Hide and Go Seek

11. Jacob

Oh. My. Gosh. Caleb... My older brother. I should have taken him with me! I shouldn't have left him. Guilt rakes my brain as my thoughts spiral downwards into a bottomless pit filled with 'what ifs'.

What if I had taken him with me...

What if I hadn't left like I had...

What if we all stayed together to fight that demon...

What if we had never played that DANG GAME!!!

I shake myself. I can't let myself fall apart. But Caleb... He was my brother, and I can't even let myself mourn him properly. I still stare at the blurry photo of what used to be my brother. The picture was grainy and not well developed, but the photo captured some shape of my brother that no longer represented a human. I hated to think of what may be making his silhouette that kind of shape.

"Dang, man. That picture's gnarly. Where'd you find it?" Says a nasally voice from next to me. I quickly put the phone down, forgetting where I am; the bus.

"Nowhere. Buzz off." I say with a bite in my voice. There are now only three of us left. The twins and I. Maybe we could come up with a plan to take this thing down. But how? I can't think of a possible way to end this never-ending nightmare. Unless...

No. No, no, no, NO! We can't do that. We would all be destroyed, not physically but mentally. Maybe I could do it though- spare the twins the agony. Yeah, that might work. I just need to prepare.

And ensure that the Thing's next target is me.