Tales of the Scarecrow

Hide and Seek

[READ AT YOUR OWN RISK]

"One. . . Two. . . Three. . ." Its tiny voice echoed in the distance. It's been an hour since it started chasing me, it's past midnight now. Sweat on my body fell down like rain, and my heart was beating loudly.

It was a mistake, I shouldn't have gone with my friends. We started this mess, and now it's haunting us back. All of my friends, they're all dead, now all that's left is me. We shouldn't have started the game, we were stupid enough to have forgotten about the consequences.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are. . ." Its tiny voice giggled, planting fear in me.

I hid under a dark corner under the stairs in my house. The lights turned off when it started humming. I tried my best to hide, I held my breath as it walked around my living room.

It sounded like a child. But I knew it was not. It was an apparition, it was a demon. I couldn't see its features clearly, my eyes were not used to the dark, but the silhouette my eyes tried to make out is a small child, but it wasn't.

It was scanning the whole room, I couldn't move an inch. But I was shaking, I was scared. It slowly walked around, and I knew it would find me if I stayed in my spot forever. I tried my best to stop my shivering and calm my heart, but I couldn't. So I closed my eyes for a while and breathed.

After I opened my eyes, I found the surroundings have become strangely quiet. The little demon stopped humming, it disappeared from my sight. I knew something was wrong, so I slowly put my head out and looked around. As I turned my head to my right, I saw it standing.

"There you are. . ."

I screamed. It raised its right hand and swinged its claws at me. A little stroke of luck made me avoid the damage with only a scratch on my cheeks. I stumbled as I ran. My face was now bleeding. I ran to the backdoor, trying to escape from the little bastard that was chasing me. Its chuckling voice faded as I slowly got farther away.

I ran to the woods nearby, as I turned my head I noticed that it was not following me, but I could still hear its laugh at a distance.

My feet moved like lightning, I didn't stop running, I kept on stumbling down. The area was so dark, the stars and the moon only had a faint shine. I want to avoid this danger. I wanted to escape this nightmare. So I kept on running.

Something felt strange. It wasn't going after me, and now, I was very far away from where it was. So I slowed my pace. I found a small creek so I drank in it for a while.

Then I heard its faint voice again. I couldn't find exactly where it was. How did it manage to find me, how did it manage to follow me? It was like its voice was all around the surroundings. I ducked and held my self underneath a tree covered by bushes. It was laughing, my fears returned. I looked around as I tried to find where it stood.

It was counting again. My tears started falling, I'm not gonna survive anymore, Im dead.

"One. . .  Two. . . Three. . ." It hummed softly, I couldn't help but cry, I knew my life was ending, I knew it would find me.

"Four. . . Five. . . Six. . ." It continued counting. I scanned my eyes around, and still had not seen it. I couldn't understand my fear anymore. My fate was inevitable.

"Seven. . . Eight. . . Nine. . ." Its voice sang in a distance. It slowly counted the numbers. I held my breath harder. It was coming for me. I couldn't run away anymore. My legs were already weak and my body was very tired.

Then I noticed, the surroundings suddenly became very quiet. I could even hear my own heart beating. It stayed silent for what seemed to be an eternity (it was only about thirty seconds). It wasn't there anymore, its presence instantly disappeared. I turned my head around and found nothing but darkness. I was now shaking harder. Something wasn't right. As my head slowly turned around, I felt a cold blow of breath on my nape.

"Ten. . ."

Then I felt cold little hands wrapping around my face.

"Found you."