The Mad Hatter danced throughout the house, knowing that his new residents would be awakening soon. He'd placed the masks and notes carefully in each room and was now in the ballroom. The old, black and white marble floor added to his mood. It had been quite an effort, gathering all ten of the teenagers. He'd had exceptional difficulty knocking out Oblio and Cody, as both had tried to fight back. Evangeline had tried to kill him was an unlit match, but that proved useless. As for Arcadia, she'd made his job easy. All he'd had to do was climb out of the painting and take her away. Zaria practically fainted on the sidewalk and the twins were easy enough. Tricking the con artists. What fun that had been! Aliena and Oliver were no difficulty, but not as easy to knock out. Oh, how he loved to whack people with his golden staff!
The Hatter could sense his newest toys, or rather, subjects and contestants becoming conscious again. He certainly hoped none would remember that he'd whacked each in the head. Hatred was not a good way to start out this little project of his. He knew that all would go well in the end, he'd done this enough times now in his short life to learn that love and compassion somehow always prevailed, even in the darkest or seemingly most pointless of situations. Like the ten would soon find themselves in.
Climbing the grand double stair case in the room, he quietly walked down the hall, knocking on each of the five girls' bedrooms as soon as they'd placed the masks on their faces. Each of the girls had a room on one side of the hall way. There were ten rooms total for each level of the wing, but the other side of the hall's rooms were locked, with no key to be found anywhere. (Unless one really wanted to stick his or her hand down the Hatter's throat to get it.) Descending the narrow staircase at the end of the hall, the skinny man soon started knocking on each of the boys' doors. Their bedroom arrangements were the same as the girls, only their rooms were on the opposite side of the hall.
He laughed quietly and soon walked back out to the ballroom, then passed through it to the kitchen. Everything should be ready for the first masquerade of the troubled group's days or possibly months if they made this overly difficult. His objection was quite simple: find love, change yourself, or stay here forever. Walking around the kitchen, the Hatter made sure that each of the servants were doing his or her job. "Faster!" he cried, his voice sending chills down the spines of the newer servants. "I will not be responsible for hungry children!"
The Hatter grinned, then made a great deal of positioning everything just right inside the ball room. There wasn't much really-just a few tables and vases of elaborate flowers and cups of water in case of dehydration. Waltzing up the stair case again, he stood at the top level, looking down at the polished floor below as if it were the most interesting thing ever. He had on his black and white, 'tragedy and comedy' mask, a black suit, and black gloves. On his head he wore his highly casual black hat that he'd worn while collecting his little dysfunctional group of teenagers, in hope that they might remember him a bit.
***
Zaria scanned over the note again, then looked at the mask. it was in the shape of a butterfly and had dark purple feathers covering it. A few blue feathers were thrown in too. She immediately fell in love with the mask, as it was perfect for her. Colorful enough and certainly childish. Walking over to her closet, she found three dresses inside of it. One was a long flowing pink ball gown, which matched the color of her short hair. She stuck her tongue out at that one and examined the other two.
One was another ballgown, this one was a silver/grey color. it was ok, but the one she loved most was the third and last one. It was a strapless black and white dress, with a skirt that reminded her of a tutu. Black and white lace could be seen sticking out from under it. She quickly put it on, surprised that the skirt fell a bit and stopped just below her knees. Putting her mask on, she was aware of a knock on the door. "Hello?" she called, but received no answer. She walked over to the door and opened it.
Zari, not seeing anything or anybody particularly interested, left her room, closing the door loudly behind her. She wandered up and down the current hall she was in. It was dully colored. She tried breaking into the locked rooms. She shook the doors and hit the locks, but it was no use. This reminded her so much of that asylum she'd once gone to...