Project Chaos

Part 2: Hide and Seek

The trio waved as the white car drove away from Amber's house, Scarlett and Phoenix holding their bags for tonight and Amber holding her bag from last night. Max, Amber's German Shepherd, pranced happily over to the girls. They had no clue what the night had planned for them.

Instead of staying at Amber's house, the three girls went down to a treehouse at the end of a short trail, Max following close behind. Amber's younger brothers often hung out here with a few of their friends. In front of the treehouse was a clearing full of random items, including a broken truck, a toy car, a few tools, lots of scrap metal, and a trampoline. On the trampoline were two boys.

One boy has hair as bright red as Amber's. This was her brother, Victor. The other boy had brown hair that went to his shoulders and wore no shirt. Both were about 10 years old.

"Hey, Scarlett! Phoenix! Amber! What's up?" Victor said happily.

"The sky." Scarlett responded. Everyone laughed. Amber, Phoenix, and Scarlett climbed into the trampoline and started bouncing. Max wandered around the clearing.

"Oh my goodness Brian," Amber said. "You look like Tarzan!" Scarlett and Phoenix nodded, also being able to see the resemblance.

"Can I just call you Tarzan?" Scarlett asked. "I'm probably gonna have a hard time remembering your name anyway, I don't do well with names..." Brian, the brown-haired boy, nodded. He seemed unfazed by the new nickname.

After bouncing on the trampoline for a while, they realized how dark it had gotten. Max had even fallen asleep in the clearing. Perfect for a game...

"We should play Hide-And-Seek." Said Harmony.

"Alright, I'll be Seeker." Amber said, picking up a flashlight. As she started counting, the others ran off to go hide in the piles of random stuff. Scarlett hid behind the broken truck. She could easily sneak to the other side of Amber decided to look behind it. She could also see what was happening from behind the truck. Scarlett watched as Victor hid under a large bucket and Brian hid under the trampoline. She never saw where Phoenix hid.

"Ha! Found you!" Amber exclaimed, pulling the bucket off of Victor. She knew exactly where to look for him, since he hid there a lot. Amber continued looking around. She found Brian next, as he also hid in an obvious spot. However, she couldn't find the sisters.

"Scarlett? Phoenix?? Where are you?" Amber called. Where could the sisters be hiding? She searched for several minutes, with the help of Victor and Brian. They couldn't find either of them.

Scarlett was watching the whole thing from behind the broken truck. Why they hadn't checked there yet was a mystery to the teen. Pfft. This is hilarious. I wonder if I can prank them? She thought to herself. Silently, she stepped out of her hiding spot.

"Where could they be?" Amber questioned. She knew well that Scarlett had a hard time staying still for so long. She always felt the need to be moving, and that's usually how she got caught. Phoenix, on the other hand, who knows. Shining her flashlight towards a direction she hadn't checked yet, she saw something strange.

Someone was standing in the middle of the junkyard, motionless.

"........Scarlett? Is that you?" Amber called. Victor's eyes were wide in fright, and Amber seemed genuinely concerned. Brian was unfazed.

Scarlett showed no response to the calls.

The trio cautiously walked closer, unsure of what could be going on.

Amber recognized her face. "Oh, thank goodness it's just you." She said in relief.

Still no movement. Still no response.

"............Scarlett?"

...

...

...

"Meow."

Suddenly, everyone was confused. Scarlett burst out laughing.

"Oh wow. That was PRICELESS!" She said. "You two were so scared!" Then she paused. "Wait..... Tarzan, why weren't you scared?"

Brian chuckled. "Oh, that's because I saw what happened. You came out from behind the truck, hid behind the picnic table for a bit, and then stood silently beside that tree."

"Awww......" Scarlett pouted. "I was hoping to scare everyone...... ........ Where's Phoenix?"

Everyone paused for a moment. With what just happened, they had forgotten all about Phoenix still being missing.

"We haven't found her yet." Victor said.

"What?" Scarlett questioned.

"Yeah...." Amber responded.

"But I thought she came out when you gave up?"

"Nope. That was Brian." Victor said.

"Well sugarmuffins. She's probably aiming to do the same thing I did: prank us." Scarlett said. "She does this to me all the time."

"Well, we'd better find her then." Brian added.

"Yeah." Amber agreed.