hiding
10/30/22- AUGH OK this one was kind of a flop. i had to write a story, i forgot what the specifications were-- i think it was a halloween story, a horror, and MAN i couldve slayed or had some fun with it but I was in a writing rut and had to get something out. so i crunched this out right before the due date and boy it wasn't pretty, but it got me a grade so that's what matters i suppose lmao.
october 31st is the anniversary of the juggernaut event starting, so to try and get my motivation up i decided to write about the juggernaut event-- but minor characters, because i like writing minor characters!
but erm. well. it flopped. at least to me, maybe others will like it? anyways, here's Hiding--the protagonist is a young girl. this one is formatted weirdly to preserve the spaces and indentation of the original, because otherwise it looks like ass.
This week had been a very strange one for Sarah. Her father Amos was a humble trapper who lived off money made from trapping problem animals around town. Usually he was loud and talkative, and had many friends who would come visit and bring along Sarah’s own friends to visit. However now he was quiet and nervous, and she could sense it. She asked him why, but he couldn’t seem to find an adequate answer, until they were about to head out for their camping trip that night.
“I’m…sorry that I couldn’t tell you before, but it was…a surprise,” Amos began to explain. “We’re playing a very big game of hide and seek together, today. The entire town.”
“The entire town?” Sarah began to gasp, but Amos hushed her.
“Yes, the entire town,” Amos continued. “There is a very big man in town today. Very, very big. He’s it. We can’t let him find us, okay? You have to promise me you won’t let him find us.”
“Why? If he finds me, then I can be it and look for you instead!” Amos quickly shook his head.
“No, no no no… this is…a special hide and seek. You don’t become it when you’re tagged. You lose. But if you stay very quiet, and the mayor calls game over, we win, and…” He thought hard for a second. Sarah mimicked his strange expression. “...and we win a trip to Boston for some Superman ice cream with your uncle.”
Sarah’s eyes were practically filled with stars at the mention of Superman ice cream. Her favorite flavor had become so hard to come across in Salem.
“Really? All of us? The entire town?”
“Just us,” said Amos, chuckling a little. “So you’ll show them how good at hide and seek we are, right? We’ll win this together.”
“Yeah, yeah!” Sarah said in a whispering tone, shaking her dad’s hand up and down. “Come on, we have to go now! Someone’s gonna take our camp place before we do!”
The trek was awfully silent and tense. Amos was very, very invested in this game of hide and seek. It was the most invested Sarah had ever seen a grown up be in this type of game. The night was ruthlessly dark due to the town’s streetlights being shut off. The power had gone out. The town was going all out for this high-stakes game.
Amos moved very slowly, tiptoeing silently, then very fast to dive behind the walls of a house. Sarah followed close by, almost dragged behind by her father. She never caught a glimpse of the big man who was supposed to be looking for them. He must’ve gotten lost.
Soon they made it to the forest, and Amos swept Sarah up off her feet and into his arms. She held on tight, being sure to not make a single sound. She had found a good strategy was to press herself against him as hard as she could so that their silhouette only looked like one. If the big man found them, she’d jump out and surprise him. That way he’ll be so scared, she’ll have time to run and go hide before she could lose the Boston trip for her father.
They set up camp in an unusually secluded tangle of trees. Her dad pitched a small tent, and they sat down inside.
“It’s too dangerous to set up a fire right now,” said Amos. “The big man comes out at night, but if we move during the day, he’ll know where we’re hiding. I brought some sandwiches, though. Camp sandwiches.” He held out a small tinfoil wrapped parcel. Sarah took it cautiously, unwrapping it slowly.
“So…we can’t have marshmallows?” She frowned. “Or hot dogs?”
“Not tonight, honey. Once it’s safer, we can.” Her father smoothed out her hair. “I’m going to set up traps. The area around our camp is going to be dangerous, so you need to stick by me, okay? Just for now.”
“This isn’t a fun camping trip.”
Amos sighed.
“I know, Sarah. But we need to hang tight.”
Amos told her more about the seeker. It wasn’t just one big man—it was many people, packed tight into one big body. Magic was common in her town, and Sarah was a very brave girl, so it wasn’t too scary to imagine. Because of all the people forming the big man, her father had told her that he was very good at disguises. He could disguise himself as the mayor, as a small child, as a big wolf, or even as her father. He told her to never trust anyone unless they showed you their teeth, round and flat. The big man’s teeth were long and sharp even when disguised, the giveaway to his facade. She wore a bandana over her mouth to keep mosquitoes away, but began to lower it whenever he came into the tent. She didn’t want to scare him.
It was 1 o’clock in the morning when the big man found them.
The two had been camping out for two nights now, and Sarah was being a big help. She helped him find the foxes hiding away in the ground, and helped him bring a lot of sticks and stones for their future campfire. Finally, at night, Amos tucked her into bed, and hoisted his shotgun into his hands.
“I’m gonna be out checking the traps and making sure we’re okay. If you hear footsteps, be very, very quiet, okay? Daddy will make sure it doesn’t go near our camp.”
“I’ll try…” At this point, Sarah had begun to suspect the big creature wasn’t as friendly of a player as she thought. Her father had been making him out to be something she didn’t want to meet at all. She couldn’t help but feel a bit scared of him.
She heard footsteps at 11 PM. She assumed it was her father coming back, but upon hearing them come close to the ring of traps and run away, she concluded this was in fact the big man. Her eyes jolted open and she pulled the covers of her sleeping bag up to her chin. The man was on the prowl. His many eyes scanned the forest for signs of stray hiders. Sarah, the town’s very best hider, stayed motionless inside the tent. He moved on past the tent and deeper into the woods.
She heard sniffing as he passed, like a great big dog.
The commotion started soon after. Large snarling and roaring, the sound of rustling and the cracks of old trees being slammed into. The canopy shook and rustled leaves from afar, and Sarah was wide awake. She knew to stay in place. Her father would come back eventually. Wolves lived near the town, surely he must’ve found one for lunch. What would a wolf taste like? She tried to imagine, and tried to imagine away the sounds of wolf paws rapidly approaching the camp. She hid very well in her sleeping bag, as no silver jaws snapped shut, and no shotgun put a stop to it.
A great big wolf padded to her tent. The zipper spent a very long time being unzipped, and soon It stuck its head through the entrance. They locked eyes.
It slowly shifted into the form of a human, with the sickening sound of bones cracking into place accompanying it. Sarah could only watch and recognize it as the big man disguising as her father.
“You found me,” she said quietly.
“I did,” said the false voice of her father. “But the game isn’t over yet. Would you like to be a seeker?”
The next morning, a group of survivors came to find a good hiding place. This game of hide and seek had gone on for too long. They were determined to find the seeker and trap him once and for all, ending his oppressive reign over the town. However, the big man was no longer ‘it’. It was now Sarah, her bandana securely tied around her mouth, and great sharp teeth hidden underneath it. She loved being ‘it’. Being ‘it’ let her take the form of anyone she wanted. So as she spotted the new players, she took the form of a great big wolf.
She knew if she jumped out, they would run away, and the game would be spoiled. So she waited, and waited, and waited.