Alister jumped backwards, and Tweedledee’s axe hit the ground in front of him, and with such force that clumps of dirt were sent flying up into the air and a small crater was left behind. Even though these girls appeared young they had incredible strength for some reason. “You two are crazy!” Alister complained breathlessly.

“No, we’re not,” Tweedledee started in a teasing tone and gave her twin an expectant look.

“We’re mad!” Tweedledum finished with an insane giggle.

Alister took off running. Shit, shit, shit! He was in a real pickle here. If all this was just a dream, now would be a really good time to wake up.

“Come back, Alister!” Tweedledee called after him.

“We promise to turn your head into a trophy,” Tweedledum said.

“If that will make you feel better!” Tweedledee finished.

“It does not!” Alister snapped over his shoulder irritably, and continued to run for his life. The talking trees he was passing were enormous at his current height, and the forest seemed dark and foreboding to Alister. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were hot on his heels, and sadly didn’t appear to want to give up pursuit any time soon.

Any time they got close enough they swung their axes at Alister and when they missed their axes sliced through talking flowers and trees without mercy. The flowers’ and trees’ cries of pain filled Alister’s ears and he slapped his hands over his ears to block it out.

Alister swiftly ducked behind a tree in an effort to hide from the child assassins, and crouched down low. He was panting for breath and his heart was hammering inside of his chest a mile a minute. He felt close to a panic attack. Tears started to fill his eyes, making him feel even more pathetic. At this rate he was going to start hyperventilating. I can’t handle this nightmare.

Women were scary.

Women trying to decapitate him…were even worse!

Alister hugged his knees to his chest as his body started to tremble. His stomach clenched painfully due to his nerves, making him feel nauseous. “Someone, please, help me,” Alister murmured softly as hot tears began to slide down his face.

“There he is!” Tweedledee declared gleefully. A second later an axe went flying into the tree’s trunk and sliced the tree in half.

Alister stood up, wiped the tears from his eyes, and stared over the tree stump at Tweedledee and Tweedledum who were only a couple of feet away. Alister gulped and trembled as he awaited the next deadly swing from their axes. I’m so dead.

“Use your paintbrush!” Katrina’s sultry voice suddenly reached his ears.

“Katrina?” Alister looked around wildly. He was sure that he’d just heard Katrina’s voice, but he didn’t see her.

Katrina’s mouth abruptly appeared, floating in front of him. “Hurry! Take out your brush!”

Alister reached into his inner jacket pocket, and pulled out his paintbrush. “Now what?”

“Use it!” Katrina snapped in an impatient manner. “Just paint something, Silly!”

Tweedledee charged forward with her axe raised. “Eek!” Alister waved his paintbrush wildly in her direction.

A rope that was tied around her ankles appeared from out of thin air, and Tweedledee tripped the moment she tried to take another step forward. “Ah!”

Tweedledum gawked at her fallen sister in disbelief. “Sister!” She shot a heated glare Alister’s way. “Oh, you’ll pay for that!” She charged forward with her axe raised high over her head.

“Quick! Draw a mud puddle on the ground!” Katrina instructed.

Alister did as he was told and drew a circle on the ground while envisioning it to be a mud puddle.

“Now, run!” Katrina snapped.

Alister turned around and ran. The circle Alister had drawn on the ground glowed with a golden light and turned into a real mud puddle.

Tweedledum’s foot got stuck in the puddle, and she was unable to get it free. “Argh! What did you do? Get back here, Alister!”

Alister ran through the dark forest until his legs gave out and he collapsed to his knees.

“You need to keep going,” Katrina chided. “Those traps won’t keep them occupied forever.”

“I…I can’t…” Alister panted.

Katrina shifted into her cat form, and abruptly materialized in front of Alister. He took a moment to admire the otherworldly cat that had purple fur decorated with pink stripes. “Get on!” Katrina said with an air of impatience.

Alister used the last of his strength to climb up onto Katrina’s back, gripped her fur with his hands as best he could, and then they were off, heading deeper into the forest.

 ***

In the courtyard of the royal palace of the King of Hearts, the sound of a severed head dropping into a straw basket with a dull, wet thud could be heard.

The smile on Crim’s face widened devilishly. Now he had a nice full basket of heads. “Well done, Executioner,” Crim praised as he strolled over to the basket and picked it up by its handle. He glanced down at the basket full of heads thoughtfully. “Not a bad haul. There’s nothing quite like a public execution to start your day on the right foot!”

The people whose heads he’d had chopped off that morning had committed various ‘crimes’ - one man had stolen one of the raspberry tarts Katrina had made especially for him. Another had made him lose his temper during a game of croquet by winning. Another happened to be the ex-royal gardener who’d thought it might be nice to add a little color to his garden. Color! Ha! Crim inwardly crowed.

Crim only wanted one color of flower to be in his garden-

Red.

He certainly wasn’t his fruity brother, the White King, Clover.

Crim let out a sigh. It really was so hard to find good help these days. Well, that still kept their ‘free will’ anyways. The next gardener he hired he should really just rip their heart out, and control the gardener’s actions, just like how Crim controlled his loyal knights.

Then there were the Cheshire Cat slaves that had no choice but to be loyal and obedient because of the enchanted control collars around their necks. If they disobeyed a direct order from him, or any Royal in the Red Kingdom the collar would shock them and send thousands of volts of electricity coursing painfully through their veins.

Only Royals who possessed magic could use the extra command spells. One such spell was simply speaking the word ‘Constrict’, which would punish the slave by strangulation. Crim, of course, was able to use such command spells on his slaves because he possessed great magical power.

No…the Cheshire Cat People never defied him. It was his human subjects that foolishly continued to try and defy him, and usually ended up with their head no longer attached to their shoulders.

This time, Crim hadn’t had the executioner use an enchanted axe, and so their heads would remain off. Permanently. They were as dead as doornails. The thought made Crim’s smile widen sadistically.

Crim strolled his way to the stables that housed his beloved monster pets - the Bandersnatch, the Jubjub bird, and the Jabberwocky. Crim entered the stables and made his way over to the Jabberwocky’s stall, which was towards the back.

On his way, he passed the Bandersnatch’s stall. Crim’s Bandersnatch resembled a gigantic, wild boar with red fur that had black polka dots on it. Two glossy black horns curled out of the creature’s head, giving it a slightly demonic appearance. The Bandersnatch’s sharp, deadly tusks were more than a foot long.

The next stall Crim passed housed his Jubjub bird. The Jubjub bird resembled a vulture-like creature with its long neck. It was covered in beautiful red, orange and black feathers and had a black beak.

Finally, Crim reached the enormous and spacious stall that housed his beloved Jabberwocky. The Jabberwocky was a forty-foot-long, dragon-like creature with a long, serpentine neck. It had bat-like wings, sharp teeth, vicious claws, and was covered in glittering, ruby-red scales. The Jabberwocky had large, gold eyes with slit pupils. She was beautiful, and was Crim’s favorite monster pet.

He’d had Katrina paint the Jabberwocky’s black talons with red nail polish, and the nail job still looked great. Katrina may have been a lowly slave, but…she was pretty fearless when the occasion called for it. Not even the Tweedles had wanted to approach the Jabberwocky to paint her nails.

“There’s my precious Jabberwocky,” Crim cooed, using a ‘baby voice’. “You’re looking lovely and fearsome as usual. Have you grown?”

If someone overheard him talking like this…Crim would have to decapitate him or her. Crim only let his guard down and showed affection to his monster pets. Humans…were unworthy and undeserving of his affection.

“How are you doing, my precious? Are you hungry? I’ve brought you a real treat. Goodies. Yum-yums.” Crim held up the basket full of heads so that the Jabberwocky could see it.

Jabberwocky’s golden eyes glittered with interest, hunger, and appreciation. “Ooo those look yummy,” Jabberwocky started in her deep, husky voice. “I’m absolutely famished, Your Majesty.”

“Good. Here you go!” Crim tossed a head at Jabberwocky. She eagerly opened her maw, swallowed the head whole, and licked her lips. “Here have another!” Crim tossed her another head, which she quickly ate with a crunching sound.

Crim continued to feed the Jabberwocky until all the heads in the basket were gone. Afterwards, Crim pet his Jabberwocky in an affectionate manner, and scratched her under her chin, which caused her hind leg to start thumping against the ground. “Who’s a good Jabberwocky? You are,” Crim cooed happily.

“You’re too kind, Your Majesty.” Jabberwocky nuzzled her snout against Crim’s hand in a loving manner.

Their ‘bonding moment’ was interrupted when Tweedledum and Tweedledee’s images suddenly appeared in the tall, oval-shaped mirror Crim had hung in the stables for just such an occasion.

Crim spun to face their reflections. “Ah, Tweedledum, Tweedledee, I do hope you have good news to report.”

Tweedledum and Tweedledee shared a nervous look before turning to face Crim once more. “I’m afraid not, Your Majesty,” Tweedledum began tentatively.

“We failed to kill Alister,” Tweedledee admitted.

A vein at Crim’s temple throbbed in anger. “WHAT!” His face started to turn red. “How is that possible? When I sent you girls after him he should have been only 10-inches tall!”

Tweedledum gulped. “He…used his paintbrush.”

The blood slowly began to drain out of Crim’s face and he gawked at the two assassin girls. “He…what? Bloody hell.” Crim started to pace and mutter darkly to himself. “This is not good. He’s already discovered his power. He’ll be much more difficult to kill now. And sunset approaches. He can’t reach the Hatter before sunset. I should send my knights after him. Yes, my knights. But…they’d never reach him in time. Shit.” Crim’s expression turned grim and he started to absentmindedly chew on his thumbnail in worry. “Then that means…I’ve failed. Alister will get in the way of my happiness. Villains never win. Dammit!” Crim accidentally bit into his thumb causing it to bleed but he hardly noticed.

In the mirror, Tweedledum and Tweedledee fell to their hands and knees, and began to prostrate themselves before Crim as they begged for his forgiveness. “We’re so sorry! Please, forgive us!”

Crim shot them an almost bored look and waved his hand dismissively at them. “You are forgiven.” He saw Tweedledum and Tweedledee as ‘adoptive daughters’, and would never actually harm them, even if he had turned them into living weapons to be used for his own personal agendas. But, they didn’t need to know that. Their fear of him kept them nice and obedient.

The King of Hearts had discovered Tweedledum and Tweedledee in the dungeon of an evil sorcerer who’d done experiments on them, which had given them their monstrous strength. Crim had killed the sorcerer, and decided that the girls were too valuable to leave behind. They, of course, considered him to be their rescuer, and Crim allowed them to delude themselves.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee shared a surprised look. Both of them were rubbing their necks unconsciously, and probably wondering why Crim hadn’t ordered them to be beheaded for their failure.

“Allow me to go and kill Alister, Your Majesty,” Jabberwocky piped up. “I can fly there. I won’t fail you.”

Crim turned and shot Jabberwocky a shocked look. He hadn’t ordered her, and yet…here she was offering to help him of her own free will. A wide smile spread across his face. This is why he preferred animals to humans. “Thank you, my sweet Jabberwocky. If you kill Alister for me, you shall be greatly rewarded. Perhaps…one hundred heads!” A manic gleam shone in the Red King’s eyes.

Jabberwocky shook her head from side to side. “No. I don’t want that. I want something else.”

Crim arched an eyebrow at her regally. “Oh? What is it, my dear?”

“I want you to be happy,” Jabberwocky said simply.

“If you manage to kill Alister…that would make me very happy indeed,” Crim assured her.

***

Alister clung to Katrina’s fur while his body trembled violently. “What’s wrong?” Katrina asked upon noticing. “You have no reason to be afraid. We’ve lost them. You’re safe now.”

“I…just…can’t take this,” Alister admitted brokenly. “I’m still only ten-inches-tall. Who knows what the hell might try to kill me next in this nightmarish place!”

“Nightmarish?” Katrina said, her voice laced with sadness. “You used to love it here.”

“What?” Alister questioned.

“Nothing. Why don’t I take you to someone who can help you with more than just your size problem,” Katrina offered.

“To who?” Alister asked warily.

“Her name is Salome,” Katrina revealed. “She’s the greatest seer in all of Wonderland.”

Alister’s brow furrowed. “You mean she can see the future?”

“The future possibilities. Yes.” Katrina agreed with a nod. “You know, I really shouldn’t be helping you out like this. You don’t realize it, but I’m sticking my neck out for you here.”

“Well, I do appreciate all your help, Katrina,” Alister said as he clenched his fingers more tightly around Katrina’s fur. “You saved my life. Thank you.” Alister’s voice was low and rough with emotion.

Katrina blushed beneath her purple fur. She wasn’t used to receiving praise. “Y-You’re welcome.”

Not long after, they entered a grove of spotted mushrooms that were all sizes and colors. Some of the mushrooms even towered over Katrina who was currently the size of a normal housecat. Others were smaller than Alister in his ten-inch-tall form.

Katrina approached a large red mushroom with white spots on it that was surrounded by a cloud of fragrant smoke that was partially obscuring it from view. Katrina and Alister passed through the smoke, and there seated on the mushroom cap was a large blue caterpillar.

Well, large being a relative term since Alister was ten-inches-tall, and the caterpillar was about the same size. Salome was wearing a delicate, pink, silk veil over the bottom half of her face, and her eyes were lined in kohl, lending to her exotic appearance. The caterpillar had several feet and each foot was covered in a dainty, golden, silk shoe that had a curled toe. She was beautiful in an otherworldly way.