Rubynrags:
Hatter and Chess reappeared sometime later near the tree.
" Hopefully that's girl's back..." Hatter thought out loud.
" Awesome!" Chess quietly said as they saw the girl near the window again. The girl stared out the window and gave a little wave to them. Suddenly, she swiftly turned her head around behind her. She turned back to Chess and Hatter and started waving frantically, fear plastered all over her face.
" Ran-dom..." Chess said in a sing-song voice.
" It's the Queen, she must be coming," Hatter realized. Chess laughed.
" What's the worst she can do to us? If she takes off our heads, I'll just evaporate and pose as you. Just like the movie..." They smiled at each other.
" Your majesty, they haven't done any harm-"
" I've already told you, they're TRESSPASSERS! Now, how to get them out of the castle grounds...." the Red Queen scratched her head in thought. She snapped her fingers, " I know! YOU'LL go scare them off! Oh, I'm a genius."
"........me?" Veronica meekly asked.
" Yes, YOU, Niccy. You're fairly scary. Show me your 'grrr' face!"
" I-"
" 'GRR' FACE, NOW!!!" Veronica wrung her hands together.
" Off with your head?" she said quietly, turning the statement into a half-question, " Off with your......greasy.....lint-filled head?"
" Oh, terrifying." the Queen replied quickly with sharp saracasam. " Now, GO!" She said, shoving Veronica outside.
The two watched as the girl fell to the ground hard outside of the castle doors.
" Ouch..." Hatter said. The girl stood up and wrung her hands together again. Then, in a puff of black smoke, she seemed almost to transport from the castle doors to a foot in front of Hatter and Chess.
" Excuse me, I'm dreadfully sorry about all of this, I truely am, but I need to scare you off or the queen shall have my head so would you be so kind as to leave at once?" she said in one quick nervous breath.
" What?" Chess said.
" I said, excuse me-"
" No, no. She meant what like she couldn't believe you just talked so fast, not that she didn't hear you." Hatter replied.
" Oh, I'm sorry. I get a little timorous around the Queen. Would you be as so kind to follow me?" She grabbed their hands and lead them away from the castle. " My name is Veronica, in case you were wondering.
" I'm Chess."
" Hatter." Veronica laughed a little.
" What's up? You think Hatter's name is funny?"
" No, no. I'm sorry. It's just been so long since I've talked to girls my age. I've been here a while..." They all walked a little while without saying anything.
" Why are you here? I mean, why do you stay in the castle?" said Hatter, always searching for new information.
"...." Veronica's eyes went wide and she walked a little faster.
" Veronica?" She walked even faster.
" Is something wro-"
" I'M SORRY, I DID IT, OKAY?! I WAS THE ONE!!!! I'M TO BLAME!!!!" She grabbed a branch from a nearby tree and held it out to Chess, " TAKE IT! TAKE IT AND JUST...JUST BASH MY HEAD IN!!!"
" Dude, calm down..." Chess said. " It was just a question." Veronica loosened up a little.
" I'm....I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. You two....I guess you should know......Well, I was new in Underland. I was walking around one day, looking for new stuff to draw. God, I was so unskeptical."
" So what?"
" Unskeptical. Naive, gullible. I was walking around, and I came across two people. They were asking for help. They wanted me to help them some shackles off...."
" The Red Queen and-"
" - the knave, yes, Hatter. They looked so worn out with each other, what could I do? I wasn't about to leave them out there all alone. I didn't have a key, but the least I could do was to break the link between them...."
" You..."
" Then.....I showed them back to the kingdom......I didn't know who she was, what she was capable of doing....." She sat down and started to cry. " It's all my fault.....I'm sorry.....I'm to blame....."
" Hey," Chess put a hand on her shoulder, " don't get so worked up about it."
" They would have choosen anyone. Thank God it wasn't someone like Carlotta." Hatter sat down next to Veronica.
" .......you two are very very nice......like the Hatter, at least what I've heard about him........" Veronica looked up, " Thank you two." She stodd up, wiped her nose, and took a deep breath. " But, nonetheless, I have to ask you two to leave. She'll do terrible things to you if you don't."
" Don't worry," Hattr put her arm around Chess," We have each other."
" Each other....." Veronica said to herself, " Well, I bet that'll work. But the Red Queen is very mean, nevertheless."
" Wicked people never have time for reading..." Hatter started to quote Lemony Snicket,
"...It's one of their reasons of wickedness." Veronica finished for her. " Oftentimes. when people are miserable, they will want to make other people miserable, too. But it never helps."
Hatter and Chess smiled. " Would you like to come with us?" Chess asked. " You can meet our fiends. We're going to a mad party."
