Invitation

Wildly running around the kitchen, spilling water everywhere, knocking the pans on the floor, almost burning down the whole house - that clumsy girl would be me, Alice Ernst. The 'Raging Princess' is what all my friends, neighbours and co-workers call me, though I can't say I'm proud of this nickname. It's not because I'm clumsy thats the reason they call me this, it's the way I just charge into things without thinking, which is a troublesome personality of mine. Hastily, packing the lunch made for father, I glanced at the clock hanging on the pale-cream coloured wall and couldn't help but utter a "damn". Late again. So, my irritation accumulated when the post arrived as I approached the front door.

As if racing for my life, I scooped up the pile of freshly delivered letters and flicked through them to see if there was anything urgent. That's when I noticed the odd looking matchbox. A medium, shiny, black coloured matchbox with the words;

Psycho-Game To: A.E

imprinted in gold on the front. It felt surprisingly heavy as I picked it up and turned it around. There was nothing else written on the box making it impossible to know who sent it, but To: A.E, was it referring to me, Alice Ernst? Curiosity taking over, I slid off the cover of the matchbox. Inside was a folded black paper and a rock. Assuming the black paper was a letter of some kind I unfolded it.

The gold writing on it read:

Welcome To The Psycho-Game Tournament

By Opening and Viewing the contents of this invitation, you are accepting to participate within this game. As from this point on, all rules to the game apply and must not be breached, or the office will not be responsible for any consequences. Withdrawal is also prohibited - unless you win!

Along with this invitation you are provided with 50 million pounds. When the game ends, in 2 hours time, you will have to return...

I dropped the paper, alarmed by the ringing noise coming from my coat pocket. "Father-"

"What do you mean father? I'm starving here. Alice if your busy then you should..."

"Daddy, it's fine, I was about to leave the house," I answered in a childish pleading voice, partly hoping for him to forgive me, for the 5th time this week.

"What were you doing?" he asked with a hidden worried tone.

I looked at the black piece of paper on the floor, then stared at the rock and matchbox for seconds. "Nothing," I replied truthfully, "I'll be there soon, see you then."

I replaced the paper back into the matchbox with the rock and threw it into the bin as I left the house. 50 million pounds, Psycho-Game Tournament, what a joke? No one would care about this, rather who would fall for such a stupid prank? There will be no consequences, none at all.

--- --- ---

Light was quickly fading as the sun stole itself away in the approaching grey clouds. Alice sprinted across the streets as soon as she left the bus, feeling guilty for being late yet again. She was delayed even further since the bus was full, meaning her father would only have 10 more minutes of lunch time left by the time she arrived, if she could. Alice looked ahead of her and was pleased to see she was really going to arrive, just around the corner is where her father works.

Hitting the standing crowd of people before the cafe, Alice fell to the floor and decided to sit still for a few seconds, pressing her right palm over her chest as she heavily breathed. Once she regained some strength from the drastic run, she took in her surroundings properly.

There was definietely a abnormal amount of people crowding around the cafe. Alice pushed through the crowd, all whilst her heart was racing even quicker than it was when she was running, getting more and more desperate as she took in what the spectators were saying,

"I think the victim has a daughter-"

"-a worker from the cafe who was on lunch-break-"

"-poisoned, from food-"

"How'd it happen?"

"Apparently, he was waiting for his daughter to give him lunch..."

The murmuring and whispers ceased within the crowd of on-lookers as all their curious gazes seeked out the voice of the heart-broken girl, as she screamed, "father," and all witnessed Alice shaking the unmoving body of the poisoned man.

"What happened? Father, Father, please wake up," Alice cried with sorrow and despair. She held onto her fathers numb hands as he was carried to the ambulance, ignoring the stare of the unwanted crowd. "Its still warm, please stay warm," Alice chanted, gripping onto his hand tighter.

Alice was about to enter the ambulance when a hand grabbed from behind, pushing her away. The push was so forceful, Alice fell to the floor again, but more painfully. The sudden jolt she felt from hitting the hard surface of the road caused her to have a split second of dizziness, in which she heard a deep male voice say, "this girl won't be accompanying her father to the hospital."

She couldn't believe it. What was going on? Alice stood as quick as she could and tried chasing after the already driven-away ambulance with her father in. What now?

A surge of panic rushed through Alice as she looked around for a possible way to catch up. The hospital was quite a distant from here, it'll take too long if she ran and she wasn't confident she could still do that.

It was at that moment, she heard the same deep male voice that told the ambulance to leave, talk beside her, "A.E - I'll drive you to the hospital with one condition. Let me win this round of the Psycho Game..."

Alice turned around and stared at the young man standing besides her. "No way..." was all she could gather strength to say.