T: Welcome back... I see you've come for a second helping of pasta today… well then by all means help yourself to this yummy tale
Hide and Seek
Until my mid-teens, I hadn't lived in one house for over a year. But that's to be expected when your father is in the Air Force, being moved around from base to base all over the country, it wasn't until I went to live with my brother Spencer that I actually had someplace I could really call home… which I have now been living with him the longest… but the point is, I've called many places home thought… but the yellow house… that's not one of those houses… I lived there before I went to school so the memory of the pale yellow house is a bit fuzzy… but the memories I do remember all seem to take place upstairs, in the converted attic where Spencer and I had our rooms… The house was pretty big, and some of the upstairs was undeveloped… filled with closed off areas and dark closets, hidden around corners and dark beams… It was a house perfect… for hide and seek… which quickly became our favorite game
Over the months, Spencer and I, along with a few of our friends, would come up with strategies… such as arranging stuffed animals into human sized shapes and hiding them under a blanket around the attic to throw us off each other's trails so we could reach the furthest corner and call safe… But the last game we played… still… haunts me… After several rounds, I was labeled as 'It' for the next game, so I put my face in the safe corner and began to count to 100… Despite the lack of insulation and noise dampeners, you could never hear what the others were doing or which direction they went… I knew they had to be setting decoys before settling into their hiding spots… but I couldn't pin point quite where though… or how many… when I reached 100 I spun around and began my hunt
My brother was the easiest one to fine, even with being quite a bit older than me he still acted like he was my age… so I found him with ease… but his 'girlfriend' was a pro… She rarely used our tactics but she always seemed to make it back to base… I always started the hunt for her in Spencer's bedroom… which is where she spent most of her time here when we weren't playing our little game… I snooped around quietly in the room, seeing the bed was occupied… but I knew it couldn't be her… the form was too lumpy… obviously my brother's handy work… I looked in the dirty clothes hamper since it was big enough for her to fit in and Spencer never used it… but she wasn't there… I looked in the closet, poking around piles of clothes… but to no avail… I decided to try another room but when I turned to leave… I thought I saw something move in the bed… I went over and pushed on the lump in the middle… and as I thought it was stuffed animals… I looked through a couple of more rooms… there wasn't really anywhere to hide in my room… no closet and my mattress just sat on the floor… I went into one of the other rooms and began to search the closets and crawl spaces… I pride myself in how quiet I was… which was the only way to get close to where someone was hiding… Eventually I narrowed it down to two doors…
As I reached for one door I hear Spencer's girlfriend call out "Olly olly oxen free!"
"Dammit!" I yelled out
It wasn't uncommon for me to swear, especially at that age… and I rarely got in trouble for something like 'damn'… I began to crawl out when I heard some shuffling from behind one of the doors… now my brother was stuck in the safe corner and his girlfriend had called safe… I knew there were rodents in the house so I decided not to let one out of the closet
I finished crawling backwards out of the small space and stood up… turning around to find that my brother was frozen in place… he was shaking and staring up at his girlfriend… I had never seen his eyes so wide… when he looked at me he looked as if he was begging for help… I couldn't understand it… what was he so scared of? I started to walk over… and he whimpered… I stopped when I realized just how wrong the whole situation was… Spencer's girlfriend wasn't wearing her jeans… or her t-shit that she was wearing earlier… but instead… was covered in a pile of dirty clothes and stuffed animals… I almost laughed, if it hadn't been for my brother's terrified face… but as she turned towards me… I saw not my brother's girlfriend… but something… terrible… her mouth was oddly shaped… and the corners of her mouth dug in and it didn't close all the way… her smile… was almost toothless… and the ones that were left were yellowed and decayed… her eyes were almost sweet but watering profusely… she tried to blink but the area's around her eyes just twitched… she didn't have eye lids… she looked so thin… and was bruised and yellowed everywhere I could see…
She called again "Olly, olly oxen free"
But the voice… it wasn't like it was before… it was… so high pitched… and… almost… not human… she grabbed me and shoved me in the corner where my brother was sitting then got very close to my face.
"You're still 'It'!" she practically shouted in my face
I was so terrified… I grabbed onto my brother's arm… it was then that I realized that… I was crying… She waited… I didn't blink… I didn't want to blink… I certainly didn't want to turn my back on… whatever she was… She began to frown… her eyes still watering as she narrowed them as much as she could and got close to my face again
"You're still 'IT'!" she yelled again but this time her voice was lower… almost demonic… a small glob of flesh and blood flew out of her mouth as she kept yelling "You're It! YOU'RE IT!"
She started jumping up and down, still screaming… blood spraying from her decaying throat… I barely noticed Spencer's girlfriend behind her… she was just staring… trying to build up the courage to hit the… whatever this thing was in front of us… she slowly bent down and grabbed one of the loose beams from the floor and brought it over her head… she then took a breath and with all her might she brought it down… but at the last second the girl spun around and caught the beam before pushing Spencer's girlfriend back against the wall… almost growling at her
"She won't play right!" the girl yelled in her same low voice but it was almost in a whining tone "She won't play right"
The girl hardly had a voice now… and every time she exhaled blood flew out and trickled down her mouth… she took the beam from Spencer's girlfriend and tossed it across the room… she then began screaming over and over that I was still It… until I finally found the courage to stand up
"A.. alright" I said with a shaky voice "Alright… I'm It"
My voice barely came out but the girl turned around as if she heard me just fine… a big, almost deranged smile forming on her face… I slowly turned around and began counting as best I could… still very afraid… I heard a high pitched giggle before hearing boney feet run off… Spencer and his girlfriend slowly went to hide… together this time… I knew they were in one of the closets that was just barely in my peripheral vision… and when I finished counting they held it open slightly… I looked at my brother as he poked his head out slightly… giving him a nod before gulping hard… then I headed off on my usual hunt… again I saw the lump on the bed… I pressed on it and my hand sunk in… but this time I couldn't be sure if it was the girl or not… I slowly looked under the covers… then under the bed… and through the piles of clothes… but when I didn't find her there… I hesitantly headed to check the closet and opened it… I couldn't see her… and I was too afraid to dig in any further… but somehow… I managed to do it anyway… I pushed on the piles of clothes and shoes… pretending that I didn't graze my hand against a boney foot… I gulped again before pushing some of the hanging clothes to the side… grabbing onto a scarf before pushing of the clothes to other side before coming face to face with her unblinking eyes… Shaking I reached my hand out to touch her shoulder… and it sank into her flesh
I quickly pulled my hand away then stuttered out "F.. found you"
She smiled as wide as she could before swiftly moving past me… I shuttered as her shoulder brushed against mine… I turned and watched her… pulling down the scarf as she got to the door before running up behind her and wrapping it around her head… it sank perfectly into the indentions in her mouth… I tied it as hard as I could before screaming to my brother and his girlfriend for help… they came running in and tackled her to the ground as I ran and grabbed another piece of clothing and we began tying her up… piece by piece we tied her up more until she could barely move… we then dragged her to the smallest and darkest area of the attic and shoved her into the closet… slamming it shut and blocking it with several loose boards and anything extra we could find
Spencer's girlfriend never came over to our house after that… and Spencer and I couldn't sleep up in our rooms anymore… so for the last month or so that we stayed at the house we'd sit in the living room… listening to her banging against the floor and hoarse yelling against her gag… trying to get out of the closet
When we got into the moving truck at the end of the summer… Spencer and I took one last look at the house… then looked at each other… nodding to one another… agreeing in silence to not say a word about what we saw… not saying a word about the girl that was staring at us through the upstairs window… the scarf still tied tightly around her head
T: Well now.. wasn't that just terrifying… I believe that should hold you over until our final servings tomorrow… see you then… if you dare