Chapter 8: Wonderland-7  

SoYoon went to Heart upon leaving Tweedle’s office. It was twilight, so she was attacked only twice. Heart gave her 100,000 carol for delivering the documents. Although he said it included a bonus for the dangerous aspect of the task, it didn’t amount to much.

SoYoon left Heart’s house and headed to Central to eat dinner. Central’s restaurants were all expensive and unappetizing. Her stomach filled with stew and bread, she stopped by the mart to pick up a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and a small pack of milk.

As she was leaving, her eyes met a thief. He was a dirty boy who looked to be in his teens. Thinking it had nothing to do with her, SoYoon turned away and ignored him.

***

Now, SoYoon’s life felt like it was on repeat, like a broken record.

She would wake up, eat breakfast, if there was a call from Heart, then do the task, kill her attackers, go to Mad Hatter’s once every two days. Even the trauma she endured during Mad Hatter’s tests was the same. About two weeks passed as such.

Mad Hatter placed a large white patch over her brand instead of running his usual tests. He gave SoYoon the small machine that had always been next to her during the experiments. Unlike the other times, the machine was quiet.

“This machine was made to detect the signals coming from that brand. If the machine is quiet, that means that there was a disruption in the signal. This will last about fifteen minutes. The week after next, I think I can concoct something pretty useful.”

“Thank you.”

SoYoon thanked him sincerely. At this, Mad Hatter replied with a playful smirk.

“You wouldn’t be able to say that if you knew what I took from you.”

In the 21st century, the smartphone was the life and culture in the palm of one’s hand for the members on Earth. To explain this, SoYoon had to tell the Mad Hatter in detail about specific things about the Earth’s people. She hadn’t been particularly inclined to hide the fact that she was not of this world, so combined with Mad Hatter’s genius, it was obvious that he would figure it out.

Two weeks later, as Mad Hatter had promised, he created a two-hour patch. Another week later came a six-hour patch. SoYoon continued living her life with the patch on her shoulder. The researchers would now assume that SoYoon was dead.

***

It had been a month since SoYoon arrived in Wonderland, and she realized her body was in bad shape. The first symptom was her body temperature. SoYoon—who had been sick of the researchers who had been sensitive to even a degree of change in her body temperature—had ignored the signs until she realized how incredibly hot she was. The next was her stamina. She felt heavy with constant body aches so that she even started to wonder if Duke had drugged her with a sleep medication.

It wasn’t something so sinister, however, but instead the symptoms of the flu. Wonderland only had one doctor, Carter. The doctor smoked his cigarette, looked her up and down, and relayed his conclusion.

“Looking at the reengineering skills, it’s just as expected from those government researchers. They are known for their crude experiments. Did you say it’s been a month since you escaped? Then it’s that. You’ve just let your guard down. It’s nothing serious, so eat this and sleep.”

The doctor handed SoYoon a prescription for a capsulated cold medicine. She was instructed to eat it 30 minutes after a meal, but she ignored the instructions. Just the thought of drugs made her gag. If it was just a cold, it wasn’t like she was going to die. Thinking she could sleep it off, she headed home.

That night, she received a call from Mad Hatter.

SoYoon had been sleeping when the message alert woke her up. Mad Hatter sent an unfriendly text that only listed a time and place.

Only after pulling open a map did SoYoon realize that it was a place far away from Wonderland. There were only 45 minutes until the appointed time. SoYoon left the house right away. It was night, so she wasn’t attacked. She reached the street within a few minutes and grabbed a taxi to get to the pinpointed location.

The taxi stopped at a marvelous house. SoYoon handed the driver his cab fare. Even though her fever and mask muted her senses, she could still smell the blood. She opened the door cautiously. It was unlocked.

As she went further inside, the smell of blood grew stronger. Passing through the hallways, she didn’t hesitate and opened the door.

It was dark inside. A corpse with his eyes wide and his tongue out greeted her. The corpse’s neck had several thin wet lines across it. He had been strangled.

Other than this one, several others were splayed around the living room. The room, which was decorated with accent wallpaper and landscape paintings, was splattered with bloodstains. An elaborately designed tapestry on the floor still had the remnants of a pool of blood not yet soaked into its fibers. There were drag marks on the wooden floors, and she followed them. After a few more steps she saw a faint light. Thud, thud came the sound of heavy hammering.

It was a kitchen. A place that should have been clean was now covered in blood. Mad Hatter was there, cutting up the corpse in front of him. The thread she saw previously on the corpse before was wrapped around this one also. Sensing SoYoon’s presence, he turned around. Drenched from head to toe in blood, he smiled. The drops of red trickled down his pale face.

“You arrived early, White Rabbit.”

His voice was an octave higher than usual. That higher pitch had made this chaos. Telling her to wait a moment, he slammed down the knife. Whack! The neck bone snapped as it cleanly broke free from the body. Mad Hatter picked up the head and placed it on the counter. That’s when she saw the 50 other men’s heads.

Mad Hatter was moving around excitedly as he removed the eyeballs and put them on a plate. With the heads in the middle, he pulled out the eyes from the fridge as casually as someone taking out fruit and placed it with a vase of flowers. The person who had made those living in Outhouse tremble in fear, who had defeated a wizard, and who was a head-collecting serial killer was sitting right here.

Mad hatter placed a fancy hat with quail feathers on the man’s head and finished decorating it.

Watching his enjoyment, SoYoon mumbled, “Strange hobby.”

“Don’t you know you should respect others’ preferences?”

His excitement had yet to recede from his voice. Mad Hatter placed the plate on his hand. With a black suit and silk tie, he looked like someone ready to attend a gentleman’s party. He went to set the plate in the living room and opened the cupboards one by one. Finding the glasses, he yelled in excitement. He was blushing as he took them out. Then he tossed a roll of styrofoam to SoYoon and instructed.

“Wrap these glasses and coasters well. Make sure not to break any of them.”

For an hour, SoYoon carefully wrapped the glasses and coasters and placed them into a box. The glasses filled two boxes to the brim. Each of them carried a box and left the house. The car itself moved by magic. They put the boxes in the backseat, and Mad Hatter turned on the ignition. As SoYoon sat down in the passenger’s seat, Mad Hatter handed her a capsule.

“It’s a magic pill. If you swallow it, twenty minutes later, your body will absorb the powers, and even the nonmagical can use it. The capsule has been tested and approved, so you can ingest it without worrying. If you purchase it at Outhouse, it will cost you two hundred fifty thousand carol, but if you buy it from me, I will give it to you for one hundred fifty thousand.”

With the invention of the magic pill, the rich were abusing the poor by purchasing and using its powers. If not for other things, it was at least useful to use for cellphones and cars. Plus, she would be saving 100,000 carol. SoYoon bought two like a home-shopping-obsessed mother. When she realized what she’d done, it was too late. After taking three sheets of the 100,000 carol currency with this world’s hero, Louis, on it, Mad Hatter headed back home.