Ethan sighed as Ashley made her case. He didn’t really care for Halloween and hadn’t dressed up or gone trick or treating since he was a kid. However a game was a game and they couldn’t really afford anything too big. “How long does it go for, and how many players…?” he asked in a drawn out tone of defeat. He figured he could still shoot the game down if it didn’t meet their needs.
Ashley flipped the box around and found the game’s details. “Two to four players and it goes for roughly twenty minutes. That sounds perfect for us.” Without even checking with Ethan she headed towards the counter to pay for the game.
Ethan followed her and figured they had finished shopping; she was leaving with or without him, and seeing as she was the one with the car keys he had no choice. “Fine, we’ll get it,” Ethan said as he caught up to her at the counter, acting if he still had a say. “Though this is only a warm up game, after that it’s back onto Risk Legacy, we’ve almost finished the campaign.”
The store clerk walked over from a card game he was playing with some other customers and picked up the game. “Odd; I haven’t seen this one before, and it’s not scanning either. I guess that’ll be ten bucks.”
Ashley pulled out her purse and paid the man. “Seeya next time, Wade,” she said as she took the game back from him and headed towards the door.
* * * * *
Ethan placed the coasters on the gaming table and opened the bag of snacks, pouring them into the bowls. He distributed the snack bowls around the table equally as well a a few refreshment wipes. Ashley set up the Trick or Treat game, which included a plastic mat with the layout of a grocery store, a road and four houses. The pieces included two dice, four character tokens, twenty candy tokens and four decks of cards; one set was for inside the store and included chance cards, while the other three decks were for the end game and included decks for kids, tricks and treats. She then read through the rule book to get an idea of the game. “Okay. it looks like we start in our homes and roll the dice for movement. We go around the store collecting candy and flipping over chance cards. Once someone is happy with their haul and makes it back to their home, every other player returns; we then all go through the trick or treat phase.” Ashley started to explain the game in more depth, however Ethan cut her off.
“Yeah, that’s great, Ash… though Carl and Norman aren’t here yet, so save your explanations for them,” Ethan interjected. Ashley poked her tongue out at him and continued to read the rules to herself. “You’re so immature sometimes.”
Before they could get into an argument they heard the doorbell ring, so Ethan left their gaming room and answered the door to Carl and Norman. “Just in time, guys, come on in.”
The three of them walked back to the gaming room, where Ashley had set up the game. “Hi, guys, you’re just in time to try out this new game,” she greeted them with a smile as they took their usual seats.
“It’s just a warm up game,” Ethan assured them. “It’s Halloween themed so we thought we’d give it a go,” he explained as he picked up one of the game pieces. “So Ash, how does this game work?” Ashley kicked up under the table. “Ow, what was that for?”
“You know what,” Ashley smirked as she placed a game piece in each house. “So basically we take turns rolling the dice and moving around to collect candy for trick or treaters from the shop. At the shop bad things can happen, such as forgetting money, someone grabbing the candy before we do, the candy is expired, etcetera, etcetera. Of course you can make your candy safe by dropping it back at your house, though that wastes time. Basically we have to get as much candy as possible before the trick or treaters arrive,” Ashley explained the game quickly and with enthusiasm.
“So whoever gets the most amount of candy wins?” Carl asked, intrigued.
“No, but the candy helps us win; you see there’s children cards with two values on them. The higher number is them giving you a treat and the lower number is for them not tricking you. The game doesn’t have win conditions for some reason, my guess is it’s whoever has the most amount of treats and the least amount of tricks. So that’s how the game works, let’s get into it.”
After playing for fifteen minutes, all the candy in the store was claimed and a total of five pieces had been discarded, leaving fifteen pieces divided amongst the four players. Ashley had the most with seven pieces in total, followed by Carl who had five. Norman and Ethan had the least amount with two and one pieces, respectfully.
“Well it looks like I win, but I guess we should go find out what tricks and treats everyone got. Okay, Ethan, draw a card from the kid pile,” Ashley instructed. But before he could draw the card, the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Ashley said as she got up. “Feel free to continue without me.”
Ethan drew a kid card and saw that he got a three cost for candy, two cost to avoid a trick. He sighed, not happy that he had most likely lost the first round of this new game. He drew the top card of the trick pile. “Don’t worry about not giving me enough candy, I understand,” Ethan read the card aloud. “I’ll give you another chance by swapping your body with the person who has the most candy….” Ethan and the others looked confused by the trick. “So what does that mean, I get all of Ashley’s candy? That’s doesn’t seem like a trick, at least not on me…”
“Trick or treat!” two kids screamed at Ethan as he stood in front of the open door. He looked down at them puzzled, wondering how he got there and why he felt so different now. His pants felt tighter, he could feel a wire strapped across his back, he could feel an odd weight hanging from his head and also on his chest. He looked down and saw that he was wearing his sister’s black Pokemon shirt and denim jeans. He instinctively reached up to touch his boobs. “Um… lady… candy…” one of the kids interrupted as they raised their eyebrows and held out their hands.
“Sure, whatever, kid,” Ethan said in his sister’s voice and grabbed two handfuls of candy from their bucket and placed them in the kids’ bowls. The two kids seemed happy with their score and ran off. Ethan shut the door and locked it behind him. Now that he was alone, he went to touch his boobs again and his flatter crotch. “No,” he shook his head, making his ponytail swing from side to side. “This is Ashley’s body, I must not do that.” He resisted the urge to explore his new body.
“What the hell?” Ashley asked as she patted down her flat chest. She was now back in the game room, sitting on Ethan’s chair. “What did Ethan do?”
“Um, Ethan, are you alright?” Norman asked.
“Don’t you get it, Norman, he’s just pretending that what the card said was true,” Carl explained.
“What card?” Ashley asked, looking for a loose trick or treat card.
“Huh, it’s gone. I guess it’s my turn now,” Norman said as he drew a child card, demanding five candies for a treat and three to avoid a trick. “Well I guess I lost too,” Norman said as he drew the card.
“Stop what you’re doing, nobody touch the game!” Ethan ran into the room, and saw himself.
Norman looked at Ashley and down at his card, wondering what to do now. “Um, Ashley, what’s going on?” he asked.
“He’s not Ashley, I am. Now tell me, what did you do?” Ashley asked, annoyed, as she stared down her former body.
“Hey, you chose this stupid game, how would I know that drawing a trick card would make us swap bodies!” Ashley stomped her foot. “I don’t want to be a girl, I especially don’t want to be you!”
Carl watched the exchange between the two siblings and found the whole thing entertaining. “Oh wow, you guys did well to rehearse this, what I don’t get is how did you ensure Ashley would get the most candy and Ethan wouldn’t get enough?” he asked them. They both turned to him and were about to open their mouths when a cat jumped up onto the table. “Cute cat,” Carl commented as he patted it. “I didn’t think you had one because you were allergic.”
“Ethan is…” Ashley said before sneezing. “We’ve never seen that cat before in our lives.”
“Actually Ash, I think we have….” Ethan, pointed towards where Norman was sitting just a moment earlier.
Carl looked at the two siblings, still keeping up with the charade. He couldn’t believe how far they were willing to push this, and apparently Norman was in on it as well. “Very funny, guys,” Carl said as he drew the child card. “Let’s see what supposed trick you’ve got in store for me.” Carl’s card was a child asking for five candies for a treat. “Oh cool, a treat,” Carl commented as he drew a treat card. “Thank you so much, kind sir, my parents have always told me to reward generosity, and I come from a wealthy family, so please accept my gift of one thousand dollars,” Carl read aloud. “Nice try, guys, making me think you guys had swapped bodies and Norman had turned into a cat, just so you could convince me I just got a thousand dollars. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the bathroom.”
“That’s it!” Ethan exclaimed as he sat back down in his sister’s chair. “My card said I’d get a second chance to give the kid candy, so he swapped me with the player who had the highest amount of candy, so I’d get a second shot. Perhaps if I play this as you I can pay for a treat and fix this!”
Ashley kept sneezing as she tried to say something before she picked up Norman and put him on the ground. “It’s worth a shot,” she said. “I mean, I don’t want to be a boy any more than you want to be a girl; I especially don’t want my brother having my body for the rest of my life.”
Ethan drew the kid card and breathed a sigh of relief; the card had a treat cost of seven and an avoidance cost of six. His heart was racing in his chest and it felt different from when he usually felt anxious. He drew a treat card and read it. “Thank you for the generous load of candy; I see in your eyes that you are stressed out, and can sense that two foul deeds have been committed tonight. The good news is that I can reverse one.”
Ethan and Ashley looked at each other for a moment and then down at Norman; they knew what this meant.
“He makes a cute cat, even if you are allergic,” Ashley commented. “I’m sure we’ll find a good home.”
“Ashley…” Ethan trailed with her voice. “You know what we must do, and you’re right, I don’t want to be you, but at least you and I are human, we know each other’s lives, we can make this work. Norman can’t stay as a cat; you know what we must do.”
“Yeah…” Ashley replied as a tear rolled down her cheek. She looked back at the cat. “You owe us!”
“Okay, game, or whatever you are. We choose to return Norman to his human form,” Ethan said towards the box.
In just a split second the cat was gone and Norman was on the floor on all fours, he got up and gave Ethan a big hug squeezing his tiny frame tightly. “Thank you so much, I know what you two had to give up for this.” Norman wept with joy. He then took a step back and stared at the table. Ashley was looking at it too and Ethan turned around to see the game turn to mist; they would not be playing the game again anytime soon.
The three of them stood there somberly, wondering what would happen now. “Hey guess, you won’t believe it!” Carl said excited as he entered the room. “While I was gone, my grandmother called; she said she was going to transfer one thousand dollars into my account. This explains it now, the lengths you guys went to to surprise me. Oh, I’m so glad I have friends like you,” Carl said cheerfully as he walked over to the bookcase of games. “So who’s up for Risk?”