Welcome to Wonderland

♠5♠

They arrived at the fimiliar, gravel road in no time. Orchid skipped and held Jake's hand while he shuffled along to Alice's right. Hatter happily striding on her left. The sillhoutte of a castle slowly began revealing its features as they approached. It was gigantic. An enormous, grey stone, building. A tower adorned each side of the castle and the entire thing was embellished with blood red hearts. The tower's windows were shaped like hearts as well as the wooden door and the arch that was positioned a little bit before the door, connecting the tall, black,metal bar fence. Instead of walking straight into the castle, they went around to the back where the huge garden was. Enormous hedges that were shaped as various sized hearts were placed around the garden, one in the center was shaped as a slim and curvy woman with long hair, a sharp-tipped crown on her head. Mad Hatter led them to a stone path that led into the garden. Large bushes of blood red roses lined each side of the path, some slightly dripping off some dark substance. Iron filled Alice's nostrils and she gasped, the others noticed it and expressions of dread crossed their faces.
After a few minutes, they came across two guards. They were enormous cards, they each had different numbers on them but they all came from the same suit. Hearts. They were standing in front of a bush of white roses and Alice noticed they were all white from the point where the guards were on. The guards had several buckets of red paint around them, they quickly dunked in their brushes and splashed the paint on the roses. The smell of iron grew as they approached them and Alice gasped, her hands flying over her mouth, as she realized what the fimiliar smell was.
It was the metallic smell of human blood.
The guards quickly snapped their heads in Alice's direction and they sighed. Alice had no clue where it was coming from considering the only thing they had was a pair of red arms and red legs. The Two of Hearts grabbed a brush and thrusted into Alice's hand.
"Help us and hurry! She'll be here soon!" He exclaimed in a frightened voice. Alice nodded than began painting the roses red. The others joined in, and soon they were on the last bush. Alice's head perked up at the sound of a loud horn. Everyone else quickly faced the path and dipped into extremely low bows. Orchid gently grabbed Alice's hand and pulled, so Alice would also bow. They heard approaching footsteps and the sound of horses trotting down the stone path. Alice noticed the guards were trembling. The steps grew louder and Orchid's grip on Alice's hand tightened. The steps came to a halt right in front of them. Alice heard another horn that was deafing considering how close it was to her.
"You. Speak your name and business here." One of them ordered. Alice assumed he was on a horse considering his voice came from somewhere high. The guard closest to her spoke.
"T-two of Hearts. W-we were p-painting t-the roses red." He stuttered. The poor guy.
"And you?" The other guard asked. Alice realized that he was talking to her. She looked up at him. He was the Ace of Hearts. Alice quietly cleared her throat, forcing the approaching anxiety down.
"I am Alice and I've come to help paint the roses red along with friends who shall remain anonymous." Alice sensed that the Queen didn't like Jake, Orchid and Hatter, so she decided to leave out their names.
"Oh?" The Ace of Hearts replied.
"Yep."
"Well I'd advise them to state their identifications or they too shall be painting the roses red." He said, he would be smirking if he had a mouth. As if on que, the Queen's voice raced towards them.
"Off with their head." She purred. Alice was taken aback. She had expected the Queen to be cruel and vile and have a shrill voice colder than ice, but that wasn't this Queen. Her voice was smooth and dripped off her lips like honey, Alice immediately envied her. She heard a sickening sound and thud. Orchid squeaked and held Alice's hand tighter, her knuckles turning white. Alice was still glaring at the head guard as he chuckled under his breath on top of his fully white horse.
"Your friends' names are?" He questioned. Alice clenched her teeth and continued to glare. One of the foot soilders lifted up his red riffle and slammed it against Alice's jaw. She fell to one knee as her friends gasped. She spat bright red blood onto the stone path and glared up at the Ace, blood dribbling down her chin. A low growl escaped her as she slowly reached for her gun. The Ace hopped off his horse and kneeled in front of Alice. He took her chin roughly in his hand.
"Ha! Crazy bitch, aren't ya?" He asked, giving her head a little shake. Orchid and Jake tensed up next to her.
"I prefer different." Alice said, her voice suprisingly steady as she glared at him. This time, the Ace hit her with the butt of his gun. She fell to the ground as the gun made contact with her temple. A blinding pain ran around her head, making her dizzy and giving her a migraine. She had been knocked on all fours, her hair falling in her face. She snapped her head up, stood up, grabbed her knife, and plunged it into the middle of the card in one, swift motion. He gasped and fell back, clutching where his chest should have been. Alice began stabbing and slashing at all of the guards, adrenaline rushing through her veins.
Alice was pushed to the hard, stone path by two guards that had tackled her. She struggled and squirmed beneath their iron grips that pulled her hands behind her back. She kicked away the guards and snapped at the ones that tried to lift her up. The last thing she saw was the butt of a gun headed towards her before she was pulled back into darkness.