Hide and Seek
Hide and Seek
Hide And Seek
By: Nevaeh Marshall
A TALL TALE
Quite a long time ago, in a dark land full of strange, terrifying creatures and bloodcurdling screams, there lived a tall white thing, named ‘The Seeker’. The Seeker fed off of the souls of terrified children in the land of humans once a century, and every time that it devoured another child, its smile grew a little bit wider, and its hunger for the young grew a bit stronger.
It had four stages for trapping and killing children.
Number one was The Start. The Seeker would begin to make the children question if something was wrong, and fear started to take root.
Number two was The Calling. The Seeker would ask the child to begin playing its game with them.
Number three was The Hunt. The Seeker would find the child.
Number four was The Kill. The Seeker would finish the job.
THE START
Sarah sat on her couch, the snow slowly beginning to coat the ground outside of her thin glass windows. It was your average Christmas Eve, or at least it seemed so. Sarah felt safe.
She should’ve been safe.
The doors were locked. The windows were shut. No one should have been able to get in. In spite of that, they somehow did.
After finishing another long and gruesome episode of Forensic Files at eight’o’clock, Sarah decided to retire to bed. As she walked upstairs, she felt that something was not right. For some reason, she just couldn’t place what. So she carried on with her regular nightly routine. She showered, brushed her teeth, and got her pyjamas on. She walked over to her bedroom, the soft carpet underneath her feet.
As she began to turn the handle of her bedroom door, she suddenly realized,
IT WAS LOCKED.
Sarah didn’t understand. She pulled and tugged. Why is my door locked?! I didn’t lock it earlier! Sarah walked downstairs, confused, and went to grab a paperclip from the cup they kept in her parent’s bedroom to open her door. When she tried to open the office door to get the paperclip, it too was locked.
Suddenly her phone rang.
“Ugh! This is not a good time to chat!” Sarah groaned in frustration.
Nonetheless, she answered her phone.
“Hello?”
“Get out. I know this is weird, but you have to get out.”
“Okay, first of all, there is nothing weird going on here. I’m just going to call the police and everything will be fine. Letter number B, who the hecks are you anyway?!”
“Doesn’t matter. Get out of the house. Get out. Get out. You have to or else-”
The phone clicked off abruptly as if the caller had hung up, or something worse…
THE CALLING
Sarah laughed out of frustration, “This is freaking ridiculous. I’m calling 911.”
She dialled the number on her phone and waited for the familiar, ‘911, what’s your emergency?’ but no one picked up.
“What?! How can no one be picking up?!” She exclaimed, frustrated.
Panicking, she placed her phone on the coffee table and walked towards her front door, wondering why her parents decided to leave their 12-year-old daughter in their brand-new home on Christmas Eve because they wanted a date night. Sarah muttered to herself, cursing the two stupid 35-year-olds’.
I’m getting the heck out of here. I have got to get out. I have GOT to get out, she thought to herself, growing more frustrated and scared by the second.
Sarah tugged at the front door handle but it was also locked. As she turned around, she heard the whispers of a sinister chilling voice, creeping down from upstairs, gradually growing louder, and louder, until she heard what the voice was saying.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” the voice cackled, trailing off at the end.
“You can’t hide forever.”
The voice oozed terrifying intentions and fear sunk its claws into Sarah’s soul.
She froze, before realizing the need to get out was even more urgent than before. Looking around, she searched for another escape route and saw the window next to the end table. She rushed towards it, escape being the only thing on her mind.
Yanking at the window lock, Sarah failed to open it. She heard the sound of achingly slow, careful footsteps creeping down the stairs. Beginning to hyperventilate, Sarah knew she needed another way to get out of the house.
She grabbed the heaviest thing she could find, which happened to be the ugly vase that her great-aunt gifted her parents with when they moved here. Lifting the 10-pound vase above her head, she hurled it through the window just as the footsteps stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
Glass shards scattered around her, and she turned slowly, staring in terror at the beast.
It was bone white, and so tall that it had to hunch over so that its small and circular head didn’t hit the ceiling. It’s long spindly limbs hung limply from its shoulders, ready to reach out and grab a small child at any moment. Its face was blank of features except for a massive mouth stretched into a wide, sharp-toothed smile and two small dark holes etched into its upper face.
It grinned wickedly at her and Sarah began to feel her knees weaken before she stuttered out a question,
“W-What are y-you?”
The thing smiled wider and repeated its mantra without moving its mouth, “Come out, come out wherever you are,”
“You can’t hide forever.”
Sarah took a step back, and tripped over the windowsill, cutting herself on shards of broken glass. The creature suddenly turned blood red and it’s smiled morphed into a grotesque frown.
THE HUNT
Sarah sat up quickly, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She began to run so fast that she didn’t even notice the blood dripping down her body and the shards of glass piercing things. She sprinted through the snowy neighbourhood barefoot, desperate to find a place to hide from the monster that she had christened, ‘The Seeker’ because it seemed to be playing a twisted game of ‘Hide and Seek’ with her being the hider.
Soon she came to a forest that lay on the edge of her town, conveniently right next to her neighbourhood. She turned around to see The Seeker advancing at a speedy pace towards her, with its white claws long and sharp.
Sarah had to make a quick decision. She couldn’t go back into town, because The Seeker was right behind her, and nobody knew her. She couldn’t try to call for help either, because The Seeker would get to her soon. So, she decided that running into the forest was her best bet. Maybe she could lose it there.
Sarah bolted into the dark forest, with the only the thought that her Christmas Eve could’ve gone a lot better lingering in her head. Her bare feet pounded against the snow and dirt as she attempted to get as far away from The Seeker as she could.
She tripped over a root, tearing the skin on her foot. Tears streamed down her now dirty cheeks as she stumbled and limped through the forest of snow-covered dead trees. Blood tainted the pure white snow, turning it to a dark crimson that matched the now colour of the seeker.
As the seeker got closer she could faintly hear its never-ending mantra.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,”
“You can’t hide forever.”
Suddenly, it stopped, replacing its mantra with one simple word, a name.
“Sarah,” its strangely entrancing voice floated towards her, causing her to walk faster, wincing every time she stepped on her foot.
With her last few bits of strength, she forged past several more trees before collapsing in a bloodied heap in front of a peculiarly twisted tree. She sobbed violently and crumbled into the ground, tears and blood staining her face and clothes.
The Seeker crept forward, arms tensed and outstretched towards her.
This is the end child.
When it finally reached her, it picked her up, debating on how to rip her apart and devour her. She didn't have the energy to cry, scream or even fight back. It gripped two of her legs and one of her arms and began to pull.
The Seeker smiled when it heard the cracking of bones, the muscles breaking apart, and Sarah’s bloodcurdling scream as the crimson liquid splattered everywhere. It dropped her on the ground quickly and threw away the limbs that it had ripped away from her body. Taking one long sharp finger, it cut open her stomach with the kind of gruesome interest that only a serial killer could have.
The Seeker chuckled as her insides spilled out, coating the rest of her body in a sickly red liquid made of blood and intestines. It smiled wider when it saw this and turned a shade darker. It picked up one of her kidneys and dangled it above its mouth with two fingers. The Seeker studied it for a moment, before opening its jaws as wide as it could and dropping it into its mouth.
The kidney travelled down its throat, bulging as The Seeker made several disgusting gulping noises. When it finally settled in its stomach, it began to feast on the rest of Sarah’s internal organs with sick pleasure.
When it finally landed on the last organ, the small intestine, The Seeker placed one end in its mouth and began to chew, as one might eat spaghetti or a gummy worm. It chewed and chewed until there was one last small piece left. It flipped into its mouth like a quarter and took a look at Sarah, supposing it should dispose of her hollowed out corpse.
Quickly sticking a finger into Sarah’s stomach, it scooped up some blood and made an ‘X’ marking on the tree. The Seeker watched as the spot bubbled and fizzed until disappearing from the tree entirely. The tree slowly morphed until it became black and more twisted than before.
After that, The Seeker picked up Sarah, balancing her carefully in its arms. It left, to the other world, the one where strange, terrifying creatures and bloodcurdling screams resided.
In a hundred years time, The Seeker will return to feast upon another child.
THE END
By: Nevaeh Marshall
A TALL TALE
Quite a long time ago, in a dark land full of strange, terrifying creatures and bloodcurdling screams, there lived a tall white thing, named ‘The Seeker’. The Seeker fed off of the souls of terrified children in the land of humans once a century, and every time that it devoured another child, its smile grew a little bit wider, and its hunger for the young grew a bit stronger.
It had four stages for trapping and killing children.
Number one was The Start. The Seeker would begin to make the children question if something was wrong, and fear started to take root.
Number two was The Calling. The Seeker would ask the child to begin playing its game with them.
Number three was The Hunt. The Seeker would find the child.
Number four was The Kill. The Seeker would finish the job.
THE START
Sarah sat on her couch, the snow slowly beginning to coat the ground outside of her thin glass windows. It was your average Christmas Eve, or at least it seemed so. Sarah felt safe.
She should’ve been safe.
The doors were locked. The windows were shut. No one should have been able to get in. In spite of that, they somehow did.
After finishing another long and gruesome episode of Forensic Files at eight’o’clock, Sarah decided to retire to bed. As she walked upstairs, she felt that something was not right. For some reason, she just couldn’t place what. So she carried on with her regular nightly routine. She showered, brushed her teeth, and got her pyjamas on. She walked over to her bedroom, the soft carpet underneath her feet.
As she began to turn the handle of her bedroom door, she suddenly realized,
IT WAS LOCKED.
Sarah didn’t understand. She pulled and tugged. Why is my door locked?! I didn’t lock it earlier! Sarah walked downstairs, confused, and went to grab a paperclip from the cup they kept in her parent’s bedroom to open her door. When she tried to open the office door to get the paperclip, it too was locked.
Suddenly her phone rang.
“Ugh! This is not a good time to chat!” Sarah groaned in frustration.
Nonetheless, she answered her phone.
“Hello?”
“Get out. I know this is weird, but you have to get out.”
“Okay, first of all, there is nothing weird going on here. I’m just going to call the police and everything will be fine. Letter number B, who the hecks are you anyway?!”
“Doesn’t matter. Get out of the house. Get out. Get out. You have to or else-”
The phone clicked off abruptly as if the caller had hung up, or something worse…
THE CALLING
Sarah laughed out of frustration, “This is freaking ridiculous. I’m calling 911.”
She dialled the number on her phone and waited for the familiar, ‘911, what’s your emergency?’ but no one picked up.
“What?! How can no one be picking up?!” She exclaimed, frustrated.
Panicking, she placed her phone on the coffee table and walked towards her front door, wondering why her parents decided to leave their 12-year-old daughter in their brand-new home on Christmas Eve because they wanted a date night. Sarah muttered to herself, cursing the two stupid 35-year-olds’.
I’m getting the heck out of here. I have got to get out. I have GOT to get out, she thought to herself, growing more frustrated and scared by the second.
Sarah tugged at the front door handle but it was also locked. As she turned around, she heard the whispers of a sinister chilling voice, creeping down from upstairs, gradually growing louder, and louder, until she heard what the voice was saying.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” the voice cackled, trailing off at the end.
“You can’t hide forever.”
The voice oozed terrifying intentions and fear sunk its claws into Sarah’s soul.
She froze, before realizing the need to get out was even more urgent than before. Looking around, she searched for another escape route and saw the window next to the end table. She rushed towards it, escape being the only thing on her mind.
Yanking at the window lock, Sarah failed to open it. She heard the sound of achingly slow, careful footsteps creeping down the stairs. Beginning to hyperventilate, Sarah knew she needed another way to get out of the house.
She grabbed the heaviest thing she could find, which happened to be the ugly vase that her great-aunt gifted her parents with when they moved here. Lifting the 10-pound vase above her head, she hurled it through the window just as the footsteps stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
Glass shards scattered around her, and she turned slowly, staring in terror at the beast.
It was bone white, and so tall that it had to hunch over so that its small and circular head didn’t hit the ceiling. It’s long spindly limbs hung limply from its shoulders, ready to reach out and grab a small child at any moment. Its face was blank of features except for a massive mouth stretched into a wide, sharp-toothed smile and two small dark holes etched into its upper face.
It grinned wickedly at her and Sarah began to feel her knees weaken before she stuttered out a question,
“W-What are y-you?”
The thing smiled wider and repeated its mantra without moving its mouth, “Come out, come out wherever you are,”
“You can’t hide forever.”
Sarah took a step back, and tripped over the windowsill, cutting herself on shards of broken glass. The creature suddenly turned blood red and it’s smiled morphed into a grotesque frown.
THE HUNT
Sarah sat up quickly, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She began to run so fast that she didn’t even notice the blood dripping down her body and the shards of glass piercing things. She sprinted through the snowy neighbourhood barefoot, desperate to find a place to hide from the monster that she had christened, ‘The Seeker’ because it seemed to be playing a twisted game of ‘Hide and Seek’ with her being the hider.
Soon she came to a forest that lay on the edge of her town, conveniently right next to her neighbourhood. She turned around to see The Seeker advancing at a speedy pace towards her, with its white claws long and sharp.
Sarah had to make a quick decision. She couldn’t go back into town, because The Seeker was right behind her, and nobody knew her. She couldn’t try to call for help either, because The Seeker would get to her soon. So, she decided that running into the forest was her best bet. Maybe she could lose it there.
Sarah bolted into the dark forest, with the only the thought that her Christmas Eve could’ve gone a lot better lingering in her head. Her bare feet pounded against the snow and dirt as she attempted to get as far away from The Seeker as she could.
She tripped over a root, tearing the skin on her foot. Tears streamed down her now dirty cheeks as she stumbled and limped through the forest of snow-covered dead trees. Blood tainted the pure white snow, turning it to a dark crimson that matched the now colour of the seeker.
As the seeker got closer she could faintly hear its never-ending mantra.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,”
“You can’t hide forever.”
Suddenly, it stopped, replacing its mantra with one simple word, a name.
“Sarah,” its strangely entrancing voice floated towards her, causing her to walk faster, wincing every time she stepped on her foot.
With her last few bits of strength, she forged past several more trees before collapsing in a bloodied heap in front of a peculiarly twisted tree. She sobbed violently and crumbled into the ground, tears and blood staining her face and clothes.
The Seeker crept forward, arms tensed and outstretched towards her.
This is the end child.
When it finally reached her, it picked her up, debating on how to rip her apart and devour her. She didn't have the energy to cry, scream or even fight back. It gripped two of her legs and one of her arms and began to pull.
The Seeker smiled when it heard the cracking of bones, the muscles breaking apart, and Sarah’s bloodcurdling scream as the crimson liquid splattered everywhere. It dropped her on the ground quickly and threw away the limbs that it had ripped away from her body. Taking one long sharp finger, it cut open her stomach with the kind of gruesome interest that only a serial killer could have.
The Seeker chuckled as her insides spilled out, coating the rest of her body in a sickly red liquid made of blood and intestines. It smiled wider when it saw this and turned a shade darker. It picked up one of her kidneys and dangled it above its mouth with two fingers. The Seeker studied it for a moment, before opening its jaws as wide as it could and dropping it into its mouth.
The kidney travelled down its throat, bulging as The Seeker made several disgusting gulping noises. When it finally settled in its stomach, it began to feast on the rest of Sarah’s internal organs with sick pleasure.
When it finally landed on the last organ, the small intestine, The Seeker placed one end in its mouth and began to chew, as one might eat spaghetti or a gummy worm. It chewed and chewed until there was one last small piece left. It flipped into its mouth like a quarter and took a look at Sarah, supposing it should dispose of her hollowed out corpse.
Quickly sticking a finger into Sarah’s stomach, it scooped up some blood and made an ‘X’ marking on the tree. The Seeker watched as the spot bubbled and fizzed until disappearing from the tree entirely. The tree slowly morphed until it became black and more twisted than before.
After that, The Seeker picked up Sarah, balancing her carefully in its arms. It left, to the other world, the one where strange, terrifying creatures and bloodcurdling screams resided.
In a hundred years time, The Seeker will return to feast upon another child.
THE END