Hide and seek

There’s a space.

Between the top of my closet doors and the frame I mean, not a very big one, but big enough to fit something small through the crack. From where my bed sits, neatly tucked against the wall in my room, I have a perfect view of this dark little gap.

For a couple of weeks now I’ve been having trouble falling asleep, and for some reason, without even realizing it, almost every night I was staring into that strip of complete darkness, sitting just above my white painted doors.

It’s not like I didn’t know what was in the closet, nothing but clothes, old boxes and some books that I haven’t touched in years. Nothing that would interest me even if I could see it, so why couldn’t I take my eyes off of it?

It started a few days ago, just as I was drifting off to sleep, that was the first time I heard it.

Can’t you find me?

Startled, I blinked my tired eyes and sat up a bit, was I dreaming? I had to be, the voice was so clear, that soft whisper coming from… my closet.

A shiver ran up my spine as I stared wide eyed at the gap, waiting to hear the quiet voice again. Not that I wanted to, but just to reassure myself that I wouldn’t hear it again.

I don’t even remember falling asleep that night, I just woke up same as always, dismissed the night before as if it never happened, and went along with my day. I almost forgot about the eerie voice entirely.

Until it was dark again.

After a few hours of the usual tossing and turning, my eyes landed on the gap again. Only this time, it wasn’t just black that I saw. There were two little spots of white just peeking overtop of the left door, or a light grey, I really couldn’t tell.

I wondered if one of my sweaters had gotten caught on the door or something when I had dressed the morning before, and thought about getting up to put what was decidedly a stray piece of my clothing, back where it belonged. Before I could even move a muscle to get up out of bed, I froze…

The two pale spots blinked at me.

Are we still going to play?

Came the same chilling voice from before.

I knew I wasn’t dreaming, I knew wasn’t, so was I going crazy? I watched as the two pale spots… those two eyes… blinked at me again.

I didn’t know how long whatever it was that was in there had been staring at me.

I really didn’t want to know.

Pulling the blanket up over my face I curled into a ball and shook, consumed by the maddening silence that followed, I eventually blacked out.

This time upon waking, the events of the night before were still fresh in my mind, I didn’t have the guts to open my closet again to get clothes, so I pulled on some clothes I had picked up off the floor.

They had been piling up over the last few days.

Luckily I was just messy like that.

I was completely out of it the entire day, I couldn’t focus on anything, I would zone out when people talked to me and I couldn’t get that stupid voice out of my head. Play what?

Another day gone.

Walking into my room I looked at the closet and sighed, clutching a lime green bike lock in my left hand I took a few steps towards it. Wrapping the embarrassingly bright coloured lock around the two pearl white knobbed handles as tight as I possibly could, I turned the key.