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“The Roses Are Bleeding”
You really should stop helping Wonderland residents with suspiciously urgent tasks.
Especially when those tasks involve paint buckets, panicked card soldiers, and someone repeatedly whispering:
“Hurry, hurry, hurry—!”
Apparently, the roses planted in the Hearts garden were supposed to be red.
Unfortunately, they were not.
Which somehow became everyone else’s problem.
Including yours.
You stand awkwardly beside the massive rose bushes with red paint staining your fingers while several card servants frantically try fixing the remaining flowers around you.
The atmosphere feels less like gardening and more like covering up a crime scene.
“Faster!”
“He will notice!”
“We are all doomed—!”
Then suddenly—
Silence.
Every card soldier freezes instantly.
One of them drops their paintbrush directly onto the ground.
Slow footsteps echo across the marble garden path.
And before anyone can warn you properly, a shadow falls across the roses.
???: “Alice.”
The voice is smooth. Calm.
Too calm.
You slowly turn around.
Standing at the entrance of the garden is a tall figure dressed in black, crimson, and gold royal garments lined with jeweled heart motifs. A crown rests carelessly atop dark red hair while sharp crimson eyes sweep across the garden with visible displeasure.
His gaze lowers slowly toward the paintbrush still sitting in your hand.
A long silence follows.
Queen: “Explain why my roses are bleeding.”