Hide and Seek
It was just a game yet her feet couldn't seem to move her away fast enough
XX
He was watching her
(somewhere)
and she could feel his eyes boring into her neck. Unconsciously, she wiped the sweat off her brow, avoiding rustling the hedge. She could feel her heart pounding
(thundering booming lightning striking and spiking her brain)
vigorously in her chest, her breath coming in shallow gasps as she tried to see past the thousands of shadows in the park. The leaves were swelling in the trees; fall had come early this year, and the air had already turned frigid with frost. There was no question about it: it was fall.
She tried
(strained with all her might until her head hurt from the overwhelming emotions)
to find him in the leaves. He was there, somewhere, in the shadows of the fall…waiting. Watching. Wondering
(no, that's me im wondering)
where she was. It was like a two-way mirror, except you could never know if the person on the other side was the one who could see through.
It was time to move. There was no more waiting for the shadows to creep up on her from behind. The strain was too much of her poor knees. Shifting her weight so the leaves under her feet wouldn't crack, she got up from behind her hedge. The dizziness hit her with nauseating force, and she clutched her head, reeling. She would have to wait until the blood could rush through her body before moving. She had sat still for too long.
Just as she was about to put one foot forward, she heard a crack. It was too close to be from far away, but it was too far to be her own doing. She stopped all breathing, trying with all her might to silence her thudding heart. Everything was silent. It seemed the noise had stopped breathing, too.
In the time it took her to conclude that the noise meant nothing
(it meant the world in the end)
a thousand other things happened.
The man moved forward, close enough to touch her, close enough to smell the lily flower
(or was it lilac?)
scent of her perfume. He could almost taste her skin, almost feel the slick sweat coating every inch of her perfectly bronzed body…. But no. He would not think about that at all. This was just a game.
(just a game just a game just a game just a game)
But she heard his breath behind her. It took her only a fraction of a second to realize that he was there, and then she ran, faster than she ever had in her life. In that time it took to fly away, he had realized his mistake, and it took one more second to begin the chase.
(the one thing she had feared suddenly began to trickle into her like a hot live-wire. it was suddenly there sucking away her thoughts until she was left with nothing but pure unadorned fear. she needed no probing no pushing only the sound of his pounding feet behind her and the silent pleas of help that seemed to be jailed in her throat)
(just a game just a game just a game just a game)
She tried to remember which way was out. Which word was it that would end it all? It wasn't stop. No, no, no, it could not be stop. Stop only made the chase more heated, more fulfilling as the adrenaline rushed through the live wire in both of their bodies.
(there is no out of this game)
The rush was different for both of them. She was being chased, whether for fun or not, and it was all she could do to keep from screaming out loud. Her head boomed with what felt like tears, like screams, and she could taste the bile of fear rising in her throat.
He, on the other hand, was filled with the thrill of the chase. There was no harming him. She could scream and thrash all she wanted, but in the end it would be him with the smile on his face.
(but why? why?)
This was only a childish game of hide and seek. Just a game. Only that, and nothing else.
(so why was i so damn alive?)
The wind rushed by, pushing them into a new direction. The forest was crowded with people, thousands of wooden skeletons of ethnicities of oak and pine and maple. They all stared as the two rushed faster into the woods, faster and faster until they would finally come to a halt at the river.
("stop, stop, stop!" they called "go no further in that game!" But they did not listen.)
He ran with inhuman speed. She tripped and stumbled, trying in vain to ignore the hot blood pooling down her legs and stomach. She ached all over, never having run this fast in all her life. If he wanted her dead, surely he would have killed her by now?
(kill me, oh please dear God kill me now and don't make me suffer anymore)
Predator and prey. Just a game.
It stopped in that moment, when she didn't see the end coming and her feet left the forest ground. She fell
(a foot? a hundred feet? a thousand feet?)
into the numbing icy water, without hope and without a thought, and her head fell under into blindness. He was in the water after her in that same moment, searching for her battered body that still felt warm beneath the cold. And she felt him searching for her.
In that moment, the terror that was inside her exploded tenfold.
XX
TO BE CONTINUED
XX
Have you ever had that feeling when you're playing hide and seek with a friend, or tag in the backyard? When you're suddenly enveloped in fear, and you feel tears welling in your eyes and you're on the verge of screaming? I get it a lot when I'm being chased in the water. I yell stop, because I know it's just a game, and it does. But what if it wasn't just a game? That's what I'm trying to portray here.
I'll post the next chapter within the next couple of days. Let me know what you thought. I got the idea from reading the book 'The Shining' by Stephen King.