“A bully?”
“No.”She glared at me, Aunt Helen, and her dad.“Whatever. Let’s just play so I can beat you all.”
“And so it begins.”I took a minute to set everything up, thenpassed out game pieces according to everyone’s favorite color.“Black for me,‘cause I love purple and black but purple is closer to magenta, which they don’t have, so here Ari, purple for you.”I gave her the purple one and kept the black one.“Red like blood for you, Dennis.”I gave him the red one.“Blue for Aunt Helen.”I tossed it to her.“Sean, what’s your favorite color?”
“Green.”
“Perfect! Here’s the green one.”I gave it to him.“Uncle Tom, you don’t have a favorite color.”I frowned as I flipped the yellow piece over in my hand. It was the only one left.
“Yellow is fine.”He heldout a hand and I tossed it over.
“Here are the dices—”
“They’re called die,” Ariinterrupted.
“We roll to see who goes first,”I said,ignoring her correction.“Does everyone know how to play?”I waited while everyone nodded or said some form of yes.“Good, ‘cause I suck at explaining things. Who wants to roll first?”
Ari snatched the die from my hand before anyone could answer. Just like that, the game began. It went for a while until I was the first one out. Followed by Aunt Helen, then Uncle Tom, and eventually Sean went bankrupt as well. Ari got consistently meaner as the game progressed.
About an hour in, she and Dennis were the only players left. Sean seemed honestly shocked by her behavior, while Dennis seemed to enjoy it more than her usual personality. After a good back and forth between the two, Dennis finally landed on her most expensive property and ran out of money to pay the fee.
“I’m out.” Hegave Ari his very last bill.
“Yes! In your face, bitch!”She slammed the money down and hopped up to dance.“I kicked all your asses.”She sat back down as Sean started laughing. “What’re you laughing at, loser?”
“You’re such an obnoxious winner,” I said on Sean’s behalf. “Be nice. They’ve never played with us before. You’re gonna scare them away.”
“You’re gonna scaremeaway!” Uncle Tom shouted before bursting into laughter.
I brought out the next game as Ari mumbled a bashful apology. Not that it would change anything—she’d be back to her usual antics the moment the next game started.
We played games for the next couple of hours, with Ari getting more cutthroat with each game or round she won. By the time we finished the final game, Sean was downright disturbed.
“I had no idea you could be so…”he was searching for a word.
“Rude?”I finished for him.“Cruel? Aggressive? A terror? This has been three hours of absolute madness. You’re out of control.”I directed the last part at Ari, who was smiling smugly while she cleared the board.
“I thought it was fun,” Dennis said.
A loud beeping came from the kitchen.
“The turkey’s ready.” Ari stood.“Emy, come help me set everything up.”
“Roger that.”I saluted and skipped after her.
It only took a few minutes to get everything ready in the dining room. I set the very last dish on the long table while Ari went to collect everyone.
“This looks delicious.”Sean was the first to walk in.
He sat across from me and Ari promptly sat beside him. Dennis came to sit beside me next, while Aunt Helen and Uncle Tom took either end.
“Here you go.”I gaveDennisaserving of blood. I had put them in fancy wine glasses so we could beclassy.“And one for you.” I placed another glass in front of Sean.
“Nice glass choice,”Dennis remarked,setting it beside his empty plate.
“Is that wine? I want some.”Aunt Helen was eyeing our glasses. I shook my head. And then it dawned on her.“Is that blood?”Her face twisted in disgust when I nodded. Dennis chuckled and she quickly fixed her expression.“Sorry.I’m really not used to this. I guess it’s better than you leaving to suck a person’s neck, right?”She laughed.“It’s interesting, either way. Where’d you get it from? Is there a blood bank or something nearby for you to place a to-go order?”She laughed while I glanced at Dennis, who had an unsettling smile.
“We probably shouldn’t ask,”I said before he could answer.So far, Aunt Helen seemed to think he was normal. I wanted to keep it that way.
