"I have done this for many years and I'm afraid I cannot do this anymore. For various reasons, I suppose. One is, the cops have a lead on me and will be here in the next few days to arrest me and lock me in a jail cell for years. So, I might as well have fun one last time." He started to laugh, throwing his head back and holding his eyes. He was a true nut case and I had no clue what he was going off about.
There were moans that grew louder. Mr. Harmon yelled for everyone to be quiet but the moaning only grew louder than before. He then held up a box. A regular brown box. Everyone stopped moaning. He had the box all along.
"Who wants to leave here alive?" he asked.
The moaning started again and Mr. Harmon smiled and nodded his head. "Today, one of you will walk away... alive! That's right. Alive. All you have to do is win."
I'm sure everyone wondered what we had to do to win.
"You have to win the hide and seek game that we're going to play. Sounds like fun?" he said. "Now, we'll play by my rules. There are sixteen of you and today, only one of you will leave."
Mrs. Harmon walked inside of the room, carrying a box. She emptied the box onto the floor where knives, axes, tools, and kitchen utensils fell out. I was beginning to feel very nervous.
"In this game, each one of you is, indeed, alive and will be untied then given a weapon. You will then be given a card." He pointed his finger in the air and faced the floor. "If your card says murderer, it means you're it. You do not tell anyone that you're the murderer: that would be cheating."
Mrs. Harmon stepped next to Mr. Harmon. He placed his arm around her. "My wife has specially sewed your lips together for you to say only these things: You're dead, and, I found a dead body. He then pointed to the girl I saw in my dream. "Please, try it."
She hesitated for a bit before saying it. "I found a dead body," she said in a soft voice.
Mr. Harmon continued, "Whoever gets the card, Murderer, will search for the others. The lights will be off. Once you found someone, you simply whisper in their ear, you're dead then kill them. You may leave the body or hide it. If someone finds the body they yell, I found a dead body! Once you yell that, the lights will come on and all of us will meet here in this room. We'll guess the murderer then the game will start over again until there's only one murderer left."
Mrs. Harmon started to untie everyone's hands. When she got to mine, I felt her hands on my hips and legs as if she was searching for something. When she was done with me, she gave me a long look. Mr. Harmon noticed her and cleared his throat indicating for her to finish untying the rest.
Once Mrs. Harmon finished, Mr. Harmon handed everyone a weapon. I got an axe. Caleb got a screwdriver. Tate and Jasper got knives. Caroline had an electric drill. I looked at them nervously. They stared back and shook their heads slightly. Jasper kept eyeing the front door. We could have made a run for it but the door was gone. We were hopeless.
"Also," Mr. Harmon said, "cheating will kill you. If you are the murderer and you don't kill the person you come across in eight seconds, you'll die and the lights will come on. If you refuse to play, you will also die. If you yell out you found a dead body and there is nothing there, you die." He placed his hands on his hips. "There is no escape. The windows are gone. The doors are gone. The only way out is to win."
Mr. Harmon took out something from his shirt pocket. The cards. Everyone got a card. Mine was blank. I wasn't the murderer and thank God. As I looked up at everyone, I realized that one of them was the murderer. It could have been anyone. All these eyes stared around at each other, hearts full of hatred and no mercy. Except for Tate, Caroline, Jasper, and me: there would be no remorse today.
I felt the eyes of angry dead people on me. Today was about survival. No one could be trusted, I'm afraid to say.
Mr. Harmon smiled one last time before disappearing. He vanished right in front of us. The lights were still on so the game hadn't started yet. I felt my heart racing. I wasn't ready for this.
"Lights off!" a whisper in the air shouted. The words made my stomach ache.
"Let the game begin!"
Chapter 17: Fifteen
I pounced around as I made my way to the kitchen. I crouched inside Mrs. Harmon's cabinet where she kept cereal. There was room for me. I closed it. My heart was beating so hard that it'd probably give me away. I did try to look for Caleb, but he was gone. I even tried looking for Tate and the others, but they were gone, too.
The sound of footsteps nearly scared me to death. There was someone in the kitchen scrambling for a hiding place. I heard them breathing very heavily. I heard a chair move, so I guessed they hid under the table. While I waited, I thought about Violet and what happened to her. She wasn't herself. Not at all. Was it because of what she did with the ashes? Could someone's ashes have gotten inside of her? I had no clue how it all worked.
Just then, I felt something lean on my shoulder. It was dark, I couldn't talk, and I was in a house full of nothing but superstition and dead people. Well, they were once dead. I heard a low moan. I felt tears running down my cheek. I felt the other strangers pulse on mine. As I thought, maybe this could be the murderer, I quickly opened the door. It was a stupid move, but I was just too afraid. When I crawled out I quickly stumbled onto something. My hands and knees fell to something wet on the ground. What laid behind me, was a very still and hunched figure. Nervously, I touched it and poked it. They were dead.
"I found... I found a dead body!" I exclaimed.
The lights immediately came back on. The dead person on the floor was the little boy, about Caleb's age that I didn't know about. I quickly ran to the kitchen and washed my hands. I started to cry again but stopped when I saw her come out of the cabinet I hid in. It was the thing that chased me in the garden. The only reason her head laid on my shoulder, is because body is so twisted and bent. I wanted to puke. She gave me a threatening look that sent me flying back into the front room.
Some of us met back in the front room by the entrance of the mansion. When everyone was present, Mr. Harmon appeared in the middle of all of us. He smiled.
"Very good, my dear," he said, looking at me. I gave him the best frown I could. He turned away and looked at everyone else. "So, who do we think it was?" he asked.
Fingers pointed to one another. Some even pointed to me. Most were pointed to the lady that hid with me. I noticed that the old man's knife had blood on it. I pointed to him, stepping closer. Mr. Harmon saw me and smiled the old man.
"Wow, father. I'm so proud of you today," Mr. Harmon said.
The old man looked away.
Mrs. Harmon pulled the dead body out of the kitchen and placed it by the entry of the door. Mr. Harmon passed out the cards again. Mine was blank. Again.
"Lights out!" Mrs. Harmon yelled.
The darkness welcomed me once again.
Chapter 18: Fourteen
This time I ran upstairs, that is, after bumping into several other things. It was so dark that I could barely see. Once up the stairs, I headed for my room. I heard footsteps behind me so I was pretty fast about it.
When I entered the room, the moonlight welcomed me. I could see everything in the room. No one was hiding in here, well not that I could see so far.
Someone was close by. I jumped in my bed and quickly hid underneath the covers. I know it was a lame place to hide but I was too scared. Again, my heart was pounding, I was sweating, and my legs felt like cooked noodles.
Someone now entered the room. I tried my best to calm my breathing down: to keep it normal. For a moment, it worked, but I felt someone else under the covers with me, all my breath escaped from my airways. The footsteps left the room. That's when I sat up and looked to see who was next to me.
I reached my hand for the blanket to reveal the stranger. I stopped when I saw the pale arm.
I honestly didn't want to find out who it was but I looked at their face anyway. At first I didn't know who it was when I saw their blue face but I recognized the hair. It was the girl who wore
the mask. The ones that were outside of the abandoned house.
I quickly got out of the bed. I backed away from it and headed for the door which was a bad idea. When I started to open the door I noticed something crawling down the hallway, coming this way. It was the other masked kid...and they saw me.
I quickly shut the door and hid inside the closet, where my back was grabbed by someone. I shut my eyes. The person behind me started rubbing my hair and that's when I knew. It was Jasper. I forced a smile. I felt so safe for a moment.
The door to the room opened. My breathing seized. Suddenly the closet door was opened and someone came crawling in.
I was grabbed by the throat. Jasper held onto me and just as he did someone yelled out. "I found a dead body!"
I was quickly released. I dropped to the ground as the others walked out of the room. I nearly started to cry but Jasper held onto me and walked us both back into the entry room.
***
Once in the entry room, I saw Mrs. Harmon dragging in another dead body. I couldn't believe it. It was one of the masked kids. The boy.
"So," Mr. Harmon said started, "who's the murderer?"
I was going to point out the one who attacked me but the girl who hid with me pointed to him first.
Mr. Harmon smiled, "Kill your own? I'm impressed. This game is getting interesting."
Everyone got new cards. As I looked at mine, my heart stopped beating.
"Lights off!" Mr. Harmon exclaimed. "Begin!"
I was the murderer.
Chapter 19: Thirteen
The sounds of footsteps ran past me faster than I could comprehend that I was it. Little did everyone know they were running from me this time. I was the murderer.
My feet felt so heavy underneath me, and the axe felt four times heavier in my hand. I gripped onto it, feeling the prickly wood against my sweaty palms. I stopped and made my way towards the kitchen, carefully listening for anyone. A million thoughts ran through my head. I couldn't think straight. When my foot hit the chair of the kitchen table, I jumped away quickly.
Just then, I saw a light quickly pass me. The light ran from the cabinet and into the entry room. It was the woman with the distorted body. I followed her. I followed her because if I could kill her, I wouldn't have to kill Jasper, Tate, or Caroline-that is if I came across them. That left me the choice to kill the woman.
I went after her, slowly making my way through the darkness. I managed to catch sight of the light that came from her throat on the second floor. It entered my room. I made my way upstairs and headed straight for my room. When I got close, the light from the moon shone in front of my door and Caroline was standing there. She looked at me with a smile, excited to see something I couldn't. I walked behind her to see what she was looking at. It was the woman.
All of a sudden, unexpectedly, she ran past Caroline and me. She went into Caleb's room. I followed after her. Once in his room, the light from his lava lamp kept turning on and off. I didn't know why. It lit up the room each second then plunged into darkness the next second. Just then, I saw something in Caleb's closet move. It was her. With each second the lave lamp clicked on she got closer and closer until her hand was on my face.
I struggled and swung the axe around, but kept missing with every swing. I was pushed down to the floor: my head bumping into another head. Without thinking, I swung the axe to the side. The sound of the axe resting itself inside the neck of my victim made me sick to my stomach. I'll tell you now, this wasn't the worse part.
"I found a dead body," Jasper's voice filled the air. I heard the sadness coming from his voice.
The lights came on. Standing in front of me was Jasper and the woman. Sat up on their knees, with wide eyes staring at me and a bleeding neck, was Caroline. My legs weakened and I fell to the floor. Mrs. Harmon came in and walked toward her body. She closed Caroline's eyes, and then lifted her up. Jasper grabbed Mrs. Harmon and she kicked him away. He then pulled at the string on his lips, but it wouldn't come off.
Jasper then yanked the stitches off of his lips by force. His lips started to bleed. He faced me, a face red and full of hatred.
"How could you!" he yelled, grabbing me by the neck. Tears ran down his cheeks, and they ran down mine as well. I wasn't even focused on him. I focused more on Mrs. Harmon leaving the room with Caroline. I had killed her. Why did she follow us?
Mr. Harmon walked in. He grabbed Jasper off of me. "Come on, you shouldn't have done that, boy. I'm afraid it'll be more painful this time.
I followed Mr. Harmon out of the room and back to the entry room. Jasper glanced back at me a few times. The last thing I needed was another enemy and that's exactly what I got.
***
In the entry room, everyone watched as Jasper got his strings sewn on. His scream echoed throughout the whole house. I felt the warm tears roll down my cheeks.
When Mrs. Harmon was done, Mr. Harmon handed out the cards. Mine was blank and I was very okay with that. However, before the lights turned off, Jasper looked at his card then faced me. The smile on his face scared me more than anything right now.
"Lights off! Begin."
Chapter 20: Nine
Since everyone usually seemed to hide on the first and second floor, I decided to hide on the fourth. It took me a while to get up there. I was pretty sure someone decided to follow me and I had to stop on a few floors to hide before I could continue to move. Once on the fourth floor, I went in the opposite direction of Mr. Harmon's art room. I hid behind a statue of some sort.
Once settled, I started thinking about Caroline. I could never forgive myself for that. Ever.
While I crouched down to hug my knees, something fell out of my pants pockets. It was my cellphone. That explained why Mrs. Harmon was touching me so much. She was trying to find my pocket. I guess it was a bit hard considering I only had one. I didn't even feel the phone this whole time.
I turned it on, exposing a bright light. I quickly turned the brightness of it down then covered it with my hand, hiding excessive light. I quickly went to the text messages. All of them were from Abby. I read them.
Two days ago: "Hey are you okay?"
"I'm worried."
"Should I be concerned?"
One day ago: "Okay, I told my parents about everything. They're a bit concerned as well."
"My parents said if they don't hear from you in 24 hours we're contacting the police."
Ten hours ago: "HEY OMG I GOT YOUR TEXT. WE'RE GOING TO THE POLICE STATION."
Two hours ago: "The police are looking into things. They don't think anything is wrong. They're as much help as a cat."
Forty-four minutes ago: "Me and my parents are coming ourselves once we get the information. I sure hope everything is okay."
I went to the sent text messages and found a text that said, "Help me." Mrs. Harmon must have sent it. She was trying to help.
I heard someone coming up the stairs. I quickly texted Abby, "Please come with cops. There are dead people." I then shut the phone.
Someone was on the fourth floor and they were walking in my direction. The silhouette was now standing an arm's length from me. I know I shouldn't have but I did: I shone the phone light to see who it was. It was the woman. She stared back at me. There were moths coming out of her mouth and one landed on her head.
Why did she keep following me? She reached for my phone. I thought she'd break it or something.
All of a sudden she sat next to me and turned on my phone. Her head was anything but still. It rolled around like she had no neck bones. She started texting something into my phone.
"It's me... Violet." it said.
I stared up at her. I reached for the phone quickly and texted back.
"How could that be? And why did you attack me?"
"The ashes are mixed up. Someone else is in my body. I was trying to take the phone; I saw that Mrs. Harmon placed it in your pants."
"I bet the woman of the body you're in is in your body. If that makes sense."
"Some1 is coming." Violet then shut the phone off.
Indeed there was someone else on the fourth floor.
"I found a dead body!" someone yelled out from downstairs.
The lights came on. In front of us was Jasper. He was holding a drill this time. The drill Caleb had... How did he get Caleb's drill?
I thought the worst.
Jasper smiled at me. He pulled the strings off of his lips once again. Blood dripped to the floor like a faucet turned on low. "This is for Caroline." He said loudly, tears pouring down his face.
He walked toward us then raised the drill in the air.
The game was over, he couldn't do that!
Violet raced toward him, aiming for the drill. The both of them had a firm grip on the drill. Their hands were high in the air along with the drill, pushing one another here and there. Violet's back faced the stairwell. Jasper pushed the drill to her neck. He was obviously way stronger than her. Jasper grabbed the drill, swung it back, then toward Violet, drilling into her neck hard, then eyes. A part of stairwell broke off from weight, falling down along with Violet. The landing was loud and hard.
Jasper stared at me with empty hands. As he started to run toward me, his eyes started to bleed and his bones and nerves began to twist in his body. He screamed from the pain. Behind him stood Mr. Harmon with his arms crossed.
"Cheating kills you," he said.
Mrs. Harmon ran upstairs. She looked at his body and shook her head. "Wow, four dead..."
***
Once downstairs, I found out Jasper murdered three people: one of the masked kids, Mr. Harmon's father, and Violet." Now that Jasper was now dead too, that left nine. The nine left were Tate, Caleb, my mother, my father, the girl who crawled on the wall, one of the masked kids, the girl from my dreams, the woman in Violet's body, and me.
Hide & Seek Page 6