(Image is AI generated using Prompt Hunt)


![image 16.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/idlemind/AKCF3cx2xRqa4ytkGJey9fnFJqq7AxpVvWNWVyRxXyLUeih4cizuggtYiM32uV1.jpg)





**

"Move it! I can't see anything!" Gael pushed Soria, his twin, who was peeking at the door that was left ajar. Their strawberry, curly locks were like bushes blocking the narrow entrance to the bleak room inside a creaky cabin. 

“Hey! Don’t push me!”

The twin kept arguing.

“What are you fighting over?” a raspy voice from an old man came from behind.

The twin froze. None moved a bit or even blinked. Eeriness instantaneously filled the atmosphere, as their breathing became ragged and obstructed. They were like rabbits caught red-handed stealing some carrots from a grumpy man’s lawn.

Soria secretly pinched her brother to tell him to look behind. But he only pinched her back.

“Ouch!” Soria cried.

“So?” the old man spoke again. “What are you looking at?”
Gael slowly turned to the old man; his eyes closed. He didn’t want to see the grotesque face of the person behind them. The old man had a horizontal scar on his forehead, and the slit was as long as a closed eye. The people in the village even thought of him having a creepy third eye that was hiding under the slit.

“Uh. Hi, Mr. Galling,” he said awkwardly.

“Hello, Gael. You can open your eyes now.” The eight-year-old boy obeyed him. “What are you doing in my vicinity with your sweet sister, anyway?”

Hearing that, Soria also turned to face Mr. Galling.
“We’re sorry, Mr.,” she said. “We’re chasing our ball that bounced and went inside this room.”

“I’ll get it for you.” 

The twin stepped aside, giving way to the owner of the property, who walked into the room with pride. They followed him after he had switched the lights on.

“Didn’t think you have electric lights here,” Gael uttered without thinking how offensive his comments might be. He was only eight, anyway. No one would take a child’s word seriously, right?

“I have my ways of accessing modern things. What do you take me for?”

They were walking across the room, searching for the ball, when Gael bumped his toe on a loose floorboard.

“Holy gwakamolly!” he skipped, holding his injured toe.
The loose floorboard swung open to their surprise, sending the entire floor into chaos. The maple tiles danced crazily like ocean waves during a typhoon, swallowing all three of them in one go. Gael accidentally uttered the password to the floorboard.

Upon being devoured by the gigantic surfs, they fell into a long and winding slide of rainbow pebbles. And after that slightly bumpy ride, they slumped on cotton candy meadows. 

“Where are we?” Soria asked, pinching some of the sweet treats on the ground. “They’re real cotton candy!”

Gael grabbed a handful of sweets and munch on them without hesitating about getting some cavities.

“There’s your ball, kids.” Mr. Galling pointed at the gold ball glimmering from a short distance.

Gael ran towards the ball, but to his amazement, the ball grew arms and feet and faced them.

On the surface of the ball, a woman’s face grew. Its eyelids were green like chlorophyll. Its cheeks were flushed as red as the burning fire. The woman’s lips were plumpy; her eyebrows looked like caterpillars.

“Catch me if you can!” It teased and bounced and ran and bounced away.

“Hey! Get back here!” Gael ran after the ball, only to trip and fall on the cotton candy meadows.

“Nah. Ah. Ah! I won’t go back to you. You guys always kick me that’s why my face is swollen!”

“Soria! Go catch her!”

The twin was soon running after the escaping she-ball.

“Okay, that’s enough! No more chasing the ball,” Mr. Galling blocked the twin’s way. “You should head home. The owner of this property will not be happy about seeing two stubborn kiddos.”

“Who owns this place?”

Before the old man could answer, the ground started shaking, creating huge crevices on the surface where they were standing.

“I do!” A booming, deep voice permeated the air, almost deafening them.

When they turned to see who owned the booming voice, their jaws dropped to see their mom, but she was the giant version.

Gael grabbed Soria by the hand and started to run away. “This is no good. Seeing mom in her normal size is already terrifying, especially when she scolds me for not doing my homework. How can we even escape the giant mom? Run Soira! She mustn’t catch us, or we’re gonna be grounded.”

“Grounded?” Soira repeated.

**

Soledad chuckled, hearing her children’s conversation in their sleep while switching off her mobile phone's camera. She was recording them.

“My sweet angels. Even while sleeping you have each other’s back. You must’ve been tired of playing the entire day.” She kissed them on their foreheads and stepped out of the twin’s room at 3:00 PM.