Chapter 4: Animal-Fetish Substance
Alice slapped herself literally as she pushed the food trolley away from the Jokers' room.
"Coming back after serving the others…!?" she mumbled. "Why am I obeying their orders? What the hell, Alice." She sighed in disbelief.
Suddenly, her body moved to the left, and was bent until she could kiss her knees, dodging lasers coming out of the walls.
Her maid outfit stopped its job, and Alice gasped as she returned her posture.
"If it's not because I'm a Black-Belt, I'd broke my limbs from this Goddamn maid outfit!" she yelled, knowing that Julius might be listening. She kept grumbling as she continued to the next master.
And then, she stopped before a door with the name tag; Dr. Nightmare. Ah, so that's his name. Alice noted this once more and gulped. The word 'doctor' and the name 'Nightmare' was not a beautiful combination.
Then again, which one was that Nightmare guy again? The Crazy Inventor or the Lab Freak?
"Um…he ordered the Danish stuff…" Alice muttered, preparing the tray and knocked the door."Sir, er du derinde? Jeg har bragt din morgenmad."
The door was opened, slamming aside, and Alice was faced with atoms framework.
"Skabe det atomer rammer Hydrogen Peroxide!" she heard a man's voice from inside.
"Goddammit." Alice twitched. "I don't know anymore Danish and I'm not good at Chemistry." She mumbled, and then sighed. "Oh well, I can't go anywhere, and I can't go in. I'll just sleep on the floor then—whoa—"
Her body suddenly moved, and her hands started to combine the frames into whatever shape the Hydrogen Peroxide was—she didn't even know what she's doing.
"Aww! Yes! That's it! You may come in."
Alice glanced to the CCTV on the corner of the small room. "Thanks, Jule. Thanks a bunch. I'm so happy." She cynically said in a bitter tone. The next door was opened, and then another door blocked her way.
"Are you serious!?" she screeched, and glared at the rails.
"This is the last, I promise!" the man's voice was heard again. "You have to use one of the substances prepared on your right…"
Alice glanced to her right, and found a case filled with five chemical tubes.
"…To break the bars and open the door!" he ended his explanation.
SCREECH…CLANK!
Nightmare Gottschalk was pale, and he gotten paler as the woman had broke into his chamber, practically just breaking the bars with her bare hands.
"Don't play around with me." Alice deadpanned in fury, and slammed the breakfast tray onto a bed. "I'm out of here." She turned away, stomping.
GLOMP
"Wait, wait…that was amazing! You're a Super Human!" Nightmare caught her feet.
"Hey! Get off me!" Alice yelled.
"I want you to help me in my projects!" Nightmare yelled, and Alice abruptly stopped.
Her maid outfit would listen to the master's orders.
"Goddamn maid outfit!" the lady grumbled, pulling her skirts which stubbornly stayed. She turned to Nightmare, crossing her arms. "What? I'm not good with Chemistry!"
"That's alright! My rabbits and monkeys aren't good with it too." Nightmare smiled, nodding to a pile of dead animals in his room.
Alice twitched and gulped. "What…Whoa, whoa! I am NOT going to be your test subject! Let-me-out-of…goddamn outfit!" she couldn't budge her body. "Julius! I'm about to die here! Do something!"
Nightmare was busy searching through his racks of chemical tubes, and then squealed a loud; "Aha!" as he returned with a tube filled with eerie-looking, neon colored substance. "Drink this!"
Alice clamped her mouth shut.
Nightmare sighed and suddenly drank it.
"What…?" Alice gaped, and the second she opened her mouth, Nightmare came forth to her face and—
"MMMMPPPHHH!"
SMACK
"Aaargh!" the two shrieked. Alice from getting mouth-forced drink, and Nightmare from getting head-butted.
"Why did you do that!?" Nightmare cried, rubbing his pained forehead.
"You kissed me! How dare you! That was a sexual harassment! Shame on you!" the lady frantically tried to catch Nightmare, who dodged in hurry.
"I was just helping you to drink it! That wasn't a kiss!" Nightmare protested.
"You're poisoning me you son of a—Ouch! My body's burnt!" Alice cried as she felt her body was burning. She shrieked as her body started emitting gases.
"Ho! It works!" Nightmare laughed. "Muahahahaha! It works! I'm a genius! Ahahaha!"
Alice fell silent.
…
Nightmare kept laughing as Alice stared down herself.
She had shrunk into a kid's body.
"…What. The. Heck." She deadpanned, and then screamed; "What did you do to me!? Nooo! I've spent my life trying to get taller, you goddamn jerk!" she kicked his shin and he shrieked in pain.
"Owww! You're still a Black-Belt despite in a kid's body!" Nightmare sobbed. Noticing the murderous look of the lady…the little girl, Nightmare ran to search through his racks again.
"Aha! Drink this one!" He exclaimed, holding up a red-chemical substance in a tube. Alice snatched it, glaring at him. "It will return you back to your normal body!"
Alice didn't think twice as she gulped the whole substance.
"…Hopefully." Nightmare added, and Alice choked.
"Cough…Cough…WHAT!?" the little girl frantically tried to throw out the substance, but it was too late. "What was that!? You freaking jerk! What if I die—Aack!"
The little girl shrieked as she saw a tail was waving around her. The girl stared at her hands that had turned into paws, and she tapped her head to find cat's ears growing.
"WHAAAAT!?"
"Oh…Uh-oh. I mistook it with the Animal-Fetish Substance." Nightmare facepalmed.
CRASH
"Why the heck do you made that kind of chemical!?" Alice threw the tube right to his head.
Nightmare cried. "Wha—I'm sorry! I mean it sells very well in Japan! They like girls with animal ears, you know!?"
"I don't wanna hear it! Grow me back!"
"O-Okay, here's the right one!" Nightmare stuttered out and handed a different red-substance. The girl glared at him, and he gulped.
"I swear that's the right one—but only drink half of it, unless you want to be an old woman." He added. The girl took a deep breath and carefully drunk the substance.
"Wh—Whoa!" Alice gasped as she felt her body was pulled, and she returned to her normal height. The lady sighed, and then glared at her paws. "You got to have the antidote for this, right? You're selling this stuff!"
"Oh, of course!" Nightmare smiled proudly. "I always put it in the package, in case someone orders!" he said, walking to his fridge and pulled out a box.
He froze.
"What." Alice deadpanned.
"Uhm…I've sold them all out." Nightmare nervously said.
Alice twitched. "Go and make more!"
"Wh-What—B-but…But it spends a week to make it! A-And I need to order the ingredients since I've run out of them—D-Don't kill me!" Nightmare cried as Alice was emitting murderous aura.
"I…can't…go around…with cat's ears." She howled darkly. Fire started in the background, her eyes gleaming with wrath. Nightmare swallowed and nervously pulled back.
"You kissed me and poisoned me, and then turned me into a half cat…you freaking kissed me…you…you…" her paws twitched.
Claws grew from her paws.
Nightmare gulped.
The maid prepared to jump on him, ripping his face off.
"I'M SO SICK OF ALL THI—aaaargh! No! Let me kill him!" she shrieked, as her maid outfit moved her out of the room.
Nightmare sighed in relief and took one of the Frikadeller from the tray. "Thank God, bless you Julius Monrey. I saw a Grim Ripper just now."
~.X.~
Alice stared at the next door, not amused. Her cat's ears twitched, her tail swished. The name plate said; Ace. There was a note on it, and there was written;
I'm taking a walk outside on 7 PM. If this note is still here when you find it, that means I'm lost.
"Oh, he's lost." Alice nodded. "To hell with this—aargh! No! I'm not going out with these ears and tail—nyaaa!" she shrieked, planting her claws to the carpet on the corridors, with her feet were trying to walk away.
"What are you doing to my precious carpet, mortal?" Blood in his glorious entrance with falling flowers and sparkling background asked in the snobbish voice of his, glaring down onto the woman on the carpet.
"Miaaaaw! I don't wanna go find that Ace whoever he is!" she whined, claws planted onto the carpet.
Blood blinked, noticing the tail and the ears. He raised in eyebrows in interest.
Alice resisted the urged to groan or sigh as she tried desperately tried to keep a hold of the carpet with her claws. Her cat ears twitched instead.
"How come you obtain those amusing cat's features?" Blood asked haughtily, crossing his arms.
She really didn't have the time to talk right now.
"The carpet costs a billion. It's been passed from Middle Age, and you're ruining it, filthy mortal. With your filthy…mortal paws and claws." the male inquired in a bored tone, walking towards the maid. "Now, remove your hand…or paws, I suppose." He ordered, tapping his expensive Italian shoe.
"No way in—nyaa! What the—eep!" the lady widened her eyes as little by little, her fingers removed themselves to the floor and when the last finger gave up, her feet automatically walk away with her body.
"NOOOO!"
Blood watched in slight amusement as Alice kept on trying to her own body from going anywhere. Though, his eyes focused on those ears and tails of hers longer than any.
"That body is perfect for my new design." Blood said in glee with a smirk that promised something bad for a certain heroine…like collars…with chains...and whip.
But then, he glanced in annoyance at the door Alice was staring before, as a frown found its way to his angel-carved face.
"That impudent painter." Blood glared to nothing in particular. "Who does he think he is, making Me wait?"
~.X.~
"Stupid maid outfit! Stupid narcissistic jerk with god complex! Stupid Lab Freak! Stupid useless cat appendixes! Stupid Julius!" Alice whined loudly, not caring if someone heard her as she found herself lost the forest, going on and on in a circle.
The maid outfit also didn't seem to know where the man named Ace was. Plus, it was quite heavy.
The young lady huffed and her outfit allowed her to stop for a while.
"Where is that idiot?!" she hissed impatiently, kicking a pebble on the ground.
Alice knew not to judge people who she didn't meet yet, but she was sure the other was in fact an idiot since the man walked in the dark forest in the night and was still not back now in the morning.
Though, it did look easy to get lost in the forest like what happened to her now.
"How wide is this castle's area anyway?" she asked to no one, despite she knew that Julius was listening. "Don't tell me you have mountains too! I don't want to pick up a brat from a mountain!"
The maid sighed in dismay and looked at anything that could tell her where she was, but saw nothing but trees and trees.
"Agh!" she glared fiercely at a large leaf as a said leaf suddenly appeared and slapped her by the face. Her ears twitched again.
Though, it appeared like her tail was enjoying itself by the way it moved back and forth.
She glared at that useless extension as well.
"This is stupid! I'm going—nyeep!" she yelped as the ground she was standing slowly sunk and she fixed her claws to a bark tree. "Quicksand?!"
Alice could feel her hold weakening as she kept on sinking and she closed her eyes.
"Oh no! I'm going to die! I can see it now! Alice Liddel, died at the age of 18, by sinking to a quicksand in her master's forest! I haven't even written any will yet! And…and…I haven't gotten married! I was harassed! I can't believe I'm going to die after getting kissed by a lab freak! Oh Christ, please take me to Your side!" she cried out and waited for something to happen when she felt…being lifted?
"Eh?" she blinked in surprise and saw her cat tail holding a strong branch of a near tree and keeping her body in the air, like a monkey with its tail.
Alice did a back flip, landing on her two feet and grabbed her tail in gratefulness, bringing it to an embrace.
"Thank you! Thank you tail! You're not useless after all!" she squeaked gleefully while her ears purred.
Then, she let it go and snapped her fingers—er, claws?—as a light bulb appeared above her head.
"If my tail can be used like how an animal uses it—" the lady held her ears with a smug grin. "—I can use my cat ears to hear what normal people can't hear!"
Alice closed her eyes and calmed her breathing. She focused in hearing her surroundings and her ears jerked.
She could hear the sound of the wind swishing, the humming of the bird, and the wailing of fearful animal—wait, that's a man's voice, not animal…
…He was screaming; "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY FUCKING ROOM!"
Alice opened her left ear and raised and twitched, recognizing the voice (it didn't take a genius to figure whose scream was that). She shook her head, closing eyes and getting back to her task.
She heard the sound of a lovely music, the happy howls of a herd of predators and…the sound of a pair of boots running.
She smiled in success. Her tail swished.
"Found him!" Alice shouted happily, her legs already running towards the sound.
She ran to the left and removed some tall grass and saw the one wearing the boots…
"Finally found y—eep! A bear?!" she quickly turned back and ran for her life as the bear, who was really wearing a man's boots, chased after her.
"Oh my god! Oh my god! I'm really going to get killed now! I'm going to—gaah!" Alice screamed in fear, not noticing her surroundings and falling into a cliff.
~.X.~
"—up! Wake up!" someone unfamiliar shouted, causing Alice to slowly open her eyes and see a man holding onto her.
"Eh? Am I in heaven?" she asked, still in dazed from her sleep.
The position was just perfect. He was staring at her with the sun behind his back, creating an angelic aura, adding charm to the stranger's perfect face. She couldn't help but gape. Well, Blood, Nightmare…Jokers…even the Tweedles were all handsome…but the angel…he was…enchanting.
The man chuckled loudly and set the maid down.
"If that is so, then I might be wearing the wrong attire." he joked and Alice finally snapped out of it and slightly blushed at her mistake.
Who's she kidding? There couldn't possibly an 'angel' in this damned place. She snorted in her mind.
"Name's Ace and it's nice to meet the new maid. Alice, right?" Ace introduced himself like a normal person, making the female almost cry from the normality and held out a hand.
"It's nice to meet you too, and yes, it's Alice." Alice held his hand with her own, sending a bright smile to Ace and then, widened her eyes in remembering her previous meeting with a certain animal. "Did you saw—ahh!"
Her ears picked up the sound of a pair of boots and the lady knew not to make a mistake. She hid behind the man who seemed confused at her actions and waited for the dangerous bear to come out.
Speaking of which…why was a bear wearing a pair of boots, again?
"Focus, Alice! Uh…Um…I wonder if I can use Chikyo-Chagi to break its neck…but what if that freaking bear is a pet here?" she glared at Ace. "If it comes…I-If it comes…I…I don't know. Uhh…p-pretend to be dead!" she took Ace's shoulders and shook them frantically. "Pretend to be dead, okay!?"
Minutes later, still nothing happened.
Ace was about to speak up when a furious bear came out of nowhere and went for the two figures.
"Waaah! Aah! No! Save me Jesus!" Alice shrieked behind Ace, completely forgetting about playing dead. She shut her mouth.
Alice silently waited with eyes shut closed for the impact or the sharpness of either a claw or a fang in her body, when…
…nothing happened.
She slowly opened her eyes and was shocked to see the bear cowering in fear at the sight of the man beside her.
Ace smiled sweetly at the animal which caused him to run away like if it stayed it would die.
"What just happened?" she blinked in confusion and narrowed her eyes to the man who chuckled like it was a normal occurrence.
"I don't get it too. I think he's in love with me or something." The brunet shrugged. "Well, I can't help it. I am, after all, quite handsome." Ace chuckled humorously. "Or maybe beautiful! Maybe I look like a beautiful bear…" he blinked, and turned to Alice. "Do I look like a beautiful bear?" he asked her.
"Okay, so he's not normal after all." Alice muttered to herself and sighed in dismay, ignoring his question.
"So Alice, why do you have cat ears, tail and claws?" Ace asked with a friendly smile but then laughed as a thought came to him. "Don't tell me Nighty got you to drink one of his Animal-Fetish Substance?"
Alice laughed at the nickname for the lab freak.
"Yeah." she then nodded truthfully and felt a little pout in her lips at being wrong that Ace was an idiot.
"Haha! Don't worry! That always happens to me!"
Okay so he was an idiot after all.
Alice sweat-dropped and grabbed the meal she made. Though, she did wondered how she still had them after that many chapters in life, in the first place.
"Here, your food for the morning." she gave him a meal consisting of a fried fish, rice, eggs and coffee. "You have Sinangag with Sunnyside eggs on top and Tuyo on the side, also to finish it off, Kapeng Barako!"
She served the breakfast on the grassy ground, as if they were on a picnic.
Ace's eyes twinkled in delight at her words and without a second thought; he quickly joined her on the grass and consumed the food presented to him.
"Delicious!" he uttered in glee and thankfulness, making Alice raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" she asked curiously. "They're quite simple…But then again, Boris acted worse than you did. He was like; I love you! You know that? And I was just cooking the normal American breakfast." Alice shrugged, giggling to herself.
Ace just grinned ear-to-ear and continued eating contently. Alice watched him eating, and for some reason, she remembered how Boris enjoyed them as well. How White was so excited finding his Ramyun…and the Tweedles too.
She had been alone most of the time, so she didn't have much chance to cook for others. It kinda made her happy that people enjoyed her cooking.
She was staring off blankly, thinking about life, not realizing that she was standing up.
"Bye, Alice!" he said, making her confused. He continued to enjoy Kapeng Barako, while waving to her with one hand.
It was then Alice noticed how her legs were trying to walk away from Ace, walking back to the Castle.
"Huh?!" she shrieked as she realized she was going to serve someone else again.
Ace watched her leave, smiling all the way as he finished his food. However, the bright smile slowly faded away. His friendly aura turned cloudy.
He replaced them with a dangerous aura, and a dark smirk found its way to his face.
"Surprisingly an interesting object for art. I love those eyes…" his gaze was a little hazy at the mention of her eyes. "…Dirty blonde wasn't common; not the most beautiful hair color, but perfect for her eyes…"
He chuckled darkly, tapping his cheeks with his fingers.
"Paint? Carve? …Or maybe if she's worth it…" Ace had a cruel smirk. "She can come to my room."
~.X.~
Alice stared at wherever her stupid outfit moved her and found herself smiling a little, pushing her trolley which she found randomly waiting in front of castle.
Oddly enough, she was…in a quite good mood. Her tail was swishing happily, her ears twitched now and then. She stopped in front of a door, finally.
The nameplate said; Vivaldi.
"Another female at last!"
Cat: Simple dish…is my fault! Please don't hate me but I like that dish! Also, I'm sorry for late updates! *on her knees like Bee from last chapter* And you guys better not complain about the late updates, you hear me? *glares then smile* Hope you enjoyed it!
Bee: Wow, Cat, you're quite bipolar…*shivers* Like Ace. So yeah, guys! Cat's worked hard for this chapter! Leave some comments if you want another chapter of this…We'll see you in the next chapter!