Mrs. Trent's house was a large, imposing, mansion-like building. It towered over the other houses like a wolf looming over a rabbit's burrow.
I didn't much like Mrs. Trent, and I barely ever saw Mr. Trent. So even though she was my neighbour, I didn't see her often.
Their daughter, Jessica Trent, was nice enough to me, so it wasn't as perilous of a place as I'd originally assumed. She wasn't uptight and snobby, and she treated me like an equal.
Or so I thought.
After I had given Mrs. Trent the biscuits, she directed me to the backyard, where Jessica had invited friends over. I didn't expect to find more than one or two people with her.
But it looked like she'd invited the entire neighbourhood.
Kids raced around, doing all sorts of different activities while eating from a table that had been placed outside. There were about twenty of them, most that I recognized from my school.
I felt a pang in my chest as I realized this must have been an organized event, one that I had not been invited to.
Jessica moved towards me, her silk skirt flowing around her ankles.
"Lucy! Glad you could come join us!" She grinned, canines flashing.
"Thanks. I didn't expect this many people..."
I wanted to mention that she didn't invite me, but I'm sure she had just forgotten and she meant for me to come all along.
Right?
"Oh, well. It's a party! Everyone was invited! Come on. We're starting a game of Prisoner soon," she said.
Prisoner? That was an old game, one we had played as kids. Confused, I stumbled towards the mass of people that had clumped together in the middle of the backyard.
"Lucy, how about you be the Prisoner?" Jessica handed a skipping rope to a boy standing near me.
We walked over to a tree and he tied me to it, pulling the rope hard.
"Um, it's a bit tight," I said breathlessly, finding the rope suffocating.
"You'll be fine," he scoffed.
He walked back to the mass, where Jessica was separating them into two groups. The Rescuers, who would try and save me, and the Trappers, who would try to stop them and bring in more prisoners. I was finding it hard to breathe with the rope digging into my chest, so I tried to shift into another position. My squirming didn't get me anywhere, though, so I just gave up. The Rescuers would get me soon.
Except they didn't.
At first, they actually tried to get to me, but they stopped after a while and just laughed with their friends, watching my attempts to wiggle out of the rope's hold. My cheeks flushed.
Jessica must have noticed because she clapped her hands and shouted, "New game!"
My entire body crumpled with relief. Jessica is an angel, I thought.
I was so, so wrong.
"This game is for babies anyways," Jessica said. "The game we're going to play now..." she smiled devilishly, "is one I made up myself." She pauses and turned towards me. "Since you're already tied up to a tree, Lucy, you're going to be our rabbit. We are the wolves."
I didn't like the sound of that.
"But first, we have to gather some... materials. There's a pond nearby where we'll go. Don't worry, it won't be long," she added when she saw my expression.
