Hide And seek

Prologue}

(Cameron's POV)

I stood in the walkway, my heart beating faster than I'd want it to. I covered my heart, hoping that the man who now stood over my parent's lifeless bodies wouldn't hear the loud thumping of my heart.

Perhaps I hadn't muffled the thuds of my heart well enough, because, for whatever reason he'd intended, he noticed me and stared at me for a good five minutes.

Frozen in place, I could only stand by and pray not to end up as my parents, a lifeless heap slowly awaiting decay.

"As you can see.." the man spoke, his cold and ruthless voice chilling me to the core, "I'm playing a game with your parents."

'Game?' I thought. ' That doesn't look like a game to me..'

"Yes, just a little game I'm playing with your mommy and daddy little boy. A really fun game. You wanna play?"

Perhaps the childlike side of me, the side that was truly innocent and naive agreed. And because I was only 7 at the time, that was most of me.

"How do you play." I whispered to the strange man.

"We're going to play hide and seek." The man smiled wide. The kind of smile a psychopath would smile. His crooked teeth were yellow and chipped. It looked as though he hadn't ever heard of a toothbrush, let alone a dentist. "The rules are you have twenty seconds to run and hide and then I will seek you. If I find you, like I found your parents, well, you lose. But if I can't find you, you win."

"What do I get if I win?" I asked the man. What? I liked prizes.

"You get to keep your life." The man smiled his crooked smile again. I didn't like his game much, but I really wanted to play. I wanted to prove that I was better at the game than my parents, who had obviously lost.

"Okay!" I said enthusiastically, running away before the man could start counting.

I ran up the stairs and into my room. I closed my door and pushed my dresser in front of the door and then, running to my nightstand, I grabbed my keys to my secret room and unlocked the door, hiding inside and locking it from the inside out.

I smiled wide at the thought that I'd definitely win the game.

"Come out, come out wherever you are.." The man sang in a sing-song voice.

I heard a metal clanking sound, like the sound of someone banging on pipes of some sort. I cuddled the pillow I had kept in my secret room for years, feeling sleepy.

'Hurry up' I thought. 'You might not ever find me with how slow you're seeking.

There was a banging on my room door as he tried to open it. I giggled quietly and covered my mouth as I heard the small dresser fall down.

There was a shuffling of feet and a banging and then silence. Had he left? Did I win? I was tempted to crawl out of my small room, but I was afraid that the man hadn't left.

Twenty minutes passed and there still hadn't been a sound. Assuming the man had gone, I unlocked the door and crawled out.

The room was empty and I sighed contentedly. I had won. I got my prize! I sat on my bed, swinging my legs back and forth. Suddenly, a hand shot out, grabbing my feet and pulling me under the bed. I screamed bloody murder, scrambling to get away from the man with the crooked, yellow teeth. I kicked him in the face with my foot, scrambling out from under the bed and rushing to my crawl space.

"You're cheating." The man grumbled. "You lost, so you need to stop being a sore loser."

He grabbed my ankles and threw me into the bed. My head hurt and my heart was thumping harder. He grabbed my blonde hair, lifting me up. I screamed. It hurt very badly; almost as if someone was yanking out all my hair at one time, but they weren't strong enough so they just kept pulling it. I gasped as I felt the cold metal touch my cheek. The knife was ice cold and wet.

"You're such a pretty little girl" The man whispered, pulling at my hair as I struggled to get out of his grip.

"I'm a boy." I whimpered, grabbing at his hands. The man grumbled at my feeble attempts to stop him, and pressed the knife against the top of my shirt. I stilled and he ran the knife roughly down the thin fabric, effectively cutting off one of my favorite shirts. The sudden rush of cold air caused my nipples to harden and the man looked down at me hungrily.

"Just look at your pert little tits." The man muttered. "You're begging for attention." He tugged my nipple hard with his fingers, and when I gasped from the pain, he took my nipple into his gross mouth and suckled. I screamed as he pulled me up by my hair until our faces were closer together. He silenced my cries for help by forcing our lips together. His breath was rank, smelling as if he had just eaten a thousand onions and rotten fish. He licked the inside of my mouth, his slimy tongue wiggling throughout my mouth. I was crying, tears running freely from my eyes and down my cheeks. If this was what losing was, I promised myself it wouldn't ever be this way again. I'd never lose.

I felt a cold draft on my lower region as he pulled down my pants. Tears and snot poured down my face as I cried harder, trying to breathe. He bent me over and bit my ass cheek hard, forcing me to jump forward and yelp in pain. My breathing turned into nothing except sporadic gasps when he tugged down his own pants and gripped my hips roughly. Suddenly, everything stopped. There was no licking or nibbling or biting. There was no touching. All I saw was the creepy man with the crooked smile, trying to crawl out of my window.

Lights flashed outside and six police officers poured into my room, grabbing the man forcing him onto his belly as he had done to me just minutes ago. They put metal cuffs around his hands and took him out of my room, telling him something about remaining silent. A cop lifted me up into his arms, cuddling me close to him.

The world around me seemed to slow down as I was greeted with my parent's bodies laid out on a stretcher. I was set down in a cop car and as I looked back at the gruesome scene laid before me one last time, I saw the man mouthing to me the words that would shape my entire future.

'We'll play Hide and Seek again soon.'

*
That was ten years ago, and now, I was being forced to relive it.