1,821/10,000 Words
* The Thief Game *
* Chapter Two *
* The Boy Who Made a Deal with a Mad Man *
"What kind of game?" I asked, already somewhat suspicious of him. I remember Mom telling me about some boy a few years back who had been kidnapped in Vermillion a few years back. She wouldn't tell me much more than that, but I had always been extra cautious because of it.
"So you thought you could capture a pidgey like that, huh?" The man brushed his fingers through his blond hair.
"…Yeah, that's how they always did it on television, and in the books at school." I stared at his alakazam. It met my gaze for a moment before turning to its trainer and seemingly telling him something because Mattias whispered something to it.
"—And, I was getting to that, Ansel." I assumed he was still talking to the psychic yellow pokémon and not me. "So, kid, uh—" he fumbled in his words. "Okay, I guess the first thing I have to tell you is that your new name is Spencer."
"But—"
"No, just wait, save your questions until the end, Spencer. Don't worry, I will probably answer them," he promised. I was still confused, and I also didn't really want to listen to this stranger, especially one that was calling me by the wrong name.
"I've been working on a game, and I've got all these rules, and— oh Mew," he cursed as a bright pink sparkly notebook fell out of his bag. "Well, this is it anyways." He flipped open the notebook to the first page and from where I was standing a few feet away I could see that there was writing all over the page.
"Okay, so, the first rule is, and will always be: don't get caught," he quoted seriously. "That's obvious though I guess."
"What—"
"I said to save your questions," he interrupted. "As I was saying, the second rule is: you can't die. That would be an automatic forfeit and you'd lose."
"Stop!" I shouted. Mattias looked annoyed, but before he could say anything, I continued. "I don't understand what you're doing. What game? Why are these rules so… dark?"
"Oh." He blinked, looking genuinely surprised. His alakazam narrowed its eyes at him. "Oh. Okay. Then, I'll start from the beginning. Thank you Spencer, but you really should have just said something sooner." I managed my best offended look before he continued. "Well I'm starting up a little thing I like to call 'The Thief Game'. The object of the game is to steal one of my pokémon and get at least eight badges, that's how you win. You can expand your team, whatever you like; treat it like a normal journey, but if the police find out, then you lose."
"That sounds like—" I thought about it. I hardly knew, no, I had no idea who this man was. Or why he was offering it to me. But that sounded like the kind of adventure that was in the kinds of movies Mom watched with her boyfriend—I'm wasn't allowed to join them. But, it also sounded like… "—a game show."
"Sort of," he chirped thoughtfully. "Except, no one is recording. Think of it like an eccentric billionaire's pastime."
"Are you a billionaire?" His clothing was worn from traveling and his blonde hair was overgrown and messy, so he didn't look the part of a rich person. And, the dust that was stirring up and sticking to his skin didn't help his shabby appearance.
"Those are enough questions—but let's just say money is of no concern to me." He shook the notebook as if it were an important piece of paper. "You remember the first two rules, right?" I nod and he goes on. "The third rule is you can't tell anyone about the game."
"Not anyone?" I squeaked. "Not even my mom?
"Did you not hear me?" I shrunk back. "No, not even your mom. She'd tell the cops and then you'd lose. It's just safety precautions."
"I guess that makes sense…" This whole deal was starting to sound really shady. I mean, it sounded shady before, but aren't you supposed to tell your mom everything?
"Anyways, the fourth rule is the last one I'm going to talk about today— I have more rules, but they can wait until you need them. I'll warn you before you break them, so don't worry about that. If you do somehow manage to break them before I could tell you though, I won't count it against you that harshly." His alakazam snorted, which I guess was its way of telling Mattias to get on with it. "Right, the forth rule is: to always obey the Game God."
"The Game Go—what?"
"The Game God, it's the title that I came up with when I created this game." He didn't elaborate, and I guess he didn't need to. They guy already seemed a bit crazy anyways.
"Okay. Well. Is that all?" I clapped my hands together behind my back. The hot air was too still for my liking and I had really wanted to go back home seeing as I had been out here at least an hour now and it just occurred to me that I never told Mom I was going to Route 2.
"Yes—wait—no. Did I mention that this is a rare pokémon I'm offering?"
I swooned on my feet a bit. "How rare are we talking? What is it?" I honestly hadn't been seriously considering the deal before. I mean, it sounded fun, but I didn't want to have to run from the cops and be an outlaw.
"Well, that part is a surprise. But the species is very hard to come by, even though it is native to Kanto."
"An eevee?" I asked hopefully. They were all the rage all over the world, and even though I didn't care that much for cutesy pokémon, no one could deny that eevee was a well sought out pokémon because they were so rare and expensive.
"…No…" He looked at me with a weird expression that made me embarrassed for asking. "The pokémon you are going to steal is much more powerful. But I mean, I guess if you really want an eevee, I could arrange something… I'll warn you though; the game will be much harder to do with that toy of a pokémon."
"Oh, no. No, I'm sure whatever you had in mind will be better, uh, 'Game God?'"
He grinned, from me calling him by his weird nickname or agreeing with him I wasn't sure. "Good. So, do we have a deal?" He held out his hand.
I stared at it for a second, contemplating it for a moment longer before I took it. "Yeah… we do."
For some reason, I felt like I sold my soul to the Devil.