I ran after him, hoping I would catch up with him. I almost lost him but I forced my legs to run faster until they were aching.
He must have sensed me behind him because he turned his head for a split second and grinned at me. He chuckled and that drove me mad. I knew what he was thinking. He was probably thinking that I wouldn’t be able to catch him and he could win this easily. I would love to see his face when I would prove him wrong.
He was fast and I was struggling to keep up. He stopped for a mere second and took a sharp turn to the left even though his room was on the right. He probably expected me to follow him but I didn’t feel like that was what I should do.
I walked down the hallway and stopped in front of Ethan’s room. He arrived after a few minutes with an annoyed look on his face.
“I thought you were going to follow me.”
I smirked. “Not everyone is stupid like you. What did you have in mind?”
He shrugged. “Just thought I could shove you into the store room or something.”
“Too bad you couldn’t do that.”
“It’s not a problem either way. You can’t stop me.”
“Try me,” I said. I didn’t know if I would be able to hold him back much longer than he did but I was going to give my best and hope that he took more time than me.
Although I was dreading this, I had no choice. I didn’t manage to catch him before so this was the last thing I could do to win this round.
He moved and I followed in sync. He narrowed his eyes at me as I blocked the way to his room. He stepped forward and grabbed me by my shoulders before roughly pushing me aside. I stumbled slightly but caught myself. By that time he had managed to take out the key and was just going to insert it in the keyhole. In my moment of panic, I sprinted towards him and jumped on him from behind.
My plan was to not physically restrain him because that would be pretty much impossible for me to do. My plan was to get his key and run off with it.
He jerked back at the sudden weight on his back. He tried to claw me off of him but I was stuck to him like glue. I covered his eyes with my one hand and used the other to get the key.
Once it was was in my hands, I jumped off of him and ran as fast as I could.
Ethan was hot on my heels as I ran from room to room and tried to slow him down as much as I could.
He chased me for a while until I didn’t hear him behind me anymore. I turned as he was nowhere.
I slowed myself down to a walk and warily looked around. I knew he would pounce at me unexpectedly so I had my guard up.
I didn’t find him for a long time and I was starting to wonder if I won this one. Surely it had been more than thirteen minutes and two seconds, right? And he had yet to search for the riddles too.
I decided to go to the living room to see what was up. Just as I turned the corner, a door opened behind me and I was pulled into the darkness. I didn’t realise how it all happened but suddenly I was standing alone in a dark and empty room with the key missing from my hand.
That slick jerk.
He had locked me in here, I concluded after I tried to open the door.
I looked around and flicked the lights on, deciding to wait until someone comes for me.
I was in some sort of store room. I guessed Ethan wanted to shove me into this room before.
After about ten or so minutes, the door finally opened revealing Olivia. She looked happy and I could only hope that I had won this one.
“Come on. Ethan completed his task. We just have to know his time.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I jumped off of the bean bag that was there and followed after her to the living room.
“So?” I asked in anticipation as I saw Tristan.
“So what?” Tristan asked, infuriating me. I was already impatient after I was shoved into the store room and he was prolonging the torture.
“What’s his time?”
“Well, his timing is…,” he paused for dramatic effect, “nineteen minutes and ten seconds, plus ten minutes minus twenty six minutes and fifty seconds plus five seconds multiplied by two and then divided by three, plus one hour minus fifty two minutes and thirty eight seconds-”
“Tristan! Shut up and tell me his exact timing!” I knew I was close to punching Tristan by now if he kept this up.
“Whoa, okay. I’ll tell you. It’s nineteen minutes and ten seconds.”
“Seriously?” I asked, not believing him at first but he nodded reassuringly and I couldn’t help but smirk satisfactorily. I had won this one and I was beyond proud of myself to have beaten him.
I looked over at Ethan who was sat on one of the couches with a blank look on his face.
“So, ready for third and final round?” Olivia asked.
“Of course. I’m ready to win,” I replied.
Ethan snorted. “Don’t be so overconfident.”
“I’m not. I just know that I’ll win,” I retorted.
Winning the second round gave me a newfound confidence in myself and I knew I would win this. I had never been so sure of anything before than I was now. I was going to own this one.
“Let’s sit down! I’m going to give you any three of the total six that you two collected,” Tristan said with six pieces of paper in his hands. “You’ll be given only one minute for each riddle.”
Olivia and Tristan decided on which ones to give to whom and finally reached a decision.
Olivia gave me three and Tristan gave Ethan the other three riddles.
You? can? break? me? without? touching? or? even seeing? me.? What? am? I?
The first one was fairly easy. I had initially struggled for the answer for about fifteen seconds but then the answer instantly came to my mind out of nowhere.
“A promise!” I exclaimed.
“That’s right!” Olivia squealed, giving me the second riddle.
How? many? seconds? are? there? in? a? year?
This confused me a lot. Surely it was not about calculating seconds in a whole year! I’d go crazy.
Seconds.? Seconds.? Seconds.? What? seconds?
It couldn’t be months. So it might be… days!
“Fifteen seconds more, Juliet. Hurry up.”
“Twelve!”
“How?”
“There are twelve second in a year. January 2nd to December 2nd.”
“Good job,” Olivia said handing me my last one.
I released a breath through my mouth. This one would be tough for sure.
There? is? a? house? with? four? walls.? All? the? walls? are? facing? South.? A? bear? is? circling? the? house.? What? color? is? the? bear?
This was indeed hard. How would I know what color was this bear?
I read the riddle carefully. A house. Walls facing South. Facing South. Walls.
Walls. Facing South. So they might be in North direction? A bear is circling that house, and that house is in the North direction.
North.
“Is the bear brown?”
“Nope.”
I racked my brain for anything the answer might be.
North. At North Pole maybe?
North Pole. Bear. Polar bear. Polar bears are white!
“White!” I said the same time as Olivia who announced that I only had ten seconds more.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Olivia squealed in joy as she hugged me.
“How though?” Tristan asked me.
“Well, the walls of the house are facing south so they are in the North Pole. So the bear is a polar bear and so white in color.”
“Okay. You answered all the three. Now it’s Ethan’s turn. There might be a tie so we’ll have to come up with something else in case of that.”
“I’ve already won but okay.”
“That overconfidence will get you nowhere,” Ethan sneered at me.
“Well it has gotten me this far so I don’t see how this is nowhere.”
He chose to ignore me as Tristan handed him his riddles.
“How many bananas can you eat if your stomach is empty? Are you serious? Is this even a riddle?”
“Well then what’s the answer, Mr. know-it-all,” I said.
“One. After that your stomach is not empty anymore.”
“Well done, Ethan!” Tristan cheered and I just huffed and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for him to tell us the second riddle.
“What do you call an Amish guy with his hand in a horse’s mouth,” Ethan read and paused.
His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion but he finally answered after twenty or so seconds. “A mechanic.”
“That’s right.”
Ethan sighed and took the last riddle.
“A magician promises that he can throw a ball as hard as he can and have it stop, change direction and come back to him. He claims he can do it without the ball bouncing off of anything, the ball being tied to anything, or the use of magnets. How is it possible?” He read slowly as if what he just read was completely foreign to him.
He scratched his head and gave various answers but none of them were right. Soon he was frustrated as his time neared its end.
“Come on, man. It’s very simple. You can do this,” Tristan encouraged futilely. Ethan looked more troubled by that.
“Time up,” Olivia sang and I screamed with Olivia joining me. I had won! And Ethan had lost. I was so happy. Finally we had come to a conclusion. I was the best of us both.
“Shit. The magician throws the ball right up in the air,” Ethan groaned.
“Too late, buddy,” Olivia said, laughing at his face and he grudgingly got up and walked off.
“You won!”
“I declare Juliet as the winner. Congratulations,” Tristan said sullenly and went after Ethan.