Freaks

5] Hide and Pray They Don't Seek

"Are we done yet?"

Miles asked. He was getting frustrated with their project. They had been working on it for the past two hours.
"Almost."
Charlotte placed the last piece onto the human scale brain model.
"Done."

"Why didn't we just use a real human brain?"

Charlotte looked up at Miles.

"Do you have one of those just laying around?"

"Kate's got one she isn't using."

They both smiled at each other. The door came busting open once again. This time it was Flora, Miles' little sister.
"What do you want Flora?"
Miles asked, while Charlotte placed their project in a safe place.
"Are you guys done? Can we play now?" Charlotte smiled at the little girl, brushing her hair behind her shoulder in a comforting fashion.

"Sure, what do you wanna play."

Flora thought for a second. She jumped up and down excitedly when she said her answer.

"Hide and go seek!"

Miles interjected.

"What about Hide and Seek, in the dark?"

Charlotte smiled at his suggestion.
Oh the terribly great ideas she got.

Not like that you nasty.

"OH OH! And the seeker can use a flashlight!" Flora said enthusiastically.
"Miles you're a genius! I'm gonna go get Kate."
And with that, Flora ran out of the room.

Charlotte turned to Miles with a creepy smile.

"Let the games begin."
The lights flipped off.

"Okay! The seeker gets a flashlight, the hiders don't. Clear?"
Everyone nodded understandingly at Charlottes instructions.
"Who wants to seek first?"
No one raised their hand.

Now Charlotte could get started.

She handed the flashlight to Kate.

"Since you're the oldest."
Kate rolled her eyes but took the flashlight. Miles pointed to Ms. Grose. The woman nodded and flipped off the lights. Everything went pitch black.

"Kate! Count to- uh... 100! Then come find us! Don't turn on the flashlight until you finish counting, okay? Okay."

Flora couldn't wait to get the game started. Kate nodded and felt her way to an armchair to count. Flora skipped off in some random, unseen direction. Charlotte felt something grab her hand.

"Come with me."

Miles whispered into her ear causing her to shiver.
He dragged her into the direction of what seemed to be the stairs. She heard a sniffle. Charlotte was standing next to where Kate was sitting. She released Miles' hand and bent over the back of the armchair, into Kate's ear. Kate felt her breath and tensed up in fear.

"You better hope we don't find you first, Kate."

"We are hiding in your room? Isn't that kind of a shit hiding spot though?"

Miles glared at Charlotte as he shut the door.

"Kate's too scared to come too far into my room, because of him."

He pointed to the tarantula sitting in the tank on his dresser. It wiggled its legs under the light of the heat lamp. Foot steps progressed down the hall towards the room the two were in. Miles dragged Charlotte over to his bed.

"You're very into this game."
Charlotte laughed as they hid underneath the covers.

"It would be hard for you to scare the shit out of her if you got caught."

Charlottes eyes widened. He knew exactly was she was thinking.
What she was planning.
She adored him even more because of this. He understood her way of thinking.

As the steps got closer, it got harder to breath. There being no air hole in the sheets. The door opened. A flashlight flashed around the room. A frustrated huff, and then the door slammed shut.

"Ok time to get this started." Charlotte tried to exit the bed but Miles pulled her extremely close to him.

"Wait..."

His voice was a quiet whisper. Charlotte felt her heart beat quicken. His breathing ran down the back of her neck. Why was he doing this? Their bodies were barely touching, but it was still enough to make her uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable...?
Was that actually how she felt about this?Uncomfortable usually meant you would do anything to get out of a situation. But she wanted to stay... she didn't want to get out of this. This was a weird feeling she had never felt before. Why was her stomach twisting like a knife? Why was it getting harder to breath normally? Why did she wanna scoot closer to him? What was happening-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door creaking open. "Miles? Charlotte? Flora? Are one of you in here? I wanna get this game over with." Kate had come back. The silence stood still for a moment, and Kate re-exited the room. Miles, sadly, loosened his grip from around Charlotte's waist.

"You're good to go now."

She shoved him off of her, aggressively. Charlotte frowned in the dark, and finally left the bed. Miles followed. They stood close in the dark for a minute before Charlotte walked away with unseen anger on her face. Masking.
"So what are you doing now?" Miles asked, breaking the silence.
"None of your damn business."

"I'm going to go get a pop tart. I'm hungry."
Miles went downstairs. It was a miracle how he found his way through the dark halls.

Now it was Charlottes turn.

Let the real games begin.