Chapter 1: The Trick Heart Castle

Julius stared at one of his young masters who left with his head down, eyes on his 3DS. The navy-head then turned to stare at the unconscious maiden in her new maid-suit, and sighed. He wouldn't be as much as responsible like before, he wasn't the one who chose her anyway.

He had chose plain, lonely old women to serve the castle for quite a while. Julius pitied Alice Liddell. She was young and radiant—her future was supposed to be bright and grand.

But the King's wishes must be done.

He was about to wake the sleeping girl on the couch, but suddenly a twinkling voice was heard. Julius sighed and clicked his earphone.

"Yes, this is your Steward, Julius."

"Julius come here this instant! I can't find my Rosalinda videos! …And bring me popcorns and tissues!" King Henry's cry was heard from the other side.

"Understood." The Steward twitched as he shut his eyes irritatedly. He turned again to approach the girl, but…

Alice Liddell, along with the couch, was already gone.

Julius facepalmed. "Great…pray she'd survive until lunch."

~.X.~

"AAAAHHH!" Alice shrieked as she was sliding down on a couch in nowhere.

'What the hell is happening!? Where am I!?' she screamed in her mind, tears shed by the wind.

Suddenly she saw a ray of light, and soon enough, she was slumped off her couch, falling on the floor, head over heels, her face knocking something solid, but not square as a wall.

The girl grunted and slowly got up.

Tweedle Twins watched her curiously, walking, circling her like twin sharks. The young lady was busy getting up that she didn't realize their presence.

"She's barely twenty!"

"Maybe just some years older than us!"

"How old are we again?"

"Fifteen, are we?"

"Contrariwise, I think we're sixteen."

"Not until Christmas, nohow!"

Alice was currently watching the two younger strangers bickering at each other, concerning their age. The girl looked from the blue-eyed one, then to the red-eyed one, back and forth, with a frown on her face.

She then gazed around to notice that she was in a bedroom—a wide one, to be specific. It wasn't ordinary at all. The room was decorated with weapons in all kinds, she even spotted a horrifying torture-coffin leaning on the wall.

And handcuffs chained to the wall, or hatchet…and other dangerous tools Alice had seen on movies that had been used to kill.

"Anyhow," the blue twin sighed finally and put on a familiar metal, robotic glove."…Since she's already set, we should try this baby." He rubbed the metal glove to his cheek lovingly.

The red one chuckled and put on the same metal glove. "Agreed."

Alice blinked and stared at the two blankly. "Okay, excuse me to interrupt your random chatters, but mind telling me where are we and who are you?"

"Oh, she speaks!"

"Contrariwise, she's kind of rude to ask our names."

"We've already known her name, nohow!"

"Hey! Pay attention, strangers! Who are you!? Where am I?" Alice yelled impatiently, feeling unnerved with the weapons surrounding her.

The twins turned their attention to her, and then blinked. They beamed at her. "We're sorry for our rudeness! We're the Tweedle Twins!"

"I'm Dee." The blue-eyed boy waved at himself.

"I'm Dum." The red-eyed boy nodded politely.

Alice stared at them, unsatisfied. "Those can't be your real names, right?"

The twins flinched at this, then chuckled.

"Hahaha~ How can you possibly notice?"

"Because those are fictional names!"

"Oh Dum, she's so right!"

"Contrariwise, we must choose a new nickname."

"We've been using it for fourteen years, nohow!"

"So, where am I?" Alice asked again louder, instantly stop their new round of bickering. The two turned at her again, slightly scowling, obviously not amused by how she noticed their names were fake.

"You're in the Trick Heart Castle, Alice." Dee said.

"H-How do you know my name?"

"Of course we know you!" Dum laughed. "We all here know everything about you! Eighteen years old, single, college student of Medical Education, address, phone numbers…"

"Stalkers!?"

The twins' eyes widened, but then they cracked up laughing, clutching their stomachs.

"Hahaha! She's hilarious!"

"Well, you may say that…but Julius was the one who kidnapped you. Great Grandpa Henry was the one who chose you, though."

Alice frowned and twitched. She was utterly confused and anxious. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know who these prats were, and what the hell was they were talking about, she had no idea. She only knew she was trapped somewhere by her driving tutor, and currently inside a weaponry bedroom with twins that constantly argue.

"And, you're our new maid!" the two cheered and clapped their hands.

"Oh, I'm a—WHAT!?" the girl jumped in shock and flinched backwards, stepping back.

"Yeah, Julius took you here because Great Grandpa Henry chose you to be our new maid!" Dum cheered.

"…What…" Alice pricelessly took another step back, and she realized…

She was very, very doomed. The girl frantically glanced for an exit, and targeted a door that was half-opened.

"Three months ago, our old maid Mrs. Martha ran away naked because Dum pulled a prank on her!" Dee proudly announced.

"Hey, are you accusing me? Contrariwise, I remember it was you, Dee!" Dum snapped.

"If it wasn't you, nohow!? I am innocent!" Dee shook his head.

Alice took her chance to escape slowly, unnoticed, as the twins started to bicker at each other again. That is, until the two were snapped out, realizing something unimportant.

"Oh yeah, we haven't greeted you properly!" the two exclaimed, and suddenly made a pose. They couldn't miss how the girl was slowly walking towards the door.

"Hello, new maid!" Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum greeted their new, young worker who had been frozen on the door.

The twins proceeded to aim a hand-bazooka on the girl's direction.

"These are our new babies! Exactly like in the Iron Man 2 Movie!" Dee snickered.

"Your first job for us...start running!" Dum chuckled and started the weapon, and it began to emit ominous light, preparing to shoot. "Let's see how accurate these babies are!"

Alice cursed the gods for making her life living hell and deceiving her into thinking her life's normal.

And to think, she thought herself lucky for having a handsome tutor!

"HELP ME!" the poor blond docked as a 1000 Volt worth of shot almost hit her, missing only for mere inches. "I still wanna live!"

She then sighed in relief and slowed her pace when she noticed it became silent.

"Ha, that was clo—"

Whatever she was going to say was rudely interrupted with a huge voice of explosion, and a new wave of attacks.

"You can't be serious!" Alice shouted loudly as she prepared to run for it only to step on something that clicked. She looked down nervously and saw the tiles going red. "Eh?"

Suddenly the floor under her feet was opened, and Alice groaned.

"Not again...!"

Another trap hole? She just screamed as she fell into another dark pit of…despair?

~.X.~

"O-ouch," Alice patted her head and looked up for the hole she fell into, but sighed as she found it was closed. She also noticed how she landed on something soft and that she's in another corridor now.

"Mind getting off?"

The female gasped at the unfamiliar voice and at an uninvited hand closed to her hip. She shrieked, standing up with a jolt.

She stared down at the owner of the voice. It was a red-haired man who was just sitting up.

She blushed in embarrassment, "I'm so-"

"I really don't mind," the man interrupted with a grin. "But you were really heavy."

"YOU," Alice clenched onto her hands, her bangs covering her darkened eyes. She gritted her teeth.

"Aw, but it would have been a lot better if you're naked," the man continued as if not noticing the presence of the girl teasingly.

"First, you insulted my weight," the said girl looked up at the man and glared. She might have been too scared at weapons but that didn't mean she would allow herself to be sexually harassed by a stranger, especially not by a pervert. "And now, you've sexually harassed me…"

She beat him up hard, and all the while, the ginger was entirely shocked.

Alice was a bit shocked at how weak the guy was. She wasn't even using half of her punch…

Anyways! Who cares? He's…a perverted jerk! Insulting a woman's weight and wished her to strip off!? Speaking of being heavy, Alice just realized that she felt her body was…kind of heavy. Was it because of this place…?

The girl growled as she walked away from the man meters away on the floor, fire burning around her like Hades in wrath.

"Where's the exit?!"

~.X.~

"Yes, this is Julius, how may I help you."

"Juliuuuus! She ran! Do you think she'd die from the death pit on the third floor!?" Dee's cry was heard, and the navy-headed man twitched as he heard his twin, Dum, was also crying in despair.

"Oh nooo! Sydney's gonna ground us again!" Dum wailed.

"Anyways, Julius! Where is she? You can track her maid outfit, right? Please, please, please God, don't let her die just yet…at least not after running away from us…" Dee was praying.

"Calm down, Master Dee." Julius sighed, rubbing his temple, then reached for his coffee and sipped it. He then pulled a stack of tissue and handed it to the King, who was crying his heart out at his favorite telenovela.

The Steward then took out a galaxy tab and stared at it for a while. "The new maid is currently running around the indoor hothouse."

"Holy cow!" he heard Dum gasped.

"What?"

"I forgot I just ordered a Chomper-Plant from Amazon! I was going to show you!"

"Wait…Amazon sells a Chomper-Plant?"

"Well, good day." Julius deadpanned and clicked his earphone.

"Just the first day, and she's already busy, eh?" King Henry chuckled.

"Like every other time." The Steward sighed.

~.X.~

"WHERE AM I?"

It's official. This whatever-building was a pain in the butt. She was practically out-of-breath after running from a giant rolling stone, dodging Egyptian Temple's traps (arrows, snakes, scorpions, etc), nearly got burnt from lasers, and was currently pacing around corridors with many doors.

'First of all,' she glared at the seemingly innocent door and opened it hastily. She was instantly awaited with den of hundreds of dangerous plants in a wonderfully dark garden. 'Doors don't send you to your dooms!'

She quickly jumped out of the incoming man-eating plant and landed with a thud.

'Second,' she glanced at the floor in caution which turned shining red (you know like when they land on some trap). The floor immediately fall out of place. 'Floors don't drop you to a pit fall!'

She again jumped out of the way and really thanked Lady Luck for giving her expertise in sports.

She stared at her surroundings nervously and sighed in relief that she was finally safe.

She had been going around in circles for hours and knew how much pain it was to stay. She was also very tired and hungry.

"Phew, that was-"

Clicked.

She stared at her left foot which coincidentally landed on a red mat.

'Why does this feels like de ja vu? I'm already safe…right?'

The mat magically turned into a slide and you know the drill.

There goes Alice, screaming frantically as she slid down her destiny.

Really, SAFE was the understatement of the year for this castle.

~.X.~

"Well, if it isn't new maid," Blood smirked in thought and stared at the female who came sliding towards him. "And my new model. I'm Blood, the God of Designs."

Okay, Alice made a note.

She was greeted by two maniac and weapon-obsessed twins –she made a looked that clearly said "Where'd they even got the weapons?" but shrugged it off.

Next, she landed on a rude pervert –she definitely wouldn't like to know if the stranger was joking or not.

And now, she just had to crash into a big brick–naah, that was just the man in front of her and she could clearly see the aura of someone with and ego or in this case, god complex.

'What's next?' Alice thought absent-mindedly. 'A tomboy acting like a princess? Zombies?'

"I-"

Before she could deny bluntly but kindly, two big explosions interrupted her. One from the left and another from the right.

Blood signed and shook his head in dismay, sighing. "Those imperfect mortals…No one, not even I could believe those defective lowlifes are more than my acquaintance." He grumbled as he grudgingly draw a sketch on a paper.

Alice took her chance to glance around, hunting for an exit, when yet another explosion happened.

BOOM!

Smoke slowly crept into the room. Blood sighed and crossed his arms, standing up from his work-desk, standing before the lady. Two figures slowly appeared from the smoke, coughing.

"Ha! My chemical bomb did it!" Nightmare cheered.

"Practically, it was my Battlebot who kicked its lock first, weakening the door." Gowland twitched.

"You filthy lowlifes, explain to me why must you blast in your way towards my sacred gallery?" Blood boredly said, as if his door had been blasted everyday for the rest of his life.

"I need her!" both Gowland and Nightmare pointed a finger to the confused maiden behind Blood. The two then glared at each other.

"I need her to test my new chemical substance!" Nightmare said.

"I need her to put out my old robots and test out my inventions!" Gowland growled.

Alice was secretly glancing to the blasted door while mentally taking notes of the residents of this building. Two weapon-maniacal prats, a pervert, her driving tutor, a designer, an inventor and a lab-freak.

Oh no, no way…this place was totally far from safe! Yep, she's absolutely out of here.

First, how to get past these three?

"Oh, my God." Alice suddenly interrupted, jumping into the middle of the men. "Oh. MY. GOD."

"Huh?"

"LOOK!" Alice suddenly shrieked and pointed to the ceilings. "THERE! UP THERE!"

The other three men lazily looked up. "What? Where?"

"IT GOES THERE! TO THE WINDOW!" she pointed to the window and slowly sneaked away.

"What!? WHAT IS IT?" Gowland curiously ran towards the window. Blood scowled in distaste.

"Do not touch my window, you defective machine-freak!"

"Oh shut it!" Nightmare huffed. "What was it that she's…pointing…" the man faltered as he pricelessly realized that they had been tricked.

"I need to know what she's seeing!" Gowland insisted.

"No touching my properties!"

"Guys, I hate to say this, but she's escaped." Nightmare darkly announced.

…

Blood sighed. "I am ever so perfectly sure that I have never been fooled by anyone ever."

Gowland cringed and grimaced in fear. "Oh no…Ohhh noooo! This Castle's gonna kill her. Okay, she's dead."

~.X.~

A castle, Alice noted in her mind. A tricky one, though. That place was very irritating. She was running up hundreds of stairs only to find she's in a dungeon, and had to pass traps and guns to get out. She was running down thousands more, then she found herself on the top of the castle.

How, could one running up but ended up under? And how could one running down but ended up above?

The doors! Some doors were plain empty, some were filled with trash, some was filled with deadly plants or weird creatures. Some doors just plainly shoot a train of bullets when opened.

Alice was on her knees. It hit her so bad that time; she's never going out. She's. Forever. Here. She's going to die. Period.

BEEP

"H-Huh!?" Alice gasped and suddenly, her body stood up against her will, and she was walking fast. Her body moved as if it had known every traps, every bullets that were shot, carefully stepping away from bobby traps, and stopped inside a grand kitchen.

"…Kitchen. All those awesome moves got me to a freaking kitchen." She growled, but huffed as she gazed around. It was as wide as a tennis court, the counters were circling the dining tables, like Italian dining rooms. The utensils were very advanced, and they had three fridges.

Alice checked and learnt that each fridges kept specific ingredients. They even had a fire-oven to bake!

"I'm hungry."

"Whoa!" Alice gasped as she finally noticed the boy sticking his face to the dining table.

"Hungry, so hungry…so, very, hungry. It's a minute late for lunch!" he whined. "What kind of maid are you? How can you let your masters late for lunch!?"

Alice swallowed, then furrowed her eyebrows. What's the big deal again? One minute late? Before she could retort, the boy started to wail again.

"Hungry, hungry, hungryyy! I'm dying! Oh…this is it!"

"Wh-Whoa! Hold on!" Alice gasped and frantically searched the Veggie Fridge, taking out a celery and mayonnaise, dipped a slice of it and stuffed one into the boy's mouth.

The boy slowly munched, and hummed. "Aahh…I've never…When was the last time I ate celery…" he then gasped. "Oh. MY. GOD. I'M EATING VEGETABLES!?"

"Wh-What!? Don't tell me you have an allergic!" Alice grimaced, stepping back.

"No, no, it's just that…I've been eating instant food for years…" the boy sighed and reached for more celery and dipped them to the mayo. "This kind of snack is actually good! Ha! Martha should have learnt!" he then frowned at her. "Hey! Do you think this is enough? I'm not a hamster! Cook something!"

Alice gasped and glared at him. "Now, why should I—WHOA!" Alice felt her body moved against her again, running towards the counter, standing before the fridge.

She tried to budge, but her body won't move.

She then glanced at the boy, who nodded his head to the fridge.

"You have to do your order, if you want your control over your body back." He explained, munching celery nonchalantly. "Until you cook enough lunch for everyone, you can't get out of this kitchen."

Alice groaned, finding that he's not lying. She then opened the fridge and scanned, while her mind was searching for recipes.

"I don't understand everything!" she said. "What's going on here? How on earth did I end up being a maid?"

"It's rather a simple story…" she heard the boy explained while munching. "So simple that it's very irritating."

Alice snorted and took some rice flour along with some ounce of beef. She sighed and tried to calm herself down. She wanted her control back…she had to do this! She then started to neatly cut the meat while the rice flour was mixing.

The girl then realized she just bumped to the boy.

"What are you making?" he asked.

"Bibingka and Rendang. They're South-Asian cuisines." She explained curtly.

"It looks fun…May I?" he offered to take care of the rice flour, and she nodded nonchalantly.

The girl was rather shocked as she saw him tapped a panel that appeared to be a SmartTV, and he searched for a Bibingka Recipe. That wasn't the most shocking of him. He just read it carefully for a minute, and then started to take care of everything expertedly.

"Y-You're surprisingly good…umm…" Alice hummed, trying to remember if he had told her his name.

"I'm Boris." He said, smirking. "I really love eating; sometimes I have to cook for myself when we have to wait for a new maid…I've been doing this since I'm a kid."

"No wonder." The girl shrugged.

It took an hour until the sweet cake Bibingka was ready, and the Rendang was soft enough (in reality, it should take hours to cook Rendang perfectly. Leave it to the advanced utensils, though). When the two served the cuisines to the table, they noticed Julius had been standing, leaning on the door frame observantly.

Alice pointed a ladle at him. "YOU!"

"Yes, me."

"You kidnapped me."

"I did."

"I can't accept this!"

"You've got no choice." Julius boredly said and gestured her to take a seat. "King Henry chose your profile himself, I had no choice myself."

Alice reluctantly sat down and glared at the navy-head. Boris was busy filling his plate.

"Chose my profile? What do you mean?"

Julius cleared his throat. "I'll explain. You see, we've got information about everyone living in the country." He started. "The reason is, because King Henry—"

"King Henry." Alice deadpanned. "You're not saying—"

"Yes, the King Henry himself." Julius cut off again. "This place is called Trick Heart Castle, a hiding quarter to the Royal Family. Yes, Royal Family. Explains why we have all information about the country. Next, I have to pile out good women with house-work abilities as candidates, and that's where he chose you."

"So from now on, you're the new maid of the Trick Heart Castle." Julius ended up the first phase of his speech, as the lady's jaw had fallen to the dining table.

"But…what the, I…I don't…!"

"And now, your maid-outfit. Your maid outfit is—"

"What outfit!?" Alice looked down at her attire for the first time, and her eyes widened. "Wha—WHO CHANGED MY CLOTHES!?" she shrieked, instantly crossed her arms over her chest in shame.

"Right." Julius sighed. "So, that outfit you're wearing is special. I'm sure you've noticed that it's heavy. Yes, because inside it was a tracker and it was made with the thinnest titanium in some spots to control your movement."

"The masters of this castle have their voices installed to that outfit. Once you're given an order, you won't be able to move until you agree to work until you're done. Each room also has a service button to call you automatically, so that outfit would take you there quickly and safely. Plus, I know wherever you are, because I'm the one who's in charge to observe you."

Unacceptable, obviously. Crazy, that's for sure. For the starter, this Castle was already dangerous as it is, she even almost give up on getting out. Next, after all that dangerous stuff, she's stuffed into a maid-outfit that controls her body. How the heck did her daily life was turned upside down all of the sudden!?

"Smells good! OH! Alice! You're still alive!" Alice winced as the Tweedles care-freely entered the kitchen. "We thought you're dead crap already! Anyways, Boris, what's that?" Dee asked, pointing at the meat covered with spices.

"This is Rendang." Boris curtly said. "The last one."

"Hey! You can't do that!" Dum gasped angrily.

"The last one on the plate." Alice added. "Still more on the stove. Try Bibingka, though."

Julius stared at her, humming in his mind. She had unconsciously started to adapt within some hours—she's casually talking to the Tweedles about food—which was kind of impressive. Usually the old maids would spend a week running around until they gave in, but this young girl had calmed down since she cooked the lunch.

"So, how do I get out?" Alice suddenly asked, and the whole kitchen froze again.

Julius cleared his throat. "You'll be given permission to get out, only if you sign this." He put down a contract on the table. Alice read it carefully and twitched.

The contract much or less sentenced her to serve until she's dead. She'd be allowed to get out but for a certain period of time.

"I ain't signing this!" Alice yelled. "I wasn't looking forward to that! Who would want a future as a servant!? You can't do this to me!"

"Fine~" she turned to the Tweedles, who were enjoying their meat. "Then try to get out of here yourself, if you won't sign that contract so badly…"

Alice slammed her hands to the dining table angrily. "I'm sure as hell would try! Watch me!" she snorted and stomped out of the dining room, fuming with wrath. But then, she blinked and stepped back, poking her head. "But just in case…where do I sleep?"

"You'll be automatically assigned to sleep in a determined time and period. Your outfit will take you there." Julius explained, and the girl groaned.

She couldn't even sleep as she want!

Just see to it! She'll get out of here…

"That was delicious…" Boris said, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

Dee sobbed. "This is the first time we eat real meat after years!"

"Yeah…felt like yesterday how Miss Martha fed us instant stuff all years…" Dum hummed nostalgically.

"Uh-huh." Boris nodded. "It'd be awful if you two killed her with that Iron Man weapon. She has many sweet recipes up her sleeve."

~.X.~

Alice sighed as she laid in bed. It was already time for her to sleep but she still couldn't a way out.

The castle just kept on changing patterns, and her maid-outfit dragged her to her room by 10 AM. Seriously, who do they think she was? A ten years old prat?

She's really starting to doubt she would ever escape.

But really, she was tired and sleepy her eyes were dropping.

She'll find out what to do tomorrow. For now...

She'll just sleep...

...Pray she's not dead in her sleep. She had no choice but to sleep with one eye open...

Bee: Alriiight, this is the second chapter, what do you think, Cat?

Cat: I still can't believe White's a pervert but guess that's that... I hope the readers enjoy this 'cause I sure did~!