I can't think of many people who don't enjoy a good game of hide and seek once in a while. Adults, children, older people – doesn't matter. Hide and seek is a game that anyone can win with a little creativity, and maybe a little stealth. Me? Well, I was always one to hide in the open, or at least more visibly seen than other people's hiding spots. It usually went pretty well for me, actually. Everyone else was too busy thinking outside the box, when all they really had to do was look around.
I liked to keep it simple, though. I'd hide next to the couch, behind a door, around a corner, or maybe I'd just sit in a chair, put on a hoodie, and try to look natural. Sometimes it would take people 20 minutes to find me, but it really depended on who was searching. There were a select few people who were just too damned crafty for me. I usually had to be extra creative with my hiding in those cases.
I'm gonna be honest, here. Neither me, nor Jacky, were too keen on surrendering ourselves. I imagine not a whole lot of people would be, in this probably life-compromising situation. Reasoning with myself, I could understand that these two boys probably weren't exactly aware of the place Jacky and I were hiding. They just knew that we were in the immediate vicinity of where they were standing. It wouldn't be too hard to pull off a game of hide-and-seek for a while, but once we were found, we were done for. How much was I willing to bet on my ability to play a child's game? Apparently Jacky was willing to bet a lot on it.
She gently squeezed my shoulder, motioning for me to stay put, and swiftly climbed out from behind the bushes, leaving her bag with me. I didn't even have the chance to argue against her terrible idea – she'd already up and left! With my mouth hanging wide open, I peered through the foliage at my friend's current encounter with our two resident hell-spawns. While Jacky didn't appear too worried about herself, I was having a goddamn heart attack.
The two boys looked her up and down, their expressions drenched in disbelief. After a moment of this, the taller of the two asked, "Where's the other one, then?"
The ever-confident Jacky just shrugged, "Nobody else was crazy enough to come here with me. Why would anyone else be here?" She rolled her shoulders, trying to appear nonchalant, but I knew exactly what was going on here. My friend was just buying me time, and to hell if I wasn't going to use every second of it.
Rising back to my feet, I grabbed the both of our bags, slowly creeping into another area of brush around the clearing. Gluing my eyes to my feet, I tried my very best to not even step on a leaf; for fear that I make too much ruckus.
A short, rather ugly laugh came from the same boy, "Yeah – right. We saw the other girl. What person would be stupid enough to come here alone?" His probably less-impressive friend sidestepped Jacky, moving to check our previous hiding spot.
I made a point to maneuver away from him as quickly and silently as possible. After another minute of listening to my older friend stall for me, I had done a 180 around the clearing, landing myself opposite my initial point. If everything went as I planned it, we could get away with our skins – at least for now. Smacking my tongue around the sand-paper-like cavern of my mouth, I tried to bring the moisture back to my throat, my hand searching around in an arbitrary fashion for a thicker-sized stick. I had one shot at this, or two of us were cooked geese.
"Look, dude. If there was another girl here, she wasn't with me. I don't work well with others," Jacky defended herself, sticking her hands up in mock-surrender. Her lies were getting thinner, not like the lost boys believed her in the first place.
My knuckles brushed against a small branch, and I took ahold of it as hastily as possible. Craning my neck around the trunk of a tree, I observed the situation more fully. The taller one had pushed my friend a bit further back than she was before, but Jacky tried her best to keep him from getting a good view of my new position. Unfortunately for me, the second boy was nowhere in sight. Shrugging to myself, I figured that so long as one of them was down, the other wouldn't be too much trouble to rid of.
Seizing the chance, I stalked out of my hiding spot with my best try at being noiseless. The branch tightly in hand, I raised it, taking a great swing at the back of the lost boy's head. He collapsed in a heap, knocked out cold – though hopefully not dead. I don't know how well I'd be able to live with myself if I'd killed him. The immense relief I felt was thankfully not enough to cover up the sound of a bowstring tightening. I'd nearly forgotten the second boy in my current endeavor, but he made himself known pretty quickly. Had he known where I was the whole time?
Jacky shoved me over with not a second to spare as an arrow flew straight over my head, burying itself in a tree trunk. Taking a rock in hand, my friend poised to throw it, but our opponent had already fled the area, to my horror. We wasted no time in getting the hell out of there, sprinting blindly through the woods.
"We're pretty cut short on time – what with that boy running back to tell everyone we got away," I wheezed, already out of breath in our running.
Jacky nodded half-heartedly, waiting a few moments before responding. "I hate to bring it up, but the next time we see him – it's not just gonna be two lost boys." Neither of us spoke after that. We were too focused on that horrible conclusion, and what it would ultimately mean for us.
"Keep the noise low, she doesn't want to blow it. Shaking head to toe while your left hand does the 'show me around'. Quickens your heartbeat, it beats me into the ground." – Brand New: Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades
AN: Sorry I didn't manage to update Sunday. Actually, don't expect an update everyday – you might have a bad time… I didn't quite like this chapter, but it's more a bridge into the bigger things I have planned. Yeah – I actually made a plan – be afraid. If I get all the cool shit out of the way in these first couple of chapters, it'll be too quickly paced, and then I'll get bored and stop writing it. Also, how'd you guys like 'Nasty Habits'? Did you watch it yet? Damn, Peter - you fucking scary. Hope you at least somewhat liked this chapter – please try to leave a review. I loved getting them and read every one! Thanks to Lady Cocoa, Msballetdiva, and theshadowwithinyoursoul for reviewing! See you tomorrow, kidders!