Annabeth in Wonderland
Chapter Two: The Lonely Queen of Hearts
A.N: HAPPY FRIDAY! There is one more chapter of this fic, and I hope you guys have been enjoying it.
Disclaimer: I don't own the selected quote from Beyonce's Beautiful Nightmare.
You can be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare
Either way I don't wanna wake up from you
Annabeth runs her hand against the wall of the tunnel. It's pitch black, and she occasionally bangs her foot on one of the stairs. She wishes that she had a flashlight, or perhaps a torch like in Indiana Jones. Even a cellphone to light her way would be helpful. The staircase is long and winding, and twists and turns many times before she finally sees the light at the end. She silently smiles because she's Annabeth Chase and she hasn't let this crazy fucking world get her down yet. And she won't. She continues to climb the endless staircase until she emerges and is bathed in sunlight.
She looks around the courtyard. The floor is covered by a carpet of green grass. Thorny, red, rose bushes border imposing stone walls that surround the premise. Silent, stone guards protect the citizens from the outside world, or possibly, Annabeth thinks, keep them in. On the opposite side of where Annabeth entered, large towers jut out of the walls. She feels a light tapping on her shoulder and turns abruptly around. Behind her stands a human sized playing card. A human head with a skin-tone unnaturally white juts out the top. She has deep, black, hair and red lips, but seems timid.
"Um, hello," she says, tapping her gloved hand on the edge of her playing-card body, "the queen, she, she demands an audience with you." A fire blazes inside Annabeth. She demands, does she? Annabeth thinks about leaving, but the doorway through which she had entered the garden has disappeared. She internally groans, but allows herself to be led to wherever this "queen" awaits her.
What seems like moments later she arrives in a small room with gray stone walls. There is a small wooden table with two white mugs covered in hearts. A regal woman in a black and red heart spangled dress and a golden crown sits in one of the chairs.
She inclines her head towards Annabeth and says, "Take a seat." It takes Annabeth a moment to realize that she means her, and she considers bolting. But the woman doesn't seem malicious or anywhere near as bonkers as the other people she's met in this mad world, so she sits down opposite the queen.
"Um, hello," Annabeth says, because she's not entirely certain what's protocol upon greeting a queen. She's not quite sure that she's ever met one before. But then again, the world queen arouses negative feelings within her. Maybe she has and it wasn't a pleasant experience?
"Well, hello, Annabeth," the queen says, "I've heard a lot about you. Ruining tea parties, changing sizes and squashing poor bugs, you've left quite the trail of wreckage in your wake."
Well, maybe it isn't her smartest idea, but Annabeth feels that if her pride is brought into question she doesn't make her best decisions. Instead of doing the sensible thing and holding her tongue, she retorts, "And I've heard you're a bit crazy. Gone a bit mad with power," lie, she hadn't heard that, "And you've been beheading people. Fine queen you make."
For a moment, the queen looks like she's about respond with something nasty, but she stops and lets out a laugh instead.
"Threatened to," she says, "I've never actually beheaded anyone." The yet was left unsaid, or at least that's what Annabeth picked up from the moment of silence.
"Besides," she continues, "I don't think that I've gone power-mad, but I suppose that I'm a bit biased." Annabeth gives her a funny look.
"Would you like some hot chocolate?" the queen asks, gesturing to the heart patterned mugs on the table.
"Sure," Annabeth responds, before releasing that might have been a bit rude.
"Thank you," she quickly amends before taking a sip of the liquid in front of her.
They prattle on a while longer, about the most random things.
Annabeth slowly lets down her defenses as they sip hot chocolate and laugh before Annabeth asks, "What exactly am I supposed to call you? The queen? Your highness? I'm not exactly well-versed on this procedure."
"Reyna," she says, with a smile that lights up her face but doesn't quite reach her eyes, "call me Reyna." And that's when Annabeth realizes she is on first name basis with the queen and that she is completely fine with that.
She doesn't much remember going outside, but soon they're wandering through the labyrinthine rose bushes. Annabeth sees a dark figure around a corner, but Reyna doesn't notice it. She assumes that it is nothing, just an odd specter like the ghosts that wander the halls of the palace.
"So how did you get to Wonderland, anyway?" Reyna asks her, examining her lightly, "I've never met someone who hasn't lived here their entire life."
"I fell down a rabbit hole," Annabeth says, "It's all a bit fuzzy, but I remember that for certain." Annabeth looks around the area. The thorny bushes wrap around them like ivy and the red flowers protrude from them like ornaments on a Christmas tree. Annabeth rifles through her brain for questions she might want to ask the woman.
"So how long have you been queen?" asks Annabeth.
Reyna looks thoughtful for a moment, before she says, "I don't honestly remember. It's been a long time."
Under different circumstances, Annabeth might have found that strange, but considering the gaping holes in her memory, she just lets it lie.
Reyna continues, "It's not quite all it's cracked up to be. There's a lot of work involved, and-" But whatever Reyna was about to say died on her lips. Annabeth wonders if the queen is experiencing a case of Presque vu, but decides against it when she sees the slightly pained and nervous look in her eyes.
"Being queen's lonely," Annabeth thinks, "She must drive everyone away. She's afraid she'll drive me away too." Annabeth gently clasps Reyna's hand and the monarch sends her a funny look. Annabeth just smiles at her and they consider their stroll through the gardens. She can hear Reyna humming a tune that she only half remembers the lyrics to. She feels as though she might float away with the melody and end up passing like smoke through this Wonderland, but Reyna's hand keeps her anchored to the ground and that strange, beautiful reality.
Annabeth!
Monsters snarls and tortured cries, Annabeth!
Darkness and sulfurous skies, Annabeth!
Annabeth, Annabeth!
Wake up!
Annabeth jolts awake in her large, soft bed. The sunshine is gentling creeping in through her red curtains. She takes a deep breath and grasps her comforter. She lets out a sigh of relief because she's back in her own world. It might be a bit mad, but in a pleasant way, not at all like the nightmare she just experienced. Annabeth stretches her arm out and her hand collides with Reyna's. Funny, she'd forgotten that they shared a bed now. Annabeth curls up beside her, and she is plagued by nightmares no more.
Later, they wander about the castle for sees the dark figure once again, and she tries to shove it to the darkest corner of her mind, along with her nightmare. Reyna attends to her royal duties. Something about sorting through a marriage disagreement between a dish and a spoon. Annabeth helps, and she feels as though she's becoming an advisor of sorts. That's not bad at all, helping Reyna run the kingdom. Reyna hasn't threatened to behead even one playing-card servant, which Annabeth thinks must be quite an accomplishment if her reputation is to be believed. Everything is quite lovely: hot chocolate, talking and wandering with a woman she's coming to care for.
Maybe even love, a voice inside her teases. Annabeth doesn't know what else she could ask for.
The days blur together: teatime, court disputes, royal duties, strolls, nightmares, and kissing. Her queen's eyes don't seem vacant anymore. No longer are they void-like, instead, they glitter with happiness. They're now a warm, comforting color instead of a dull, matte shade. Annabeth starts thinking of how to improve the castle design increase its grandeur and ensure that it will last a thousand years. She isn't sure where the desire stems from, but she desperately wants to build something permanent.
Her nightmares lurk in the back of her mind, and she can almost feel something that she's supposed to remember. But Annabeth suppresses it. She wants whatever it is to die, though she can't quite kill her curiosity about the dark figure stalking her from the shadows. She pushes it back into her mind, hopefully deep enough that it won't resurface for some time, and she goes to meet Reyna in her chambers.
Monstrous hissing is all Annabeth remembers when she jolts awake with a scream. Reyna tries to comfort her, and they end up curled up together even more than is usual. Huddled together to keep away Annabeth's imagined demons.
They've stripped down to only their underclothes and Reyna's looking down on her with an almost predatory look of lust and she has a knee on either side of Annabeth's legs. Annabeth tries to sit up, to kiss her, but Reyna pins her hands to the bed. Annabeth sends her a glare strong enough to topple her kingdom but Reyna doesn't yield. Instead, a grin spreads across her face like a half-maddened and overjoyed jack-o-lantern and the light behind her eyes burns brightly. Reyna nips at her ear and Annabeth holds back her whine.
When she bites down harder Annabeth lets out a whine of pleasure as the stimulation travels straight to her crotch. She lets out a groan of frustration and glares at Reyna. She wills her lover to do something, to finish the job that she has started, but Reyna's taking her own sweet, sweet time with it. Savoring every second with Annabeth coming apart underneath of her.
She presses her lips to Annabeth's and rubs her own roughly against them. Annabeth tries to lean in for more, to feed the fire inside of her that was consuming her. She needs to drag Reyna down with her, to allow the flame inside her to feed on Reyna as well, but Reyna breaks the kiss before it can consume her. Annabeth is screaming internally but this time, she doesn't allow the scream to escape her lips.
Before she even realizes it, one of her hands is free. She isn't able to do much about this, though, because Reyna's now free hand quickly slides into Annabeth's folds. Reyna's fingers start making skillful circles inside of her and she can barely contain the debauched noises that are trying to pour from her lips. As Reyna's finger continue in a distinct rhythm, allowing Annabeth's body to learn and follow it, Annabeth starts digging the fingers of her free hand in Reyna's bare back. More, more, more, her fingers scream and eventually her mouth joins in the chorus.
Reyna seems so pleased with herself but Annabeth doesn't care because she needs, she needs more and she can feel herself crossing the threshold. The world is white for a moment in a fit of pleasure before she comes to her senses. But once again, the world blurs like a new painting tarnished by water. The colors of the landscape melting together to form one before all colors fade completely and she is left with only black.