Maybe she’d wake up after the gunshot, back in her familiar bed in Heart Castle. A part of her hoped desperately for that. But the chill of the muzzle and the murder in Elliot’s voice were too real for a dream.
BLAM
“!”
Her body flinched back—but she felt no impact or pain. She timidly cracked her eyes open as the gunshot’s echo faded in the air.
She had no time to be surprised at the rising smell of gunpowder from somewhere else.
“Did someone just shoot at us?!” a mobster shouted.
“I’ll call for backup!” someone yelled back.
The atmosphere around Alice abruptly changed as the mobsters aimed their guns past her and barked orders. She looked down; a scar charred the ground where a bullet had buried itself. And as she followed the collective gaze of the Hatter Mafia, she finally saw the shadow of a man in the adjacent woods, holding what looked like a lit explosive.
Before he could throw it, fire erupted from the end of Elliot’s gun.
“It ain’t that easy!”
“Hrgh!” The shadow collapsed with a moan. An instant later, an explosion shook the trees and released a rush of air that reeked of gunpowder.
Elliot jauntily twirled, his brown ears poking up at the sky, then practically scampered toward an exit from the mansion grounds.
“Was that supposed to be an attack?!” he mocked. “The Gravekeeper’s punks think we’re idiots, huh?! C’mon, boys—you’re all with me!”
“Yes, sir.”
The Mafia men sounded less than enthusiastic, but they followed Elliot without question—except for the axe-bearing twins standing guard at the door. They simply scowled at each other.
“Hey!” Dee shouted back. “We’re not goin’—we’re doin’ our job at the gate. An’ we’re not your men, bunny boy!”
“Yeah!” Dum agreed. “Runnin’ into gun fights is your job, bunny barf! I’d never stick my neck out like that without gettin’ paid more!”
“Shut up!” Elliot snarled, shooting his gun for emphasis. He was clearly in battle mode. “If you’ve got time to complain, you’ve got time to kill something. Move your asses!”
But despite the urgency, Dee and Dum wouldn’t even look at him. They shrugged at each other and leaned against the gate.
“Gatekeepers,” Blood called, his low voice booming as loud as the gunfire. “Go with Elliot—that’s an order. Killing people before they break through the gate is part of your job.”
Alice had a funny feeling about the new, metallic noises mixed in with the clamor of battle. She turned; sure enough, the click of turning chambers came from Blood’s hands. His cane from a moment before had changed.
Now he held a silver pistol.
“What?” Alice squeaked, the word barely leaking out of her mouth. The question was drowned out by the twins groaning.
“Crap… If it’s the boss’s orders, we gotta do it, huh? I wanted to clean up that stupid rabbit’s mess an’ steal the glory.”
“Yeah. But remember us bein’ so good when you’re givin’ out bonuses, Boss!”
The twins took off at a light run, grumbling more complaints and demands. Blood didn’t deign to reply.
Although Alice felt a squeeze of nostalgia at the sound of their banter, she never took her eyes away from Blood’s weapon.
“Is that…new?” she asked, not sure if he could hear her.
The boss of the Hatter Family Alice knew owned a weapon, sure—but it wasn’t a pistol. She was used to his rose-covered machine gun spitting out a deadly stream of bullets, mowing down anything in his path. This new gun was smaller, sleeker…although the rose design was just as pretentious.
Blood’s blue-green eyes snapped to her.
The chill of that gaze dropped her stomach, even as he flicked it back to wherever he was shooting. He tilted his head at a few remaining servants.
“Take the girl into custody,” he ordered. “But don’t kill her. Yet.”
Panic welled up in Alice again as she scrambled to her feet. Two gun-toting maids popped up on either side of her.
“Yes, sir~!” they chirped.
And with that, Blood turned away and walked out. Alice stared at his retreating back as the maids gripped her arms.
“Now, if you’ll come this way~.”
“The boss won’t let us kill you, but please don’t resist~.”
Alice swallowed. “I-I know,” she murmured weakly. “I’ll come quietly.”
If Blood’s order was the only thing keeping her alive, she knew better than to run. She thanked God the maids wouldn’t casually murder her, at least.
She let the maids guide her to a wall by the gate. But she had to ask, so she carefully cleared her throat.
“Um, listen. About Blood’s…I mean, your boss’s weapon. When did he switch from a machine gun?” She remembered him saying it was “a pain” to switch to a new weapon, so something must have changed…
The two maids tilted their heads in unison at Alice’s question. They exchanged startled looks.
“Machine gun~? Did Boss ever use one of those~?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about~. The boss has always used a pistol~.”
Alice blinked. “Always? That pistol?”
Alice expected more of a reaction if they were lying, but the woman nodded breezily.
“Of course~. I remember him saying that he wished it had a little more firepower, but…~”
“Yeah~. But then he decided to keep the pistol and see how things went~.”
Alice gripped her temples in confusion. “That can’t be right,” she insisted. “He—aah!”
A dull boom shook the gate that hid them. Was that a bomb?! Alice thought frantically as the two maids drew their guns.
Still keeping a watchful eye on Alice, the maids took up positions where they could shoot at the enemy outside the mansion. As Alice clapped her hands over her ears at the splitting blam of their guns, she realized something: at the Hatter Mansion she remembered, nobody was asked to keep their eyes on two targets at once. Blood never gave his Faceless that much responsibility.
It was almost like…the mansion had turned more hardcore. Or Blood was more desperate.
Alice could almost write off the maids’ hostility, since she didn’t know these particular Faceless; the mansion often changed out servants or gunmen to fight attackers or participate in turf wars. But if Blood, Elliot, and the twins acted like they didn’t know her, and the attitudes of the entire mansion seemed different…
She kept thinking about that silver pistol. How Blood had “never” carried a machine gun, even if he was interested in it for the future.
She knew, from painful experience, that common sense didn’t always work in Wonderland. If some insane truth was staring her in the face, then she had to accept it.
Alice gasped, the smoke and stink of iron twining around her body.