Hide and Seek by Ada Omerez

Hide and seek

By: Ada Omerez

Ever since the first day of kindergarten, Tyler dragged his half-closed backpack up the twisty stairs of his old apartment building. The dim yellow ceiling lights flickered, and he could hear the faint water trickle from the gray day outside.

His bag was soaked, not making it any easier to carry. His bag deeply reminded him of the crumbling walls around him, tattered, teared at the seams, and held on by a frayed thread. 

Tyler wanted to replace his bag, but he never found enough time to fix it. Mostly, he just got distracted and forgot about it. 

He sighed. It took very little to distract him. Even when he was focused on something important to him. It was a pain in butt for him to be this way. 

His guidance counselor had told him that it was a normal thing to be this distracted, and that many kids shared his disability, as she called it. 

He heard a voice singing a tender tune, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked up the winding stairs by instinct, but nothing. 

The voice sounded beautiful, to him it was like the voice of an angel, or the voice of birds in the glow of the fall, singing tunes and flying around. He couldn’t help it when he was drawn by the noise- it was calling him to follow. 

He slowly walked up the steps, the weight of his backpack felt heavier with each step. It inspired him to carry on, to discover who was making that beautiful noise. 

He walked up level by level, peeking his head around the corner of each, to see if he would find the mysterious person, most likely a girl, harmonizing.

He reached the top of the staircase, gripping the rusted, cold railing of the stairs. His hand was slick with sweat as he tried to steady himself. He looked out expectedly. He recoiled, there was nothing there, just an empty mass of space. The voice had stopped, The person was gone, but he had not heard anything that hinted they left. “Looking for me?“said the voice.

He looked all around him, searching where the voice had come from. It was raspy and did not find that voice. He froze, trying to think of something to respond to the stranger. “Who are you?“ he demanded, trying not to sound commanding. “Why don’t you try and find me?” the girl said, playfully. His expression turned to a smirk. Too easy! I’m great at hide and seek!  He would find her, he knew he would. 

He carefully scanned each floor, looking for the girl, trying to be as quiet as possible, standing on his toes, and holding his breath. He only exhaled when he was done searching the floor.

When he was done on all thirteen floors, he went around again, like a carousel that never seemed to come to an abrupt stop. 

He  needed to stay determined to find the girl, but he was getting more desperate by each floor that he passed. 

He fell to the floor, breathing hard, and beads of sweat soaking into his t-shirt. He tore off his wind breaker, and laid completely down on the floor. It felt cold on his back, and he lay there for a moment, catching his breath, enjoying the rest. He felt the air shift to icy cold, and he slowly opened one eye and looked in front of him.

It was a twisted shadow, cloaked in torn robes that dragged to the ground and jet black hair that was tangled and disheveled. ”Found you! I won!” 

It was horrifying. It didn’t look like some cheap Halloween costume from the local Spirit Halloween shop, Her face was pale, almost sickly white, with sharp, bony features that seemed to jut out at odd angles. This couldn’t be a prank though he’d like to think it is. It is real.

He rapidly crawled away, a scream escaping his mouth, with a terrified look on his face. What was she? A ghost, siren, what- There was no time to think straight! He had to get away as fast as he could.  

He closed his eyes, trying to stay calm, even though it would be funny if he did. He balled his hands up into fists, and dashed up the stairs to his apartment as fast as he could, leaving the figure behind. 

‘Where are you going? I won fair and square!” He barely registered the figure’s words, not caring enough to see if the words would save him. The voice was screaming too, but not because it was scared, it sounded more livid. It was out to get him.

The thought alone terrorized Tyler. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he didnt make it to his apartment before he was in the arms of the monster.

Each second felt like an hour, as he went back and forth debating if he would make it. Part of him told him to stay positive, the other part told him that there was no hope, that he was going to die either way. 

He could feel his lungs deteriorating by the second. Finally, he was there. He went for the first hiding spot his eyes were placed on. The balcony. Tyler used the last of his energy, and ran for the balcony, pushing open the frosty glass sliding door.

He hid behind the bike that he had gotten for his birthday, a gift from his mom. 

 His mom… She was at work. She would be safe. Would she? He didn’t have time to think more about it, he heard the figure breaking down his door.

“You… nasty little cheater. I WON, I WON!” She tore through the apartment like a typhoon, wrecking everything in her way. “Is this another game of hide and seek? Ah, I see we’re playing more… Fun... ” She finally reached the balcony, and Tyler shivered in fear.

He held his hand up to his mouth, trying not to make a sound. It was no use anyway. The figure had spotted him. “Pathetic. Did you think you would actually be able to hide from me? Thanks to you, this has turned into more than a game of hide and seek.”.

He started ascending towards the balcony rail, dangling dangerously in mid air. He should’ve been screaming, but he was dead-silent. The shock was too much for him. “Cheaters should get what they deserve.” the voice sneered at him, sniffling. 

He fell down, his eyes locked unto her twisted, wicked face, growing smaller with each passing second, all thirteen floors one blur at a time.

All he could think was- this couldn’t really be the end.

Could it?