Into the Light (A Splatoon Story)

Hide-and-Seek

I tense, listening to the footsteps going through the apartment.

Who's here? Why?

A hand reaches down and whips up the sheet covering the underside of my bed. I flinch...then give a sigh of relief.

"Rosa, what're you doing under here?"

Callie's smiling face looks back at me. There's no one breaking in.

"What's wrong, Rosa?"

I notice the oddly-shaped thing in her hand and point to it, my finger shaking.

"Oh! This is my phone!" She says, holding it out to me.

Remembering how it attacked me, I quickly shrink away.

"What?" She asks, looking from her phone to me. "Oh! Did it go off?"

I nod slowly, not sure what 'go off' means. Marie kneels next to Callie and offers me the paper.

"Come on out, Rosa. If you can tell us what happened, we can explain."

I shoot another glance at the phone. Is it going to attack me again?

"Wait...never mind, I can guess. When Callie called her phone to see where it was, it went off just as you were looking at it, Rosa."

I nod, blushing in embarrassment. What if they're upset that I was looking at it?

"Aww, don't worry! It can't hurt you!" Callie says. "I can show you how it works, if you want."

Before I can stop her, Marie stands up and grabs another phone. It's probably hers, like Callie has her own.

"Just wait!" Callie says.

I crawl out from under the bed and sit next to Callie, staring down at the pretty patterns. She smiles down at me.

Suddenly, the 'phone' lights up with Marie's picture again. I tense, about to flee, but Callie grabs my arm.

"Wait, Rosa. Look."

She slides her finger across the glass wall, and the loud buzzing stops. And then...

"Rosa? Can you hear me?"

I gasp, whirling to the door. Marie's not there...so how can I hear her talking?

Callie giggles. "She's talking to you on the phone! Talk to it."

I look dubiously down at the glass. "M...Marie?"

"Hey, Rosa."

I gasp in shock. The phone talked...in Marie's voice!

"Marie's talking into her phone, and then my phone tells us what she said!" Callie explains.

I stare down at the phone, amazed. How could such a thing exist? Is it magical?

Callie beams at me, then starts chatting away to Marie through the phone. I sit and watch her, still trying to figure out how it's possible.

"I'm coming back in now." Marie says. "Be right there, Rosa."

Callie offers the phone to me, pointing to a red circle behind the glass. "Here, tap this! It'll tell the phone to stop telling us things for now."

I hesitantly touch it, and the entire pattern changes. It's the same pink swirly patterns I remember from before, like nothing had changed.

Marie opens the door, and I immediately run over to hug her. The phone didn't seem to do anything to her...so how does it work?

Callie leaps up and hugs us both, then gasps. "Oooh! I know! How about we play a game?"

"Cal, we have to - "

"No we don't!" Callie says. "We can't go to work if Rosa's all nervous!"

Marie sighs, and I instantly know she's about to agree. Callie knows too, judging from the triumphant look on her face.

"Fine, one quick game."

"Yaaaaaaaay!"

Callie once again tries to pull me into her happy dance. I hop up and down, trying to imitate her. It makes her smile at me, so I guess I did it right.

"Rosa, what game do you wanna play?"

I think hard, wondering what a game was. And how you'd 'play' it.

"Did you ever hang out with other kids?" Marie asked.

I would usually be with my mama and papa, I write, trying not to look sad.

"What did you do with them?"

I would hide somewhere, and they would look for me. I write. Sometimes Mama would hide too.

"Oooh! Hide and seek!" Callie says. "Let's play that!"

"I'll be seeker." Marie says.

I stare at her, then turn to look at Callie. She'll be what?

"She'll be looking for us, and we get to hide!" Callie says, beaming at me.

How do we start? I quickly scribble.

"Easy. I start counting." Marie says. "You have a minute, starting now."

Callie pulls me into the other room. From behind us, I can hear Marie counting.

"One...two...three...four..."

From the moment Callie scurries off, I realize I don't know the apartment that well. They'll expect me to hide under the bed, so I can't do that. I look around, then hear Marie counting louder.

"Twenty...twenty-one..."

I'm running out of time!

Starting to panic, I scramble into the kitchen. Quietly opening the door to the pantry, I slip inside and sit down in the corner, by the aprons. Once there, I pull my knees to my chest and try to be as quiet as possible.

Now all I can do is wait.