Hide and Seek

"One one thousand…two one thousand…three one thousand…." The wind carries her words across the landscape; her small, wispy voice raises goose bumps along my arms. It's strange how this one little girl, innocent at first look, can have such a strong power over all of us. So strange I refused to believe it, at first, that this girl was something to be afraid of.

I was wrong.

My bare feet pound across the damp grass as I sprint away from the girl, and the night air chills me to the bone. My eyes are running, my breaths are too heavy and too short. I stop for a second to look around, because I have just realized that I have no idea where I'm going to go. I don't see the others, and I'm starting to panic. I know that my time is running out.

I'm on the other side of the vast yard, but I can hear her words loud and clear. Her voice, like the sound of bells, rings out across the yard, "Ready or not, here I come."

I stare up in awe at the huge, old house that my best friend, Bella, now lives in. The land goes on for miles. Big trees line the property on all sides, and litter the huge yard. The house is the size of a mansion. It's amazing.

"I can't believe you live here now!" I tell Bella.

She just shrugs. "My parents thought we needed more space."

Bella comes from a wealthy family. Her two older siblings are already in college, but they come back to visit often. They just adopted a little girl from Italy. She's ten years old, and her name is Jane. She's adorable with her dark brown hair and big hazel eyes. She never really talks much, but she's sweet.

I'm staying with Bella for two weeks. She moved about four hours away from us, way out in the country. I haven't seen her in a while, and I'm excited. But I'm not the only one who came. Stefani, Selena, Elle, and Esther came along, too.

By nightfall, we're all settled in and sitting on Bella's floor when her door creaks open, revealing a thin strip of darkness from the outside. We all quiet and turn our heads toward the door. Everyone is asleep. We sit there for a few agonizing seconds, staring at the door. It opens a few inches more, and Jane is there. Her face is illuminated by the soft glow of the fish lamp that sits on Bella's nightstand—the only source of light.

Bella sighs. "Jane, you gave us a heart attack! What are you doing up?"

Jane's big eyes flicker to each one of us, observing. "I can't sleep." She says softly.

Bella stands up and crosses over to her. "Well, how about I get you set up in the guest bedroom, so you can watch TV?"

Jane looks at the floor, considering the idea. After a minute, she looks up. "Do you want to play with me?" she asks, her voice quiet.

"Not now, Jane. Tomorrow. It's late." Jane looks at all of us once more, and something flickers in her eyes. I can't quite place the emotion.

"Okay." Jane whispers, and then turns out of the room and tip-toes down the hallway. Bella stands in the door way until we hear a door close quietly.

"That was queer." Selena says, tucking her straight, dark brown hair out of her blue eyes.

Bella nods. "She's kind of a queer kid."

"How come?" Stefani asks. She flattens her bangs against her forehead with her hand.

"I don't know. Sometimes she just seems sort of…."

"Creepy?" Esther finishes.

Bella nods. "Exactly."

We all decided to go to bed shortly after that. I slipped into sleep easily, but I had the strangest dream.

I was roaming the halls of Bella's house. I was alone, not like in reality when we were walking around the house earlier today. It was dark outside, and at the end of each hallway was a single lit candle. I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was following me, and then I heard footsteps behind me. I broke into a run, and my pursuer did, too. I couldn't find my way back to Bella's room. I couldn't find my way to safety. I crashed blindly through doors, stumbled along random hallways and staircases, until I came to the basement. I had no where left to run. I saw a dark shadow hunkering in the corner of the blackened basement, and I tried to scream but I couldn't. Then I felt two small hands on my back, and they shoved me. I stumbled, and my eyes opened just as I was about to tumble down the stairs.

I woke breathing heavy, and I looked at the clock. Four forty-six AM. I calmed myself down, saying it was only a dream, and it was comforting to be surrounded by my friends. I looked at Bella's door, that was still cracked open just a little. Just before I fell back into unconsciousness, I could have sworn I saw a pair of big hazel eyes peering at me in the darkness.

The next few days go by in a blur, and finally it's the weekend. We're going to be home alone, because Bella's parents are going out to dinner. Well, we have to baby-sit Jane, but she's quiet. She usually just goes off and does her own thing, anyway. I've only seen her out of her room a few times.

Bella's parents leave around 5, and Bella sends me upstairs to see if Jane wants to come down and play a game with us. As I'm making my way through the halls, I can't help but think of my dream, and I walk a little faster.

Jane's door opens slowly just as I'm about to knock on it. Creepy….I step tentatively into her room, but she's not in there. "Jane?" I call quietly. There's barely any sign that a person has been living here; the bed is made neatly, and there's no toys or stuffed animals on the floor like in other children's bedrooms that I've been in. The only thing that tells me that there really is a kid staying in this room is a poster hanging above Jane's bed of a pop singer named Joshie. Joshie is winking, and under the picture of him it says in swirly pink letters, "Joshie says to respect your parents and follow your dreams." I also notice she has a Randy Jackson pillow. Strange. I'm about to turn around to leave, but then I notice a flickering light through a crack in the door in the corner of the room. It must be her closet. I walk slowly over and pull the door open.

I was right, it's her closet. Jane is sitting cross legged on the hardwood floor in the tiny walk-in closet, bent over a piece of paper, scribbling furiously. She's writing on a small bin, and there are two candles flickering on each end of it. There's a pencil next to Jane's elbow, and a box of crayons spilled by her feet. She doesn't seem to notice I'm here.

"…Jane?" I ask hesitantly. "W-what are you doing?"

Her head snaps up and she drops the red crayon she's holding. "Nothing." She shoves the piece of paper underneath the wooden bin. "Can we play a game now?"

I nod. "I just came to get you. Go on downstairs, I just have to…go to the bathroom." Jane looks a little skeptical, but gets up and walks out of the room. I follow her to the door, but then when she's walking down the stairs I go back to her room and fish the piece of paper out from under the bin.

I gasp. On the paper, drawn in crayon, is a girl being hung from a tree.

A girl who looks just like Bella.

There's blood dripping off of her, and her eyes are big black X's. Underneath, written in red crayon, is something that must be in Italian. It reads, "Mi dispiace, cara sorella. Ma ora dormi con gli angeli." I take out my phone, since it has a translator. With shaking fingers, I type in the words. The translation shows up slowly, word by word. "I'm sorry, dear sister. But now you sleep with the angels." My phone clatters to the floor. I stare at the picture, reading the words over and over again. But then, I notice an arrow in the bottom right of the page, gesturing for me to turn the page over. More Italian writing. I almost don't want to, but I tap in the words: Sei successiva. I feel my eyes widen as I look over to the translation.

You're next.

All of a sudden, the power goes out. The candles blow out, and not even my cell phone will light up. I gasp. A scream gets caught in my throat and I quickly stand up and feel my way over to the door. Downstairs, I hear my friends screaming and laughing, searching for flashlights. I have to warn them. I finally reach the stairs when I feel something behind me.

"Where are you going?"

I whirl around. Jane is standing there. Her forest green dress is splattered with mud, as well as her bare feet. There's something else smeared across her face, all over her hands.

Blood.

"I—" Is all I manage to choke out.

"What's wrong?" She asks calmly, taking a step toward me. I can only barely see her face, lit by the moonlight shining through the window at the end of the hall. "Don't you want to play?"

"W-where's Bella?" I manage to whisper.

Jane pointed out the window. "She wasn't much fun." She says harmlessly with a shrug of her small shoulders. I follow the direction of where her finger is pointing with my eyes, and I have to stuff my fist in my mouth to muffle a sob. In front of me is exactly what I saw in the drawing. Bella, bloody and lifeless, hanging from the tree with a jump rope tied around her neck.

I turn around and scramble down the stairs as fast as I can. I run in the direction of my friend's voices, but I don't hear Jane behind me. I ram into an object, and hear a scream. "Oh, Dakota, you scared me!" Esther's familiar voice says, and then she laughs. I hug her tightly and start sobbing in the darkness. "What? What's wrong?" she asks.

"We have to get out of here!" I exclaim.

"Psh. Okay." Esther says, then starts to walk away.

"No, please, you have to believe me!" I sob. I hear a sound on the steps, farther up. Someone coming down. Plunk...plunk…she's coming down slowly. I tow Esther over to the next room, into the study, and force her to look out the window. We're shortly joined by Elle, Stefani, and Selena. Esther's expression of horror is reflected on each of my friend's faces as they stare at our best friend's dead body.

"How…?" Elle asks quietly, tears streaming down her pale face.

"It was Jane!" I whisper frantically. I want to explain the whole thing about the picture, because I know they don't believe me. But the plunk noise on the stairs is getting louder. She's almost down. "Come on, go out the window! I'll explain everything!"

We all manage to climb out the window just as I hear the sound on the stairs stop. We all sprint away, and when we're in the middle of the yard I stop to explain about the picture, and even about my dream. It seems like they don't believe me at first, but then they realize I'm not lying.

We all make a break for the woods. "Should we have grabbed a weapon or something?" Selena puffs out.

"Oh, you won't need them." A tiny voice says. We all screech to a stop. Jane is right in front of us. "We're just playing. Besides, that's part of the game." A sinister smile spreads across her angelic face. She just stares at us, waiting for us to respond.

"W-what game?" Stefani stammers out.

Jane tilts her head to the side, and her hazel eyes shine such a way in the moonlight that it appears they have a red tint. "Hide and Seek, of course. My favorite." Then, slowly, she raises her tiny, blood covered hands up to cover her eyes. "One one thousand…two one thousand…" It takes us all a moment to realize that we should run. I end up sticking next to Esther. We run into the shed in the far corner, and we hear Jane's voice counting. "Five one thousand…." I hide myself well, burying myself in junk. Esther and I don't say anything to each other; we just sit there and listen to the sound of each other's ragged breathing. She's on the other side of the shed. Suddenly, a sliver of moonlight creaks through the door, which is creaking open.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…." Jane sing-songs. I hear her tiny footsteps coming closer and things being tossed around as she looks. I sit there, crunched up in a ball, too scared to even breathe. My eyes are opened wide. "Oh, what's this?" I shut my eyes tight now, trying to control my sobbing. Esther.

"You're it." I hear, and then a blood curdling scream. A drop of blood lands next to my feet, and I hold back a sob. "Esther's it!" Jane calls loudly. I see her feet skip away, out of the shed. "Everyone can come out now!"

I decide I should get out. I look around for something I could keep with me as a weapon. I take an axe off of the wall and slowly walk outside. The axe is heavy, but I know it'll work. This needs to end.

I close my eyes until I'm out of the shed, so that I don't have to see Esther. I look around, and the only person I see is Jane skipping around the yard in the distance, her dress billowing in the wind. I guess everyone else stayed hidden.

I swing the axe over my shoulder and sprint to the other side of the yard, and then I crouch behind a tree. I close my eyes for a moment, taking this all in. My bare feet are freezing. When I open my eyes, I don't see Jane in the distance. My eyes search the foggy yard frantically. I jump when I feel a hand on my shoulder.

I turn around and see Elle there. Her right leg is bloody, and she has small cuts all over her. I'm guessing she was hiding in a tree. She takes a deep breath. "Remember those times in four-corner dodge ball? When we would go off to the side, to make people think we were out?"

I nod, remembering. Then, at the end, we would go out and tell everybody we weren't out. It was a good strategy.

"Do you think we should do that?" she whispers.

I close my eyes, feeling as if I'm going to cry again. "I don't think it works like that, Elle." I whisper back.

And then Elle's hand jerks from my shoulder and she's screaming. By the time I turn around she's on the ground, a bright red smile on her throat. Jane stands at her head. "You're right." Jane says in her sickly sweet voice. "How can you play dead, if I'm the only killer?" she smiles. "You never came when I called. None of you did. Oh, well. Since you're my favorite, Dakota, I'm going to let you have one more chance." She then covers her eyes and begins to count again.

I run as fast as I can, faster than I even have, but I slip on the damp grass multiple times. I look around and realize I have no idea where to go. I know that any second now, she will finish counting. I can only hope that my friends are well concealed.

I'm all the way across the yard, but I still hear her voice. "Ready or not, here I come."

I'm panicking now. I crouch behind a bush on the front walkway, and thankfully Jane walks the opposite way from where I am. As a last resort, I decide to run into the house.

I've never been so scared in all my life. The house is dark; the only light is coming from the windows. There's a big cabinet under the kitchen sink. I climb into there, pushing cleaning supplies away, and carefully close the doors and wait. And wait. And wait.

It's agony. I really think I am about to have a heart attack. But then, finally, I hear a door open. "I really hope no one is in here…" Jane's muted voice shatters the silence like glass. "Because that would be cheating." Her bare feet slap casually against the kitchen floor. I see her shadow pass by in the tiny crack of the cabinet door. "And nobody likes a cheater. Especially me."

I tuck my knees to my chin and close my eyes, and then I just wait. I wait for death. Because I know she knows I'm in here—she somehow knows everything. I send out one last prayer, and then I hear the cabinet door open. Moonlight streams into the tiny space, and all I see are Jane's muddy legs. Then, she crouches over. Suddenly, I am very aware of everything. The last smell I smell—Jane's scent, which consists of lilacs mixed with blood and dirt. The last thing I see—this angelic, beautiful girl, her face marred with the blood of my friends. And the last thing I hear—a tiny, harmless whisper.

"You're it."