Holding On

“Let’s play a game, of hide and seek,” he said, ignorant that she was new to the area and wouldn’t find a way home alone.

“Okay,” was her reply, even though she was ready to leave the woods. She wanted to go home where it was safe and warm, where she could never be injured from outsiders.

“How old are you?”

She looked at the boy with blue eyes and brown hair. She took a deep breath, letting it out into the frosty air. She closed her eyes and avoided the question. He didn’t have or need to know. It was a silly question because why did it matter what her age was?

“Are we going to play or stand here freezing our asses off?”

He arched an eyebrow, wondering how she so cleverly avoided the question as if she had never heard him ask it all. He shook it off, prancing behind a large oak tree. “I’m it. You hide, and I’ll do my best to find you.”

She nodded to him, walking softly toward a safe hiding place. She reached into her coat pocket, retrieving her headphones and placing them over her ears. With the tap of a button, music began playing. She couldn’t hear anything, and that’s the way she liked. She looked behind her, making sure she could still his silhouette. She nodded to herself for reassurance and she kneeled behind a tree about ten feet from him. She figured it wouldn’t be too hard for him to find her.

“Twenty.” He looked around him. It was dark, too dark. “Ready or not, here I come!” He shouted into the forest, dashing toward the left of him a few feet. No girl. He did the same to the right. Still no girl. He began walking toward where she was hiding until he heard footsteps behind him. He laughed to himself. “Liz, when I said that I’m it,” he turned around to the person behind him. “It means that I-“ He was cut off by the sight of a tall silhouette a couple inches taller than he. The stranger wore black clothing – or from what he could tell – and was looking down at him.

“Boo,” said the stranger, sending him running out of the woods and towards the town. He screamed the entire way.


Hearing a sound, Liz removed her headphones. She squinted. “Ray?” She called out. Nothing. “Ray, are you okay?” She still received no response. She stood up, looking in front of her. “Ray, come on. You know I don’t know shit about this place.”

She started walking, looking around the area for the nearest hint of the town. Her footsteps were light and slow. She was quiet, listening for the music from the house she and Ray had left. She was regretting that decision more than ever now. “Stupid fucker. I hope he trips on a rock and cuts his penis off. Dick.” She mumbled as she walked. “I can’t believe I let him talk me into-“

She gasped when she walked into something big, and surprisingly warm. She looked up to see a white mask looking down at her. She screamed, calling for help and running in the direction she had come from. She yelped when she was snatched by her hair to the stranger. She pleaded with him to let her go, making every deal she could think of.

“Ray!” She hollered, trying to free herself as she was drug across the woods’ ground. She felt every limb stab and cut her skin. She heard her jeans rip as her leg was caught between a tree’s root and the ground. She yelped in pain as she was snatched out of the rut. She heard a cracking sound and a pain throbbed from her ankle to her knee, but she wasn’t crying at the pain; she was crying at the fact that she had been left alone when she was vulnerable and kidnapped.

“Stand up,” a deep voice came from the mask. She reached out in front of her for something to grab onto for support. She was whipped on her back, pushing her into the ground. “I said stand up.” She did as she was told, leaning on her left leg for support and biting her lip as she stood on her right leg. “Take off your clothes.”

“What?”

She was whipped again. “Take off your clothes, bitch!”

She wept, reaching for the zipper of her coat and guiding it down. She took it off, shivering at the cold. She leaned down to her sneakers, slipping them off one by one along with her socks. Her trembling hands reached for the zipper and button of her jeans. She slid them slowly down her scratched legs and straightened up as she removed her shirt. “There,” she whispered.

“Bra and panties, too.” She wept silently to herself, turning her head and reaching behind her. She unclasped her bra and let it drop to the ground. She slid her panties down her legs and stood there, bare and exposed in the freezing air.

“Lay down.”

She didn’t question the man and laid down on the cold ground. Her body shook as she shivered. She closed her eyes as she heard the man unzip his pants and pull them down. She felt his hands covering her breasts and something poking her thigh. Her legs were forced to spread. She bit her lap at the pinching pain and tightly squinted her eyes shut. She turned her head and wept to herself as she heard the grunts from the man on top of her.

When he had finished, he yanked her up from her hair. She yelped, trying to free herself, but she was becoming weak. “You didn’t moan, bitch.” She closed her eyes. “Why?” She didn’t answer, and she didn’t plan on it. “Answer me, goddammit!” The man said after a few moments.

“I don’t know!” She shouted at him. He threw her on the ground, reaching into his pocket. She scooted away from him as he walked toward her, realizing what he was about to do. “No, please. I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me.”

He stopped in his tracks. “Why should I spare your feelings when you didn’t spare mine?” She swallowed hard, hearing him cock the gun. She braced herself. This was it; she was going to die. She heard the bang from the gun, and bit her lip as she felt the bullet pierce her skin above her belly button. She fell on her back, feeling the warm liquid run out of the bullet whole. She heard another bang and felt another bullet pierce her skin in her left breast. She closed her eyes to a white light.


He took a deep breath, knocking on the door to his next door neighbors’ house. Liz’s parents were home, but he didn’t know if she had made it back. If she hadn’t, it was his fault for leaving her alone for twenty seconds and then running. It was his fault.

“Ray?” Liz’s mother looked at the boy with brown hair and blue eyes. She had been crying. “What is it?”

“Is Liz home?” Liz’s mother began crying hysterically. He was confused, and then he got it. She never made it home. Her father rushed his wife back inside. He stepped onto the porch, closing the door behind him.

“Where is she?” Her father looked at Ray, worry and anger in his eyes.

It was Sunday morning, two days after her death. No one but Ray had a glimpse to her future. He looked from his hands to her father, tears sliding down his cheeks.

“We were playing hide and seek in the woods and I left her.”

“You left her in the woods alone? What the hell is wrong with you? Why the hell did you leave her alone?!”

Tears streamed down Ray’s face faster now. “There was a killer in the woods,” he said after he had caught his breath. She was taken and kidnapped. I heard her screaming, but I couldn’t tell where she was.”

Liz’s father ran inside to the telephone. He dialed 9-1-1, and told the operator that his daughter had been kidnapped in the woods on Friday night. He explained everything Ray had told him to the operator. He hung up the phone, reaching for his wife and calling his mother.


Ray ran through the woods toward the lake. He stopped at the edge, catching his breath and looking behind him. Something shiny caught his eye. He walked toward the thing and bent down, picking up the familiar phone. Liz’s initials were written on the back. He looked into the lake, searching for something to let him know if she was okay.

He walked down the edge, picking up her clothing as he found out. He smelled something foul in the air. It smelled like rotten meat. He looked into the lake, and hollered for help when he saw the body of Liz. He stared at her frozen body. She was too young to die. It was his fault. He felt sick to his stomach.

“I found her!” He hollered as he dropped to his knees. He looked away from the body, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out his cellphone and dialed the number to Liz’s house phone. Her father answered.

“I’m afraid to say she’s gone.”