The card man machine sounded like a lawnmower, trimming the grass off the walls as it chased Rei. She dashed and spun through every turn she reached to escape, but the damn thing still pursued her tail. Sometimes she ran back when a corridor brought her toward the moving deathtrap.

I gotta find the white rose! I gotta find the white rose! Rei kept looking while running for her life.

The bush maze probably has no exits at all. That means the white rose was the only thing to get Rei out.

Down a long corridor, she stopped at a dead end. She immediately turned back, but the card man reached her, blocking her only path out. As it swung its blades toward her, Rei raced back to the dead end.

Her heart raced and her breath burst out from her lungs. She clambered up the wall to the top, but something zapped her and pushed her back into the maze.

"No cheating!" The Cheshire Cat shouted.

No fair! Rei looked around until she spotted the white rose on the left wall.

She grabbed the rose, but it couldn’t come off the wall. It was connected to something. A mechanism maybe.

"Paint the rose red," the Cheshire Cat ordered.

Rei found no paint can anywhere. How was she supposed to paint the white rose red?

Her wound arched on her leg. She glanced at it as blood stench beneath the cloth. Then an idea flashed inside her head.

With her claw, she slit her right palm, deep enough to squish her blood out. She clenched her fist over the white rose and dripped her blood on it.

When nothing happened, she rubbed her blood all over the rose, painting it quickly. It should work. How else was she supposed to paint the fake flower without dying inside the maze?

She painted the rose, reddening the white colors as much as possible. Every inch must be red to work.

After she finished, the blades stopped and the card man moved back. Next to the rose, the wall opened, revealing a short passage to an open grass field.

"Oops! I forgot to leave the can of paint under the flower." The Cheshire Cat laughed.

Rei growled. She tore a cloth off her skirt and wrapped it around her bleeding hand. She wasn't sure if the cat joked or forgot to leave the paint can in the maze. But overall, he was pretty damn crazy.

"It is time for you to meet the Queen of Hearts!" He announced. "Do not make her wait for you!"

"What about the White Rabbit?" Rei asked.

“The White Rabbit already reached his destination, but the Queen chopped his head off for being late. Hehehehehehehehehe!”

"That's horrible!" Rei knew the rabbit didn't lose his head in the book, but she didn't like the Cheshire Cat's twisted answer.

"Move it, or you will lose your head too!"

Rei hissed and proceeded through the hidden doorway. She entered the field where hoops laid across in different patterns. One pole faced the hoops, and another stood at the far back behind them.

Then a tall robotic woman hovered toward Rei, holding two plastic flamingo mallets. She wore a red, white Victorian dress and a golden crown on her round puppet-like head. She dropped the second flamingo and shouted, "Play croquet with me!"

"Al-ass-eo." Rei picked up the flamingo mallet and studied it.

"This puzzle is a sample game of croquet," the Cheshire Cat's echoing voice explained. "Defeat the queen and you may enter the next room."

Rei gulped. "And if I lose?"

"Off with your head. HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Two fuzzy balls, red and blue, dropped down from the ceiling and landed near the robotic queen. The queen hovered toward the red ball and raised her mallet.

With one swing, she knocked the ball through the first hoop. It stopped after rolling through the second hoop.

Rei aimed her mallet near the blue ball and knocked it lightly. It rolled through the first hoop and stopped near the second hoop.

I have to hit harder. Rei waited for the queen to hit her ball next.

The robot tipped her ball, only making it through two hoops. Rei hit harder and reached past the queen's ball, up to four hoops.

She smiled at the ball. Ye ye!

The queen hit her ball next, scoring three hoops toward the center of the field. It looked weird how the machine wasn’t missing the hoops. Maybe the queen might be equipped with a targeting system to avoid missing the ball. Villains were never fair to heroes.

After smacking the balls through fifty hoops, Rei and the Queen of Hearts reached the last hoop facing the pole. To win, Rei has to make it through the hoop and touch the small pole.

As she gazed at the pole, a realization flashed inside her mind. Why does this feel so easy?

She thought the Cheshire Cat rigged the field with mines or hidden blades that would trigger if Rei’s ball stopped at a certain spot. But nothing happened since Rei tipped her ball through the first hoop. All this tension creeped through her furry skin.

"Hit it!" The robot shouted, making Rei jump.

She gulped and glared at her ball. I need to focus!

Rei swung her mallet and struck the ball. It rolled directly toward the hoop.

Before the ball reached the hoop, the hoop vanished and reappeared on the right, away from the ball. Her ball missed and touched the pole. It didn't count because her ball didn't roll through the hoop.

Rei’s mouth turned dry. "Mwoya ssibal!?"

The Queen of Hearts laughed and knocked her ball through the hoop. Then it touched the pole.

"Oh no!" The Cheshire Cat cried. "It looks like the Queen of Hearts won the game!"

Rei threw her mallet to the ground and stomped her left foot. "No fair! No fair! You cheated!"

"It wasn’t me. It was the queen. Hehehehe."

Rei pointed her claw at the hoop. "But I saw the hoop switch places! It's a stupid hologram!"

"Hehehe. You dare anger the queen?"

"I don't care! I want a rematch!"

The Cheshire Cat laughed. "Then you better not lose your head."

The queen pulled out an ax from her skirt and spun toward Rei. Her eyes flashed red as she raised her axe. "Off with your head!!!"

Rei widened her eyes. "A jenjang!"

She shouldn't have demanded a rematch.