THANK YOU FOR YOUR GUIDANCE, ALPHA!

I stalked into the room with Oscar and Oprah following behind me mutely. Savy decided to come too, and my cousins decided to follow her. Ben shut the door behind us.

"Ki will make sure we are undisturbed by the grown ups." Ben said.

"Now what?" Savy asked.

I grinned, "We have some fun!"

Oscar paled. He bravely stepped just half a step in front of his sister.

"What do you have in mind, Sam?" Ben asked.

His slip on tongue didn't go unnoticed by any of the Night Forest youths. Oscar looked somewhat torn. My cousins gasped, "Sam! He didn't call you princess."

"He usually doesn't." I admitted, "Ben's more like my brother than my servant."

The whole room looked surprised. Including Ben.

I was pretty surprised too. I was expecting to say best friend, but then at the last minute, I remembered that Ben's best friend was Jonah, AND that Savy would probably raise hell that I didn't credit her as best friend first and in the end the word brother just came out by itself.

"I was thinking of playing some horror and gore film really loudly, and make them think I was sawing you in half, and then when they barge in to rescue you, we can point at them and laugh." I said all in a breath.

My cousins laughed.

"Yeah, like that." I said.

Then Oscar moved to raise his hand, "There is no TV in this room, Alpha."

"Can we play it from our phone?" I asked.

Ben shook his head, "The sound won't be realistic enough to fool them without a proper sound system."

I thought about it, "Then maybe we just need to act it out - I mean like voice acting." I quickly added because poor Oscar and Oprah seemed to be suffering heart palpitations.

Savy was covering her mouth from laughing now...

"Wait, so we act like we're bullying them? And they like scream really loud?" Estella asked.

I nodded.

"That's easy, we just put a spider on Oscar and he would scream super loud." Esmeralda said.

Both girls laughed. Oscar looked worried.

Actually, sometimes I think Oscar suffered enough on a day to day basis as it was.

"Why are we doing this?" Oprah asked. She looked completely confused.

"To punish the adults for challenging my decision." I answered, "Uncle Louis said it was up to me. I settled it with the both of you. And then Uncle Pierre and Uncle Andre dared to criticize it?"

"But they are right, it didn't look like you punished them very much." Esmeralda said. "Not that we're criticizing." She added quickly. And the both girls laughed.

I laughed too. "Yeah, but these two learned their lesson, right?"

Oscar and Oprah nodded vigorously.

"So it would be a waste of energy to punish further." I said. Wow, I sounded wise. IMAO, I guess I did have my moments.

"Okay, Alpha, how do you want us to do this?" Oscar asked.

Ben took out his phone, "Hang on, let me download some sound effects."

I walked over to the sofas, specifically avoiding Grandma Luna's armchair, I sat on one of the loveseats. Savy sat next to me.

"Go sit." Ben bossed his cousins.

"Might as well get comfortable." I said.

"Won't we need a script?" Oprah asked.

"Just wing it. If you can't think of what to say just keep crying loudly and screaming." I told her.

"Now you can put all your theatre and drama club practice to good use." Estella told her.

The girls laughed.

But even Oscar and Oprah looked a little excited.

"Look, if we get in trouble, I made you do it, Okay? This will be all on me." I told them.

I'll be going home tomorrow. These four would be stuck here.

Ben found a sound effect, I'm not sure if it were a whip, lighting, or a large branch breaking. It sounded like all three at the same time. He played it suddenly and quite loudly. The girls cried out, startled.

"Not you." Savy told my cousins, "Or it would sound like she's punishing you."

My cousins laughed.

"Alright, when I play the sound, start performing." Ben said. He played the sound. Oprah got right into it.

As in waterworks and all, "Please no!" She sobbed, "It's not his fault!"

"Oh my goddess.... She can turn on the tears so fast." Estella said.

"She really is an expert." Esmeralda said.

The two covered their mouths in an attempt to mask their giggling.

Savy had a hand on her mouth too.

Ben frowned, "You girls sound so sadistic."

"Oh no, we are such bad bullies, Oprah is crying here and we are laughing." Estella said.

"They would think we are evil." Esmeralda said.

The two burst out in laughter.

Oprah who hadn't broken out of her role yet (because unlike these two, she was clearly professionally trained) only gasped very dramatically, "Oh, Oscar! Oscar! Please pull yourself together."

Oh man, you should have seen Oscar's face. He turned red in the ears and stared tongue tied at her sisters feverent plea.

"Tell her you're okay. Say it didn't hurt." Ben prompted.

"I'm okay..." Oscar managed, "I... I mean, it didn't hurt."

Oscar didn't sound very convincing.

Ben pointed at his head, "Spider."

Oscar screamed, shaking his head vigorously. I picked up a piece of potpourri, it was brown and shaped like a large dried seed. I flicked it on Oscar's shoulder. He really screamed then.

Ben played the sound effect twice. THWACK! THWACK!

The dried potpourri seed flew up and landed in front of my cousins who screamed. They seriously screamed.

It drowned out Oprah's dying sobs. But of course Oprah couldn't have her performance screamed out like that.

She screamed even louder. It was the kind of sound most commonly heard in old vampire movies. I was impressed by that girl's repertoire of terrifying sounds.

I covered my ears. Ben did too, but he was smirking.

When things dropped a few decibels, Ben shouted, "Thank the Alpha for the guidance."

"Thank you for your guidance, Alpha!"

I wasn't sure which was funnier, the way Oscar and Oprah immediately snapped out of the heart wrenching performance to yell these words in unison.

Or the way they also stood straight and made a bow in my direction, even though we were only voice acting.

What kind of sick and twisted Alpha would unleash violence on his beta like that and expect to be thanked?

A "Pfffttt" sound was escaping Ben's lips. He was obviously enjoying himself.

Heh heh. Well, I guess the show was over. That was fun. I waved everyone to sit.

"Why are we the ones screaming?" Estella asked.

Ben picked up the fallen piece of potpourri and replaced it into the crystal bowl.

The twins laughed.

Estella wiped her tears, "I screamed so hard the tears came out."

Ben put his phone on the table, he turned down the volume, "Ki secretly videoed their reaction outside."

"Ohhh, I want to see." Esmeralda said.

"Come see how your amazing performance worked on the audience." I invited.

Oscar and Oprah joined us, and we all crowded around Ben's screen to watch. Before Ben tapped the play button, he put a finger to his lips, "Don't laugh loudly, they are still outside."