Chapter One
Armelle tossed the ring, and whoa… it landed on a…a... well, a rather old Rubik’s cube with the wrong colour scheme.
Well, that was what Armelle had won, but it was mystifying that she had aimed for a teddy bear with buttons for eyes, but the ring landed on this instead.
The popularity of the stall was on the wane. Armelle looked at the owner of the stall. She was a thin bony old woman. She looked very pale, even the whites of her eyes were yellow. Her eyes were a stern blue. She had slender jewelled fingers.
She had a craggy yet stern face. A rather expression less one. She took the cube in her hands and gazed at it, thinking something. She jerked her thoughts away with a slight jerk of her head towards the left. She looked at Armelle with her wide, unblinking eyes. Armelle looked right back into them with her intelligent green ones.
The woman looked at the cube once again. Then she held it forward towards Armelle. "All yours." Said she in a brittle, dead voice. Armelle took the cube from the woman's hands. The woman hesitated before giving the cube to her.
Armelle noticed that if she looked carefully enough, she could see that the woman's pupils had a red ring around them. She was considering this fact when somebody pushed her away from the stall.
“hey! I wanted that cube!” said a girl. This was Juliane, the popular girl. She looked at Armelle with her fierce brown eyes. “ She wants it so give it to her.” Said Alora, Juliane’s best-friend.
The woman at the stall looked at the girls.
“The girl who won the cube will keep it.” she said in her dead voice. Juliane did not seem bothered by what the woman said but she said“who are you and why are you telling me what to do?”
“well, it’s for your own good”, said the woman. “urghhhh!” said Juliane as she walked to the fortune-teller’s stall.
Armelle sighed and walked away. In the school bus on the way home from the side-fair, Armelle’s fingers turned the layers of the Rubik’s cube and she made all the faces.
That wasn’t something exciting for her. She knew how to solve that thing, and she had taught Juliane how to do it. Juliane used to be Armelle’s best friend, but she was always a meanie.
“wow Armelle! I didn’t know you could do that!” said Mia, her classmate. “how can you…. this is AMAZING!!!!” said another girl. “Guys, calm down.” Said Juliane. “of course, she can solve it, and I can too, for I am the one who taught her how to do it!”
Armelle looked at Juliane, she was startled.
She could not believe her ears. She never thought Juliane would lie, yeah, she was a meanie but lying!
“Yeah, my best friend told Armelle how to do it!” said Alora. " Juliane, why would you lie! How can you… I am the one who taught you how to solve a Rubik’s cube!” “I wish you could stop lying!” interrupted Alora. “ Ohhh and I wish you could shut up!” said Armelle. Alora started coughing.
She coughed incessantly.
She coughed as if there was something caught in her throat. One of the girls took out a water bottle from her bag, and Alora, who was watching her, coughed helplessly. Whenever Alora tried to speak, the cough took over.
And that was because of the cube, the evil cube. With every solve, the cube granted the solver a wish, and with every wish, the evil within the person would grow.
The next day, something terrible happened.
Armelle found the cube in her backpack in school. She was sure she didn’t put there!
