It's My Birthday

[atelierlune]

So in the tradition of chimneypot and slowascent I'd like to hire myself out for requests. Par-tay!!

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Re: Daniel in Wonderland, part three

[atelierlune]

Now the darkness seemed to encroach from every direction, even swallowing up the moon itself, so he ran, ran like he'd never run in a dream before, or at least not since he was a child, until, just as the cat had said, he came to a great castle ringed in spotlights. Unfortunately the castle was also ringed by a moat and had absolutely no door to speak of, so he concluded with annoyance that the only way to enter was through the garden on one side. And of course the garden had to be a labyrinth.

"Carlos," tried Daniel as he began to feel very lost, "where are you?"

A tittering rose up from the leafy walls of the labyrinth, and suddenly Daniel began to see girls, or at least the faces of girls, all around him.

"Did you hear? He wants to see the queen! He said the queen's name!" the girls hissed and laughed around him, and he then saw that the girls were both girls and flowers, nodding in cool breeze that flowed through the labyrinth.

"He's that way!" shouted one.

"No, go that way!" shouted another.

"Ooh, forget him, come talk to me!" Another cried, and the flowers broke out in even more raucous laughter.

Daniel ran, if only to escape the mocking flowers, taking this turn and that turn, until he came to a clearing near the castle wall. In this clearing sat a folding chair, and upon this chair sat the Queen of Hearts, resplendent in great black boots, high water trousers and a bright red shirt. He clutched his inky hair as though suffering from a headache or perhaps from the torment of the flowers, but when Daniel approached he looked up. A great black crown sat on his head and his nose was encrusted in blood.

"Daniel!" said the Queen of Hearts.

"Carlos, are you ok?"

"Silence, peasant! How dare you call me by that name!"

"But, you just called me--"

"It is my pleasure to call you anything I please. I am the Queen of Hearts! Why have you come here?"

"Sa-- um, the caterpillar told me I had to find you right away."

"Catter-piller?"

"Sam."

"There you go again, using those names! Do you not know it is the pleasure of the Queen of Hearts to name things?"

"Look," said Daniel, giving full vent to his frustration now, "I don't want to be in this dream or incur your wrath or whatever! I was just told to find you!"

"Hm." said the Queen of Hearts, pulling a face and making a fresh gout of blood roll from his nostrils. "We must find a use for you, then." He was standing over Daniel, taking his chin into a pale and queenly hand. Then he looked out over the labyrinth. "I declare a penalty game!"

"Penalty game!" shrieked the flowers, the whole of the labyrinth peeling away to reveal a ping pong table. As the Queen of Hearts strode out, the flowers cheered and shouted, some to Daniel and some to him. The Queen of Hearts grasped one flower by the stem and buried his face in it lasciviously, streaking it with crimson blood. The flowers exploded with howls and screams.

"Are you ready, then?" said the Queen of Hearts, taking up his paddle and making ready to serve.

Daniel reached for his own paddle and curled his fingers around something that was definitely alive. He raised it and discovered that he held not a paddle but the hindquarters of a dog, a dog that now turned his large, black eyes towards Daniel and regarded him with a sad and knowing expression.

"Oh god," said the dog. "You too?"

"Enough!" cried Daniel, flinging the dog in one direction and knocking the ping pong table in another. The flowers gasped and shouted insults at him. "This is insane! I've had enough!!"

The Queen of Hearts dropped his paddle in the grass and came towards him again. Daniel's heart pounded in his chest but his limbs would not move, not to defend himself or to flee the labyrinth or anything else.

"So wake up, then." He said to Daniel, softly. "Wake up, Daniel. Wake up. Wake up."

And so he did.