by S. Alexander

Created on: April 19, 2008   Last Updated: June 11, 2008

Game Over

The nights were still warm and wet when October thirty-first rolled around in Hollow Vista, Florida that year. Small children walked from house to house sweating in cheap plastic costumes while rumors of poisoned candy and apples hiding razor blades filled the local news channels. All in all it was just another modern Halloween celebration in a mid-sized American city.

The scene of this year's "Kiddy Karnival" was the smaller of the city's two middle schools. Parents waited in line impatiently for a chance to throw soaked sponges at the head of the PTA while their children tugged at their sleeves and asked for "just a few more dollars" to play the raffle. The carnival was advertised as a "Safe and Friendly" place where families who feared the dangers of traditional trick or treating could show up for a couple of hours and be guaranteed a significant haul of candy.

Most of the games were well below the skill level of the boys and girls in attendance that night and the "fun" activities quickly turned into a free for all as the bored volunteers let the kids run wild. Soon, empty candy wrappers littered the floor and the cake walk had been turned into a contest to see who could step on the heels of the person in front of them the most times during a single song. Bonus points if someone's shoe came off in the process.

The ringleaders in much of the confusion were a group of boys and girls from the chess club. Louis, Marcy, Brenda and Zach had taken a vow to improve their social status at school that year by earning a reputation as the most inventive trouble makers in Hollow Vista history. They competed with each other by seeing who could improvise the weirdest tricks and generate the most public outrage. The strategies and end games they studied in chess gave them the skills to pull off some pretty unusual stuff without getting caught.

As the carnival wound down that night and families began to drag their sugar hyped children out to the waiting minivans a collective gasp rose from the departing crowd. There, on the east side of the main building where the banner announcing the carnival had hung only hours before was a gruesome sight. Inside a chalk outline of a giant chess board were poster board cutouts of pieces. The black king and queen were trapping the white king in one corner in a classic checkmate position. Attached to the crown of the white king was a dead blue jay. Its feathers were mussed and the poor bird's neck had obviously been broken. Below the

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