Painting the Roses Blue (wonderland au)

Chapter 10

"You fucking what?!" A shrill screech echoed through the empty castle, startling the already-startled staff. The informer of the news froze, staring at the owner of the voice. The Queen stomped her heeled foot, standing up. She banged her staff against the tiled floor. "That is not fair! You have to find him and kill him!"

The man stuttered, shaking his head. "Well-Well our men have searched the perimeter around the kingdom, but we didn't see any signs of Stuart or Ace."

Paula pinched the bridge of her nose, groaning loudly. After inhaling and exhaling, she glared down at the man. "Okay, you know what? You're gone. Dead. If it's so hard to find a fucking green man and a blue god damn bunny, you don't even seem to want to live anymore!" She turned to the men to her right, quietly ordering them to execute the man in front of her. The man shook his head quickly, fear pooling in his eyes.

"No, no, your Highness, no, please! We can find them, I promise! Just give me and my men a few more days, and they'll be returned, you have my word!"

"Your word means nothing. You have two more days. If I do not have either Ace or Stuart in my possession by the end of those two days, your head has no choice but to be removed from your body. Understandable?" She stared him down, yet in a rare change of heart, she decided to let him try again. She didn't even believe that he could find them, they were going to kill him anyways. Might as well delay it as much as possible.

The man nodded quickly, turning and sprinting out the throne room as fast as possible. Paula only laughed, glancing at the guards to her right. She mumbled something about keeping watch on the man who left, making sure he was leaving kingdom grounds, and that he would return with one or both of her subjects. The guards saluted, exiting as soon as she dismissed them. Murdoc closed his throne room early, so early that only one complainer was seen. The word that spread around the town was that someone was to be executed and he was making plans, although that was far from true.

He and his friend sat on the floor of the throne room, windows drawn to a close and doors locked, making the conversation inescapable. His hands were intertwined, his eyes concentrated on a few stray cracks in the brick. He didn't know what to say to start the conversation, he had so many questions and demands from the soldier that he had overwhelmed himself. He took a deep breath, about to speak, when Russel decided to go first.

"Is this going to be about where I go every Friday or is this going to be about the intruders?" He got straight to the point, staring Murdoc right in his eyes, even if Murdoc didn't stare back. The king mumbled a bit, sighing before sitting straight up and looking through Russel.

"Both. You're going to tell me about both."

Russel simply nodded. "Okay, that's fair. There's a little girl in the forest named Noodle-"

"Noodle?"

"Yes, Noodle. She doesn't have anything so I adopted her. I see her every Friday and I'm bringing her to the kingdom in a few days." Murdoc nodded along before holding a hand up to pause Russel. He raised his brows.

"You adopted her but she doesn't live with you? How do we know she's not a spy from Paula, trying to appeal to you empathetic side?" He questioned, lowering his hand. "Can never be too careful."