The part two of the chapter 15 :)

Dedicated to all my readers, and VanessaVu9, who will be happy to see this adventure continue :)

I woke up feeling way better than before. It had been a long time since I got so much sleep. I felt so good I thought I could accomplish anything. I washed myself a bit and changed myself into some new clothes. Ahh that felt great! A shower at my house would feel even better.

I went outside, searching for Jack. I had to tell him the news. The time had changed back into day while I slept. I wandered in the Park, without seeing my friend or Gowland. Now that I thought about it, Jack had never shown me his room, and I had no idea where Gowland was resting. Crap.

After a moment of reflection, I decided to ask a faceless employee for their location.

"Oh, they're in front of the administrative building, arguing again." He pointed me the building. I thanked him and he went away. I walked to the administrative building and found my friends where the faceless had said. Jack seemed pretty angry and was screaming at Gowland. The Amusement Park owner didn't look intimidated and was way calmer than Jack.

"Hey!" I greeted them. "What's the problem?"

They stopped fighting and looked at me.

"Oh, don't worry kid, it's nothing," said Gowland with a reassuring smile.

"Nothing?! You invited the mafia over! Even if they tried to kill us! Are you mad!?!" Yelled Jack angrily at the other man. What?! Blood was coming here?! Why?! This was bad.

"They won't try anything on my territory. We'll just be negotiating over a land."

"You don't have any proof they won't shoot at us again! You know how much Blood hates me! And he tried to kill Zoe too! For no reason!" Jack continued with anger. "You hate them too! Why even invite them!?"

"These are the rules, Jack." Gowland said harshly. "And you know it."

"The rules freaking ruined my life!" screamed Jack. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from Gowland. "Let's go Zoe."

"But-" I tried to object, but I was forced to follow him. Before we went away, I saw Gowland sigh and shake his head in disapproval.

"Jack, let me go!" I screamed, trying to pull my hand free. He looked at me and suddenly realized what he was doing. He let me go and dropped on a bench nearby. He took his head in his hands. His black kitty ears went down.

"I'm sorry for yesterday," he murmured. "I shouldn't have yelled at you." He paused. "Sorry for dragging you here too. It's just that... I don't want to lose everything again."

I sat beside him. I didn't know what he had lost, but I didn't want to force him to reveal something he wasn't ready to tell me. Something awful must have happened in his past.

"Don't worry, it's okay, really." I smiled softly. "I asked Nightmare about my... trip, and he said he could open a connection again between the worlds."

He raised his head. He looked... broken. And troubled. What happened to him? Why wasn't he happy of this new? He looked so much like a cat –you know, when they look at you with big sad eyes- at that moment that I wanted to stroke his black funky hair and cat ears. No Zoe, focus girl.

"I see," he said softly, evading my gaze again.

"What's the problem? Aren't you happy? I'll come back!"

"Yeah...Sure, I'm happy." He smiled at me but I was not convinced. Something was wrong in his small smile. His ears, reflecting his true emotions, were still down. He was trying to hide something over fake happiness. I was about to ask him what was wrong when a masculine voice interrupted us.

"Zoe! How's it going?" I turned to see a grinning Elliot coming towards us. Behind him was Blood and Alice, who stayed away. The Hatter was definitely unhappy to see us, at the contrary of his friend. I ignored the angry man and concentrated on Elliot. I could count on his support if his boss decided to attack us, couldn't I?

"Great, I guess," I responded with a smile. "Are you sure Blood won't try something?"

"No, he won't, not in another territory: it would mean war. And Alice would not forgive him if she knew that he is responsible for your deaths," reassured the bunny-eared man. "I just wanted to tell you that I don't know why Blood wants you dead, sorry. I've asked him many times, but he just won't tell me." He crossed his arms and looked thoughtful. "I'll continue to bug him, though."

"Oh, well, I guess it's fine if he doesn't attack us anymore." I looked at Jack. He was staring, frowning, resentful, at the mafia member. He didn't seem to trust him very much. I could understand: his loyalty was to Blood, and I didn't know how much our friendship counted against the bounds of the mafia.

"If you stay around the Park, you'll be fine." He smiled. "Technically, I'm supposed to ask you two where Gowland is. Could you tell me, before Blood gets impatient?"

"He's near the administrative building," informed aggressively Jack. "That's where we last saw him."

"Great. Oh, Alice!" called Elliot. Alice was coming our way, smiling softly. She was beautiful as always, her long blond hair loose, wearing her blue dress and apron as always.

"Hi Zoe," she greeted nicely when she reached us. "Hello, Jack." Her tone was now less friendly. Even if her expression did not change, her eyes showed intense sadness and grief when she looked at the Cheshire Cat.

"Hay, Alice. Why isn't your fiancé joining in?" sarcastically responded Jack. He seemed to dislike the nice woman, for some weird reason.

"I tried to convince him to greet you, but he won't," she answered, not grasping my friend's sarcasm. She sighed. "He's so stubborn sometimes... Anyway, do you know where Gowland is?"

Some awful noises answered her question. Gowland had come into our view, and sadly his music came into our ears. It really wasn't the same thing as Nightmare's beautiful melody. It was like day and night. Gowland walked to us and joined our little group, royally ignoring Blood.

"Alice!" He said, stopping playing his violin -thank god-, "It's been a long time, kid!" He gave a friendly hug to Alice. She smiled.

"I'm sorry, I should visit you more often," she answered as they let go of each other.

"Yeah, I wonder why you don't come..." said sarcastically Jack, redressing his back and crossing his arms. Why was he being so impolite?

Alice glanced a second at Jack then looked back at Gowland, which was ignoring the Cheshire Cat. He was used to his remarks and seemed pretty good at ignoring people.

"So, what's new in your life?" asked the Amusement Park owner, a huge smile on his lips.

"Well, I-"

"I believe we did not come here to chat, Mary."

The air suddenly felt colder. Blood Dupré had appeared behind Gowland like a Jack-In-The-Box –not Jack Turenne, the toy--, without us noticing his approach. I instinctively got up and went behind the bench. Putting obstacles between me and the murderously intended man felt like a great idea. Jack also got up, even faster than me, and put a hand on the handle of his sword.

"Did...you...just...call...me...Mary...?" articulated Gowland, vibrating with rage. Blood's cold aura collided with Gowland's, furiousness coming out of his body.

Mary? Who was Mary? No... It isn't possible... I just realized what they were talking about. I had never questioned what Gowland's first name was, and now I discovered it. I understood why he wanted to keep it a secret. You just don't call a boy Mary. Unfortunately for him, Blood had discovered it somehow. And was using it as an insult. What a horrible man. Poor Alice...

"I just did, my dear Mary," continued Blood. He smirked.

"Not again..."sighed Elliot at the exact same time Jack said: "Zoe, be ready to run." What?! Did he really just say to run?!?

"You. Do. NOT. CALL. ME. MARYYYY!!!!" Gowland screamed. I could almost see his rage coming out of his body. His violin shape-shifted and transformed into a big gun, which he pointed at Blood. I have no idea how it was possible, but I decided to accept it.

"You are NOT escaping from me this time, Hatter!" yelled Gowland before starting shooting at Blood. The mafia leader smirked again. His scepter turned into a machine gun and he retorted. Elliot and Jack took my hands and the same time and pulled me away. "Go!" yelled Jack as Elliot screamed "Run!" We ran from the fight and hid behind a snack bar. I heard gunshots and screams of rage from Gowland and laughter from Blood from where we had left.

"Are they gonna be okay?" I asked, concerned. I didn't want Gowland to die! "Oh my god! We left Alice there!" I realized.

"Don't worry," said Elliot with a smile. "It is the same thing every freaking time we come here. And they won't ever shoot Alice. Ever. She'll try to convince them to stop. And she has a gun too, to protect herself if things get too ugly."

"But Gowland should calm down in a few minutes. As long as you stay hidden for a moment, you'll be fine," finished Jack, glancing at the fight.

"But why would a girl as nice as Alice need a gun?" I asked, puzzled.

"Being the fiancée of a mafia leader makes you the target of numerous attacks. At first she didn't even want to touch a weapon, but now she understands that it's vital in this world to survive. Especially if you are going to marry a Hatter," explained Elliot. I had seen Alice fight with the twins in Town when I first arrived here. She was skilled, even if she used her weapon only to protect herself. Even nice girls here were using guns. I shivered. I didn't want to get on her bad side.

I suddenly realized that the two men were still holding my hands tightly. I blushed and escaped their grip.

"Oh well, I guess we'll have to come back later to discuss business. What a pain in the ass. I have to make Blood stop this habit of calling him Mary. It pisses Gowland off all the time!" Elliot sighed. "I hope we won't have to come back during night, that's his favorite time to drink tea, and he hates when missing his tea time."

"Elliot, why do you care so much about Blood?" I asked. I wanted to add: Why obey a crazy murderer?! But I decided to stay polite. I didn't want Elliot as an enemy too. Ace and Blood were enough. Tough I wonder if I can consider Ace as an enemy, because since he got the woman who destroyed the clocks, he doesn't need to attack me anymore. Hm. I'll have to think about that later.

"Blood? He's my savior!" His smile grew bigger. "You see, when my best friend died, I destroyed my friend's clock so that my friend wouldn't come back. Then a masked man with a sword beat me up and locked me up into prison. " 

A masked man with a sword? Ace. Elliot wouldn't be so nice to Ace if he knew it was him who got him in jail... Rules were different before. Today Ace would just kill him. 

"I would have stayed in jail forever if it wasn't for Blood. He's the one who helped me escape. I wouldn't be here if he hadn't helped me out," finished Elliot.

"... I see."

"Looks like they stopped," announced Jack, finishing spying on the fight. "We can come out now."

I nodded. I followed Jack back to where the two fighters were. Alice was scolding Blood, who didn't seem really impressed or injured. Gowland had his back turned to Blood, no more violin or gun in his hands, and was talking to himself. He also looked fine, fortunately. Jack and I went to see Gowland while Elliot walked to his boss.

"I just had a great idea for a new ride, Jack!" He exclaimed as he put an arm around Jack's shoulders and pointed in front of him. "It would be perfect just there, ya see?" He made big excited movements with his arm. Jack sighed, facepalming himself.

"It's like that every single time..." He muttered in deception. "It's ridiculous."

Gowland had completely forgotten about the existence of the mafia members on his territory. He continued explaining his idea, wich was awesome, according to him. Jack wasn't convinced at all, and, I must admit, me neither. He was thinking of inventing a new roller coaster which had loops everywhere, and each time you get to the bottom of a loop, there would be water, so you would splash in each time. It made me sick just thinking about it. I already disliked simple roller coasters, additional loops was a nightmare.

"Hey, Zoe!" screamed Elliot. I looked back at the Hatters. Blood was already walking away from us, while Alice was beside Elliot, smiling. "The negotiations didn't work out so we're going!" He waved, with a big smile on his lips. I nodded and smiled back. He began to follow Blood with Alice. "Oh, I forgot!" He turned back. "Catch!" Elliot said, throwing something at me. I caught it by miracle –I had always been terrible at dodge ball- and looked at it. It was a simple little green box. I looked up again with the intention of asking Elliot what was in it but he was already too far away, chatting with Alice and catching up with Blood.

"What is it?" asked Jack behind me, freed from Gowland.

"I don't know," I answered.

"Well don't just look at it, open it," said the Cheshire Cat, very curious.

I opened the little box. Inside was small silver ring with a blue gem, resting on a small cushion. It was very simple, but so beautiful... I loved it the moment I saw it.

Jack was staring, frowning, at the ring. I took it off from the cushion and tried to put it on the annular of my right hand. A perfect fit. How had he known? For the little I knew about jewelry, you had to try the ring to see if it fit, because there were a lot of sizes available. Choosing a random size could result in the ring not fitting. So how had Elliot known which size to buy? And he never asked my tastes about jewelry either. But he had guessed right for everything. I had to thank him for that amazing gift.

Why would he give me something as pricy as that? I mean, I wasn't as close to him as I was to Jack, and I hadn't been in the Country of Hearts for a long time. So why get me a gift? Maybe he wanted to apologize to me because of the incident from before. Probably. Or maybe he just liked me. Whatever the reason was, I was going to thank him very much for that gift the next time I saw him, when I'd come back from my world.

"So you like jewelry?" asked Jack after studying my reaction.

"Not especially, but I do appreciate it when it's at my taste, like this one."

"Hm." He was thoughtful for a moment. He looked slightly happier than this morning, but he still seemed troubled.

"I'll go back to my world now. You can accompany me. I need to get the cross road where I first arrived." I announced firmly to Jack, expecting him to argue with me. But he didn't. He only nodded, and followed me when I walked out of the Amusement Park into the forest, to the cross road. He stayed silent the whole time, looking down. I felt really uncomfortable with this silence. I tried talking to him, but he would only nod, shake his head or give short responses. I would be back soon! Why grieve over this?

We finally arrived to the cross road. I walked to the middle of the paths. That was approximately were I arrived after falling into the portal-hole that lead to the Country of Hearts. I took a deep breath. I remembered what Nightmare had said. Just wish it, and I would be gone till Jack comes get me again.

Then I remarked an important detail that I had missed. I realized my mistake. Nightmare had said he could get me back. But he never said he would. Was he giving me false hope all that time?!

Suddenly, Jack grabbed me by the shoulders, turned me so that I faced him. 

And kissed me.

I was so surprised that I did not react at first, but I started panicking when I realized that he was making me drink something trough our kiss. I tried to evade his grip with all my force and struggled to set me free from this violent kiss but he was too strong and enlaced me tightly, forcing me to swallow the liquid.

When he finally let me go, I was out of breath. I fell to my knees and coughed. What... I could not think strait. What was that!?!

"I am so sorry..." I heard him whisper before he ran away, dropping an item on the ground beside me.

I picked up the object. I coughed again and almost dropped it. It was a little empty glass vial closed by a cap in the shape of a heart.

The realization of what just happened slowly hit me like a wave. Despair invaded my body. I was devastated. My only hope of going home had been crushed.

Jack had made me drink the medicine of Hearts.