Karen was sitting in the kitchen, sipping on her afternoon coffee while her kids were running around like maniacs. Her shift was about to start and it didn't help that she had to get these little gremlins under control before she left. Putting the coffee mug in the sink, she noticed that one of her kids, Zack was using a chair to reach for something on the counter.
"Cookies!" Just when he grabbed the pot, the chair fell backwards and collapsed onto an ironing board and the iron collapsed onto a cupboard that made the plates shatter. Karen watched as numerous kitchen decor was flying all over the place and smashing on the walls and floors. When the dust finally settled, a huge mess stood in the kitchen's place. Karen's eye was twitching as Zack stuck a cookie in his mouth.
She sighed and grabbed a broom. Just what she needed, another item on her list. Once she was done, it was only a few minutes till her shift started. A sudden knock on the door, startled her. What was it now? Tari came in and said "Sorry Karen. I was just dropping off these toad seat covers for your car."
"Ah thanks." Karen tied on her apron and said "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to work." Tari hears some screaming from the room next to her. "Uh...is everything okay in there?" Karen facepalmed herself when she realized she had forgotten to get a babysitter. "Well I won't take anymore of your time. I need to go feed my ducks anyway." Karen was about to grab her phone to call someone when she stopped in her tracks. "Ducks?"
"Oh yes! I'm really good with them. I was thinking of becoming a duck trainer someday." Tapping her chin, Karen thought "Ducks aren't that different from kids right?" She asked "Anything else after that?"
"No why?"
"Do you think you could watch my kids for the night?"
Tari smiled and said "Oh. I guess I could." Karen leaned in closer and whispered to her "I have to warn you that they are nothing but problems." To Tari it looked more like she was looking at absolute darlings. "It would be no problem at all." Karen was just out the door, but gave her one final warning. "I'm serious. They are quite a handful."
"These sweet angels?" You could practically see the halos above their grinning faces when Tari turned around to look at them. "Your funeral." Karen slammed the door. The kids packed up their stuff and headed off with Tari to her house. As they walked, the blue haired girl was imagining all the fun things they would do together. "This will be so fun! We could play games, introduce you to my ducky friends-" She looked up and found that all three of them were nowhere to be found.
Four was walking when Karen's kids zoomed past him so fast, he could see stars in his eyes. Recovering, he saw Tari running after them. "Hi Tari!" She stopped for a quick second to say hello. "Oh hey Four. Where are you going?"
He pointed to the forest in the distance and said "I'm going into the Dark Webbed Forest to Desti's for some of my favorite tea." Tari began to shake and an unsettled feeling rose in her voice. "T-T-The D-Dark Webbed F-F-Forest? You'll be careful won't you?" He nodded and said "Of course. What about you? What are you doing with Karen's kids?"
She noticed them getting into mischief behind her so she tried to speed this conversation up. If anything happened, she would surely be blamed for it. "Karen had to get to her shift, so I'm babysitting her children." Four raised an eyebrow and said "Wow. Sounds like everyone has their hands full today. Taking care of those three all by yourself?"
Tari scooted past him and scooped up all the kids, then replied with a nervous smile. "What? These sweet angels?" Those halos loomed over their heads as they looked at Four with puppy eyes. "They'll be no problem at all!" Four scratched his head in confusion and shrugged it off. "Okay then. See you later Tari." He headed off towards the forest while Tari waved and took the kids to her house.
The forest was quiet as the sun set in the sky. No matter how much of its rays were still left, the trees blocked out any source of light. It creeped Four out a bit, but he reminded himself that he had come in here multiple times before. A scurrying sound whooshed past him as he turned around in fear. He took a deep gulp and kept walking. Four was brought to a halt when there was some rustling in the bushes in front of him. All this for a cup of tea?
He peeked through the leaves for a closer look, but immediately wished he hadn't as a tall creature poked through. In a panic, Four fell onto the ground in shock. What...was that thing? He was about to make a run for it when the creature's deep red eyes began to glow. Was his body....stiff? Why couldn't he move? Those frightening eyes was the last thing he saw before it all blacked out.