A Curious, Mad Dream

-Queen’s Castle-

Vincent stood outside the throne room doors wondering how he was going to relay the bad news to his queen. She did not take kindly to hearing the excuses of a failed mission especially if it was him that had failed. He had never before fell through on a mission for the queen before and thinking of the consequences…it terrified him. Maybe if she cut off his head though, he could stop living in this Hell he was stuck in.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly he nodded at the castle guards to open the doors. The massive, ruby red doors gradually opened to reveal the black carpet that ran down the center of the large throne room as it led to the massive throne. There the queen sat with her cheek resting on the back of her hand like she was bored to tears with her job.

She perked up, however, when the doors opened far enough to reveal Vincent. A sweet smile spread across her young face giving him small hope that she would kill him the way he wished for her to; a death he hoped upon every night before he went to bed. Surely death was better than living the way he was.

“Vincent, you’ve returned,” she cooed motioning for him to walk forward. Her voice was light and fair just like her skin, but oh how deceiving that voice was. He had seen the many times how instantly her tone could transform from innocently sweet to murderous rage within the blink of an eye.

Vincent approached the throne where the queen sat smiling and knelt before her placing a hand over his chest as he bowed his head in greeting.

“Indeed, my queen, I have returned to you just as promised,” he replied standing to his feet upon her permission. It was odd to see her alone in the throne room. Typically Knight was always by her side.

“Did you bring her here? Is she waiting outside the room? Bring her in,” the queen giggled happily glancing behind Vincent.

“My queen…I regret to inform you that…I have failed my mission upon bringing her to you,” Vincent calmly notified his queen. Appearing so completely emotionless was something he had taught himself knowing that if he showed a weakness towards anything then the queen would jump upon it and use it against him. As far as she was concerned, Vincent was her obedient robot.

The blissful smile fell from the queen’s face; an emotionless mask, one that matched his, replaced her smile.

“Excuse me?”

“The girl is indeed in Wonderland,” he began swallowing passed a lump in his throat wondering whether he should continue or not.

“But?” she prompted arching a light blonde brow.

“But she is taking shelter with Sinclair in Xonia,” he boldly finished.

“What?!” the queen screeched; Vincent didn’t so much as flinch.

“I apologize for failing you, my queen. I deserve whatever punishment you order for me.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic, Vincent. I’m not going to kill you. Not yet when I still need you,” the queen assured him.

“My queen?” Vincent questioned almost warily. What plans did she have for him now?

“If she is with Sinclair, then he will tell her everything I’m sure. I have no doubt he’ll paint me as a monster she should avoid at all costs. So I need you to dispel any fears she might have in coming here. Gain her trust…her love if you must. Ju—”

“But, my queen, you know I can no longer feel love towards anything since—”

“How dare you interrupt me!” The queen yelled berating him for his insolence. He bowed his head in apology.

“I am aware of the things you can or can’t feel, Vincent,” she spat. “I never said YOU had to love her. Just get her to love YOU if it means her trust is gained along with it. Just. Bring. Her. To. Me,” the queen ground out angrily.

“Once here,” she continued. “I will gain her love and affection for myself; she will come to trust me as well and learn to hate Sinclair for his lies. And then, when she believes I am her only friend in this strange, unknown world…” A grin slowly spread across the queen’s face.

“What will you do?” White quietly inquired fearing that he already knew her answer. Ice blue eyes met his. So much hatred and rage swirled in the depths of his queen’s eyes.

“We kill her.”

~—~|~—~

Acelin’s P.O.V.

I woke up feeling much warmer than when I had fallen asleep. I shifted around to lie on my back feeling the heavy weight of a blanket moving with me. I opened my eyes to see a black comforter twisted around my legs; my toes were exposed to the cool air of the room. Now I know I had gone to sleep with my shoes on…

I quickly sat up as my brain came to the sudden realization that I was not sleeping on the couch at home nor was I at Henry’s. So obviously everything that had happened last night had, in fact, NOT been the dream I was hoping it had been. I scrubbed my hands down my face vaguely wondering how horrible my make-up must look since I had fallen asleep with it on.

“I see you’re awake,” a deep, familiar male voice said. Only it wasn’t my best friend’s voice.

“Agh!” I yelled in surprise, the blanket that had twisted around my legs caused me to flail about on the couch as I tried to stand only to eventually fall to the floor face first.

“Ow…” I groaned sliding my legs out from the blanket to finally stand to my feet. I turned toward the kitchen where the unamused snort had come from.

There, in the kitchen leaning back against the counter sipping a cup of what looked like coffee, was a man I had never seen before. Yet, his voice sounded so familiar to me.

“Who are you?” I inquired squinting my eyes in thought as I tried to think of why he seemed so familiar. My eyes widened in worry when the man began to choke on his drink. He turned wide, disbelieving eyes toward me.

“Seriously? I only saved your life last night,” he scoffed mumbling something else under his breath. A sudden flash of the cloaked man that went by the name of Sinclair flashed into my mind.

“S-sinclair?” I stuttered my eyes widening upon seeing the man in the light without his dark cloak.

“The one and only,” he grumbled sipping at his drink. I took the opportunity to soak in the sight that was before me.

Sinclair stood at a good height of 6’5” making me feel incredibly short at 5’4” compared to him and Vincent. Was every guy this tall in Wonderland? A loose pair of grey sweatpants sat low on his hips; the tips of his toes peeked out from underneath the hem of the pant legs. Clinging to the muscles of his chest was a black muscle shirt that helped to accentuate the way his torso went from a toned, narrow waist to a set of broad shoulders.

On the bicep of his left arm was a tribal tattoo that stood out against his sun-kissed tan skin. My eyes roamed up from his chiseled body to gaze upon his face. On the left side of his face was a faded scar. It began just above the arch of his eyebrow to slash across his eye and extend down the length of his cheek to barely touch his chin. However, there was another pale scar on the same side of his face only it was located near the edge of his mouth. It passed over the corner of his mouth and stretched thinly down his chin.

The scars were hardly noticeable on his skin except when the light hit upon them. However, those scars only added to his rugged appeal meshing well with his strong, square jawline and slightly crooked nose. Plump, dark pink lips encircled the rim of the mug as the hot liquid passed through into his mouth. It was silly, but I felt slightly envious of that cup. Impossibly dark, long lashes thickly lined a pair of the most piercing metallic grey eyes I’d ever seen.

I mean, I had seen some startling bright eyes. I gazed into a pair of them each morning in the mirror. However, my eyes paled in comparison to the reflecting shimmer of his steel grey orbs. I tore my gaze away from his face the moment those eyes shifted to glance over at me. Sinclair raked long fingers through his dirty blonde hair with a tired sigh. His tousled hair fell back into its original place.

Suddenly self-conscious about my appearance in front of this man, I did my best to make quick work of combing my fingers through the knots that had formed in my long, black hair overnight. Turning my back to him, I swiped my fingers under my eyes to clean off any eyeliner that had smeared and checked my breath.

“There’s a bathroom through the door to the left of the fireplace if you want to freshen up. Sorry, I don’t have a change of clothes for you,” Sinclair informed me. I turned around with a smile.

“It’s okay. I didn’t figure you’d have a random change of girl clothes lying around. Unless, you know, you’re into that kind of thing,” I chuckled, images of this tall, broad shouldered male dressing in drag.

Sinclair cocked a dark brow at my joke making my laughter fade into an uncomfortable cough.

“Anyways, I’m just gonna…freshen up…” I nervously smiled turning to quickly shuffle to the door he had mentioned. Unfortunately, today luck was not on my side. As I went to shuffle away, I tripped over my knee length converse shoes by the couch sending me falling to the floor. Twice that morning.

I jumped to my feet in a quick recovery mumbling that I was okay as I hurriedly dashed into the room with my cheeks burning a furious red. Once I had closed the door behind me I released a shaky sigh of relief before glancing around the room. It appeared to be a bedroom. Tossed onto the comfortless bed was Sinclair’s cloak and sword. This must be his room he had led me to.

I chewed anxiously on my nail wondering if I should snoop around a bit and see if there was more I could find out about Sinclair, Man of Mystery. I glanced at the door noticing it had no lock which meant I’d have to do some quick and quiet snooping.

I pushed away from the door and softly padded over to the dresser figuring I would start there. It was odd to see the top of a dresser so barren of any personal belongings. Mine was absolutely cluttered with junk back home. I brushed my fingers along the smooth surface sighing sadly at the thought of home.

A sharp pain struck the tip of my finger making me hiss in pain. I popped my bleeding finger into my mouth and looked for the source of my wound. There, on the clean surface of the dresser barely noticeable, was a small shard of glass. So small I must have overlooked it. The piece was wedged into the tiny crack of the wood with just enough of the edge peeking out to cut someone. My eyes met my reflection’s gaze in the mirror that hung above the dresser. The glass appeared completely flawless making me wonder if the shard had come from something else.

Pulling open the top drawer, I found all of his shirts. I continued suckling on my finger as I opened the next drawer. That one held his muscle shirts. The one below that had his pants and sweats. The last drawer held various neutral colored socks and a few pair of pajama sets. I closed the bottom drawer with an intriguing thought coming to mind. There had been one item of clothing I didn’t see: underwear.

I removed my finger from my mouth with a soft popping sound to make sure it was no longer bleeding quite as much as before.

“So does he not wear any underwear?” I thought aloud to myself.

“No. Boxers bunch up too easily and briefs just look ridiculous on me,” Sinclair answered from behind me. I jumped startled as I whirled around falling to my butt from where I had been crouched down in front of the drawers. My back slammed against the dresser; I clasped a hand over my rapidly beating heart. Sinclair sat on his bed with his forearms lying across his knees as he leaned forward; those swirling metallic eyes watching me.

“Make a noise once in a while, will you? Are you, like, a ninja or something? Geez,” I snapped feeling my heart rate begin to slow to normal.

“You were the one snooping through someone else’s belongings,” he pointed out. My gaze dropped to the floor knowing he was right.

“I only wanted to know more about you,” I softly confessed picking at the fray on my striped leggings.

“And so you thought that prying through my belongings would be easier than just simply, oh I don’t know, asking me questions about myself?” he inquired unamused.

I met his gaze incredulously. “We both know even if I had chosen to go down that route you wouldn’t have answered questions about yourself,” I retorted folding my arms across my chest.

“Touché.” His lips twitched into a small smile.

I stood to my feet brushing myself off as I tried to avoid any eye contact.

“I’m going to go shower and clean up now,” I huffed heading for the open doorway that clearly led into the bathroom.

“I’ll lay out some of my clothes for you on the bed. You can wear those for the time being until we can get you some proper fitting attire,” Sinclair offered standing to his feet as well.

Having him stand so near to me, I felt so incredibly small in comparison. My eyes had direct contact with his upper chest. Not that I minded all that much, but it was like a man staring at a woman’s breasts while talking to her. It just felt rude when you didn’t make eye contact. My cheeks flushed a light pink as I realized I had been standing here for the past few minutes just staring at his chest.

I cleared my throat and hurried to the door of the bathroom before turning back to glance at him.

“That will be fine,” I told him. “Just be sure you’re out of the room when I finish in the bathroom.”

“Only if you promise to do no more snooping,” he countered.

“Only if you promise to answer any questions I have,” I shot back.

“As long as they aren’t about me and my life story, sure,” he shrugged.

“Deal,” I finalized.

I slammed the bathroom door, but not before I saw the ends of his mouth curl upward into an arrogant grin that made goosebumps break out along my skin. I never thought he could grow more attractive, however when he smiled…I was proved wrong.

I sighed, shaking my head to chase away any more of those kinds of thoughts. As far as I was concerned he was a dangerous stranger that had only saved my life because of the rules he had created for his land, nothing more.

For now, I was in dire need of a shower.