Candyland

It was a Friday night and the girls were gonna have a sleepover at Alice’s house. Everything was going great until they pulled out the Candyland game. They had gotten bored and decided to play a board game, so of course they chose the girls favorite board game, Candyland.

“Dinner!” Alice’s mom’s voice echoed through the hallway. They had hardly gotten the game set up, but they were hungry. So they raced down the hallway. As they were running, they could smell the perfectly cooked, delicious, cheesy pizza that was waiting on the kitchen table just a few feet away. When they approached the kitchen table they each grabbed a slice of pizza and devoured it. Katie, one of Alice’s friends, reached for her glass of milk when Alice’s younger brother, Mason, bumped Katie’s elbow and milk went everywhere. Now the pizza, table, and Katie were covered in a white coat of milk. The milk made everything look like liquid snow everywhere. Mason was upset and went to bed early while the girls just sat there, staring at the table. The table held milk, four plates, four glasses of milk, and wet, soggy, no good pizza. The girls helped clean up the table and mop the floor. Once they were done they went back to playing Candyland.

“I’m yellow.” Katie said.

“I’m green!” Alice replied.

“What about you Jenny, what color are you?” Katie asked.

“Um, I don’t know because I don’t like the color red and the color blue reminds me of that one time I stepped on a really sharp shell in the ocean. It hurt so bad and I” …

“Ok, ok then you take green I’ll be red,” Alice interrupted. The girls formed a circle around the game. Jenny started first. She rolled the dice.

“Six!” Jenny shouted.

“SHHHHHHH!” Alice and Katie whisper shouted at the same time.

“Six.” Jenny whispered. Jenny didn’t even have to move her figure. It moved on its own!

“It’s probably just magnetic,” Katie said with a panicked voice. When it was the other girls’ turn, the board pieces moved on their own again. It was now Jenny’s turn again. The dice clicked and clacked while she was shaking them in her hand. She rolled a six again.

“JENNY, LOOK AT YOUR HANDS!” Alice cried. As Jenny looked down, she saw her hands disappearing into the board game!

“GO GET YOUR MOM!” Jenny cried but it was already too late. Jenny had been sucked into the board game. A few minutes of silence passed while they just stared at the board. Now the middle of the board was glowing green. There were words in the middle of the glowing green light.

“Roll the same number twice, live in the past for the rest of your life”, Alice read. “What?!” Katie asked, confused.

“It says, ‘Don’t look at me, look at the board”‘ said Alice sternly. The board DID indeed say that! She wasn’t lying. Both of the girls stared at the board. Jenny was stuck inside the board for the rest of her life.

“Girls! You need to go to bed now!” Alice’s mom hollered up the stairs. But all they could think about was how to get Jenny out of the board game.

“Well, if she can’t get out, we’ll have to go in!” Katie said nervously.

“Are you crazy?!” Alice replied. All the girls had to do is roll the same number twice, get Jenny and GET OUT! But it wasn’t that easy.

“Well, you can’t go in alone, so I’m coming with you,” Alice replied in a shaky voice. Both of the girls took one dice and looked at each other.

“Which number?” Alice asked.

“Well, Jenny rolled a six, so let’s try six,” Katie said. The girls moved their fingers through the small dents in the white cubed dice to find the number side that had six small dents. When the girls both had the side with six small dents they laid it down on the board. Both of their characters moved six spaces on the board. Then the girls picked up the dice and found six again, and they both laid the dice down. Then they waited and waited.

“You know, it’s not fun waiting to be sucked into this thing!” Alice said. Both girls waited for another two long minutes.

“Well, I give up, I’m going to bed,” Alice said.

“No you’re not, get back here, now!” Katie said quickly before Alice could run up the stairs to her room. The board was glowing a bright green again. The girls both held their breath. Alice leaned over the board to read what it said.

“Double sic double the sssss.” Alice read out loud.

“What?!” That’s definitely NOT what Jenny got!” Katie said. The girls both turned their heads and saw twelve snakes coming out of the bathroom doorway!

CHAPTER TWO

The girls both just sat there staring at the doorway full of snakes.

“Uh, there are nets in the left kitchen drawer way underneath everything,” Alice said, panicking and stuttering as she spoke! Both of the girls ran to the kitchen still in shock. Katie started digging her hand into the drawer full of notes, empty glue bottles, old school pictures, batteries, flashlights, cookbooks, paper clips, and basically anything you could think of.

“Got it!” said Katie. She held up two nets high in the air. Alice then grabbed one while Katie kept the other. The girls held their nets tightly with sweaty hands and trembling knees.

“Let’s capture the snakes with our nets, then we’ll throw them outside!” Katie hollered.

“Why would we throw them outside? They are just going to come back in!” Alice yelled.

“Well, do you have a better idea?” Katie asked.

“Actually, yes, yes I do!” Alice replied proudly.

“And what is that?” Katie asked.

“We snatch up the snakes and we flush them down the toilet!” Alice said excitedly. Katie rolled her eyes and started walking down the hallway to the bathroom. When the girls got to the bathroom they froze.

“Uh, where did all the snakes go?!?” Alice asked. Then they heard a scream coming from upstairs.

“WHO PUT SNAKES IN MY PILLOWCASE!?!?!?” Alice’s mom cried. The girls panicked as they ran up the stairs. As the girls walked through the doorway they saw about twenty-six snakes. There could have been more but they didn’t have time to count. The girls clenched their nets and walked in.

“CHARGE!” Alice shouted. Both of the girls were running everywhere trying to get the snakes. Once they each had five in their net, they threw them out the window. They were on the second floor, so they were hoping the snakes would fall to their death. After about fourteen minutes all the snakes were gone. They didn’t leave the room clean. There were glass pictures shattered, sheets torn off the bed, random pages of paper ripped up and tossed on the floor, and even scratched pain all over the walls.

“Who did this? Who let snakes into the house?!” Alice’s mom hollered. The girls both looked at each other and then back at her mom and then back at each other. All this looking and staring seemed to go on forever. Finally all of the looking and staring was over. The girls both still sat there silently. That’s when Alice thought of something. Her brother had a snake that he took on vacation, but it got lost in the car. They haven’t found it, yet, and his friend has about seventeen snakes as well. She thought some more and finally spoke.

“Mason’s friend was over and um, they were teaching the snakes tricks and the snakes got loose,” Alice mumbled. Her mom looked at both of them, the sweat trickling down their faces, their messy hair, their shaky knees behind their pjs, and their faces full of fear.

“Just get out! And I told you to go to bed!” Her mom shouted.

“Oh, no … what about Jenny?” Alice whispered ….

TO BE CONTINUED … IN THE SCSC WRITING CONTEST, 2024 …