GAME

Chapter 3 – Challenge

When I wake up the sun is shining brightly through my pink curtains, bringing light into my dim room. Sitting up in my bed, I stretch my arms in the air and arch my back. Yesterday was frustrating, as every day with Jack tends to be. But today is a new day and hopefully, it’ll be a Jack-less day so I can relax a little. It’s summer and we’re all given a bit of a vacation during this time of year, to use it to rest. I toss the blankets off but before I can take my morning shower, I hear a knock on the door.

“Lady Bunny,” my maid calls from the other side of the door.

“Come in.”

My maid comes in with a nervous look on her face, making me straighten. My good mood is slowly vanishing at the look, as it can’t bring good news.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um, you should look outside . . .”

Furrowing my eyebrows, I walk over to my window and push the curtains off to the side. Once my eyes lock on my lawn, I slam open my patio doors and run onto my balcony, leaning over the railing as if to get a better look. Anger boils inside of me as I take in the sight.

There, outside in the front of my mansion, the lawn is on fire, spelling out, “CONGRATULATIONS BUNNY GIRL” with pumpkins outlining the fire and toilet paper hanging all around the trees. I can practically feel the vein on my head begin to stick out. I don’t have to ask, I already know who did this.

That bastard.

My eye twitches as I whirl around and quickly walk back inside. I close the doors and curtains harshly and turn back around to my maid with narrowed eyes. She jumps at the harsh stare, even though it isn’t directed at her but at the one who set my grass on fire.

“Have the cleaning crew fix that. I’m going out.”

“Yes ma’am.” And she quickly leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

I practically rip off my white nightgown and toss it to the side, my movements’ jerky. I then walk naked to my jointed bathroom to take my shower. I scrub at my hair and body roughly, angry at the jackass who has the nerve to vandalize my property after being invited over for a party. Who does that?

I put on a bright orange dress with spaghetti straps that goes down to my knees—the type of dress that I usually have fun twirling in, because the skirt flares out. I put on matching orange high heels, where the straps wrap around my feet and ankles, then look over at the ball of golden fluff that’s just starting to wake up on the little nest he’s made himself.

“Honey Bee, I am not going to take his crap this year,” I say with determination flickering in my eyes.

Honey Bee, my pet rabbit with golden fur and blue eyes, just stares at me blankly, his nose twitching cutely. Stretching, he hops off the pile of sheets and up on my bed, curling on my pillow he likes to take over when I’m out of bed and quickly falls back asleep.

Lazy animal.

Shaking my head at him, I leave my room and my pet to make my way to the Halloween dimension, where Jack and his group of idiots are. Hopefully I won’t bump into too many of them while I’m there.

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This dimension, it would seem, has no sun. I’ve only ever been here three times and all three times it’s been night, or as dark as night. The moon is high in the sky as I stand outside the tall, black gates to Jack’s pumpkin mansion. There’s a large tree where the leaves are all still green, with jack-o-lanterns hanging from the branches, lit on the inside with different types of faces on them. Some scary, some sad, some happy, some mad, and so on. There’s also a pumpkin patch surrounding the place. The mansion itself is black with gargoyles decorating the outside.

It looks almost like it’s haunted, but I know the inside to be nicely furnished. Still, I remember the first time I came here, back when I was a little girl. I hid behind my mother, finding this place to be scary and Jack, the little jerk, didn’t make things better by telling me it was, in fact, haunted. He and a few of his ghost friends got a real laugh out of me that night. Thankfully, the ghosts don’t appear in sight, though they can vanish and appear at any moment.

The gates are pretty much never locked, so it doesn’t surprise me when I open one without signaling off an alarm. Though I’m thankful, since now I don’t have to climb to the other side. I slip through, closing the gate behind me. It screeches as it closes and I have to resist the urge to cover my ears. I walk up the path surrounded by pumpkins that have yet to be carved, as well as a few scarecrows here and there, staring at me creepily.

Walking up the wooden stairs, they creak with every step I take. I know the wood will hold, that it only looks old, but I still want to hurry inside for fear of the wood breaking under my feet. I imagine myself falling into the broken wood into the unknown. In this world, you never know where you’ll end up.

Once I’m in front of the door I pound on it, wanting to sound and look as angry as I feel.

However it’s not Jack who answers the door, it’s a maid. The maid is wearing a black and white maid dress; however she has black car ears on her head as well as a long black tail from behind. She has whisker marks on her face and I have a strange urge to touch her ears to see if they’re real. Her thick black hair is covering the side of her face so I can’t tell if she has human ears or not.

“Is Jack here,” I ask, fighting the urge to grab that flicking tail.

“Come in,” she says, moving to the side. Her voice has a bit of a purr to it. It sparks my curiosity even more.

I walk into the foyer and then let her lead me to a common room, where there are black leather sofas. She tells me to wait here and then goes to fetch her master.

Walking over to the sofa, I sit down on it and try to get comfortable. Ugh, I hate leather seating. Whoever thinks this is comfortable is clearly insane. Perhaps I shall send him proper furniture for his birthday. It isn’t long before I give up trying to get comfortable and decide to just look around the room. It’s dim with lit jack-o-lanterns on the table and some candles elsewhere. The color theme seems to be orange and black, just like Jack. I roll my eyes at this.

“Well, well, look who came to pay me a visit.”

I look over to see Jack standing there with a plate of what looks like pumpkin pie with whip cream in his hands. He looks me up and down and nods approvingly.

“Nice dress. I like the color, though it is a bit bright.”

“I figure orange would help me to fit in, even if just a little.” I pause. “Not that I’d want to fit in this place, but I don’t feel like being teased for my pink today.”

He looks pointedly at my pink hair but decides not to comment on it.

Smart boy.

I stand up from the sofa, not liking that I still have to look up at him. My heels aren’t high enough to make me taller than, or even as tall as him. My height makes me feel inferior, even though logically I know most men are taller than girls, it still bothers me to have to look up at him.

“With the look you’re giving me, I’d say you didn’t enjoy your present.” He fakes a wounded look at this.

“You set my lawn on fire,” I growl.

“I was congratulating you.”

“You vandalized my property, you fiend!”

He sighs dramatically and says, “You always blow things out of proportion.”

“I don’t always do anything. Don’t talk like you know me, we’re not old friends.”

He waves me off. “I really don’t have time for this. Halloween is nearing with each passing day and I can’t afford to be wasting time like you. My holiday isn’t as easy as yours.” His eyes flash. “And I’m going to make sure this year, especially, is the best in history. So that by the time Easter passes by, people will still be talking about my holiday. Your little bunny day will go unnoticed.”

I clench my fists.

“So you did this on purpose? You did that to make me mad enough to come here, just to tell me that?”

He shrugs. “I really didn’t think you’d come, honestly.”

“What would you have done then? Throw eggs at my door and windows?”

“Nah, I’ll leave that for Halloween.”

“Your holiday is foul,” I sneer and then turn around to leave. Almost right away, I hear his footsteps following me.

“My holiday has loads of tradition that comes with it. It’s the time when the dead can roam around freely.” He makes some sort of wavy motion with his hands, probably trying to mimic ghosts or something.

“And when people can be murdered and not have anyone help them, since everything looks like a stupid prank.”

“Not true. Some have gotten caught.”

“Oh? What about your—”

“Don’t start.” He shoots me a warning look.

“I’m not starting anything.” I glare at him. “You’re the one who vandalized my property to lure me here to say how great your holiday is, when in reality, it’s not all that great.”

He stops walking after me and grins widely, looking as crazy as a hatter.

“Wanna make a bet?”

I stop as well, turning to regard him curiously.

“A bet? What kind of a bet?”

His grin widens even further, making me shiver.

“Not a bet, rather, how about we play a game?”

Much to my chagrin, I’m intrigued. He’s never asked me to play a game with him before, not since he and his friends used to pick on me or play pranks on me. I was easily scared as a child, but I’m not a kid anymore and so he better not be trying to play with me. I shouldn’t believe everything this man says however, tricks are what he’s known for—that and causing fear.

Crossing my arms, I give him a suspicious look. I won’t be tricked so easily.

“What are you plotting?”

“A way to end this little spat of ours.”

I arch an eyebrow in question.

“What do you say? We’ll have a competition to see which holiday is best. I’ll have my Halloween and you’ll have your egg day—”

“Easter,” I correct haughtily.

“And at the end of your holiday, we’ll decide which one was better.”

“Genius,” I drawl, unimpressed. “But why do we have to wait? What will we base it on?”

“We’ll do our own twist to the holiday this time. And whoever creates the most memorable day wins. We’ll have all day to do it too, not just at night. We’ll see which people like better, to be afraid on Halloween or to act like giddy little idiots on egg day.”

“Easter,” I correct him again. “Who will decide this? Who will be the judge? No one from here!”

“And no one from your place either,” he agrees, nodding. “We have to find someone who won’t choose sides.”

That excludes Chris and his three sisters, but . . .

“Santa Claus,” I suggest.

He looks surprised by my suggestion. “Will he approve? He doesn’t seem the type to believe in things like this. Won’t he just lecture us about peace and good will and love and all that other sappy, boring shit?”

I wave him off. “He’ll give us a short lecture but he’ll do it. Besides, I’m sure he’s just as tired as everyone else is of our bickering.”

“Then let’s go see him,” Jack says and walks past me, towards the exit. I sputter behind him before quickly catching up, my heels clicking against the floor.

“What? You mean you’re really serious? This isn’t a joke?”

He can’t really be serious about this game can he?

No jokes?

No tricks?

He just honestly wants to play this little game, or competition, with me?

He’s seriously going to give me the chance to prove Easter is the best holiday?

Jack stops to smirk at me.

“What? Are you afraid to lose to me?”

My pride won’t allow me to deny such a challenge, so I soon find myself matching his smirk with one of my own.

“No, just making sure you know what you’re getting yourself into,” I say, my voice dripping with confidence. This is the chance I’ve been waiting for. I’ll finally be able to shut this jerk up and prove myself to him.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

And we’re walking towards the exit again.

“We’ll work out all the rules and such with him,” he says to me. “This will be great. I’ll finally get to prove that Halloween is better than Easter.”

I scowl.

“That’s my line. I’ll prove to you and to everyone else that Easter is better.”

His eyes glaze over. “We’ll see.”

“Yes, we will.”

And the war has begun.

Time to see Santa.