Left for Carnage (Twisted Wonderland x Reader) (PAUSED)

Chapter 5: Red tyrant

WARNING the following chapter contains: mentions of weapons.

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"What the hell!? I thought he was coming back tomorrow!" exclaims Ace as he hurriedly follows Cater to the servants' quarters; you and Deuce follow close behind, exchanging confused looks. "I have no idea! He just called and said he's about ten minutes from the house," the orange-haired man replies as he suddenly takes a sharp left and enters one of the rooms.

You look over Ace's shoulder and see that it's a small closet. Cater quickly runs his fingers over some of the clothes before letting out a small gasp of what you assume is from relief. He grabs one of the hangers and turns around. "You'll need to change into these. Riddle made you a special uniform since you'll be with him most of the time," you gently take the clothes from his hands and examine the uniform.

It's quite simple: a red button-up shirt and a pair of black slacks. Now that you think about it, it looks similar to Ace and Deuce's uniforms, except for the missing blazer and gloves. You give Cater a nod and sprint to your room, down the hall.

You close the door and quickly start to get undressed. You toss your shirt and pants haphazardly on the bed and place all of your jewelry chaotically on the nightstand, leaving only a simple black watch strapped to your right wrist. You make sure to take the pocket knife out of your jacket and use its holster instead so that it grips your belt.

You rush to get dressed, a little nervous because you didn't expect to see the master of the house so soon; in your haste, you don't notice that you've buttoned your shirt wrong and the fabric is slightly wrinkled. While you are tying your shoes, someone knocks on your door and you tell the person to come in. It's Deuce, who opens the door while fixing his hair.

"Are you ready? I'll take you to the entrance where the others are," you get up from the floor and nod, but Deuce winces and points to your shirt. "You got your buttons wrong and your collar is up. If you want, I can help you with... the, uh... t-the collar," you look at him with wide eyes and notice that his face has turned red and his hands are shaking subtly.

You nod, strangely feeling some butterflies in your stomach, and quickly start undoing some buttons, carefully trying not to show too much skin, while the blue-haired boy gently steps forward and starts to fix the collar of your shirt. Because of the short distance between the two of you, you can feel the warmth emanating from his body and smell his cologne, which is a mixture of what you think is wood sage and sea salt. It's nice.

After a few seconds, Deuce steps back and you run your hands over your shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles, and thank the young man with a small smile. He nods and points down the hall. "Let's hurry before Riddle cuts our heads off," the blue-haired man leaves the room, while you stand there, confused by his last statement.

Snapping out of it, you sprint out of the bedroom and catch up with him, tons of questions swirling in your head. "What do you mean, 'cut our heads off'? Is it a figure of speech?" you ask in a worried tone, and Deuce turns to you and immediately apologizes for not being clear.

"Ah, sorry! I forgot you were new. It's Lord Riddle's unique magic, basically, he yells 'Off with your head' and a collar appears around your neck," the boy explains, using his hands to simulate said collar and you nod, silently telling him to continue. "It prevents you from using magic until he removes it from you. He will use his unique magic if we ever break the rules."

You remember now. According to the reports that Malleus included in the case file, many of the volunteers reported that Riddle would constantly use his unique magic to punish those who broke the rules. If he's in danger of overblotting, his excessive use of magic will likely be blamed, rather than the theory that he was being targeted by this group of people. You wonder if someone is manipulating him into exerting that much magic.