Hide and Seek 3: The Last Game

Chapter 7: A Present for Mickiyah

Mother stood at my bedroom door, facing me. She looked so beautiful dressed in all white. Her hair was done and her face shone like the moon itself.

"Mom!" I yelled.

My voice felt out of reach and I couldn't move. My body was paralyzed and I realized, I was still asleep or in some weird dream. And suddenly, darkness swooped over me. A loud powerful whoosh sound passed by my ear. Again and again. I couldn't see anything yet I felt the air flying by. I tried to wake up from the nightmare.

"Wake up."

The soft whisper lingering around me said.

"Tori. Wake up."

I tried to reply but I couldn't and only mouthed the words. That's when it got louder and louder. Closer and closer until the voice was screaming at me.

"WAKE UP!"

It boomed through my ears.

"TORI..."

Everything was suddenly quiet.

"You're dead," someone whispered in my ear.

When I woke up, it was morning and I heard someone at my door. "Tori! Can I come in?"

It was Mickiyah's voice.

I was drenched in sweat, panicking and looking around. I felt my face, checked myself, and did my best to make myself realize that I was safe and it was just a dream.

"Come in," I choked on my words.

"Hey," Mickiyah said from the door. She closed it behind her and ran up to me, pulling me in for a hug. "I'm here if you need me. You never have to feel alone going through this."

I hugged her real tight, doing my best not to cry. I couldn't help it. To be honest anytime I woke up, for a second I still believed mother was  alive but then I realized she's no longer walking on Earth. She's buried underneath it.

"You will get through this." She patted me on the back. "Woah, you're sweaty."

I laughed. "Sorry, terrible dream."

She nodded. "I understand. Losing a p-"

"Oh I mean, it was like a weird creepy dream," I told her. "Like a sleep paralysis thing."

"Yeah!?" She said. "I get those all of the time."

She seemed too excited for someone who wakes up paralyzed in a dream.

"Uh, don't they scare you?" I asked her.

"Sometimes but not now," she replied. "Most of the times I don't really see as much as I want to."

"Heh," I scratched my hair. "Maybe that's a good thing. I mean...I saw mom then things got dark and all of a sudden a voice told me I was dead."

Mickiyah looked at me with wide eyes. "Okay, that's creepy."

"You're telling me!"

We both talked for a while before I asked her if she wanted to help me take some clothes over to a donation box. I knew as much as I wanted to hold onto my mom's things, I wouldn't be able to store it in a dorm and my grandmother definitely wasn't going to keep it at her fancy house. She was too top notch for worn out things.

"Sure! Anything you don't want, we can give it to my dad's church," she said.

"Oh perfect!" I said. "I have a few things."

I remembered the book. For some reason I didn't want it. It didn't seem important to me, so I got up to grab it. "I found this old book too. I'm not sure if the church would want it but I know you like things like this-"

"It's so beautiful!" She snatched it out of my hands and began turning pages.

Then something weird happened...

Mickiyah got quiet as she silently skimmed through the words, pointing with one finger on the words and following it as if she understood.

"Uhh you can read gibberish?" I asked her.

It took her about two seconds to reply. "Huh? Oh. I guess. Right away I just sort of understood the symbols."

"You guess?" I chuckled.

"I know it sounds weird but I kind of get it," she pointed to a sentence. "See here? It's talking about the important of home and how any place can become a home. And here it talks about...satisfaction? I mean...it makes sense to me."

I laughed. "It's all yours then."

She was excited. "I can't wait to look this up!" She put it in her bag.

I glanced at the Ouija Board. "Do you ever take that thing out your bag?"

"I forgot to," she said. "I barely use this backpack. By the way we don't have to do the Ouija Board this week-"

I took a deep breath, thinking about it. What if...what if I could talk to my mother one last time. I didn't say it out loud of course but I wondered.

"Nope. We're all good to go for tomorrow," I said. "I'm down."