Villainess Of Hearts

The Queen of Hearts now finally stepped into the world of the Time Man for real this time. A world in between worlds of darkness and light. A place beyond a logic that even she couldn't understand. Was this the afterlife or some other place? 

Cold winds blew harshly around her, a gale that struck at her but the man shielded her from harm and she could finally see two people from the distance, both Alexander and Alice were separated from one another. She could have imagined a teary-eyed reunion to occur but none of that occurred, instead the two seemed to treat each other like strangers.

This was a far cry when she remembered the man chasing after Alice down at first sight. She stared unsurely and asked. "What...?"

He never let his hand go and only lifted her from one block into the other so that she almost felt like a kite flown. His gaze fell on her, the striking look that could have rendered her speechless. "I suppose it is only fair that I explain the situation before I send all of you back to your world—"

Could have.

But reality was different. She was jostled out of her thoughts and frowned. This was not the plan that she had in mind. "Us? Send only me and return them to their world to put an end—"

"I've already intervened far too much. And once a person does step in your world, they become part of it. Especially when their bloodline originally started from the same world as you—however, it also means that some memories are repressed, some fade at the passage of time that it is actually a miracle that Alexander has retained such a vivid memory of his world. But it's most often they forget those who are dear to them."

"What... what are you talking about?" The words that came out of his mouth were both too fast and too much for her. It almost seemed like she was talking to a man that was farther away from him despite being only an arm length away from her. The world they were in and her perception was skewed wasn't it.

"Everything that comes to pass, will come to pass."

"Those vague words aren't helping anyone but yourself and you know it!" She glared at the embodiment of time. A man that sometimes felt too far away, but so close and near enough at other times. He was capable of making her feel understood and yet he was also able to make her so confused  that she couldn't help but dislike him at times.

"I leave the decisions up to you, Rosalyn."

He called her by name and somehow that pleased her even while he spun her around and then tossed her through the air. "What the—" The Queen of Hearts found herself standing with the King of Hearts and Alice, and before she could even utter another word, bright lights once again gathered around them before she felt the world around her disappear.

. 

.

.

The Queen of Hearts stood at the garden of the Castle of Hearts alone, standing on the edge of the labyrinth as if before she had made the decision to step into it. Rosalyn Lockhart quickly stepped away from it, but then she heard the clang of metals and smelled the touch of iron.

Fighting and battle?

How could that be happening so late at night? How many days had it been since they were gone? Had a coup broken out while they were gone? The Queen of Hearts chewed on her lip, but stayed in place. Only a fool would rush to find the source of fighting.

She glanced back towards the labyrinth.

Was it better that she stayed there?

More than that, had she actually come back in her proper time—a projectile flew out of nowhere and ripped through her shoulder. The weapon then hurtling into the dense foliage of the labyrinth. She couldn't even have enough time to scream as the heat of blood soaked through her shoulder and then the gown.

She tried to place a hand over her shoulder but felt another object strike at her, this only grazing her ear when she moved it. Her eyes darted into the darkness of the night, where even the full moon failed to provide light when it hid between the clouds.

Rosalyn Lockhart wasn't going to survive if she stayed here any much longer. And then she heard it in the air, the whistling of the weapon through the winds—was it a knife, dart or something else. The Queen of Hearts felt her eyes dilate at the weird shape that almost merged with the shadows.

And then the flames licked it up out nowhere.

Burning fiery and like a shield that blocked the weapon from attacking her, instead it fell to her feet. Some weird shape that looked like a stretched diamond… or had it melted?

But she didn't even have any time to think as several more bursted out of multiple directions and then succumbed to the flames that swirled around her like a cocoon. Thin filaments of flame that could have been streaks and then suddenly lashed out upwards.

A figure collapsed down from the tree, along with branches that engulfed him.

Rosalyn was paralyzed in spot.

Her eyes never strayed from the assassin who let out an ear-splitting scream, it scorched her soul. And yet she couldn't move, even when she soon began to notice that the entire garden had begun to burn. It started with the tree that the assassin had fallen from, leaves and branches burning and giving way to the fire.

However, it couldn't be denied that it had already spread out to numerous trees that weren't even so close to it. Was it the wind that made them grow stronger than making it die down?

She should have already known what it was, and from whence it had come from.

A fire that twisted and burned at her own very soul.