The metal braces snapped off Rei’s wrists and legs, giving her time to stand up. She rubbed her bushy tail, feeling relief that she no longer sat on it.

"Through that door," the Cheshire Cat's voice directed.

In front of her, a hidden door slid open. Rei scanned the dark passage to keep her guard up. So far, no traps appeared in her cyber vision.

As she slowly walked through the passage, she opened her mind-com link. Luna! Luna! Can you hear me?

No response.

Please! I need your help! The Cheshire Cat is here! He trapped me inside an unfinished funhouse! Luna!

Maybe the Cheshire Cat built an invisible mind-com jammer around his course. Without communication, Rei was on her own.

From the dark passageway, she entered a room with a grass field and trees. A shiny white rabbit hopped across the field, carrying what looked like a golden pocket watch. Obviously, it was a hologram, moving like a ghost.

"There he is!" The Cheshire Cat shouted above Rei. "You better chase him before he disappears. If you lose him, you will never escape my Wonderland. Hehehe!"

Rei grimaced and followed the spectacle toward a tree. Beneath the tree, the rabbit jumped down into a dark hole.

Rei scanned the hole, gazing down. Deep, but a pillow pile laid at the bottom.

"Hurry!" The Cheshire Cat shouted.

Rei gulped. "Gwaenchanh-a!"

She sat on the edge and pushed herself down so her legs would fall first. She almost screamed before landing on all-fours on the pillow pile.

Thank Hananim, I am a cat… Rei stumbled through another passage, keeping up with the hologram. It reached a door at the end and hopped through it.

Rei opened the door, entering a white room with three colored doors over a pink floor. A green one, a red one, and a blue one. No sight of the white rabbit either.

"Choose carefully," the Cheshire Cat announced. "One door will lead you closer to the white rabbit. The others will lead you to your doom."

Rei glared at the ceiling. "How will I know which door is the right one?"

"Hehehe. I can't tell you."

"So you expect me to die?"

The Cheshire Cat laughed. "Maybe one hint for each puzzle. What is Alice's favorite color? The doors have it."

Rei scanned each door. They were only plain wood in fresh paint.

She switched to x-ray, checking what was behind the doors. The left door has another empty room. In the walls, long pipes connected the vents from hidden tanks, containing lethal poison. Definitely not the right room to enter.

The next room behind the front door has the same hidden traps, except the other room past the right door. When Rei switched her vision to normal, she noticed the door in the safe room was blue. That meant the blue door was the correct one.

"The longer you wait, the closer your end will reach you," the Cheshire Cat warned. "Which door will you choose?"

Rei smiled. "It's the blue one. Alice's favorite color is blue."

The sounds of clapping echoed from the speaker. "Well done! My previous Alice guessed wrong. Blue is Alice's favorite color because her dress is blue. Maybe not, but it is the obvious choice. Hehehe. Are you an Alice fan?"

Rei did read the novel in school when she was little. It was a digital copy, translated into Korean. Perhaps not accurate and Rei barely remembered it. But with her computer eyes, she could cheat her way out of the Cheshire Cat's death traps and catch before he'll notice her. "Not a fan, but I did read the book. Anything else I should know?"

"You just need to keep moving before you waste your time," said the creepy voice. "Time never stops."

Rei took a deep breath. She pushed through the blue door and entered the next room.

Same white room, different colored doors. One of the doors was blue, so it didn't matter since Rei knew the answer.

She entered the next room, and the next room, choosing each blue door in her sight. After opening a dozen doors, Rei stepped into a room with only one blue door at the back. That should be the last one.

She opened the last door, only to find another door behind it.

"Huh?" She opened the next door and another door.

Each door grew shorter and shorter. Rei sat on her knees and opened the last small door with a dark passage. Light glimmered on the other side and Rei crawled through on all-fours. Her shoulders slid across the walls while her head touched the short ceiling. At least she could still move through the crumped small passage. Only a toddler could crawl through without squeezing their body.

The next white room has a pink door instead of a blue door. A table with a bottle and cupcake sat at the center. A label on the bottle said “Drink Me,” and two black frosting words on the cupcake said, “Eat Me.”

“To enter the last door, you must drink or eat the substances on the table,” said the Cheshire Cat. “Only one is poisoned. If you choose the right one, I will drop you the key.”

Rei scanned the bottle and cupcake. The bottle only has H2O, and the cupcake has toxic sprinkles on it. Drinking the water was the only option, but Rei should pretend she doesn't know. What if the Cheshire Cat was watching her through a hidden camera? If he noticed she was using her cybernetic eyes to cheat, he could kill her or Rally. Pretending to be lucky should keep her and Rally safe. "Can I get a hint?"

"Which one did Alice take first?" The Cheshire Cat asked. "Remember from the first chapter?"

Rei narrowed her eyes on the bottle. She waited for a few seconds until she grabbed it and swallowed the water down her throat.

She gently placed the empty glass bottle down. "This one!"

"Congratulations."

A golden shimmering spectacle fell down and hit the floor with a clack. Rei approached it, realizing it was the key.

"Now you will enter my Wonderland," said the Cheshire Cat. "This is just the beginning."

Rei picked up the key and glanced at the door. Whatever was next, she won't let her guard down.

*****

Luna still wandered around the ride distinct, trying to contact her partner. How could she ignore Luna’s mind-com when Rei could hear Luna’s voice inside her head?

Kitty, you are ignoring the hell out of me! This was why Luna preferred to work alone. If something happened to Rei….. Well, she didn't want to worry about that.

After what Rei has been through, she still stood breathing with a lot of joy. But her stubbornness hasn't changed yet.

She better be having a good time with Rally while Luna works off her butt. If she catches the bounty, she will be the only one earning the reward.

You snooze, you lose. Luna stopped near a yellow fence with "Do not enter" words all over it.

She hasn't seen the fence before while scouting around. Of course with her date, she could barely check anywhere without pissing off Tilly. But now she has the chance.

Luna scanned the fence through her cyber vision. A loose board lay in the center, which could be a hidden doorway for construction workers. However, Luna spotted eight fingerprints on the board.

She scanned the fingerprints and received a notification, stating the prints belonged to Rei Young. Why would Rei sneak into a construction site? Either she found the target, or she wanted to fool around with Rally like a horny teenager.

Technically, Rei was a teenager dating a twenty-year-old man. When teenagers reach their peak, they do grow the urge to experiment with anything. At least Luna dated one girl when she was a teenager. But the only question Luna want to be answered was why Rei walked through the fence?

Luna grabbed the board and slid to the left. You aren’t getting the money without me!

Through the fence stood a mansion with the letters, “Alice’s Wonderland House. Enter if you dare,” on the roof.

“What the hell is this?” Luna switched her vision back to normal and approached the door.

She pushed the door open, finding only an empty room inside. After she stepped inside, the door suddenly slammed shut behind her.

“Son of a-”

Luna paused when something hissed below her feet. A sense of dizziness clouded her mind before she fell to the floor.