The King of Hearts

Chapter 1

"Why? Why did mother curse me like this? Who the hell would want to permanently live here? Grandma Alice barely survived."  

My shoes kicked up the purple dirt behind me as I walked through The Weeping Forest. Uncle Hatter thought that it might be safer that I find a job and get a place of my own since Dormouse and March Hare were a little 'stable'. Nothing like get a teacup thrown at your face or sitting on a platter of sweet talcum cakes. Yep...home sweet home. I looked at the list of jobs that Uncle Hatter wrote....on the hat he gave me. The bakery? No, the pastry chef said that I'd scare away customers. Vegetable Gardener? Every vegetable that farmer grew died the moment I touched them. Blacksmith? Is it weird that the fire burned cold? Fisherman? We were out to sea for what felt like centuries, I even missed my unbirthday because of that. After I got off the ship, the fishing industries boomed... Maid?? No outcast wanted an outcast working in their home. Ironic right? 
   The purple dirt soon turned blue, and as my luck couldn't have gotten any worse, that damned Chesire cat crossed my path. 

"Why hello dear [Name]. It truly is a pleasure to meet you." 

"Ditto." I said bluntly, not interested in his foolishness that he had planned for me today. 

"Oh come now, why the long face?" He said stretching his eerie smile to that beyond his ears. "Your dear uncle Hatter told me that you were looking for a job." 

"My uncle Hatter would never talk to you." I spat with venom. That only made him smile even more.  

"You're right, he wouldn't. I just heard it through the grapevine. But anyway, since we are friends [Name] dear, I felt like I should tell that there's a job opening as a chambermaid."

 I felt my ears perk up at the 'job opening' part. But this little sneaky bastard is never up to any good. 

"What's the catch you demon feline?" 

"Oh there is no catch dear. Just that the job opening is at the Red Palace."  

I inwardly groaned at this. The Red Palace is more than a two day walk on foot. And those damned giant flamango's refuse to let me get a ride on their backs. 

"There is a shortcut. But you'd have to cross the White Queen of Spades." He stated as a matter of fact, resting his little oddly shaped body on a weeping tree branch. I stopped in my tracks. The White Queen of Spades? She's  'bout as mad as my uncle. But it's either going through the Spades Kingdom to get to the Red Palace or back to uncle Hatter's Madhouse of angry, hot tea and cake. 

I sighed heavily and grimaced when I saw that evil little smile Chesire had on his face. 

"Show me the way dammit."