The Stay Still Game
By BranF1akes



As I lie in wait, my prey comes into view. 

I like to go out on little excursions, in the woods up above the sealine. The warm smell of seawater graces my skin, opening up my pores before I go on my little hikes. Bag of tools in hand, I find a good spot a ways in, and set up a small pile of cookies as bait (Oreos are the best). I climbed up into a tree in order to be obscured from my query’s view, pellet gun in hand in case anything else tried nibbling on the little snack I placed out in the open. I haven’t needed to use it. 

“Yu! Reimu find sweet-sweets!” the raven haired yukkuri calls out. It is followed by a bright blonde haired yukkuri, its red hairband marking it as an Alice. Behind the Alice, several kos hop about, drooling in anticipation, gushing over the find. I wait and watch as they pig out over the cookies, then when they’re nearly finished I grab my bag of tools and hop down from the tree to greet them.

“Hello there.” I force calm into my nerves and say my greeting with as much casualness as I can muster. Thankfully, the yukkuri family doesn’t seem to be disturbed at my presence and look up at me with bright eyes. 

“Hello mister human!” the adult Alice pipes up. She looks to the pile of crumbs that used to be the cookies and takes on an expression of worry. “Oh no! Were those mister human’s sweet-sweets? Alice is sorry if mister human is uneasy now.” The rest of the family frowns and gets misty eyed in shared remorse. 

‘How well behaved,’ I think, ‘maybe TOO well behaved.’ I quickly look them up and down to check if they’re wearing badges that I might not have seen, but can find none. I quickly conclude that they must be strays or abandoned. Seizing the opportunity, I take the role that the living pastries have assumed of me.

“Oh no! My cookies!” I say. “Oh man, I was saving them for a special time, for someone I could be friends with. I guess I’ll be all alone…” I frown and sniffle, dabbing at my eyes as if I was actually crying. 

“Mishter!” cries a ko Reimu, “Don be uneajy mishter! Weimu will give mishter rub rub, bring eajy back.” The yukkuris all crowd around my legs and feet, rubbing at them repentantly. I reach my hand down and gently pet them.

“Aw, well isn’t that sweet,” I say, “I do feel happier now, thanks a bundle.” They cheer and laugh, glad that their efforts appear to have succeeded. Now I take this as a chance to get an in.

“Say, would you guys like to play a game with me? We can take it easy together now.” I offer. They nod eagerly and prattle on; I don’t bother listening to them as I set my bag down and start grabbing some of my tools. 

“We’re going to play the Stay Still game. The rules are simple: everyone stays perfectly still, the last one to move is the winner. The winner gets sweets as a reward.” 

“Okay mister!” the grown Reimu says. “We can play this game easy.” They stiffen up like statues, trying their best not to move. I laugh. 

“That’s not how you’re supposed to play,” I lightly chide. “Here, close your eyes. I’ll set things up for you.” They comply, keeping their eyes shut while I set the area up. If any of them take a peak, they make no mention of what I’m doing. 

Picking up the adult Alice, it begins to open its eyes, but I gently cover them and whisper that I’m not finished yet. “This might feel a little weird,” I caution, “but it’s all part of the game and you shouldn’t be scared.” The Alice nods its head with a smirk still etched on its face. It shivers a tad when I rub the cold glue on its backside, but otherwise makes no effort to resist. I stick it on a nearby rock that’s the size of a small desk in such a way that it can stand up straight, but has their back pressed to the rock.

“The game is starting for you, but don’t open your eyes just yet,” I once again whisper, “the others aren’t ready yet. I’ll let you know when they’re all set up.” 

“Heh, Alice is gonna win!” she boasts. 

The adult Reimu is next. Reassuring her like I did with her mate, I place her in the small hole I carefully dug, and pack the dirt in around her. She giggles, feeling that it’s ticklish, but stays still well enough for me to keep her in firmly. 

There are four kos left for me to deal with, evenly divided between Alices and Reimus. They’re starting to get antsy with their eyes closed, chattering and drooling over the prospect of sweets. 

“Remember, no peeking!” I say, and take a Reimu into my hand. I bring it to the rock, and with my roll of tape stick it to the rock using an X pattern. The dark haired ko is surprised, opening its eyes and squeaking out a feeble “Yu?” in the seconds before its mouth is taped over. Keeping it pinned to the rock while it struggles underneath the tape proves to be a pain, so I grab one of its braids roughly. 

“Stop squirming,” I warn, very quietly, “or else I will tear your braids right off your head.” That gets the message across, and the ko Reimu no longer struggles, simply crying. The Alice nearby stirs a bit over all the noise.

“What’s mister human doing? Are the little ones okay?” it asks. 

“Oh yes,” I reply, “just keep your eyes closed. It hasn’t begun for everyone yet.” The Alice smiles in false comfort and does as I ask.

The next ko Reimu I grab, I coax it into letting me tie its braids to a rope (I make sure to rub its little cheeks throughout the process to ensure it’s soothed and happy). I take the rope and hoist the ko Reimu up a nearby tree, tying the rope off on a branch. 

“Weimu haz da sky in ids hands!” it triumphantly declares. But after a moment it becomes uncomfortable. “Yu? Mishter bwaids are shtarting two feel uneajy…” I leave it to hang for now. 

The ko Alices starting to get impatient now. I take out little paper wads and convince them both to put the gags in their mouths. They happily comply at first, but quickly appear confused when it’s not the sweets they were expecting. I take one in each hand to the spots I prepared. 

The one in my right hand is easy to deal with, as I can just put it straight onto the sharpened stick that’s jutting out of the spot in the ground. Its soft pastry flesh is easily penetrated, and it stays on the stick even after I loosen my grip and leave the ko right there. It struggles immediately, custard dribbling down the stick as it slowly descends in its fright. 

The last ko I take to the tree that the ko Reimu is hanging down from. I pinch the ko Alice’s skin, stretching it out a bit, then take the thumbtacks I had and stick the ko to the tree, stretching out more skin as I need it. It trashes widely against the painful needles of the thumbtacks, without much success. 

“Okay then!” I say, loud enough for all of them to hear, “now everyone’s ready! We can really begin!” I take out the gag of the yukkuri closest to me, the ko Alice pinned to the tree, and it immediately starts screaming.

“YUAAAAAAAA! MWOMIE! DADDY! ITCH HURDZZZZZ!" 

I pull out the gags for the other one, and it too begins to loudly protest their predicament. The two parents open their eyes in fear. The Reimu is facing away from the kos, and fights against the dirt it's buried around trying and failing to face them. 

"Little ones! Where are you?" it shouts. "Mister! Little ones are gone! Help Reimu find them!"

The Alice has a different reaction. From where it's sitting, it can see all its babies except for the one taped up on the opposite side of the rock. It tries to run to them, but the glue has hardened, leaving it stuck while it writhes uselessly.

"Why can't Alice move!?" it shouts, tears dripping down its cheeks in frustration and despair. I smile smugly and slowly stroll up to the ko hanging down from the rope. I retrieve my lighter from my pocket and turn it on. I whistle so as to get the Alice's attention. 

"Mister human, don't!" it pleads. “That does NOT look city-sect!”

I maintain my smile as the lighter’s flame is held underneath the ko Reimu messing itself in fear. “Hwot! HWOT! YUAAAAAAAAAAAAA! IDCH HWOTCH!” it screams. It’s underside turns red, then steadily blackens as I let it get burnt. In its pain it sways back and forth on the rope as it fights to escape. I notice that a few strands of its hair have snapped under the pressure. The adult Alice just stares, mouth agape, in shock and horror. 

“Reimu’s coming little ones!” I hear. I turn around to see that the half buried Reimu is trying to dig itself out, its braids clawing at the dirt in front of it. I walk over and plant my boot firmly on the Reimu’s head. 

“Moving is against the rules of the game.” I say. I press down with steadily increasing force as the Reimu stops its digging to try and wrest my foot out from under itself to no avail. 

I hear what sounds like the sound of torn paper and an ear piercing shriek. Without taking my foot off the Reimu’s head, I look over my shoulder to see that the Alice managed to free itself, tearing the skin on its backside open. Dribbling custard behind itself, it runs over to the ko Alice pinned to the tree. 

“DADDY! DADDY! SHABE AWICHE!” it begs. The adult Alice looks up and down at the thumbtacks I stuck into the ko, and - apparently deciding that it wouldn’t be able to pull them out - chews off the skin that’s stuck.

“AIEEEEE! DADDY! ITCH HURDS!” it protests. 

"I know little one!" it says, nudging the ko on top of its head, "Alice will make it better later!" 

With one ko saved, it runs over to the impaled one. The stabbed ko stopped shrieking some time ago, and now coughs up custard paste. The Alice tries hopping up to grab its young, but can't reach it. Each hop causes the grown Alice to collide with the stick, causing the ko to slide further and further down. By the time it's within its father's grasp, the ko has gone wide eyed and puked its guts out. 

Either not noticing or caring, the Alice rips the ko off the stick with it's mouth, inadvertently and messily bisecting it. Fresh tears stream down the father Alice's face as it sticks the gory remains of one of its offspring on their head. The surviving ko Alice screams anew in fright over the fate of its "widdwe sishter" while the father Alice trods beneath where the ko Reimu is hanging from. Its movements are not as frantic or energized as they were before, as the Alice has lost a lot of its paste filling. 

“Mister rope!” it shouts up the tree. “Please let the little one go! Will do anything for mister rope, just let little one down easy!” 

“YUGAAAAAAA!” the ko Reimu screams. “DADDY! DISH HIGH HIGH ICH UNEAJY! HEWP WEIMU!” More strands of its hair snap as it continues to bounce up and down on the rope, until it suddenly falls with a loud snap. 

The ko Reimu falls on its parent, sending its custard filling spilling out its backside. The ko Alice that had been pinned to the tree is thrown off its father’s back and lands on the ground with a soft thud, and its own filing paints its landing area. The ko Reimu does not appear to have survived the fall, lying motionless in the mess of paste filling it created. 

I realize, idly, that I no longer feel the grown Reimu struggling underneath my boot. I look down and see that having forgotten about it that I've squished it by accident, and it now stains my footwear in death. I wipe my boot off in the grass and approach the last remaining ko, taped to the rock, having witnessed everything.

"I guess you're the winner!" I say to it. Its eyes show agonizing distraught and terror, shedding tears while it flaps its braids around in desperation. I take a pocket knife out, and make small, shallow cuts on its body. Its braids flail harder than before and its screams are muffled by the tape. I then grab some of the mess I created playing with its family and smear some of it on and around the restrained ko. It averts its eyes as I do so. 

"A winner deserves a reward, no?" I joke. I take a carton of orange juice out of my bag, then tie it up above the ko and make the smallest, tiniest hole in the carton, so that every few seconds a drop of the juice falls on the ko. 

By the time I finish, the bugs have already come out to feed.