The Same Old Story: Part One

     “I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT!” the disco Cybunny yelled. That Cybunny is me, Oeyg, but I go by O. And my siblings and I were setting out on a mission to bring in the biggest criminal in our house. Last night's dinner. My siblings rushed to my side. My over-eager faerie Lupe brother, Bats, leapt at the tentacle and tackled it to the ground.

     Yes, that was last night's dinner. A still-living tentacle, which had escaped the fridge. Batz dug his claws into the tentacle and brought it up to his face.

     “DON’T DO IT!” my older sister, a sweet faerie Xweetok named Gloria groaned. Too late. Batz opened his mouth, and plopped in the tentacle. He chewed. Once. Twice. Then he swallowed, and a stupid smile spread over his face.

     “DUDE! That was awesome! How’d it taste?” my other brother, Nick, a mutant Korbat laughed. Batz smiled, and told him it was pretty good. Yeah, that’s my family. Two girls and two boys, so it evens things out. Not that Gloria and I are less weird than the boys. Just... less disgusting.

     “Everyone ready to go?” a voice called from the kitchen. My owner, a tall blonde girl named Katie, poked her head from the doorway. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail. We all moaned. In the tentacle confusion, we had forgotten about our yearly Summer vacation! We always would go to visit my owner’s friend, Clare and her pets (who live in Meridell) in the summer. We weren’t even packed!

     We all rushed to our room. The boys just yanked random items from their dresser and threw them in a duffel bag, while Gloria and I ran through our well organized list.

     “Tooth brush?” I called.

     “Check,” Gloria replied. We went through the same process with several more items. Blankets, hair brushes, snacks, our plans to take over Neopia. After that we rushed back downstairs. As soon we were outside, a Uni carriage pulled up to our house to take us to our destination. The drive was ten hours, and we were definitely not going to enjoy it. The carriage was actually comfortable. There were three rows of seats. Katie sat in the first row, followed by Gloria and Nick in the second row, and me and Batz in the last row. It was actually comfortable, since each row had enough room to fit three pets.

     We heard the Unis leading the carriage grumble and complain about the long drives and little pay their job came with, but before too long they had finished whatever they were doing and begun the long trip ahead.

     Nick and Gloria turned around in their seats to face me and Batz. “Yeah, I could’ve pulled this job off back when I was a Uni,” gloated Nick. “Ha, not that I’d ever want to be one again.” He folded his long arms over his chest and gave a big, fang-filled smile.

     After another hour on the road, we found ourselves staring at a portable Neopoly game board. It was carefully balanced between the four seats. As everyone took their turns, the other three pets carefully leaned or placed his or her paws on the edges of the board, trying to keep it balanced. Our owner had been silent most the trip, and we figured she was up in the front seat, stuffing her face with snacks joyfully and guiltily. Our owner wasn’t a huge eater, but anyone in our family plus food equals... uhhh... not a pretty picture.

     “Your turn,” Nick growled, tossing a pawn at my head. Muttering under my breath, I rolled the dice. Three. I moved my character and glanced down at the square. It read in clear letters- Go to jail. I threw my character into the slammer. As Gloria prepared to make her roll, I turned my attention away from the group of pets to the window. We were in a forest of some sort. Not like the Haunted Woods; it was much too lush and green. But it was dark. Not even the tiniest bit of light was visible. I stuck my head out the window curiously, and a giant cobweb was entangled in my green, fluffy ears.

     Coughing and spitting, I pulled the substance from my hair. This was just too scary. I shook Batz’s shoulder. He brought his eyes from the game, and growled. “What up?”

     “Do you know where we are?” I asked. His ears twitched, and I felt his tail brush against my leg under the seat. He finally gave a mumbled answer.

     “Nope. Never been here.” He sighed. We finished our game quickly, and crowded against the two windows, trying to figure out where we were. I pressed a paw to the window, and pressed my little pink nose to the cold glass. Batz had a sort of unease in his eyes. This was unusual for him, being the youngest and most naïve.

     “Batz.”

     “Yeah?”

     “You know something... we don’t about this place, don’t you?” I asked, unable to hide the fear in my voice. The faerie Lupe shifted positions, glancing at his forepaws for a moment, then answered.

     “I just know... this place doesn’t feel right. We Lupes have an ability like that, we can sniff out danger and,” he added with a shudder, “evil.” I flattened my ears to my head. I no longer felt like playing board games, and grew more uneasy with every half-hearted roll.

     We sat silently for a while, anticipating the terrors that Batz’s nose-radar had warned us about. When we finally thought we were safe, a bone chilling howl broke through the silent, dreary atmosphere. My eyes rolled around, looking for the source. It was a Werelupe, without a doubt. But... where was it?

      The Unis that had been silently guiding the carriage suddenly let out fearful whinnies. I stumbled towards front row of seats. A Werelupe stood, panting, gazing greedily at the helpless Unis. They poked him in the stomach with their horns, to no avail. “We’ve gotta help em!” Nick cried out. We rushed from the carriage and made a circle around the Lupe. Our owner stayed in the carriage, knowing there was nothing she could do to help.

     Surprised at the large amount of people, the Werelupe whimpered and rushed away.

     “What a crybaby.” Nick laughed cockily, but rushed into the carriage just as fast as any of us.

     We bounced along the road a while longer, like, seven hours. It was dark out; the moon and stars had begun to rear their heads and shine, the only illumination on the dark land. Even though we were in Meridell now, it sure did look more like the Haunted Woods. Katie’s friend sure lived in a creepy place. Of course, Clare was, a little well... eccentric. All her pets were painted Halloween, and they even kept a slorg farm! Okay, I admit. She’s more than eccentric. She’s a bit out of her gourd.

     The carriage finally stopped. We graciously stepped out and thanked the Unis, happy to be able to stretch out and enjoy ourselves. We walked up to the big, mansion-like house, and Katie knocked. The door creaked open.

     A pale, dark haired girl stood at the entrance, surrounded by a Halloween Lupe, Blumaroo, Ixi, and a zombie Cybunny.

     “He ya’ll!” Clare giggled. “I just got Jess here painted zombie! Ain’t he a cute un?” She motioned to Cybunny.

     “Brainsssss....?” muttered the Cybunny. Batz's eyes widened, then he fainted dead away. The Cybunny smirked. I knew it was going to be one long vacation.

     “C’mon, everyone. I’ll show ya’ll your rooms.” Clare giggled. I kicked Batz hard in the side, and pulled him into the house. The Cybunny gave me a wicked glance, a glance that sent chills down my spine before following his owner up the staircase. It was obvious he had just been painted zombie. His black Halloween Cybunny cape still hung around his shoulders, a strange contrast to his green and brown clothing.

     “This feels so weird,” Batz whispered. “That Cybunny... he’s eyeballing me.” I glanced behind me as I climbed up the stairs. Each step made the steps creak so bad beneath my feet, I thought it would fall in.

     “Here we are...” the Cybunny said in a raspy voice, like crackling leaves. I looked up fearfully at Clare, then into the room.

     The Cybunny nodded curtly before leaping away from us and padding back down the staircase.

     “Not much of a talker, is he?” cracked Gloria after we all had assembled in the room. I kicked her shin. HARD.

     “I wouldn’t be insulting him,” I advised her. “These pets are like... weird.” With every step I took the floor creaked a bit, not unlike the staircase.

     “Although it wouldn’t kill them to fix up this meepit hole.” I smirked.

To be continued...