Outsmart (G/T)

Scare

POV: Nolan Queen

I heard everything. Scare me? You don't even know where I am! What kind of evidence is seeing a flash that I don't even think is me?

"What did the human look like for you?" Laurie, the female, asks. This decides it, if they actually saw me or not. On Tuesday, the day they had in mind, I wore a yellow hoodie and blue jeans.

"Wearing yellow," Seth, the male, replies. Oh. "Dark skinned." Oh, again. "Short hair, really dark black." Oh no.

"Me too! We saw it in the same day, that's cool. So, how do we scare it?" I prepare to take notes mentally.

"Just be loud. Stomp as you walk, make yourself feel bigger, act angry at shit, pretend you hate humans." Pretend?

"That sounds fine.  What if we catch it?"

"I don't want to call the cops if it's really young, so just threaten it to get it to leave. Call me in too, so I can help," Seth tells her. That's gonna help me out, actually. It'll toughen me out even moreso for if they catch me, which they probably won't. The two get up and begin walking in different directions, loudly. So it begins.

I go back into the wall, ignoring the two. I have back-to-school exams to deal with, not this. The schoolyear starts in less than a month, and I have yet to find a way to get in and out of this place easily. I need water. I'm really thirsty, and I haven't had a drink in a couple of days. It's easy to navigate the sink, as long as no one is around. I simply run out to the sink, twist the handle for cold just enough to make a steady stream, run out on the bridge between the two sections of the sink,  and since I have nowhere to hold the water, I intake as much as possible to span over a day or two, like an oversized water fountain. It soaks me, also, which works nice for a form of shower. I've started to take a sock I'd never worn, collected a piece of bar soap in it and use it as sort of a loofa, just pulling up sleeves and everything so in the off chance they catch me this way, I'm not stark naked.

I begin to run through my round as I hear heavy footsteps. I can tell it's Laurie, she still walks softer than Seth but I admire her effort, sort of. I run off to the tile, leaving the water on. I feel her come into the kitchen just as I pull the drywall against myself,  knowing well I left watery footprints. 

I hear a muffled, "Seth, come here!" and brace myself, backing up a few 20 feet away, about 5 tiles. I pull my bag with me, now filled half with unworn clothes, a quarter with worn-but-dried-from-tap-water clothes and a quarter worn-and-damp-with-tap-water clothes. I can feel the two of them in the room now.

"Are these... footprints? Was it here?" A should-be-deeper voice asks in a whisper I can clearly hear.

"Must have been. The water is left on," replies a high pitched voice in return, also in a too-loud whisper.

"How could it even turn it on?"

"They're like five feet tall, not a half foot. It clearly just pushed it." There's a pause, my guess to shush Laurie and tell her to act along.

"These footprints lead to a tile, so clearly whoever is here lives behind the wall," Seth says, much louder. "We know you're here, and we won't mean any harm if you just go. Anyone home?" He bangs against the wall loudly, causing the ground to shake so I have no choice but to jump with every hit. "Could we just... take out the tile?" I run back to the tile and pull at the wood as hard as I can to keep it shut. I feel him finding it because of my act, so he picks at the crack in it to get to me. I pull as hard as I can, feeling splinters go into my hands.

The wood pops out, leaving a bare, handle-less wall. I immediately run back to my hiding spot, knowing it won't end well as light begins to shine through nearby.