Beatrice DuPont sat up, wheezing heavily, picking straw out of her hair. After a brief struggle she ripped off the corset. “Why am I still wearing this thing anyway?”

Back on their feet, the companions brushed off the rest of the debris from their clothes. “Where are we now?”

“It looks like a farm,” Mad Hat reported, surveying the golden landscape. Other hay bales were rolled up and scattered about.

“Is there a farmhouse? Maybe we could ask for directions.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“Look, there’s a gate over there.” Beatrice walked off towards it and when she was only about a foot away, she suddenly burst into sobs.

“What? What is it?” Mat Hat asked in panicked worry.

Beatrice just shook here head and took a step back. She immediately stopped sobbing. “How very curious...” she stepped forwards again and the tears started once more.

“What’s wrong?” Mad Hat asked in complete confusion.

“N-nothing, I-I can’t help it...”

“You sure you’re alright?”

She took another step back. “Yes... Nevermind, let’s go around.”

They did, and when they got to the other side they saw a sign posted that read Crying Gate.

“Oh... huh...” Beatrice looked around at what else there was to see. “Look, a rose bush,” she pointed out. “Wow, they’re really nice roses - they should be really expensive.”

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s selling them,” Mad Hat observed, so Beatrice picked one.

“What the-?” The deep, rich red of the rose had turned a bright blue as soon as she had snapped it from its stem. She tried a second rose, which turned bright orange.

“Purple, green, yellow, white... Why don’t any of them stay red?”

“Who wants a red rose?” someone asked and Beatrice have a little jump.

“Who are you?” she asked, turning back and forth to try to discover the source of the voice.

“B. Anderson, at your service,” the voice introduced itself. “Would you like some tea?”

“Where are you?” she asked when she still didn’t see anyone. Mad Hat shrugged.

“Why, I’m down here!”

“Down where?” She searched around, trying to find who held the other half of her conversation.

“No matter where, I’m here. That’s all that matters!”

“But I can’t see you,” Beatrice insisted.

“That’s alright.”

“But if I can’t see you, how do I know you even exist?” Beatrice asked in growing annoyance.

“I can see you, and you exist, don’t you?”

“Yeah...”

“Then, I must exist too. One can’t exist without the other, see?

“No, I don’t see.”

“Well, then... suppose I close my eyes, then I can’t see you anymore. Does that mean you no longer exist?”

“No...”

“Then I exist!”

“I-I don’t think...”

“Oh, well, in that case you don’t exist, and then I suppose I don’t either, so... goodbye!”

“Wait, what? Hello?” but there was only silence. Beatrice frowned deeply. “That was frustrating...” she grumbled.

Mad Hat grinned. “I found it amusing.”

They finished crossing the field and were back in the forest. This time, large boulders that oddly resembled sheep where clustered everywhere. In an effort to move around a particularly large one, Beatrice side-stepped into what she thought was a shallow puddle.

“Watch out!” Mad Hat cried too late, just as Beatrice sank out of sight.

Prince Jacques was standing in his office behind the Grand Hall pouring over a desk covered in old looking papers and books when a knock sounded at the door. “Come in.”

“Heard you were lookin’ for Hatty, Yer Majesty.”

“Ah, Annette!” He straightened his hair that looked like a wig. “Did he return to the club?”

“Kept an eye out, just like you asked, but haven’t seen ‘im since he left again with the new girl.”

“Any idea where they went?”

“No, but somethin’ didn’t seem right about her.” Annette pouted.

“Oh?”

“She didn’t look like a professional. Like she skipped a few classes at the Finishing School or somethin’. She’s not even a real blonde.”

“And you’ve never seen her before today?”

Annette shook her head.

“Perhaps Mr. Chapeau is not quite the ally I thought he was,” he frowned. “And what about you, Annette? Are you a friend or foe?”

“We can be more than friends if you want, Yer Majesty,” she smiled coyly.

“Ha, well there’ll be plenty of time for that later, if you help me find them. Mr. Chapeau trusts you, doesn’t he?”

“Course he does, it’s not like we’re strangers.”

“Good, then see if you can do a better job than the ineptitude I’ve been dealing with thus far.”

Annette left with a mischievous smile.

The young woman, who had previously believed (up until recently) that she was someone named Beatrice DuPont who lived in the real world, was sinking ever so slowly downward in an unknown substance.

She found the unknown substance to be much like water in that it looked like water, it tasted like water, and she suspected it would smell like water too if only she had the opportunity to smell it and was not instead holding her breath. On the other hand, it was very much not like water in that it was much more viscous and it seemed to her that the harder she tried to swim back up towards the surface, the harder the substance pulled her in the opposite direction.

She stretched her arms towards the circle of light that was steadily growing smaller and smaller. It reminded her of the moon, although she knew it was still daytime. She vaguely registered a dark shape moving towards her before she blacked out from lack of fresh oxygen.