Chapter Two: I'm Seeing Red
Wonderland. The kingdom no one had dared to talk about in recent years. The one that lurks right below the surface. A dark world of mystery and magic.
"Subjects of Wonderland, you have one minute to comply with Her Majesty's curfew, or else!" a tiny speaker announced. Hundreds of citizens, all wearing the same red uniform, turned in sync and went into their identical cottages, locking their doors.
Its ruler, the Queen of Hearts, had a reputation for being downright ruthless. Ever since Mal had been crowned and welcomed in heroes, ever since the rabbit hole had been sealed, the kingdom had changed. No longer a land filled with whimsy and chaos, now Wonderland had strict rules and procedures. And a singular color palette: red. Put a toe out of line, and it was off with your head.
There's only oner person who dared to resist the Queen's orders, the only one who could without having her neck chopped. And that was her very own daughter, Princess Red.
She was a rebel, a menace, a one-girl riot. She slipped through the shadows of the kingdom in her red leather suit, matching the red world around her, as if she were ultraviolet. She had an appetite for destruction, a devil on her shoulder, and he wouldn't be quiet.
Her mother may be evil but Red preferred to be wicked, an agent of chaos.
She passed countless hearts decorating the walls, but she knew there was no love in the streets of Wonderland.
She slid against a wall, just missing the guards. Checking to make sure her black hood was still up, and her mask of little hearts covered her face, she moved forward on the path of destruction as the castle's clock chimed midnight.
The roses in the Royal Plaza went first, losing their heads like her mother's subjects. Then she stared down the large portrait hanging on a tower right by the entrance to the palace.
Red's prison.
This is gonna be fun, she thought with a smirk.
The balloon filled with paint soared through the night, hitting the Queen of Heart's picture right in the face. Scarlet splattered, dripping down, ruining the image.
Tonight, Red was going berserk, lighting up the kingdom like fireworks, till all anyone could see was red.
She smashed the dark vases on pedestals with a sledgehammer next. The crashing pottery alerted the night watchman, and a spotlight suddenly shined into the plaza
"Vandal!"
Red ducked into a red rose hedge that was shaped like a heart, crouching in the V. She watched Jack of Diamonds, the headguard with long blond hair, gather the card guards who stomped over the mess she'd made, never breaking rank.
She got closer, hiding behind the other hedges, until she'd reached the back of the group.
"Soldiers at the ready!" Jack yelled.
Everyone saluted. "Sir, yes, sir!"
"The Queen's not very friendly."
"That's for sure!"
Red rolled her eyes at this display. Everyone in Wonderland followed the crown blindly, with their fists in the air and boots on the ground. Sometimes all she heard was the marching outside of her window.
But tonight, she was breaking in and she hoped they would call the guards. She may be the Princess of Hearts but not after dark.
Red struck a match against the red brick ground and lit a sparkly firecracker. Embers scorched her skin as she rolled it into the guards' ranks, her feet booking it the moment it left her hand. She scurried up a hidden staircase and watched all the fireworks she'd set before going off, showering the guards with stinging red sparks. Jack, though, didn't move. He was looking right at her as she smiled at what she'd created, not bothering to hide.
Everyone would know she was on the path of destruction after this.
"Seize her!" he yelled, and the guards sprinted over to the palace wall.
She ran, tossing more firecrackers behind her. The guards flinched but their boots were still thundering after her.
Adrenaline made her veins sing and, for the first time in a long time, Red felt alive. She didn't want her life ruled by some queen. If her mom ever looked her in the eye, she would see the fire burning in her soul. The fire that wanted to burn down all the rules and restrictions till all anyone could see was red.
She leapt off the wall. For a moment she was weightless…
All too soon, she rolled onto a lower tower, looking back at the guards stuck on the wall who didn't have her gymnastic abilities. Her mask and hood had fallen off, but she didn't care. She gave them a red lip smile and continued running.
Jack led the guards after her. "Up all night!"
"Right, left, right!"
"Never question orders, protect the queen's borders, or we'll pay the price!" Jack swallowed hard, looking up at the bloody castle "It's either off with their heads or its off with our heads."
"Get the girl," the guards muttered. "Get the girl!"
Jack had climbed the tower Red was running on, cornering her against the edge. He smirked, watching her glance back and seeing she was out of road.
But Red just waved before backflipping off the edge. Quick as the White Rabbit, she pulled out a dagger stashed in her boot and plunged it into her mother's portrait, sliding down slower and slower till she landed on the ground with barely a bruise.
Jack banged his fist against the ramparts of the tower, snarling.
Red vanished, running through dark alleys, leading the guards on a chase around the palace and through the nearby town. There were countless near misses and Red went in circles that made her dizzy.
Finally, a road spit her back into the Royal Plaza. But the boots were still thundering, and she knew she couldn't keep running forever, especially as the night grew darker.
She yanked a burning torch off the wall, shoving it toward the shadows, but it did little to help. The guards up on the towers were sweeping spotlights across the grounds. She felt stones press into her back as she stepped toward the palace.
No where left to run…
Her coat was suddenly yanked up and Red felt her feet leave the ground. Startled, the torch fell out of her hands, snuffed out. Jack found it moments later, furious, knowing Red would never be found.
The giant mechanical hand that had plucked Red into the sky moved and dropped her through a square trap door in yet another tower.
"Maddox!" Red bellowed as she fell, smashing into the plush couch at the bottom of the hole. She pushed her hair out of her eyes to glare at the eclectic genius, pulling off the glove that allowed him to control his mechanical creation.
"Those guards could've dragged you to the dungeon, Red." Maddox was glaring at her.
Red breathed a sigh of relief, giggling slightly.
"What were you thinking?"
"That my mom's portrait could use a little touch up."
She looked around his workshop, at the table filled with half-finished ideas to the shelves with various trinkets. In the back was a whirring processor that provided all of Wonderland internet access (that had been a long debate with the Queen). It was the only place she could be herself. Everywhere else she was the 'Princess of Wonderland.' But here she could just be…Red.
"I am seriously worried about you," Maddox hissed. But he still walked over to his banged-up kitchenette and turned the kettle on.
"I hope she likes it." She couldn't stop smiling. Of all her pranks and subtle mischief-making, this was by far her best one yet.
Maddox flipped on his plaid top hat as the kettle hissed. He set two large teacups onto the table by his mismatched chairs with a bowl of sugar for Red and a small pitcher of milk for both of them. "If you continue down this path, I won't always be there to save you. You know that right?"
"You know you can't save me." Red fell into her usual chair, the one with the fluffy pillow and checkered print. "I'm a prisoner of Wonderland, a lost cause."
"You are not a lost cause," he shot back, taking a box off the counter and placing it next to the teacups that he'd filled with hot water. "I wouldn't have taken this job as your tutor if I thought you were a lost cause. I want to prepare you for your future."
Red scoffed.
"And as your friend," Maddox's voice softened, "I want you to have one."
She glanced over at him, her only friend. Maddox had become an older brother to her after he'd taken this job four years ago, right after he'd finished his years at Her Majesty's College of Wonderland. He was the only person Red had ever been honest with.
"What future, Mads?" she asked earnestly. "I literally have the most controlling Mom ever. We can't leave Wonderland, maybe forever, thanks to her."
"I know it hasn't been easy growing up with a mother so…" Maddox sighed. They'd discussed this countless times. "So particular."
Red rolled her eyes. "She just wants me to be the next queen like her. All stuffy and confined, following twenty different rules for eating breakfast. And I'm sick of it! I don't want to be Queen. I just…. I want to be in charge of my own life. But what I want doesn't matter to her."
"You know, I've heard she wasn't always this way. That she used to be…different. But something happened, something changed her."
Red just sighed, picking at her nails.
"Maybe this will help. My dad just sent me a care package with a new tea."
Red smiled at his distraction while her heart twisted. The Mad Hatter had been banished and kicked out of Wonderland for protesting the rabbit hole closing. Maddox hadn't seen him in years but they had found cracks in the slats so they could send mail through.
"What kind of tea?"
Maddox held up the box so he could read the label. "It says 'M Tea.'"
He flipped open the box and laughed. Red sat up so she could look inside and saw the box was completely empty.
"Em-pty indeed," Red chuckled. She missed the Hatter.
Maddox, thankfully, had some earl grey for emergencies and put the teabags into their cups. Red dumped in the mountain of sugar and looked around the workshop. "So, what have you been working on lately?"
Her tutor suddenly got shifty, not meeting her eyes, mumbling something about it not being important.
"Ooh, a secret!" Red immediately leaned forward. "Tell me, tell me, tell me!"
Maddox glanced at the ceiling through his pastel purple bangs. "I wasn't going to…until you were older."
"You can't just say that and not show me!"
He looked back at her. A smile slowly spread across his face. "I finished it."
Led over to the worktable by a giggling Maddox, Red looked at the small object covered by a silk cloth. With great showmanship, he put his hand on her shoulder, keeping her back, and whipped off the fabric, revealing a glittering gold pocket watch with swirling numbers on the face, going in a spiral, the edges decorated by the card suit symbols.
"My time machine!" Maddox announced.
Red's eyes widened. She glanced at him then back at the watch.
"It takes you to the moment in time that can give you what your heart truly desires," Maddox explained. He turned to her, deadly serious. "I've been working on this for the last four years, ever since I met you. If you really want a different life, Red, I want you to have that choice.
"But I should warn you, when you alter the fabric of time, there can be some unpredictable consequences."
Red pondered what he'd said then shrugged. "Think I can live with that."
She reached forward to grab the watch, but Maddox's hand was faster. "Everything could change! You could lose your mother, lose your life, entirely."
He took the watch off its stand. "It's too dangerous. Not yet. Perhaps… when you're more mature."
Then it disappeared into one of the many pockets in his coat. Red watched him, hand still stretched out. She made a noise of disappointment.
"I know you're frustrated, but I'm trying to look out for you. I care about you very much."
Red softened, smiling at her best friend. Her arms stretched out and she walked across the room, hugging him tight. Maddox hesitated before hugging her back.
"Thanks, Mads." She pulled back and gave him a melancholy shrug. "At least someone still does."
Suddenly, they both heard Jack's booming voice. "Search the castle!"
Boots sounded overhead, closing in.
Red's face paled and she looked at Maddox who was hiding shaking hands. "If the Queen finds out I'm harboring a fugitive, I'll lose my head. And if she finds out you're the fugitive…"
Red couldn't even imagine what she'd do.
"You need to get out of here, Red!"
She huffed, fake-glaring at him. "I dare you to make me."
Maddox just smirked. "As you wish, Princess."
He gave a flourishing bow his mad father had taught him before pushing a small button on his wristwatch that told the wrong time.
Now Red actually glared at him as a large tube lowered over her head. "What did I say about calling me princess?"
The tube's suction yanked her hair up first and Red screeched as it pulled the rest of her body up. Maddox sighed in relief as she went, finally having time to drink his tea.
Red, meanwhile, was knocked around the network of tubes Maddox had set up and deposited onto her oversized heart-shaped bed in her room. The tube over her head vanished into the ceiling, its job complete.
And so was hers. She rolled over, pushing off checkered pillows, and pulled out Maddox's pocket watch from her jacket pocket. The time machine ticked in her hands, and she could see her reflection in the crystal face. She placed her thumb on top, finally ready to change her life…
'But I should warn you. You could lose your mother entirely."
Red swallowed hard and slipped the watch back in her pocket. Maybe tomorrow would be different.