Stitches | Twisted Wonderland

𝐍𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐚 | 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐬

───── ❝ 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲...𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. ❞ ─────

Falling. Falling. Falling.

Until [e/c] eyes opened to stare at the monochromatic sky above. "Where," they muttered, "where am I?" They pushed themselves up and looked around. The hedges of busses and rose bushes sent a bit of familiarity through the watcher. "A rose maze?" The same watcher said confused. Then an unfamiliar voice yelled out in seemingly a panic,
"Hurry up and paint those roses red!" The watcher floated through the walls of the maze and toward the voice. There, they saw a card in black in white with a head. On its front was an Ace of clubs. In its hands was a paintbrush that was surprisingly covered in red paint. It swishes the brush over the white roses while muttering the same sentence over and over with little variation. Another card joined in, swishing their own paintbrush just as quickly, "Slather them quickly, as aforesaid!"
"Hurry, hurry! There are still roses left to paint!"

The watcher's eyes stared at the unpainted white roses as they thought to themselves, 'They're painting roses. For what?' A little girl in a puffy dress walked up to the two, "Why are you painting these white roses red?" The cards paused their movement. "Huh?" The Two of Clubs responded, "Why, you ask? It's quite simple. We planted the wrong color, you see." The Ace of Clubs spoke again, "The Queen likes her roses red. If they're white," They brought their paintbrushes and made a line over their neck, "we'll lose our heads!" "Goodness!" The little girl exclaimed. A Three of Clubs looked over at the girl as it climbed up the ladder, "And so, we're painting the roses red." The little unnamed girl looked around the corner of the maze and began to walk off. The watcher wanted to follow the girl but something grabbed them. They looked down and small snacks wrapped around their arms and legs and dragged them down. Farther and farther they sank into the earth as the world around them went darker.

Falling and falling again. The world, this time faded to white only a sea of black below their falling figure. Closer and closer they fell towards the abyssal black. Closer and closer until--

They wore with a gasp, practically flinging themselves to sitting up position. Hands flew to hug the sides of their torso causing them to fall back onto their bed. A dull sting resinated on their sides and their right arm. Tears pricked the side corners of their eyes as they exhale shakily.

Breath in.... breathe out.... breathe in... breathe out... 

The dull stinging subsided not to the point where it was unnoticeable but enough to be bearable. Rolling onto their back, they brought their right arm up to their face. Because of the late night, they could barely see if there was something visible causing the pain but they could make out the lines of two unfamiliar markings. One was a blank clock; it had no numbers, just a minute hand and an hour hand in the color [f/c]. The other was an extremely detailed clock in classic black with both hands pointed straight at 12. And to top it off, both clocks were laying in a patch of beautiful spider lilies colored with red ink.

Their eyebrows furrowed in tired confusion. Where the hell did these come from? And why did they sting so much? The words of the unknown voice from their dream before they started falling ran through their mind. They lightly groaned and ran their left hand through their hair. "Un-fucking-believable." They brought it to rest on their forehead, "So that wasn't a dream." An annoyed look crossed the [h/c] haired girl's face, "how am I going to hide these?" And as if hearing her distress, the markings vanished. Leaving no trace, as if they were never there, to begin with. "So my mind is playing tricks on me." As if saying 'Nope!' the markings glowed to reveal themselves. [Name] sighed for the umpteenth time that night and just accepted the fact they now had markings on them now. But at least they could make them disappear at will.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The loud sound woke up Grim. "Hey [Name]," he began, "I know it's like the middle of the night but I think we have a visitor," he said tiredly. "Maybe it's the ghost again. They really don't know when to quit." [Name] silently slipped out of bed, gently grabbed the groggy Grim, and made their way downstairs.  

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK-

"HOLD THE FUCK UP LIKE DAMN!" The knocking stopped. [Name] grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open. "Whom the fuck is knocking this damn loud at this fucking hour." [Name] asked but it was more so a statement. [E/c] eyes glared at the familiar carrot top, "Oh. It's you. The fuck are you doing at this hour?" Ace laughed nervously before Grim's eyes widened as he stared at the bulky collar around Ace's neck, "That collar!" As if sensing the upcoming bs, [Name] groaned and stepped aside. Ace stepped in and looked the [h/c] haired girl in the eyes, "I can't go back to Heartslabyul Dorm. I'm joining your dorm for good!"
Grim screeched out in surprise, "What did you say?!" [Name]'s tired brain in the memories section kickstarted as she stared at the collar. She then stared at the male with narrowed eyes, "What did you do."