Hide and Seek

The game began:

"…99, 100! Ready or not here I come!"

I saw her slip into the old mausoleum by the lake. All the sunshine and glory disappeared, evaporated more like, into the crypt's gaping mouth in less than a second. I knew what she had intended: no one would find her. Indeed, no one would find her there, that is, except for me. But then again, I was no one, so perhaps her plan was a success after all.

I followed and waited with bated breath underneath that weeping willow, the one whose branches lightly stroked the top of the mortuary as a nurse would for a whimpering babe. Yet the tree could not quell my boiling emotions. On the contrary, I must have been going mad, muttering to myself and rocking back and forth on my heels.

She did not reappear. Not for thirty minutes…not for two hours. I waited until I could no longer suppress my anxiety. I feared for her life, and under such conviction, I opened the stone doors of the tomb.

The smell was wretched. It was the smell of death. I could not imagine what had possessed my precious lady to enter this hellhole.

I took one step in, and I was completely enveloped in a solid, black mass. My eyes, unadjusted to the darkness, fluttered and dilated rapidly as the cold, musty, dampness of the hewn walls stoked my claustrophobia. The pounding in my eardrums was insatiable, the weakness of my legs blatant. I should have collapsed right then, but I moved forward. I was motivated by fear: She would be suffering this same fate.

I stepped carefully but swiftly - my feet prodding softly and my hands sliding across the coffin filled walls. I recoiled when I felt the cold, smooth surfaces of those encasings! What horrors lay within, I could not imagine.

One, two, three, four… I counted aloud to distract my throbbing head and ease my constricting breath. After what seemed like hours, I was immensely relieved when I detected a small sliver of pale, yellowy light streaming from the crack in the ceiling. It seemed to illuminate the entire lower level of the tomb. The crypt was so vast. And the light, that beautiful, wonderful light, was cast upon a single sarcophagus in the middle of a stone platform surrounded by water.

And I was so amazed. For in place of the corpse of some old matriarch, there was the sleeping form of a young woman. I crossed the lithe bridge to the coffin in heartbeat. My grogginess ebbed away until finally, my entire entity could concentrate on nothing more than the soft sighs of my lady.

She lay upon the stone as though it were a mattress of feathers and silk. How peaceful and tranquil she was! How I wished I were that tomb, to hold her there.

I almost laughed at the thought of her stupidity. All this for a kiss from his majesty… All this for my master… I fought back another burst of hilarity at the thought of my own stupidity – the delusional fantasies that had me roving these Godforsaken graves for a chance at her attention.

I drank her in with my poor, grayish eyes. She smiled unknowingly in her dreams. And were those dreams of the prince as well? I hovered over her, throwing a shadow across her white-clad form. Nevertheless, her black hair glimmered and her red lips sparkled as though bathed in sunlight.

"I love you," I whispered to her, but only the dead bodies were listening. I could never say this to her in person. Never…

I choked and spluttered until I was crumpled like a heap next to the stone. Embarrassment and shame inundated me. The desire within the pits of my beings was stirred and set aflame by that sight. I distanced myself from her as though the physical separation would cut off my heartstrings, and there I sat, quietly mulling over the events that had transpired.

What had destroyed my resolve and turned me into this sick monster? When had the transformation taken place? Was it when I realized that she waited for my master every night in hopes of attaining his love? Or was it further back? When I first laid eyes on her and she, indifferent of my status, smiled and asked for my name…

There was no denying it. I was bound for the inferno. So what was one more sin to my horde of evils? Let us presume that I would spend the rest eternity in flames, tortured, bound, skinned alive, and whatever else brutes like me are punished with. It could be no more painful or hotter than the fire consuming my soul right then. Yes, I was going to Hell. Why should I restrain myself any longer?

I was back at her side, stroking her long hair and ivory face. Her lips parted when my fingers glided over her throat. Before thinking, I pressed my mouth to hers. And she woke.

My ferocity and yearning had seized my conscience. Nothing but my emotions controlled me. So naturally I was bitter, angry, and disappointed all at once. I was robbed of a full taste.

"What are you doing?" she asked in terror when I pulled her to me again. She pounded futilely against my chest as I kissed her. I continued to embrace her, hoping that she, too, would become powerless to deny her own body the pleasure. But I was gravely mistaken.

She screamed when I let her breathe and wriggled when I caught her arms. I finally lost my determination and released my grip. In her haste, she tumbled into that moat around the sarcophagus.

I jumped into the frigid, murky waters after her. I was surprised by the depth. She coughed and flapped frantically as she tried to keep herself afloat. I grabbed her, trying to push her unto the stone surface of the other side. Yet she misunderstood my intentions.

In her attempt to kick me, her foot became entangled in a knot of chains on a small ledge of the moat. When I submerged to liberate her from the metal, she suspected other motives. She hit me mercilessly.

She floundered until at last, the ledge, still firmly welded to the chains, broke from the side and fell in the depths of the waters. Its weight pulled my lady down with it.

Do not be so gullible as to believe those stories about adrenaline. I tugged and gripped the chains with every ounce of strength I had. But with no hard surface to cling to and my heart faltering at the sight of my lady drowning, my power slacked.

I swam back and forth from the air to the water, thrusting oxygen into her shriveling lungs, trying to delay the inevitable. My own lungs were searing with pain.

And then, after a few minutes, no matter how much I breathed into her, she would not stir.

It took me several more hours to free her body from the heavy mass. I brought the sopping corpse to the willow tree. She was the most beautiful creature – dead or alive.

I kissed her forehead. We were both drenched, but I was the only one shivering. It was not due to the wind. No, it was not the wind, even though it smacked and lashed at me like a slave driver. I brought her limp body closer to me, wrapping my arms around her back. I thought I heard a sigh, and I bit my lip until it bled. If love was not a sin, murder most definitely was.

"I love you," I breathed.

So Hell it was…