Chapter Three

“That’s not a game,” I said, nearly spitting at him. A cube the size of his hand with coloured squares on each side sat on his palm. The top side of the cube had pale blue squares on it. A square in the middle of the blue side was flashing on and off.

“It is game, a-”

“It won’t fit in my console, it doesn’t even have any graphics,” I blurted out, shrugging and showing my palms. It looked like something my Dad would play, totally not cool.

He blinked again with only one eye, the other stayed open all the time. Urgh! I shivered. My feet felt like they’d been pricked with needles.

“You want challenge, Tom?” he said, with both his eyebrows raised.

“Well, yeah, I like a challenge,” I said, looking down, scuffing my trainers back and forth across the tiles. I think they were mosaic – lots of small squares, all different colours. It was then that I noticed his shoes, and felt my eyebrows sink down to my nose. He had huge red slippers with gold glitter that made his feet look like a clown’s. I had to work really hard not to burst out laughing – weird.

“Once game starts, it not stop unless win,” he said, peering over his thick glasses.

I looked up at him, straining to stop myself from laughing. I felt a snigger bubble up in my throat. My eyes widened as I strained against the laughter building up.

“You understand, Tom?”

I gave a tight smile and nodded, daring not to open my mouth in case laughter burst out.

“You press flashing button, Tom, when ready.”

I stared at the cube, thinking, how stupid? Nothing’s going to happen. It’s just one of those boring puzzles.

I shrugged one shoulder and pressed the button to make him feel better. I mean, he was probably a complete loony anyway.
Nothing happened at first, which was what I expected.

Viktor looked into the cube, “Ah, game has chosen you … Good. Fizz de Brooke in Kingdom of Asher. Enjoy.”

What? Mad raving loony alert! It couldn’t be a real game. It was just a stupid puzzle.

But then the room began to go mustard yellow. Then suction cups popped out of my fingers one by one. What was happening to me?

My skin on my hand changed colour, pale blue, and then it spread all over me. More suction cups pushed their way out of my trainers. Mum’s going to kill me.
Help! I tried to say, but no sound came out. I trembled.

“No be afraid, Tom, game fun, game challenge,” he said, throwing me a big golden cup. One gnarled hand caught the cup with suction cups sticking to it like glue. It was my hand, but it didn’t look like my hand, weird.

“You put trophy…” he said, pointing to the golden cup, “on game table in red castle to win.”

I tried to say something but my lips wouldn’t move. What had I done?

“You talk to Fizz and learn more, Tom. Enjoy!”

He disappeared. Oh my god. It was a nightmare that’d came true. I fell to my knees (or at least I thought I had).
NO! Why me?

I cried, but no tears fell.

I heard sounds of birds chirping, trees rustling and water running. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be in my room, playing a game – even one I’d played a million times.

I hated Viktor – freak, weirdo. I wanted to punch and kick his head off.

Oh, help! Somebody help me! I’m stuck inside a weird creature in a strange world, and I can’t get out.

I shouted inside myself but it didn’t help, no one came. I was alone and scared out of my wits.

I needed to think, work out what to do next. If I could beat every game I owned, I could beat this too. What was it that Viktor said? Something about getting a trophy to a red castle and talking to myself, I think.

How would I talk to myself? I mean, have you ever … well … tried talking to yourself? You know what you’re going to say before you say it, don’t you? You can’t expect to get an answer that you didn’t already know, can you? That’s silly, stupid.

Why couldn’t I move? I could see things in front of me. If I concentrated, I could even see a little bit to the side. But I couldn’t move at all, not one bit. And no matter what I did or how hard I tried, nothing changed.

Tall trees surrounded me and insects buzzed in front of my eyes. I wanted to brush at them so much. I saw a robin and felt it perch on my head. Then I watched bird-droppings fall past my eyes, disgusting.

Let, me, out!

It was no use. I couldn’t get out and I couldn’t move. It was like one of those adventure games Dad used to play on his old computer. Where he had to type commands in and the computer game would do what he told it to – sometimes.

Viktor said his name was Fizz. He said to talk to him. So, maybe, that’s what I needed to do.

But what would I say?

Urmm, Fizz, take trophy to red castle. Nothing happened.
Fizz, go to red castle. Still nothing happened. Hmm, too simple, Viktor said it was a challenge. So, maybe something more basic, like Fizz needs to be woken up first. It couldn’t be that simple. That was so easy. It couldn't be, could it?

Fizz, wake up!

-- Ends --