The Same Old Story: Part Three

     I don’t know when I woke up. Maybe like... one AM? I dunno. Anyways, I was sleeping peacefully, all my horrific dreams had seemed to fade away, leaving me in a wonderful dreamless sleep. That was until a fearful voice grated across my peaceful dreams.

     “Oeyg! Wake up, please! Wake up! It's an emergency!” I opened my eyes, not slowly this time, but quickly, and rather fretfully. I was staring into the bright and fearful eyes of Nick. Batz was standing by his side, silently gasping for breath.

     “You were right. We should’ve listened to you! About Gloria, Clare’s pets. You were right!” gasped Batz. I glared at Nick.

     “This is another one of your stupid jokes,” I snarled. “Go back to sleep and leave me alone.” I tossed the covers back over me.

     “It’s not a joke!” pleaded Nick.

     I was out of bed in a flash. My eyes were on the edge of tears. How could they tease me like this again? “Just follow me!” exclaimed Nick. I stared into his eyes, and realized with a stab of horror this wasn’t a joke. I followed him to Clare’s room, and he motioned to listen. I pressed my ear to the door.

     “That Faerie Xweetok wasn’t enough!” a voice growled. Despite the ferocity and hatred in his voice I could tell it was without a doubt, Jess!

     “Dude! I’m sorry for the last time!” Another voice rang out in frustration. Probably the Halloween Blumaroo, whose name I didn’t know. She continued on in her ranting voice. “Anyways, that stupid Gloria was my mission.” She snarled nastily. You were supposed to take on that mutant Korbat anyways, so stay out of my business!”

     “Are they talking about me?” Nick gasped. I put a finger to my lips, motioning for him to be silence. He nodded, and placed his ears back to the door.

     “Will you stop arguing!” yelped another voice, Carly Ann’s this time. “At least we can say we managed to get at Gloria! We practically messed that up too! Nick almost woke up!” She growled. The tone in her voice made me think she was the leader.

     “Whatever. You sound like a child, Ann,” Jess growled in a sarcastic voice. I pressed my ear closer to the door. I realized the Halloween Ixi, Sharin, I think was her name when I thought about it, hadn’t talked once. Was she still in the halls?

     “Ooohhhh... naughty, naughty children. Eavesdropping isn’t nice.” I reeled around to find myself face to face with Sharin and Gloria, anger and menace gleaming in their eyes.

***

     So that’s how I ended up in the basement of a haunted mansion, next to my brothers, paws tied behind my back. Gloria stood with Clare’s pets, acting as if she was one of them.

     “I don’t get this,” I rasped. “I thought you guys were our friends! What’s up with you?”

     “Let me correct you,” growled Carly Ann. “Our owner is friends with your owner. That’s as far as it goes. And about ‘what’s up with us’, I think Kiki can explain.”

     Kiki... I supposed that was the Halloween Blumaroo. So now I knew all their names. Jess, Carly Ann, Sharin and Kiki, but that didn’t help me now.

     The Halloween Blumaroo stepped toward us, nastily glaring at us. “We once really were the kind, normal family you believed we were,” she began. Despite my fear, I listened intently. I had a thirst for all the information they could offer. A thirst soon to be quenched. “But then, there was the curse,” Kiki rasped.

      “A terrible curse, set upon us all by an evil spirit. Restless, and longing to be alive, it pushed its own curse onto us. It forced us to take the terrible fate meant for it.” Kiki’s eyes grew strong and passionate as she spoke. I felt Nick rub against me. I looked at him. He blinked at me, silently telling me to stall her as he undid the ropes that kept him restricted to his chair. Kiki grumbled something under her breath, then kept going.

     “Of course, we couldn’t keep the curse, could we? We had lives to live! And it just so happens, before the curse was laid, our owner knew your owner! That was just what we needed. See, it’s a cycle! When a pet takes the curse, he simply finds another gullible pet to give the curse to. Once that pet has the curse, he finds yet another gullible pet to take it! And you, my friends, are the gullible pets. Gloria has already lifted some of the curse from us, but it takes four pets to lift a curse meant for four pets, ya know?”

     The four pets snickered together, as if Kiki had just told a hilarious joke. I heard Nick finally cut the rope on his wrists apart, and felt him set at mine.

     “Now, if you’d kindly hold still. This won’t hurt a bit!” Carly Ann growled. The Werelupe approached me, fangs glittering. My ropes were almost cut. Nick just needed one more minute. I’ve always been a bit of an actor. I smiled knowingly to myself. I knew exactly what to do.

     I craned my neck around to look at Jess. His eyes glowed with hatred. Nothing like the kind, friendly eyes the zombie Cybunny had showed me that morning. I immediately started to bawl, sounding like a trumpet.

     “HOW COULD YOU DO THIIIIISSS!? I THOUGHT I WAS YOUR FRIEND!”

     “Dude! Stop being such a baby! She wasn’t lying when she said it wouldn’t hurt!” he growled, stepping away from me.

     “B-b-b-but... I don’t wanna!” I shouted, in all truth, acting like a baby. As soon as I had said those words, I heard a satisfying snap behind me. A knowing smile spread across my face, and I leapt at the Cybunny.

     Yowling, my siblings untangled themselves quickly and joined me. As soon as I had Jess cornered against a wall, I turned to Gloria, tried to tackle her. She came down easily under my paws, screaming and groaning, before a hard swat of my paw made her slump to the floor motionlessly.

     Nick and Batz, both strong Battledomers, had the four undead pets rounded up against a wall.

     “What... do we do now?” I asked. “We can’t just leave. Mom wouldn’t believe us! She’s never leave so early! Even if she did, they’d just wait until another foolish pet comes by, and put him through the same torment!” Gloria regained consciousness and looked back up at me. I swatted her again.

     “Hehehe...”

     “Huh? Wha...?” I gasped. Had Jess just... smiled? What could possibly make him smile like that?” He giggled a moment, then burst out laughing.

     “I’m sorry, guys! I can’t keep it up anymore!” he laughed.

     “Huh?” Batz and I let out our confusion in unison.

     “It was all a joke! We planned it with Gloria!” exclaimed Carly Ann.

     My paws went weak. Jess easily clambered from underneath me, a smug smile across his face. I turned to Gloria. She was busy removing her fake vampire teeth from Halloween. She caught my eye and smirked. “It’s true. Y’know when you all went to sleep? Well, that’s when we planned it. I thought it may be a bit of fun to mess with you, y’know.” I didn’t know whether to hug or strangle her. Maybe I’d do both someday. Now I was too weak with relief to do anything.

     *****************************

     “You really did a good job planning that last night. I ALMOST believed you.” Nick laughed. It was morning now, and we were all sitting around the large table, waiting for a delicious meal of bacon and eggs. After the prank, the eight of us had instantly become great friends.

     “Don’t you think the tying us to chairs was a little overboard?” asked Batz.

     “Ahh, maybe. But it sure made it believable!” laughed Carly Ann.

     “What were you all up to last night?” Katie asked, as her and Clare entered the room. Even Katie looked back to normal, her hair kept out of her face by a bandana.

     “Nothing really. Sleep, I guess,” Kiki lied. We all snickered, despite ourselves. I was busy shoveling food down my throat, hardly giving a thought to the conversation. I wasn’t going to admit it, but I was super relieved it was just a joke. In fact, I really never wanted to hear the word “prank” again in my life.

      Gloria was silently chewing her eggs. She swallowed, and sipped the last of her juice. “I’m gonna go get some more orange juice. Anybody else want some?” she asked?

     “Yeah, sure,” I replied. I gave her a large smile, just to tell her I had forgiven her for the night before.

     “HEY!” Gloria exclaimed, squirming in her chair. “WHO GLUED ME TO MY SEAT!?!” she howled as she struggled some more.

     Or have I?

The End