‘Where’s that damn girl?!’

Hallow’s roars were unmistakable to the whining of a young child. Here he was, a small and puny man, with his impenetrable stare that never seemed to break, his ugly yellowed eyes that had dark moons under them from sleep deprivation, his stubby bald head, screaming once again over something that wasn’t his.

‘My lord, Hallow, would you keep — it — down!’ yelled a man from the second floor, leaning over the creaky bannister.

‘Go back to sleep, Jackson, you’re interrupting my train of thought—‘

‘You’re interrupting my train of sleep!’ screamed Jack, who now only realised how stupid his reply sounded, and rubbed his hazelnut eyes deeply with his knuckles.

‘Whatever,’ he yawned loudly. ‘Just —‘ yaawn.

‘Be quiet, will you?’

Jack trotted back to his bedroom in his dark blue gown and there was a thud as he hit the bed with such force.

‘Stupid girl, stupid game, how dare she make a fool of me—‘

‘Of course, I SHOULD have won— right? The game was obviously mine, but she snatched it from my grasp like a child snatching Halloween candy!’

Hallow’s complaints had gotten a lot quieter, but there was no mistake how much frustration he had in his voice.

‘How dare she, how DARE she— I won! I won! It isn’t fair!’

He flopped onto the large arm chair with a defeated sulk, slumped downwards and stretched his eyelids down so that the bloodshot whites of his eyes were visible.

The chair seemed to outsize him dramatically. Hallow was not an intimidating figure. He did not sound like one. In fact, a young teenager at best could outdo his ‘roars’ of fury.

There was a thud at the door. Hallow did not move for a moment, unable and unwilling to get to the door, until Jackson had screamed down the stairs again. There were furies of thudding.

‘Hallow, get the door! I’m — trying — to —sleep!’ he said through gritted teeth and stormed off back to sleep.

Hallow groaned and sluggishly commanded his body to move. He creaked through the hallway to another fury of knocking.

‘All right, all right, I’m opening it—‘

There was silence for a moment.

‘YOU?’

There was a young girl at the door, slightly taller than Hallow, with suspiciously genuine light eyes. Hallow seemed to burst the moment she arrived.

‘HOW DARE — you,’ said Hallow, quieting his voice rather quickly.

‘Hello, mister Hallow!’ said the girl cheerily.

‘I am dearly sorry for being late, so late, but I was wondering if you’d like to join my sister and I tomorrow in a game of battleships. I have to tell you now otherwise people will have signed up already.’

He was stuck, bounded to the ground in rage, until he unclenched his knobbly knuckles and partially smiled.

‘All right. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.’

And Hallow knew that he had his second chance at redemption, to win the game he was destined to lose.