CHAPTER 7: A BOWL OF SPAGHETTI LATER

Two pairs of eyes stared at their respective plates. Judging by their faces, no one would have guessed that they were even related to each other. The elder was tall with a sweet childlike face exornated by a pair of jug-ears. At first glance, the King of Hearts was indeed adorable, but no, you were wrong. You were led astray (don’t ask me why)! The younger was a young man so sombre and tensed like a monument. His face was handsome, his features sharp and clear-cut. He rarely smiled; he despised his own smile. Under the mask of unapproachable tranquillity was the Prince Regent of Hearts.

“The Resistance is playing their last game of chess with me, where I shall win! Check!” the King of Hearts bit his fork. “Then, the new minister would win me a checkmate!”

“Why is that so?” Prince Regent Sehun asked.

“I tremendously love the new minister!” The King held out his fork and waved it in the air like a magic wand. “He said that he won’t be idle in crushing the resistance. What’s more, he had the remaining members of the Resistance killed at the Mermaid Cove! Drowned in the ocean! Obliterated to ashes! Faded from existence—”

“Enough, Chanyeol hyung.” The Prince Regent scowled at his brother. “I’m eating.”

“So? There’s no need to frown, Sehunnie. We’re in a fortunate state, right? Just smile!” The King pulled the Regent’s cheeks to form a forced smile. “Soon, there will be no one that could plunge Wonderland into chaos for the meddling Resistance is gone!”

“Chanyeol hyung, please…” The Prince Regent clenched his fork and spoon tighter.

“The annihilation of a dangerous unwanted element is just a small price to pay for everlasting peace. Trust me.” The King lapsed into a thoughtful silence. His eyes stared back at his plate.

The Prince Regent rubbed his aching cheek and turned away. “I’m done.” He got off his chair and strode straight to the exit, but the king had deliberately stretched out his long leg that the luckless Prince Regent was pitched forward, pieces of porcelain crashing to the marble floor. A bowl of spaghetti sauce landed on his head. SPLAT!

The fallen Regent shifted his gaze upwards and saw the grinning King between dripping shades of red.

“Sehunnie, you’ll never understand.” The King whirled around to face his Regent. “Unfortunately, I have some unwholesome cards to burn.”

The hall was filled with laughter. The ministers, other dignitaries, the guards and the Knave of Hearts couldn’t help themselves but to laugh at the Prince Regent’s mishap. The laughter echoed in Sehun’s head, rising, slicing in, then pounded, pounded, pounded, slicing through.

“The Resistance will one day be a firefall.” The King walked away, leaving scorched footsteps in his wake.

A never-before-seen creature rose up from the sea-bed. Carcasses of diverse creatures, a mouse, a toad, a fish, a rabbit, a walrus, and a dodo were sewn into one body held by strings of dried flesh. They all moved as one. When they shifted from their original position, their bones would snap and crack and the ground would tremble, akin to a great earthquake of the sea.

The eyes of every distinguished creature shone on Eun-soo. She was targeted. They moaned into a single corrupting song, her own swan-song, cutting through the ocean and piercing her ears.

All the notes from Mr Kim’s Physics class came back to haunt her. Water is a good conductor of sound waves.

She couldn’t breathe and her ears hurt badly. That made her a vulnerable target. The creature lunged towards her and opened its gaping maw until its jaws cracked and sagged. Frozen black sludge fell by pieces unto the sea-bed. Stones were riddled with holes.

And now it’s her turn.

“You’re not drowning.”

The same round youthful face filled her vision. He was someone she never knew, but just met.  At this instant, there were no more nightmares, no more fears, just eternal beauty. His deep-set eyes conveyed the illusion of a better world, a world of love, safety and sanity, a world that she had missed. His eyes wanted her to stay with him.

“My love,” he whispered delicately. “Resistance is futile.”

Resistance is futile, resistance is futile…

Eun-soo woke up from her deep slumber. She breathed in and felt oxygen rushing into her lungs. It felt sweeter than ever before. The sensation of being able to breathe caused her heart to swell and float like a balloon in a merry carnival.

I’m still alive?

Everyone around her started to cough harshly. Lay was coughing up water from whatever that was inside him. Baekhyun was there, too, a translucent being watching over the semi-conscious Lay, his expression as if he was a lost soul in shock of seeing his dead body and unable to come in terms with his untimely death—which he wasn’t. Eun-soo had watched a lot of K-Dramas using that motive. It had been a stale cliché.

“Where are the others?” Kai felt the edges of his shirt. It was dry. Strange. How could that be?

“I’m here!” Tao trudged forward and handed Eun-soo her handbag. “I think this belongs to you.”

“Thank you.” Eun-soo replied bitterly. How great. Her brand-new Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 is kaput. At least everybody is safe, she scolded herself for thinking such trivial things.

“I know that the logic is wrong!” Lay wheezed. “We shouldn’t come here at the first place!”

“As far as I know, things had never been this wrong before.” Baekhyun pouted. “I knew this place very well. There was a part that doesn’t belong here. I was deprived of light, but I know that something was wrong.”

“Exactly.” Kris sat beside Eun-soo. He wrung his hands together. His fingers were cold and bluish.

“Look at that!” exclaimed Tao. “What happened to you?”

“You won’t believe me if I said that the whole surface of the ocean was frozen. Any route of escape was totally blocked. Everything was covered in layers of ice!” Words came rushing out of Kris’s mouth between gagged pauses, conveying the inner turmoil of his own thoughts as he was trying to describe what he had seen. He wasn’t even paying attention to what he was saying.

The others, however, were clearly paying attention.

“It’s a sheer contradiction.” Lay propped his chin with his right hand. “I didn’t see any ice down there!”

"Of course you didn’t see a thing!” Kai yelled. “You passed out, remember?”

“That’s not the problem, Kai. We landed with a splash of water, so of water should it be!”

“Okay, guys! We have to keep moving.” Baekhyun’s countenance was sullen. “We haven’t much time now.”

“Should we follow him this time?” Lay sneered at Baekhyun.

“Never forget, Lay.” Tao raised the blood-stained ace of hearts card that Eun-soo was holding in her hands. “This.”

“All right then!” Lay said half-heartedly. He blew his messy fringe from his eyes, his long nose wrinkling.

“That’s the spirit, Lay!” Baekhyun flashed his trademark angular smile. “We’re going to the Mermaid Cove!”