demon puppy?"
Its eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm hungry," it replied simply.
Ambrose grinned. The feeling of deep, insatiable hunger was returning. "So am I," he said. "A DUEL!"
Before either of them could react, however, Emmily sat bolt upright, her eyes glassy and unseeing, and screamed, "GIVE IT BACK!"
She fainted again, flopping lifelessly onto the ground.
Both of them stared at her prone form, then looked at each other. "What did you do?" Ambrose said in an annoyed tone.
"Just ate her heart," the Snake replied, an unnaturally wide smile stretching his features. "Nothing personal, it's just... what I do."
The grin froze on his face as his head rolled off his neck and hit the ground. Blood spurted from his neck as his decapitated body fell forward, looking only slightly more dead than Emmily.
"Bastard," Ambrose muttered. He stepped on the head, crushing it to memory shards, which swirled into his eyes. The body followed.
Emmily sat up, looking disoriented. "What—?" she said, looking around. She saw Ambrose and comprehension dawned on her face. "Why you..."
"Hello, dearie," Ambrose said cheerily. "Never fear, we seem to be nearing dusk."
As the sun set on Wonderland, the ghostly forms of eight people swooped back to the west, toward their home state of Evillious.
"Did you do anything nasty?" the kimono girl asked, winking at the tall man.
"Very," he said, looking over at the tired woman, who was snoring. They drifted off into the distance.
A strange feeling came over the five Alices. Jace sat up, fuming, as Mary shook her head and wondered why she was half undressed. Corbin got a sudden pain in his head, but it no longer bothered him. Nothing bothered him.
Emmily blinked, then looked back at Ambrose. He smiled faintly, looking rather absent. "Well, that's over," he said. "Stand up. This is the part where we try not to die."
