A/N: This is the first thing I've posted online, so I'm still a bit wary about the whole process. Let me know if you find any errors!
I scanned my options, considering the next move. There were only a few choices, but I knew I only had one shot so I better pick correctly. Or else it would be game
over. "D4." The tension in the air was thick as I awaited her response. She looked once at me, and then studied her own playing board carefully.
"Hit." Skye finally admitted, "You've sunk my submarine." Those were the words I'd been waiting to hear. I'd won. I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in my chair. That had been a close one. "Lucky guess." She frowned, picking the pegs out of her board and putting them back in the side-container. "One more turn and I would've had you beat."
"You found my carrier last." I teased, also cleaning up my half of the game.
"Oh, whatever." Rolling her eyes, she put her half back in the box. "That was the first time you've won out of what, five games?" I shook my head, refusing to engage in further banter. I checked my watch before I could stop myself. "Had enough fun for one day?"
"You're the one who's putting the game away."
"We always play Battleship though." Impatient with how slow I was picking the pieces out, Skye took my board from me and finished the process. "Aren't there any other good games onboard?" I didn't need to tell her that I didn't know. She was the only one who was ever interested in playing something besides scrabble or chess, both of which I was miserable at. She pulled herself out of her chair and dug through some of the cupboards in search of a different game. "Jenga?" A plastic bag full of wooden pieces dangled from her fingertips.
"On an aircraft? Are you kidding?" I laughed, not wanting to admit that I hadn't played before. Properly, I mean. We had a set when I was a kid but all games mostly consisted of letting Maynard win, in order to avoid his fury. It had taken me quite a few beatings to learn not to win. I despised playing when the end result was pre-determined, but at least it had made me quite proficient in cheating… even if it was the backwards way.
"Fine, there's something in the back here." Skye had to crawl practically all the way inside the cabinet to reach whatever was back there. After struggling for a moment or so, she procured a long cardboard box that was covered in so much dust neither of us could read what it was right away.
"Looks like that's been in here a while." I watched her take off her sock and use it to brush away the grime, coughing all the while. "Maybe the original owner's team accidentally left it behind." Skye had finished dusting off the cover, but was holding it so that I couldn't see. There was a goofy smile spread across her face. "What is it? Anything good?"
"I can't imagine why anyone would bring this along, but its Candyland." Skye flipped the box so that the front was facing me. Her observations were correct; it was indeed a game called 'Candyland'. "I used to love this game." Giggling, she brought the box (as well as a great cloud of dust) over to our table. "Sometimes I pretended I was Princess Lolly and lived in Candy Castle."
"Princess who?" I blinked, not familiar with the name though I was sure it had something to do with the game.
"You know," My teammate gestured towards a little girl on the cover who had bright pink hair and a yellow dress. "The lollipop girl." I didn't say anything. "Oh don't tell me." Her voice had gone serious. "You never had this one?" Shaking my head no, I studied the images in front of me. It looked… girly or something. Probably nothing Maynard would want to play, so of course we wouldn't have bought it. I didn't voice my reasoning; some things were better left unsaid. "Well now we have to give it a round."
"It says 'a child's first game'." No, this surely wasn't anything that I would be interested in. "And besides, I don't even know how to play." The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I shouldn't have spoken. They were an open invitation and she knew it.
"It's not that hard." Skye was already lifting the lid and removing mysterious pieces from the box. "I'll teach you."
"Fine." I grumbled. Curiosity was getting the better of me. And it wasn't like there was anything else to do. "But only one round."
"Deal." The satisfaction of winning me over was written all over her face. "Which color do you want to be?" In front of her were four plastic gingerbread men, all lined up in a row. They were each painted a different color: red, blue, yellow, and green. Basic game pieces. "And before you ask, no I don't care what I end up with."
"Blue." I claimed, without hesitation. I was always blue. 'The color of your tears because you're gonna lose.' My older brother's taunt rang in my ears before I had the chance to shut it out. I'd always liked the red pieces best but those were his favorite too… and of course he always got his way. It didn't really matter though. It wasn't like it affected actual gameplay at all.
"Really? Ok…" Skye sounded surprised. Maybe that was the one she'd had her sights set on. "I'll be red." She plucked both of the little men off the table and set them down on the very colorful board she'd set up. I had to admit it was quite the eye-catcher. The cartoon characters scattered along the playing path complimented the various candy 'worlds'. It wasn't hard to imagine why a child would be enticed into playing. "Alright the object of the game is pretty simple: be the first to reach the ice cream castle." She pointed to a large building drawn at the end of the 'road'.
"Seems easy enough…" There had to be some sort of strategy involved. Obviously the game was easily rigged; it seemed as though one moved along by drawing cards off the deck instead of rolling dice or using a spinner. Memories of overly-aggressive games of Sorry! filled my mind. Yikes. Perhaps it was for the better I didn't have Candyland as a kid. I was momentarily distracted by a soft clang from the ceiling. A gust of cold air shot out of an AC vent on the ceiling, causing me to involuntarily shudder. I made a note to change the thermostat settings next time I walked past. "Is there some sort of… way to decide who goes first?" Skye was in the process of shuffling the deck.
"Rock paper scissors?" Was she kidding? I couldn't tell whether that was the accepted rule or if she was just making it up. Considering it would probably seem rude to snatch up the instructions and read them for myself, I opted just to defer to Skye's better judgment. After a bit of confusion between whether the hand signs were presented on 'scissors' or after 'scissors', I drew rock and Skye chose paper. "Huh. I thought for sure you were a 'scissors' kind of guy." I wasn't sure what that meant but it didn't seem like something worth dwelling on.
There was a strange, sickly sweet scent wafting through the air. I thought maybe it was caused by the dust that'd come off the box. But if that were so, I would've caught a whiff when Skye was brushing it off, or even when she'd originally brought the game over to the playing table. So what was it? I knew it wasn't perfume; Skye didn't usually wear the stuff and anyways I would've noticed it earlier if she was. My teammate hadn't said anything about it yet… either she hadn't noticed it or she wasn't as intrigued by it as I was. The intensity of the smell increased until I felt as though it was choking me. I could feel the onset of a headache. Before I could stop myself, I fell forward onto the board. Darkness engulfed my field of vision and my consciousness faded out not long after that.
Waking from a blackout was not a situation I was completely unfamiliar with. Usually it came with a new bruise and a split lip, maybe even a slight concussion if I was (un)lucky. Though I was still face-down on a hard surface, I could tell I was no longer resting upon the table. It felt like… grass? I quickly opened my eyes and sat up, ignoring the dizzy sense of nausea the action caused. It was safe to say I was no longer on The Bus. To my left, green grass hills stretched on as far as my eyes could see. To the left, an army of trees and a sign posted on a larger-than-life candy cane that read 'Gingerbread Plum Trees'. I had a bad feeling about this.