Hide & Seek

The clock struck twelve and chimed out an eerie trill of notes. The song that played on the clock sent shivers down my spine. Each note slightly out of tune and overlapping with one another in some sort of chaotic melody.

'Midnight has come, the moon has risen. The time is neigh. The rules are simple,' I heard a voice boom out throughout the dusty old house. The walls looked as if they were falling apart, the flood boards curled and peeling up.

'Just don't get caught. Have fun.' Each syllable was just as long and drawn out as the last to add emphasis to his statement.

All the candles in the room blew out simultaneously and I was left in the dark room, alone, and shivering. The fireplace that kept the small room heated was out too, and I could see my breath when I blew out.

I heard slow, heavy footsteps pound up the steps, each one dragging as it went.

*Thump-drag-thump-drag-thump*

And a scrapping of metal on wood. I ran quickly to the closet and hid inside as the hallway entered onto the stairs and I didn't want to be found out.

But to my surprise, there weren't many places to hide in the room.

There was a fireplace, a bed, and a dresser. The only other thing was a window that dropped two stories. I thought for a minute about going under the bed but that's literally the most obvious spot to go in the horror movies and I was not jumping two stories to my doom. I looked at the fireplace and thought the only way was up.

So up I went.

Crawling into the fireplace and wedging myself up into the chimney, I crawled my way up the inside until I could no longer see out of the room, and I was high enough not to be seen myself.

And in good timing too.

As soon as I got to my hiding space and waited for a moment, I heard the footsteps stop just outside the door. The door creaked open and I heard the dragging, heavy footsteps and the scraping of metal.

As the shadow walked past the fireplace I couldn't get a good look but they had a long dark brown coat on and carried a large farming sickle behind them. I had to hold my breath, the stench in the room was so bad. It smelt like rotting corpses and feces. I couldn't plug my nose to block out the scent or I'd lose my spot on the wall.

My arms and legs started to quiver and give way to my location as I scrapped down the wall slightly.

I was hoping whoever or whatever it was that was in here with me didn't hear.

I was sorely mistaken.

The footsteps got closer and closer, a moment passed with the boots at the front of the fireplace. I was hoping it didn't see me.

Looking down the chimney under my feet I saw a man's face with a grimacing toothy grin spread across his ugly face look back up at me. His smile was stapled to his face in an unnatural way. Almost as if he was crying and laughing at the same time. The puss around the wounds was a yellowy-white color in the light, and red with irritation.

Laughing with a low deep gravel, he backed up and stuck something in the fireplace.

Logs? Oh no. I knew what was coming next.

He was trying to smoke me out.

Already having revealed my position I cimbed up the chimney as fast as I could, but it was hard as I almost flipped upside down an predicamentally fall upside down, headfirst.

‘I should’ve just jumped. I would’ve been safer,’ I thought to myself.

Almost at the top, the smiling man lit the fire and smoke began making its way up to me. Choking and coughing it was hard to make my way up anymore. 

My eyes started to water and I tried my best to nuzzle my tshirt up over my nose while climbing to minimize the amount of smoking I was inhaling.

Getting to the top, I pushed up as hard as I could on the metal grating but it wouldn’t budge. I pushed and pushed but to no avail. The thing must have been bolted down shut on the other side.

‘I was going to die in here, and burn alive,’ I thought. Closing my eyes, letting the tears fall, mostly from the smoke rathe rat the prospect of being left on Death’s doorstep shortly.

The bricks started to get hot and burn my hand and I continued to choke in my makeshift mask.

‘I’m gonna have to jump.’

And jump I did. I let my arms and legs go, bracing for impact. I ducked and grabbed my legs, pulling them into my chest and when I got to the bottom I bolted out and rolled until the fire was out.

To my surprise the door was wide open but no sign of the smiling man anymore. But it wouldn’t take long for him to come back and check up on the fire to notice me on the floor. I had to get out of here.

Pulling myself up slowly from the floor I heard a screech of the wooden boards shifting beneath my foot in this one particular spot.

Cover blown once again, I sped to the window and threw it open, not caring how much noise I made. Looking below I saw how far the ground was away from my feet. ‘It’s okay, it just looks further than it actually is.’ Boy, was I wrong.

When I hit the ground, the grass was not plush but rather hard and brittle. A little bit of dirt kicked up underneath my feet and I fell back on my behind. Pain shuddered up my right leg and I limped all the way to the end of the driveway before I thought I was safe.

I turned around, regretfully so, and saw the smiling man sitting on the front steps waving at me with his sickle in his hand, his stapled pussy grin ingrained in my mind to this very day.