Once Upon a Tale

Chapter 13: Parties

"A cup of tea is an excuse to share great thoughts with great minds."
~Anonymous~

An hour.

An hour since I agreed to join Hoseok and his cat on his little tea party in exchange of him healing my wounds.

At first glance, you'll think that he's a kind-hearted man. He looks good and radiates brightness. He doesn't even look like he could kill a fly.

Wrong. Very very very very WRONG!

I thought that minute he saved me from the witch, I'd be free to go out of this forest. I thought that he's a good samaritan at some point. But, I am mistaken.

He is indeed mad.

The moment I accepted his hand that he offered, I was harshly pulled inside his house. At first, I tried fighting him but it was to no avail. The mad hatter is a male after all.

"Your tea is getting cold, honey." The hatter spoke in a warning tone, forcing me to drink the tea infront of me.

I am now dressed like some kind of ragged doll. My bruises from the encounter with the witch all covered up. A pink silky balloon dress covering my entire body except my head and arms. My hair braided in a crown-like manner.

I finished sipping from my cup of tea and brought it down on its saucer. That thing made the man infront of me smile proudly like he's a dad that saw his own daughter walk for the first time.

"Do you want another cup, honey?" He asked but it's not a question. It is merely a charade he is playing.

"Yes." I sighed out and he smiles before bringing the teapot over and pouring down its contents in my teacup. It's my tenth tea from the hour we started this mad tea party and I'm starting to question if I could still intake much more. Hoseok is not having any problem about drinking more than twenty cups from the last hour. I hope I could do the same.

"So where are we again? Ah! We're on the scene when Alice is still a clueless young girl that decided to roam around my land's premises." He chuckled to himself, smiling charmingly.

More like creepily for me.

I chose to play along with his narrations this time. "Then what happened? Did she join your tea party too?"

"Of course. She is too naive. She immediately believed everything that my intelligent mouth told her. I told her to drink this tea then POOF! she became what she is now. A witch that feeds on human meat." He giggled wiping fake tears away from his multicolored eyes.

On the other hand, I sat there, still and frozen on my place. My blood run cold and I could feel my whole body trembling in pure terror. I stared at him my mouth opening and closing before I managed to stutter some words out.

"T-this tea made her like t-that? T-this thing t-turned her into a witch?" I asked, fear consuming my entire system.

"It did. Just a single drop of that tea could make a human crave for his own kind's meat." Hoseok explained like it's some kind of a normal thing happening.

When he told me that I needed to join him on his mad tea party, I was concerned if the tea would suddenly make me drop dead on the ground within a second. After taking ten cups of it and I still feel alright for an hour, I thought it is just a normal tea served by a mad hatter. But again, I was wrong.

What will I do now?

I balled my fists and glared at the hatter infront of me. If I hadn't learned my lesson earlier from fighting him, I wouldn't hesitate to pounce on him right at this very moment.