"No! Caroline!"

The woman shrieked as she watched her roommate collapse to the floor, with a knife plunged into her neck. Caroline gave her roommate a terrified look, before closing her eyes for the last time.

"Sorry for the rude entrance." The cloaked man at the door spoke as he entered the house. He closed the door behind him, and locked it. He turned to the woman, who was trembling with fear. "No... please..." She whimpered.

The man calmly approached the woman, which obviously caused her to take a few steps back. The man lowered his hood, and this terrified the woman even more than before.

The man, no, a goblin, stepped out from the cloak. He may have the height of a six-year-old, but the smile that the goblin makes shivered the woman to the bone. The goblin took a bow, and grinned.

"Good afternoon, madam." He greeted.

"W-w-what d-do you w-w-want?" The woman asked, with tears streaming down her face. "Please... I-I'll give you anything. Money? D-do you want s-s-some m-money?"

The goblin narrowed his eyes, and chuckled. "Sorry ma'am. I'm not interested in cash."

He leaped and landed in front of the woman, she yelped and fell onto the floor, cowering as she covered her head. "I just want some information." The woman turned to face the goblin. "I-information?" She repeated.

The goblin smiled as a response. "I heard that you were a former servant at the... palace of Paxsalam. Is that correct?" The woman nodded. "Good! Now, I would want you to be a good girl, and tell me: Are there any secret entrances to the palace? I got some business to do in there."

The woman started to calm down, maybe if she were to tell this goblin about the palace's secret entrances, the goblin might let her live. She choked back a sob of fear, before answering.

"T-there is an opening to the p-palace's ventilation s-system, on the t-third f-f-floor." The goblin hummed. "And?"

"The v-vents, they c-cover every single part of the p-palace. Once you entered the vents, you c-can go wherever you want."

The goblin has heard enough.

He clapped his hands. "Alrighty!" He gave the woman a reassuring smile, which slightly made her calm down. "Thank you for your co-operation, madam!" The woman sighed with relief, and she started to sob.

"And now, you are free!" He turned to the woman and gave her a menacing stare. "To reunite with your friend in Heaven." He snapped his fingers.

Before the woman can comprehend on what the goblin had said, the spot that she was laying on started to get hotter, and in a few seconds, she was set ablaze as a wall of flames burst through the spot that the woman happened to be laying on.

The goblin watched with amusement as the woman was scorched alive. After another twenty seconds, the fire died out, and what's left of the woman; is a pile of ash. The goblin whistled as he went to collect his cloak. "Orb of Wishes, here I come." He said as he wore his cloak, he went to open the window, and leaped out.

. . . . . .

Do you guys hate early dinners?

Because that's what happened to us, after taking good, long showers, we were all told to have dinner at five in the evening. I know there will be a few of you folks that do have dinners at early times like at five or six. But you can do so much during those times instead of having dinner.

I remembered that Claude and I were also forced to eat early sometimes when I was at a really young age. My mother would mostly call us to be at the dining area in the evening, which I would mostly play with balls with Claude at those times. "Come on! Mother! Just three more minutes!" I would usually shout these back at her, but they would still refuse to give us those precious three minutes and... boy, I do miss them very much, our whole kingdom does.

Again, I sat with Felix and Aisha, and we were discussing (quietly) about what the final game could be. "Whoa!" Aisha exclaimed as she turned to her right, there were a group of girls sitting together, chatting and laughing at jokes that they told each other. "We have the same meal! How is that..." "Is it wrong?" I asked, "Like, it's illegal to order the same dish?" Aisha turned back to us, "What? N-no! It's not wrong! It's because that it's so awkward and confusing and..."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Her eyes widened as she saw what's on Felix's and my trays: a bowl of mushroom stew, two mashed potatoes, a plate full of salad, and a glass of watermelon smoothie; all these items were on both Felix's and my tray. "So... it's wrong?" I asked again, Aisha didn't answer, she just sat there, staring at us as if we were cannibals or something. "Sorry Felix, guess we shouldn't have ordered the same dishes." I apologized to Felix, "It's okay dude, so one of us has to order another dish then." Felix replied.

"Who's going to do it?" I asked, Felix looked at his watermelon smoothie, and he replied. "Well, I'm not a huge fan of watermelons, and I rarely take mashed potatoes, so I guess I'll have to go to the counter and order another dish. And I'm not going to throw these away since I don't to waste such a good meal, maybe we'll have to find a homeless guy and g-" "Okay!" Aisha interrupted, and sighed. "The food can stay. Now stay on subject guys."

We sighed with relief, I always wanted to order the same meal with my two buddies, and Aisha was kind enough to let us do it. But that doesn't matter for now. Right now, we will have to think of a plan for the next, a.k.a. the final game. "Wait," Felix said, "Why do we have to eat our dinners this early?" I stopped slurping my watermelon smoothie, he's got a point. "That's strange..." I replied, "Maybe we need more energy for the next game?"

"Maybe, it does have something to do with the next game." Aisha said, 'What if, the next game will take one whole night?" Time seemed to stop around us, "One whole night?" Felix asked, "So, what you're saying is, that we will be playing a game for one, fricking, night?" Aisha nodded nervously, "Possibly, since we're having our dinners this flipping early."

Felix's eyes started to twitch, "Seriously?! I have plans for the three of us for tonight! And there's going to be a GAME that will take one night?!"

Felix's ranting must had gotten everyone's attention, because they were all staring at us. "Dude, you seriously need to calm down." Aisha said, "I thought that you were hyped for this." Felix stopped, and turned to Aisha. "I am, I'm just freaking out that we will have to cancel our plans for this." Both of us stared at him, "What are your 'plans'?" I asked. Felix sighed, "I have plans that we hang out after the games."

But before he can continue, we would need our own personal space. I stood up, and spoke, "Alright guys! Nothing to see here! Alright! Back to your normal businesses please!" The people around us had started to pretend that we didn't exist, the JJJ triplets gave me three thumbs up before minding their own business too.

Felix continued. "I, just had some ideas that we hang out at some café tonight, after the games, but if it takes one night, then we will be too exhausted after the games end, and we won't get to see each other for another... like what? One and a half months?"

Aisha and I sat there in silence, and who knows what will happen if I didn't break the silence... "Dude, you know that we can meet each other at any time right?" I said, "We can go to like cafes or anywhere else anytime." "Yeah, but we can't find any good topics to talk about there. I felt like we can have a good conversation about the Magician Games after we're done... and it feels good to talk about it just right after it happened."

Man, I do feel the same thing, and I bet that Aisha feels the same too. "Hey," Aisha said, "I don't think we can do this since it will be late into the night. However, we can still meet up a few days later, right? We're going to be still fresh from the games and we can still feel excited about it!" Felix seemed to calm down, "Why didn't I think about that? Gosh, I'm such a dimwit." Felix said, I pated him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, we can still find something cool to talk about!" Felix started to smile, "Sorry for be-"

The familiar ding rang again. The same man that brought us to the second game came to us again, "The remaining contestants, please finish you meals and follow me to the final game. Thank you." He told us and bowed.

The final game.

It's happening, the last game... I don't know whether I can pass this or not, guess I'll have to try. We did the same thing: follow the guy, he'll lead us to the next game, and boom, we'll have to play the game. This time, the man brought us to a forest, with more huge trees looming over us. The forest seemed to go upwards, about two hundred meters in the air. Is this some magic or... wait, this isn't a forest... it's a hill.

"Welcome. My fellow contestants." We looked ahead, and Owen Adamson stepped out from the forest. "To your final game." He sounds more serious this time, which is weird since he always sounds cheerful when he speaks, and I kind of liked his humorous voice instead of his stern one. "This hill in front of you, is a sanctuary for many endangered species beasts, big and small." Owen said, "And it's called, the Hill of Perils."

Great, another weird and creepy name. Will the next game be even more horrifying than before? "For your final game, all of you will have to reach the bottom of the hill by tomorrow morning." Wait, did we hear him correctly? By tomorrow morning?! The sun is already setting now, and Owen said that we will have to reach the bottom by tomorrow? That will take us one entire night! "You will definitely encounter many creatures there, and yes, most of them will have intentions to kill you."

Everyone gasped. "Never fear, my friends!" Owen reassured, in his usual friendly tone this time. "Before the creatures attack, a barrier will appear between you and them. But sadly, that will also signify that you are eliminated." Owen continued. "But don't worry! You can use your Elements to defend yourselves against them, and note this, you can only injure them, and if you were to fatally wound or kill one of these endangered beasts, you are eliminated."

We all stood in our spots, speechless on what's going to happen. "Well!" Owen said, "Good luck to all of you! And there will be food and drinks while you're in there! Good luck contestants!" Owen tapped his staff, and in a blink of an eye, I found myself sinking into my own shadow, and resurfacing in an area surrounded by trees, the same trees from the Hill of Perils.

The games had begun before it even started. Great, I thought. Now, we are stuck in this forest with a bunch of bad-tempered animals, what could possibly go wrong?