The Trickster

It was a dark, chilly, moonless October night. The streets were completely deserted except for a few stray dogs. All the people were tucked away in their warm beds dreaming of sweets and fluffy animals or so you would think.

From an alley off to the left of the main road, a faint light shimmered. It blinked on, then off, and then on again. It was slowly moving down the alley and then poof - just disappeared.

This same event continued to occur for the next few days. The faint light would shimmer, blinking on and off and then just magically vanish. Nobody was ever around to witness this mysterious event though.

Then one day, a boy named Sean was playing basketball outside. He was trying to perfect his shot since basketball season at his school was starting soon. Last year, he was so close to making the team but got cut at the last second. This year would be different though since Sean planned on being the best.

Oblivious to the time, Sean kept on practicing. Soon it was night. The moon was hidden behind thick clouds so all the streets appeared pitch black. Even though he wanted to continue shooting hoops, Sean knew his mom would begin to worry if he didn’t arrive home shortly. He was packing up his things when something in an alley close by caught his eye.

Curious to see what it was, Sean crept slowly toward the alley. When he got closer, he realized the thing that had caught his attention had been a faint light. It was shimmering on and off while maneuvering its way down the side street.

“Awesome, a floating light!” Sean was so excited that he forgot that his mother was expecting him. All that was on his mind now was to follow this fascinating, flickering light and see where it would lead him.

So that is exactly what he did. His glowing guide would blink on and off but never disappear like it usually did. The hovering illusion just kept traveling farther and father down the alleyway. Sean though this event was weird yet magnificence at the same time. Suddenly though, after about ten minutes of walking, the source of light blinked off and stayed that way

“Where did it go?” Sean wondered out loud. He couldn’t see anything, not even his own feet. He really hoped the mysterious glow would reappear because he was totally lost. He had no clue on how to get home and had hoped that his strange guide would have showed him the way. All chances of that happening were lost now since it had just abandoned him.

Suddenly, the world began to spin and Sean lost his balance. He fell to the ground hard and tried to grab hold of something. Everything was out of his reach. He began rolling all over the place and then bang - blacked out.

“Uh, oh, uh.” It was five hours since Sean had lost conscientious and he was just coming back around. There was a huge bump on his head and scratches all over his scrawny body. He tried to sit up but pain pierced his leg.

“Nice to see you’re finally awake, “ a high voice squeaked out from behind him. Sean spun around quickly and found himself face to face with a teeny, tiny fairy with bushy red hair.

“Who the heck are you and where am I?” Sean exclaimed frightfully. The last thing he could remember was tripping in the dark alley after the guide he had trusted had flickered out.

“I am Tiny-Tinkle-Toes, the pixie of Cherry Blossom. You had been following me down a dimly lit alley and foolishly stumbled upon some stones. I didn’t want to leave you so I brought you back to my world. Right now, you are lying in a field of freshly cut Honeydews.

Sean looked around. He was surrounded by pink sky overhead and the aroma of sweet honey filled his nostrils. The scene was extremely beautiful but it didn’t make sense. This was a different world from his own; how was that possible?

“How can I be in a different world? Sean questioned Tiny-Tinkle-Toes hesitantly. “The only world that I am aware of is the one that consists of Earth and the other planets.

“Well, you just are. By following me you were able to come through the loophole and arrive here. There’s really nothing to it. Anyways, that’s enough questions. We have much to do in so little time. With that, Tiny-Tinkle-Toes flew straight out of the field of Honeydews toward the gleaming buildings of the nearby city.

Confused by the answer that he had received, Sean stood were he was stunned. He wanted to figure everything out but didn’t have time. Right now the only important thing was getting back home and to do that, he had to follow Tiny-Tickle-Toes, the pixie. So hurriedly, Sean ran in the direction he had seen him fly. Conveniently, the fairy creature had left behind a trail of golden dust for him to follow.

With a huff and a puff, Tiny-Tinkle-Toes came to an abrupt halt in front of a lime green building. It was larger than most of the surrounding buildings and looked liked a giant frog. Sean stopped too; glad to finally have a chance to catch his breath.


“We are here,” Tiny-Tinkle-Toes announced with a gleefully smile upon his face. “This is The Factory of Evil Toys and to return home, you must complete the task of assembling five dolls together.”

“That’s all I have to do?” Sean asked amazed. That seemed so easy! He thought he was going to have to kill a wild beast or something extreme like that. His required task seemed so much simpler.

Eager to get back home, Sean entered the building. He was greeted by loud clangs and clings of machinery grinding together. There were boxes scatter about with various labels on them. Some said heads, arms, legs, feet, etcetera. Sean figured these were the parts that needed to be assembled together and headed toward them.

Reaching into the first box that he came upon, which was labeled heads, Sean retrieved a circular thing that had violet hair and one orange eyeball. In the next box, he found arms that were thin and covered in bumpy red pimples. The legs were exactly the same. The whole time that Sean was examining the parts, Tiny-Tinkle-Toes was sitting on a stool nearby laughing quietly.

About an hour after beginning, Sean had finished making all five dolls. In his opinion, they were the ugliest, most horrid things that he had ever seen. Even so, he was still proud that he was able to complete the task so quickly without one single problem. Nothing he had been required to do before had been as easy as this. One thing didn’t make complete sense though.

Directing his question at the fairy, which had began to doze off, Sean asked, “Why is this place called The Factory of Evil Toys? The toys might look scary but not evil.”

Tiny-Tinkle-Toes was about to answer when suddenly there was a crash from behind the boxes of toy parts. Sean scurried over to see what was wrong and was shocked at what he found. Tiny-Tinkle-Toes stayed where he was, smiling.

The toys were alive! They were jumping around like lunatics in a nut house. Somehow they had each found a weapon and from the looks of it, getting ready to use them. Two had metal bats, two had pitchforks, and one had a set of arrows with a bow. Sean wasn’t sure but he had a feeling that these evil toys that he created were planning on killing him.

As the toys began to advance on Sean, Tiny-Tinkle-Toes burst out laughing. This was hysterical to him. The look of horror on Sean’s face was priceless. His eyes were wide and his mouth was in the form of a silent scream.

Hearing the squeaky laughter broke Sean from his trance of fright. “What’s this all about? I created the toys like you asked so that I could go home and instead they’re going to murder me?” Torn between rage and fear, Sean lashed out a Tiny-Tinkle-Toes.

Realizing what Sean was doing, Tiny-Tinkle-Toes quickly tried to control his laughter. “Please don’t hurt me,” he pleaded. “It was all a joke.” With that said, he snapped his fingers and the toys crumbled to the floor.

Seeing the look of confusion on Sean’s face, the pixie began to explain. “My leader, Ko-Fu, had sent me into your world on a mission. I was supposed to find a human being and see if I could trick them into following me. Lucky you, you fell for it. Telling you to create the toys had been a little scheme to get the job done since I was supposed to do it myself. I decided to make them attack you for the fun of it. So what I guess I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble.

Sean was about to reply when the world began to spin again. “Oh no,” he thought. He frantically reached for a nearby machine but couldn’t reach it. His body swung suddenly and he got caught off guard. Hitting his head on a metal bar, he slipped into his own little peaceful world.

This time when Sean woke up, he knew exactly where he was. He was back in the alley by the basketball court! He wasn’t sure how he got there but he didn’t really care either. He was just glad that he was back in his own world.

Looking at his watch, Sean was amazed. No time had seemed to pass since he had packed his things up from the basketball court and had traveled into the alley! He knew he had been in Cherry Blossom for at least six hours so that didn’t make sense. Well, none of it exactly made any sense in the first place. All Sean knew was that he wanted to get home and this time he wasn’t going to stop for anything.

Sean had learned a valuable lesson that night. It was that if you see a mysterious blinking light, don’t follow it. You never know where it might lead you. Sean was lucky and ended up meeting a pixie who had only played a horrible trick on him. Everybody isn’t as fortunate as he had been though. Sometimes mysterious lights might lead you to a terrifying place and you’ll never be able to leave. So while outside when it is completely dark out, be careful or else you might just disappear forever.