Chad groaned as he drove his fshy, red, Porsche sports car along a curvy highway bridge. The car still smelt like fresh leather and that brand-new smell. Indeed, it had only been gifted to him a few days ago for his sweet 16th birthday. Only a piddly 750 thousand grand. But his father said he should expect a modest vehicle for his first car.

  "Modest is a stretch. The Porsche is barely the premium grade. Whatever. A car's a car." He yawned as he struggled to keep his eyes on the road ahead. His school day ended as a big pain in the ass. With his entourage of elite boy rivals (a.k.a. wankers) and prissy model princesses trailing his heels.

  His so-called friends were rich like him, but they weren't as sickly rich as he was. When the school magazine had run a poll of who was the richest, he was number one. His parents owned all the petroleum refineries in the world! So even governments had to bow to their whims.

  But that stuff was of no interest or care to him. He was only 16 years old and expected to live a good and carefree life. And he did to the point that everything became BORING.

  "Incoming call from Jake. Incoming call from Jake..." The car speak rebounded around Chad's head.

  He groaned and thumbed the dashboard console until the stupid thing had shut up and another voice took its pce.

  "Hey dude. Ashley's giving a party this evening. Want to come?"

  Chad huffed. Another fucking party to rub shoulders and pretend to have a good time. Frankly, he was over the whole glitz and gmor. Especially when some guys wanted to bring back girls and be like Diddy. He was definitely not going to go there. For starters, Ashley may cozy up to him as one of his buddies, but he and the model pyboy had always been rivals. The pretty boy also had strange and weird tastes that didn't interest him at all.

  "Ashley? Hell no. Anyway. I have to pick up something for art css and stuff. So have fun and don't do anything that would put you in jail."

  He hung up the call and took a ramp off the highway to enter into a set of quiet streets. His teacher had given him a task to pick up some css stuff that he would need to complete his art project. Of course, Chad turned up his nose to the task, but his art teacher had always been honest and blunt with him. He respected her attitude, so didn't mind the occasional dogsbody duty she gave him to keep on her good side.

  He clumsily parked the car to the side of curb, taking up two spots and not caring whatsoever: near missing the station wagon ahead of him, which had to sm to an awkward halt when it couldn't reverse park into the spot Chad's bonnet had occupied.

  Chad had stepped out and power walked with arrogant strides down a funky street where people leisurely went in and out of vintage stores, small shops stuffed with old vinyl, comics and trinkets. The store he was looking for was an antique shop, which held pre-purchased items he was asked to pick up. These items were for a sculpture he and his css were assigned to complete.

  Eventually he found the store, which was an old fashion shopfront from the 1920s. The rge bay window was painted with gold gilded letters that wasn't in English. In fact, he didn't recognize the nguage at all. It felt old and mysterious. As he pushed through the gss shop door, with the bustle of the familiar street life behind him, he was instantly struck with an odd feeling.

  The feeling was amplified to one of eeriness when he stepped over the welcome mat threshold and closed the door. Feeling the world at his back go silent and still.

  "Hello?" He nonchantly called out as he wandered through the shops aisles to examine old utensils, statues, books and other aged, rusted and mysteriously looking artifacts.

  "Yes?" A young girl appeared behind the wide oakwood counter at one side of the room. She looked younger than him. Likely no older than 14 years old in a red and white gingham dress with button-tight butterfly colr. Her blond fine hair were held up in twin ponytails. She peered at him through amber round eyes, which he thought were a strange color. Her pudgy cheeks were smooth and near snow-white texture with a soft rose hue to them. The girl looked innocent and sweet, but her full lips were stretch in a lopsided grin. He couldn't help but feel she was smirking. This odd mismatch of expressions made him feel uneasy.

  "I'm to pick up the order for Ms Ruse." He bluntly stated his business, doing his best to contain his feelings.

  "Interesting." The girl chuckled and gnced over his body with a look of mild amusement, as she pyfully twirled a strand of her ponytail.

  Chad gulped when her eyes rexed into a sinister smile.

  "Do you like games?" She excitedly asked and cpped her hands with glee. "I love games!"

  The girl was getting creepy.

  "I'm just here to pick up the goods and go." He stated hoping that she would give him what he needed and leave swiftly.

  But the girl shook her head. And asked repeatedly until he had no choice but give an answer.

  "OK! Yeah. Now the goods?"

  The girl cpped her hands excitedly then rubbed them with a greedy look in her eyes. She skipped along some shelves as she muttered a list of names, he assumed were item bels, and returned with a metal box to give him.

  Chad frowned. The box had the same weird letters as the ones printed on the shop window. He figured this was the stores' logo. Whatever, he got the goods and could go. But as he was picking up the box from the counter and turned to leave, he yelped when he felt the girl take his arm.

  He hadn't seen her leave the spot behind the counter!

  A heady stench of musk and wood began to overwhelm his senses.

  "Yes. I can see your soul is craving for fun. Poor baby who doesn't know how to entertain himself. You're so... BORED."

  Chad stumbled about with the box, feeling woozy and doing his best to break free from the girl.

  "Don't worry. You'll find a bonus in the box. When you do, the fun will truly begin!"

  He yelped and groaned as he felt his body become tense and excited with fear. His eyes were searching for the exit.

  "Not so fast." The girl let go of him as she grabbed his smartphone and fiddled around the screen to make it glow with an unreal purple light before handing it back to him.

  "Every adventurer needs a help system. Leave now. The next time we meet, no doubt you'll have interesting stories to tell."

  Chad's head cleared. When he got his senses back, he saw the shop counter was empty, and he was standing next to the exit with the metal box in his hand.

  He fled the shop like his life depended on it: hopped into his car and sped down the road, almost crashing into oncoming traffic.

  But he didn't care. He had experienced something creepy and was keen to return to his home.

  Butlers greeted him when he finally arrived his his family mansion at the back of a vineyard. He ignored all the servants as he stormed up the main vish staircase to his floor and bedroom.

  He dumped the box on his king-sized bed and pulled his phone out of his pocket to put it on his charger next to his gaming PC. The phone shone brightly then went dark. He shook his head to brush the thought from his mind and went to check the box again.

  But the box had moved. IT FREAKING MOVED! It was on the floor near his night table.

  Chad gulped and backed away. He must've accidentally sniffed in some weed or some other kind of hallucinogenic drug at that shop to be seeing things. No way the box could move without him holding it.

  He screamed and ran out of the room when the box shook on its own and the fps burst open. He was gone when the box tipped over and a bronze teapot style mp tumbled out of it.

  Veronica8