Villainess Of Hearts

A kiss could be pleasant and warm.

It could also be tantalizingly hot and could make a fire spread throughout her body. The Queen of Hearts was familiar with it and yet somehow, tonight, she didn't make a move all by herself.

He would take the lead.

She was pulled in by the moment and caught in the blueness of his eyes. The way his blond hair was swept back slightly in the heat of the moment, at the bobbing of his throat when he gulped. How a tingling sensation that first struck her cheek with a warmth now issued itself to run its course throughout her entire body. 

Her body tensed and relaxed at the same time, unsure and even confused that she was staying still and not taking initiative when it was obvious that she was more at ease in this situation than the man in front of her.

Waiting.

She was waiting for him, as much as he did for her.

The little girl that wished and hoped of her Prince always remained in the back of her mind, never really forgotten despite the passage of years, even throughout the times of heartbreak and disillusionment from this man. Perhaps tonight she might actually get her dream to come true.

Night sky, grant her wish tonight. One kiss that might give him an opportunity to fight.

He only needed one chance, and perhaps she would give it to him.

However, the King of Hearts's fervent gaze and his gentle touch lost to the coldness of the night that suddenly seeped in within her. Moments before she closed her eyes, she spotted something lurking in the night's wake. It was from the labyrinth and it was only a shadow, but their appearance was like a reckoning of fate.

A familiar figure.

Rosalyn Lockhart pulled away from Alexander at the last moment and stammered. She couldn't even form a coherent word in her mouth when she was struck senseless in the night that seemed to go a hundred times colder. She shivered, shook and shuddered. Not one word fit right to explain the tremors that seized her body.

Stricken by an electricity that stunned her and rooted her on the spot.

She was the one who saw it first, and then so did he—and her world crashed and pulled itself under at the very moment. The Queen of Hearts stood all by herself and caught in a state of confusion, her mind couldn't even put it into words but somebody did everything that she had wanted to do.

The King of Hearts broke into a run.

Alexander chased after her.

The young woman in the labyrinth—he followed her like a moth to a flame. There was no turning away from fate and what was meant to happen. And so even if the two of them haven't even met properly at all. Even when she had suddenly come far sooner than Rosalyn Lockhart expected her to be… 

The King of Hearts chased after Alice without another word.

He left her alone.

It would always end the same way that it did.

Rosalyn Lockhart hadn't been so sure of it before, thinking that she had a fighting chance with how things developed between her and of the others—and yet fate and life intervened in ways that even time could not give her. The Queen of Hearts lost the strength to her limbs and collapsed on the grass.

For a moment.

It was just for a moment of despair and agony that racked through her body and soul. The stinging in her eyes and the choked sob that came out even when she forced herself to stay quiet… and then she pressed a hand to the grass and stood up. She couldn't fall.

"Not now. Not when everything has been going according to plan in such an orderly way… and she ruined it." Bitterness laced in her tongue and yet she gazed at this labyrinth alone. Would it actually be of any good if she were to chase down after them now? Could she even stop the inevitable that was about to occur?

Perhaps it wasn't too late to run away.

Alice could take the throne, and she would take her Knight and run away. She had more than enough wealth to live her entire days in peace and without a care if she wanted and if she was quick to gather them all and leave on horseback. The Queen of Hearts reunited with her brother now, didn't she?

Some semblance of logic came back to her aggrieved mind.

Perhaps things would be different since the King and her relationship was better than before? But could she play as a second fiddle to a girl that had come out of nowhere? The Queen of Hearts couldn't accept playing second best.

She had no desire for the King of Hearts to have another woman in his life.

And the same course of jealousy that once overwhelmed her to kill flowed through her body—it was an obsessive one that wanted to search after the man that had left her hanging. Perhaps if she had seized his face in that moment and kissed him senseless, then perhaps Alice's arrival would be a useless affair.

"Hah… I keep thinking and thinking but never taking a step forward." The Queen of Hearts looked at the labyrinth and then the path that led back to the Castle. She could only do one—hope for a better life and flee or try to stop what she deemed inevitable.

How did this woman even get in here now?

The Queen of Hearts was stuck in a case of analysis that rendered her nearly in a paralysis with her thoughts. She gritted her teeth once and shook her head—she dove towards the labyrinth without another thought and came across the hedges that were surely far too higher than what they ought to be.

And then something bright seared her vision and overtook her sight and entire senses.

. . .

Chandelier lights filled the hallway with a pristine glow that focused on its sole visitor at this hour. Most might have retreated into their beds and slept with pleasant dreams or nightmares, but he could not sleep.

Or rather, he chose not to.

The Joker leaned against the pillars of the Castle and watched the figure of the Queen of Hearts run towards the labyrinth. "Perhaps I should have stopped her…" he said to himself aloud. He eyed the full moon glowing in the night and ran his fingers through his hair and sighed—precious hours, powerful days, and notorious months.

Even when the world claimed itself to be losing its magic, one needed to remember that time, location and presence was a power in and of itself. However, perhaps it wasn't she who he needed to worry about…

The man craned his neck and watched the masses of shadows that seemed to converge around the empty hall and swirl amongst the pillars and dark places. Some might have attributed it to one's late night drinking and the contents of his goblet, or wrought from imagination.

But this was phantasmal. 

"How very cowardly." 

The Joker only smiled and took one last look outside of the window. The Queen of Hearts disappeared and numerous lights burst throughout the maze. Ley lines finding their way to their sources. Three people. That was a magic number. Three were all needed.

One by one the chandelier lights flickered out, and the darkness consumed the world. If it weren't because the shadows forgot he was standing in front of the window and the moonlight spilled into a certain space in front of him. He didn't want to be vain, but there was no doubt that the light caught his hair into an ephemeral and fantastical lighting as his own eyes stared out into the darkness.

… it really was dark.

The Joker couldn't even see a thing or even the glimpse of the man or beast.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "I think this would have really been an excellent opportunity if I had adopted the Chesire as a pet. His smiles definitely glowed in the dark if I can remember." Regardless of the case, the man still grinned and took one step backward.

His back hit the coldness of the glass windows.

The man raised a hand to them. And it certainly was a lot—he'd find offense if they only sent one to hunt him. The Queen of Hearts had faced an assassin on her own, and so he could do very much the same. But for now, the Joker crashed his elbow through the window.

Crystalline shards rained throughout the night sky. He saw something swerve through the darkness and stab itself and aim right at his chest. It was a silver like glint of what might have been a needle. 

He threw himself out of the window, and the Joker so happened to be on the third floor.

But there was no fun to life with no sort of danger, and so he watched the starry night skies above him that glittered—and with one particular star that glowed brightly. "Second star to the right, fairy dust that grants me flight." The man fell to the forces of the gravity and groaned.

He really should have visited another world when he had the chance.

It wasn't a lot of fun when pain stabbed itself through his body, but nobody was crazy enough to jump—knives threw themselves down the window. Sharp projectiles. He picked himself up and didn't even have time to dust his clothes when something threw itself out of the window and landed on the grass.

Unhurt and on their feet.

"My, my… do you have a penchant for climbing and falling down trees?"

Words were useless for men whose mind was already set on murder.