"Where are you?" my prince called out to me. "I'm going to find you, you do know that right?"

Ha! Yea right! I'm the best when it comes to hide-and-go-seek. No one – no one – can beat me to it. I can't help it; hiding is my middle name.

"Hello?" he chuckled. "Come on, where are you?"

I clamped my hands up to my mouth, trying to stifle down the laughter than was rising in my throat.

I was standing behind a large oak tree, making use of the shadows its branches were casting to hide myself. We had been playing the game for 15 minutes, and I was starting to think that he wasn't even looking for me. I mean, seriously? It didn't matter if I was a master at hiding; I was behind a tree, for crying out loud.

He called out to me again, and I could hear his footsteps getting closer.

Only this time, he wasn't calling out to me in that playful tone that he had always used. No, instead, his voice was dripping with worry and panic. His footsteps weren't steady, too. They sounded like hooves.

And as his calling out continued to sound louder and harsher to the ear, and his footsteps sounding more frantic than ever, I had this squiggly feeling down the bottom of my stomach.

And I opened my eyes, looking to a sky so dark you would think I had eye patches on both of my eyes.

Oh, great. It was just a dream. Back to reality, people!

"Hello?" a voice absurdly familiar shouted. "Where are you?"

Usui? I was sure that that was his voice. Only, why was he there? He wouldn't have cared to even bother looking for me. I was just one of all the girls he had for company.

So that brings us back to the same question. Why was he there?

"Hey! Can you hear me?"

Oh god, it was Usui. He had come all the way here, to the dark side, to save me. But why?

I swear, if this keeps on happening to me, my brain would blow up even before I'm legal to drink.

"Usui!" I shouted, my voice cracking at the end of my calling. "I'm here!"

The sound of the hooves stopped for a moment, allowing me to hear the hooting of the owls, and Usui shouted in response to my croaking.

"Hey! Where are you? Can you hear me? Shout to me!" he said.

"I'm here!" I felt ridiculous, shouting to him like that. But, unless I wished to have my body never found, what choice did I have? "I'm right here!"

The hooves started pounding on the ground again, and I could feel the my hole vibrating. And because the hole was only about two yards in diameter, I was more scared of it collapsing down on me than actually having no one to find my body.

Yea, I was a paranoid, little brat.

"I can't see you!" he yelled. "Where exactly are you?"

Of course. Of course he couldn't see me. I was inside a hole, five storeys under ground.

"I'm inside a hole!" I screamed back at him, almost yelling my throat out.

"Eh? A hole? Where?"

I mentally slapped myself for being so stupid.

Exhaling audibly, I waved off my irritation and shouted, "See a big tree with branches sticking out like – " I really didn't think that Usui would appreciate my attempt in imagery, but did I really have another choice? " – your hair."

Yes. Usui's hair was like golden icicles sticking out of a head (exaggeration added.)

He was silent for a moment, before replying, "All trees look the same in here."

Oh god, what had I done to deserve this? Why couldn't he just see the hole on the ground?

Giving up trying to describe where the hole was, I tried to think of another way I could tell him where I was. I looked down to the ground, and an idea popped in my mind.

"Hey, Usui!" I shouted while bending down to grab a stone on the ground. "I'm going to throw something up. You ready?"

"Okay."

With the power I still had in me – I was on the verge of blacking out – I threw the stone up, hoping that Usui was facing the right side and that the stone would reach up to the surface of the ground, high enough for him to see.

I watched as the grey stone flew and turned in the air, almost blending in with the darkness of the sky. It, fortunately, flew up to 2 feet above the surface of the ground; I sighed with relief, as that meant I didn't need to throw it up again.

What I did need to do, however, was to pay attention where the stone was going to land.

But, of course, by the time I realized that, it was all too late.

BONK!

To say that the stone hurt a lot when it made impact with my forehead would be an understatement to the grossest proportions. I actually felt the stone – especially the sharp side of it – pierce in the thin flesh of my forehead, almost splitting my skull into two.

Okay, maybe not the last part. But it did pierce into my flesh.

I crumbled from the agonizing pain, worrying my bottom lip as warm blood rushed out and dripped down to my right brow.

And the last thing I remembered was hearing the faint sound of hooves, going away from me.

Either that or I was the one slipping away from consciousness.