"Ayyy, Isabelle!" I called out to her, she was grabbing leftover paperwork and tossing it into another bin.
She turned around, her face revealing a greeting smile on her face. "Hi Drago, what brings you here today?" she questioned me, fiddling with the roll of scotch tape on her wooden desk.
"I just wanted to start my day by chilling out here!" I expressed my opinion, pointing my hands around the atmospheric place with the nice clean counters, desks, and comfortable mayor chair.
"Oh," she smiled, turning her head a little bit. "that's so thoughtful of you mayor!"
"Isabelle!" I called. "I've told you this, you don't have to call me mayor. Just call me Drago." I sighed.
"I'm so sorry ma- Drago! I keep forgetting." Isabelle sighed back with a disappointed look on her face. I could tell she was thinking she was a mess-up, so I immediately comforted her.
"It's okay Isabelle, I overreacted there." I admit I was overreacting there, but I was just a little miffed that Isabelle still forgot. I decided to let her call me whatever, it would make it easier anyways and I felt sorry for her. "Call me whatever you need to call me." I told in a deep voice.
"Okay… My mayor." Isabelle calmed down.
"Anyways, are you busy right now?" I changed the subject, dusting off my shorts.
"Yes, well, it depends." Isabelle thought. "If we forget about that small stack of sheets on that desk over there then I'm not busy at all!" she chuckled, glancing her eyes toward the stack of unforgettable paperwork.
"Well, could we do that?" I played along with her silly game, chuckling back at her. As a moment flashed by waiting for her answer, I began to think about what I should do with her, I did so much thinking I got lost in my own gaze of thought.
"Sure Drago!" she dismissed the stack of worthless paperwork, instantly being open to ideas.
My brain locked onto an idea of what I should do with her. Remember 'Connect 5.367'? Well I had a better idea. "This town hall is pretty old right? We should check out the place and see if there's any ancient games here that we could try."
A predictable wave of curiousness and excitement hit Isabelle. "That does sound like something fun to try!" she exclaimed, directly agreeing with the idea.
"Great, then it's settled." I nodded my head. "Now let's look for some games!" I raised my arm. Isabelle and I sprung into action, immediately looking around the old, dusty spots of the town hall seeing if there were any old games old residents used to play before I even became mayor of this peaceful old town.
"What's this?" I heard Isabelle say in the distance in a curious mysterious-like tone. She held a dusty box with words written on the top, it read 'Zooloji'. I glanced below the title, reading a warning below it. "Once you start you have to finish." I read.
"Ooooh, sounds mysterious." Isabelle suddenly grabbed ahold of the box and pulled it open. While I thought of the Zoolo-Pops I ate for breakfast, the name just seemed so similar.
"What is that slogan anyways…? Geez, back then that must've SCARED people!" I sarcastically laughed.
Isabelle chuckled back, putting the game on the floor going onto her knees. "Oooh this is going to be so mysterious!" she clapped her hands.
I got on the floor, next to the curious yellow dog. Inside the box, revealed one button. Just one, red, stupid, cheap chinese plastic manufactured button. Plain white text was written directly on it, it read 'One press and your life could end.'. This freaked me out, but only a bit.
A sudden look of question appeared on Isabelle's face. "This is quite, strange…"
"It is…" I agreed, immediately reaching my hand to press it. "I'M PRESSING IT NOW HAHAHA!" I cried, sorry but this had to be done. My hand slammed the worthless button, I watched it press and release. And waited… And waited… And freaking waited… "Well this was a waste of time." I turned away, walking towards the door. I immediately tripped over something on the ground, falling flat on my face. "What the hell!" I cried, annoyed. I spun my head behind me, to see a mousetrap on the ground with a skull symbol on it. "ISABELLE!" I cried. "Why did you leave a mousetrap on the floor?" I asked her miffed.
"I didn't!" she cried. "It must be, THAT GAME!" she pointed over with a shocked expression on her face.
"Isabelle…" I explained. "Stop playing around, seriously. That game is a PIECE OF CRAP!" I cried.
"Oh… Crap you say…?" a mysterious ghost voice cried.
We both opened our eyes wide and quickly got up to glance over toward the freaky sound.
"Hello?" I asked, stuttering, looking around every bit of the room. How could it hear me anyways!?
"We don't mean any harm!" Isabelle cried along with me, backing into me by mistake.
"Ahhh." I freaked out again.
"Well then… What did you eat for breakfast?" the mysterious voice asked us.
"Which one of us are you ask-ing." I took a deep breath.
"ISABELLE." it replied in a serious-sounding voice, this guy wasn't playing around.
"Waa!" Isabelle cried once more, shaking. "H-how do you know who I am? Did you overhear us?"
"First, YOU BETTER ANSWER MY QUESTION YOU BI-" the voice cried demonically.
"Okay okay! I-I, ate s-s-some, Lucky Bits." Isabelle forced her words out as hard as she could, it came out in a stuttering way.
"You… YOU… YOU… YOU ATE LUCKY BITS!?" the voice cried in anger. I guess he was against lucky bits, how do I know!?
"Y-yes." Isabelle continued to be honest, like she was trying to win the 'most honest dog' award.
"LUCKY BITS ARE UNACCEPTABLE!" the voice cried in blood-rage. "They are the absolute WORST breakfast to EVER eat in YOUR LIFE!"
"I-I'm sorry!" Isabelle yelped, more waves of terror filling her every second I thought of why I shouldn't have pressed that stupid button.
"I'm afraid it's too late, you aren't accepted here in Milton!" the voice denied.
"W-what d-d-d-d-d-o you m-m-m-meeeean?" Isabelle was shuddering like it was winter all over again. An unpleasant feeling of creepiness and worry filled her.
"Say bye to your mayor, you female dog." the voice ignored Isabelle.
I open my eyes wide in shock as I see a transparent portal open, wind rushing into it. The black mysterious portal attempting to suck in Isabelle.
"HELP ME DRAGO!" she cried, grabbing onto the counter.
Sudden waves of depression hit me, I tried running towards her, slowly seeing her get sucked into the depths of Goneforeverland. "ISABELLE!" I cried. I started to immediately tear up, realising this might be the last time I ever see her. I reached my hand as far as I could, watching Isabelle's eyes start to tear up.
"This isn't what I want!" she cried. "Please, this can't be how everything I know and love ends forever." just saying that made her cry more.
I kept watching her get slowly sucked in. "Isabelle, I love you. I know there's still hope out there, believe in yourself." I teared up more.
I watched her sad smile. "It's okay, I love you too, don't ever forget that. I know you can survive without me. I'm just a bad assistant, you don't need me… Goodbye." she stopped resisting and let herself get sucked into the end of her life with one final wave from her.
I watched her get sucked into the portal, my last sight I'd ever see of her. "Yes, goodbye." I felt extremely weird, sad, depressed, scared, you can name it all.
"NOW!" I heard the mysterious voice yell. "You, DRAGO. What did YOU eat for breakfast?"
"Does it even matter anymore?" I questioned to myself, I didn't care about anything, I just wanted to collapse and fade away from all this commotion going on inside and outside me.
"Yes it does." the voice replied without a stutter.
"Fine," I said, trying my best to act like I didn't just lose my precious friend. "I ate Zoolo-Pops for breakfast! You gonna take me now!?" I expected the voice to take me away too.
"NO! I am PROUD of you DRAGO! Tell me, on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your love for Zoolo-Pops?" the voice replied in a happy tone.
"Well, lemee think. I'd say about a 10/10." I explained back in a depressing tone.
"Wow Drago, you really have a love for the best cereal don't you?" the voice continued to chirp happily in a manly voice.
I was so confused I was to the point where I'd slam my head right on the counter to prove this wasn't happening. So I could just wake up in bed and forget all this.
"Yes I do. What is all this about, why are you here in the first place?" I wanted to know as quickly as possible.
"Why you summoned me by pressing that button!" the voice explained.
"I'm so confused… Hey, listen… Could I have Isabelle back?" I asked, hoping that he would give in to me considering he was happy that I ate Zoolo-Pops. Is it even a he!? I have no idea.
"Not until you 2 complete the wondrous game of… ZOOLOJI! Fortunately for you, you have it easy! Unlike ISABELLE… She has harder challenges to beat. But once one of you complete the game, everything will be back to normal like nothing happened." the voice explained.
"I'M SO FREAKING CONFUSED!" I cried.
Suddenly, the creaking sounds of the town hall door opened.
"Ya there Isabelle? I got something to ask ya!"
I turned around to be greeted by an orange wolf with white paws, wearing a basic striped T-Shirt.
"Oh, hi Chief. Isabelle isn't here…" I tried to make an excuse, still with leftover tears down my eyes.
"And why's that?" Chief asked me, shrugging.
"Donotworryboutit!" I yelped, pushing him towards the door with a suspicious look on my face.
"Hey! Tell me what's going on!" Chief cried in a serious tone, curious and miffed at the same time.
"It's nothing, oh look at the time, I gotta do some work at my mayor's chair!" I snapped, quickly making an excuse. My lightly-sad expression remained. "Looks like you gotta go then!"
"NO!" Chief denied my excuse. "I'm serious, what are you hiding from me?" his face noticeably turning more angry, his eyebrows pointing down. He didn't enjoy me lying to him, he still sat there expecting me to spill the beans.
"Nothing YOU need to know, just please LEAVE." I seriously exclaimed, needing some alone time with the Zooloji god. I motioned my hands and pointed at the door. I got impatient and didn't want him to get involved in the hell I was in. I already could break down at any time.
Chief gasped, getting more aggressive. "I'm serious, just tell me what's going on. I'm NOT leaving!" he flinched as he blocked himself with his arms.
"Hey, I'm the mayor here. I ORDER you to LEAVE." I commented getting more serious and angry, losing more control of my emotions. I pointed to the door aggressively.
"Harrumph!" Chief shook his head.
"I'm trying to make this easy, but you just keep denying me." I couldn't hold back my tears any longer, so they leaked out on my already sad face.
I suddenly hear a growl, except it wasn't Chief growling, it was his stomach. "Hey," Chief's face was still angry, but he suddenly calmed down, his face was mixed with a little bit of anxiousness and loyalty in his eyes. "are you alright? You seem like something's bothering you."
I didn't say anything, I just sadly shook my head and pushed him toward the door.
Chief looked more anxious, and sad for me. He didn't resist as hard.
I noticed his body movements and his face, I couldn't help but say something. "Chief, are you okay?" even though I was out-of-it I couldn't help but notice something was up with him.
His stomach growled once more. "Y-yeah I'm fine... I-I just think I ate too much Zoolo-Pops." he held his stomach, realising eating those 5 bowls of sugar-fattening cereal wasn't a good idea.
"Did you say Zoolo-Pops?" the voice suddenly came back and kicked in.
"Yes, who is this?" Chief replied, looking around while still rubbing his stomach.
"I am the god of Zooloji, or you can call me the god of the amazing one-press game that comes to life!" the voice replied back.
"Zooloji? God? One-press game?" Chief got confused, the same way I did when I first got greeted by the god.
"Yes, your friends Drago and Isabelle decided to press my button. And now, they're playing my game… IN 2 WORLDS!"
"Whaaaat?" Chief stood there in full confusion, his stomach growled once more. "Stop joking around! This isn't funny. I'm not in the mood I feel too sick right now!"
"Sick from too many Zoolo-Pops I see…" the voice talked to Chief. "If you complete a challenge, I will reward you with no more sicky tummy syndrome." the god suggested a challenge with a decent nickname for a stomachache, I guess...
"What challenge? Seriously, I get the joke. Oh I don't feel so good…" Chief asked, still in disbelief since he didn't understand whatever in the name of Milton was happening.
"If you can grab a durian, cut it into 20 SHARP pieces while eating a bowl of ZOOLO-pops… Then a reward will be summoned to you along with a spell to calm your tummy down. Just maybe though..."
"Stop this crap, seriously. I'll admit, whoever is doing that voice has really good acting. But I'm serious, I'm not fooled." Chief wasn't believing even one bit of this, to him it was just nonsense.
"Thank you Chief." the god replied back. "Now don't call my game crap or else I'm gonna tell EVERYONE your deepest secret!"
"Okay that is something a 6 year old would say. And what's my deepest secret huh?" Chief was getting more sarcastic and cranky by the second. The anxiousness still mixed into his emotions. He temporarily forgot about his stomachache.
"You want me to say it in front of everyone?" the god replied sounding what would be 'really good acting' to Chief.
"Tell everyone right now I'm so scared!" Chief sarcastically commented back, waiting for what he would think would be an excuse or something wrong. But instead, something right and SHOCKING happened.
"Okay I'll tell everyone that you're intensely scared of roses, yellow dandelions, red tulips, poppies."
"N-no I'm not!" Chief's heart rate went up as he got nervousness showing on his face, but only a tiny bit since he was trying best not to show it.
"Oh really?" the god exaggerated their tone. Moments passed as some flowers consisting of roses, yellow dandelions, red tulips, basically all the flowers they mentioned started falling from out-of-nowhere.
Chief's nervous face grew a little bit bigger as he slowly took a step back, he wasn't showing much nervousness, but he was full of fear on the inside.
"You actually scared of them?" I went to pick up the dandelion and tulip, walking close to him with them closer to his face.
"STOP! Put them down!" he hollered, backing up to the door with no more room to flee. He was noticeably shaking, feeling different waves of fear. He had a surrendering look on his face.
"Are you actually scared of them?" I questioned, continuing to move closer to Chief who had tried to back away but to no avail.
"PLEASE put them down!" he cried with complete shaking in his voice and body, more sweat was visible along with his face full of fear.
I let go, dropping every single flower to the dusty-old ground with him watching them drop.
He finally settled down, it was very clear that he indeed positively had a fear of flowers. "Okay, I don't know what is going on, but whoever you are… Stop being such a creep!" he had no idea really what to say except to 'warn' them.