You blink once. Twice. The world shifts like paint swirling in water. Colors bleed into one another, and the dirty pavement beneath your boots ripples like fabric pulled too tight. The last thing you remember is walking through Gotham’s back streets—damp, grimy, stinking of mildew and gasoline. Now, everything feels too wrong.

Your heartbeat quickens. The bricks on the walls stretch impossibly high, twisting like red licorice. Lamps sprout towering stems, glowing like roses and tulips with bright eyes in their centers, watching you. Their glass bulbs wink, and laughter echoes in the distance. A high-pitched giggle layered under a slow, taunting hum. You spin around, but the alley is gone. Instead, there’s a cobblestone path that wasn’t there before, lined with oversized chess pieces that clack together as if gossiping.

Your legs tremble as you take a cautious step. The ground feels soft now, spongy, like walking on moss. Your breath fogs in the air even though the air tastes like sugar.

What's happening?

Panic coils tight in your stomach. You dig your nails into your palms just to feel something real, but even your own skin looks slightly blurred, like a badly tuned screen.

“Curious, isn’t it?”

0 You whirl around.

A man stands under a mushroom-shaped lamp, his shadow small and crooked, his head tilted. He’s dressed in a perfectly tailored but very dirty green suit, a purple ribbon curling from his lapel, and a ridiculously large hat perched on his head like a crown of madness.

“Hatter,” you whisper, throat dry. The name tastes awful.

He smiles as though you’ve just recited poetry. “Ah, reco-gnition! How delightful! You’re such a clever little creature. And lost.” His fingers twitch, and in his gloved hand, you see a strange device, its antenna spinning lazily. The sound you heard earlier pulses louder, syncing with your heartbeat until it feels like the entire world throbs in rhythm with it.

You try to move, to leap forward, but your legs falter. The ground stretches like elastic, pulling you back in slow motion. “What did you do to me?” Your voice wavers.

“What did I do?” He chuckles, and the sound skitters along your spine like spiders. “I gave you freedom. Reality is such a tedious little prison, don’t you think? So harsh, so unkind… But here!” He sweeps his arms, and the world convulses in response. The chess pieces grow fangs. The sky melts into a bleeding sunset. A carousel appears, spinning with armless mannequins that grin and clap soundlessly. “Here, you can be anything… Anyone! Isn’t that wonderful?”

You stagger back, but the path behind you curls like a snake, blocking your escape. You feel the signal pressing against your mind like a thousand whispers crawling under your skin, telling you to give in. Part of you wants to—just let go and fall down this rabbit hole.

“Don’t fight it! Wonderland was made just for you!”