Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

The experienced researchers at the facility knew just how much they could push the limits of the human body until the subject would break down. But a person running their own experiments was different. Their motive for the subject was to gain knowledge and insight and had no reason to reuse their test subjects. As an agent, she had witnessed these personal experimenters several times and so knew them well.

In the hands of the government research facility, Alice had the potential to become strong like SoYoon. But SoYoon didn’t want to take any chances, however small.

“Are you going to hand her over to them?”

“Now right now. Before I do...”

SoYoon only said that much then suddenly put her hands into Heart’s jacket pocket. Heart moaned at the unexpected action.

“Oh, Whitey? What’s this all of a sudden...”

“Let me borrow it,” SoYoon said as she pulled out the smartphone from his jacket’s inside pocket. She had only borrowed Heart’s smartphone because hers had been trashed but to the other two men, it looked like so much more than that. SoYoon dialed and called someone while she stood amid the three men’s complicated gazes directed toward her.

“It’s not Heart but me. I have a question. Of the potions you make, do you perhaps have...”

Hearing that much, the three men were able to deduce who she was calling and why she had called him.

Pedophile necrophiliac, Wonderland’s potion master, Duke. After hearing about a specific potion she needed and hearing a positive answer, she hung up. She returned Heart’s smartphone to him, meeting Alice’s blue eyes. SoYoon smiled widely at her.

“Mad Hatter, can I request one more thing?”

“There’s no need to ask me for every little thing. I’ll do whatever you want.” 𝐟re𝐞w𝐞𝒃𝓃𝒐𝐯𝚎𝒍.c૦𝚖

“Then, please heal Alice.”

“...If that’s what you want, then I will.”

Understanding what she intended, Mad Hatter, although not liking it, moved his magical powers. As he did, not only did the small scratches on Alice’s body disappear, but her swollen arm due to experimentation and the growth on her leg instantly became healed.

The only thing left is to return. With Mad Hatter in the center, he moved his powers and readied their transportation. In the blink of an eye, they were inside Wonderland, at Heart’s house.

The moment Mad Hatter stepped into the lobby, he let go of the golden hair he had been holding. Alice, who had been knocked out to move her here, slumped onto the ground. Heart called one of his men nearby and commanded, “Take her to the torture room.”

SoYoon watched as Alice got farther away as the man carried her like a sack. When her long golden hair disappeared around the corner, Heart turned SoYoon around.

“I think we have something to talk about, just the two of us.”

Heart’s lips were curved upwards but SoYoon could tell that he was not in a good mood. SoYoon recounted the things that happened when Heart and Mad Hatter arrived but couldn’t think of what could be bothering him. Heart realized what she was thinking and smiled even wider.

“Ye SoYoon, is that your name?”

Mad Hatter clicked his tongue. Twins looked like a dog trying to gain the attention of his owner as he circled her trying to get information about her name. Mad Hatter removed her from between them and said, “Instead of standing around out here, we should talk about it inside.”

“Hm, it looks like you already knew about this.”

“That doesn’t seem to be the important thing right now. I also have something I’m curious about so let’s find somewhere quiet to talk.”

This group of people was enough to warrant plenty of attention. Already, Heart’s men were positioned here and there to eavesdrop on their conversation. They decided to move their conversation over to the drawing-room.

“Is that your real name? Ye SoYoon? What is your last name?”

“Ye is my last name.”

“Then I should call you SoYoon.”

When SoYoon answered Twins’ question, Heart spoke as if certain. He glared at Mad Hatter, and his auburn eyes looked as if ready to kill. But Mad Hatter didn’t mind him at all.

“Have you always known this girl? And who is DongHyun?”

To answer Mad Hatter’s question, she would have to explain everything that had happened before she arrived here. SoYoon looked at the two men who, unlike Mad Hatter, didn’t know what was going on. She was sure that they were not ones to not believe her or laugh at her and so she chewed at her lips then started to explain.

***

Heart took SoYoon to the bedroom, realizing how much more tired she looked from her usual self. He next opened the bathroom door and handed SoYoon a shower gown.

“Wash up and sleep. You can put the clothes anywhere and someone will throw them out for you.”

“...Don’t overdo it.” SoYoon stepped inside the bathroom after saying this, knowing exactly what the three men were up to. After closing the door, the three men passed through the long hallway and went down the stairs.

Heart’s torture room was in the outbuilding. Heart opened the undecorated gray metal door and was thankful to the previous king for building this torture room here. If it had been built in the basement, Alice’s screams would have been heard by SoYoon, and that would have interrupted her sleep for sure.

The moment Heart opened the door, he was hit with the potent smell of blood from many years ago. However, if it wasn’t for the torture devices hanging on the far inside walls, it would just be an ordinary-looking clean space.

Alice was strapped to a chair. Seeing that she was still unconscious, Heart’s men shook her awake. At that moment, she woke up to a nightmare.

Heart instructed his well-known torture master to make it as slow and painful as possible. The first thing he did was stab thin pieces of wood under her fingernails. The wood penetrated cleanly through the ends of her fingers until they were raw.

Then her finger and toenails fell off and he poured salt water on them. A heated iron seared her flower-like cheeks and left gruesome burn marks. He put thorn filled shoes on her feet. He rubbed her bare thighs with sandpaper and salt until the skin was raw.

With the instructions to make it as slow and painful as possible, the well-known torture master’s skill multiplied tenfold. He did not even permit Alice to pass out. When it looked like she would go into shock from the pain, Mad Hatter would use his magic to bring her body back to a normal state. When the torture master dumped urine all over her head, Alice screamed at the men. They were watching her without a change in expression.

“You’ll regret this! You will regret treating me this way! You just wait! Even if I die, I’ll make sure I get back at you!” Her voice was raspy from the continuous screaming. Upon hearing her metallic voice, Heart stopped the torturer. He got up from his seat and walked slowly up to Alice.

His shiny polished dress shoes stepped into a pool of Alice’s blood. He wore a smile on his face. Alice, looking up at him, mumbled, “But why...?”