By the time Haruhi reached the center of the rose maze, they were quite ready for this adventure in Wonderland to be over. They heaved a sigh of relief as they came to the clearing, thinking that this might finally be the way out those tricky Cheshire twins had told them about.
The clearing was massive, a converging of many different paths. Haruhi wondered which one would be the way out as they spun in a slow circle.
There was a crowd gathered some distance away. A group of men all wearing the same red and white outfit were standing in a circle and jeering. Or maybe they were cheering. Was there even really a difference?
Haruhi stood on their toes to try and see what was happening, but they couldn't make out more than the top of a large wooden structure. And the crowd was roaring too loudly for them to hear anything that was going on in the middle of the circle.
Growing frustrated that they still hadn't found a way out of the maze, Haruhi kept looking around. That was when they caught sight of a woman, sprawled out on a decadent chaise lounge all by herself.
Haruhi approached hesitantly. They were wary of talking to strangers after the day they'd had, but this woman looked too... stately to be anything like that white rabbit or the mad man in the top hat.
As they got closer, Haruhi realized that, past the giant red and black skirts and the crown perched atop her head, this girl was just that: a girl. She was picking idly at a ruby red rose, wan features pulled into a look of deep concentration. She was so absorbed in the rose that she didn't notice Haruhi approaching.
"Hello," said Haruhi.
The girl's eyes slid up slowly from her rose. She raised a thin brow, fixing Haruhi with a steely look.
"I'm sorry if I scared you," Haruhi continued, though they didn't think it was possible to scare this girl. "Do you know how to get out of this maze? I need to go home."
"I do," replied the girl. Her gaze roved over Haruhi once, twice. "And based on your clothes, I think I know where you want to go back to. After the execution, we'll play a game, and if you win I'll show you back."
Haruhi did a double-take. "Execution!" They turned back towards the roaring crowd, quickly understanding that the wooden structure they'd seen was a guillotine. "But they can't do that!"
The girl scoffed. "I can do whatever I want. I'm the Queen of Hearts; I rule this land."
"That doesn't give you the right to take someone else's life!" Haruhi insisted. Belatedly they realized that there was nothing to stop this Queen of Hearts from executing them, or at the very least refusing to help them home. A beat later, they realized they didn't particularly care. "What did they ever do to you?"
"They planted white roses in the garden."
"What are you talking about?" Haruhi gestured to all the red roses hanging from the bushes, to the red rose in the Queen's hand. "I haven't seen a white rose since I got here."
The Queen peeled away the ruby red petals to show a pure white center. "Do you see this?" She asked slowly, as if Haruhi was a stupid child. "White roses. They planted the white roses and then tried to paint them red to hide it from me. A beheading was a mercy, really."
"Who cares if they're white roses?" Cried Haruhi. They were horrified. Lives snuffed out over a couple flowers, and the woman who ordered it wasn't the least bit bothered. "They're human beings!"
"They're really not." The Queen snorted rather unceremoniously. "They're just paper. Not real at all– everything's just paper here. And if you don't understand the significance of a white rose by now, then I certainly won't tell you."
YOU ARE READING
Comes up Roses
Fanfiction[OC x various OHSHC] || Seventeen year-old Masae Aoki doesn't believe in love; and why should she? Her mother ran away, leaving her to be raised by her father and his much-younger second wife, and she works as the secretary to a club false adverti...
