Scary Stories: My Mother Forced Me To Play Hide And Seek Every Night At Nine. One Night, It Wasn’t A Game

My mother always made me play hide and seek with her. It was just her and me, and we played at nine.

Each time, without failure, she told me to ignore her during the game. She told me that she would purposefully try to trick me, but, you know, if you really wanted to trick somebody, why tell them anything?

We played in the park. I thought this was normal. I knew other families didn’t do this, but at the same time, I thought there was nothing wrong with us doing it. I liked the park afterall. During the night the air was so fresh, and it was silent, and the trees seemed larger than usual.

She counted down from one hundred, giving me ample time to run away. My general competetiveness, always made me run away and as far away as I could. I’d find some space behind many trees, and I’d lie down.

The park was large, but somehow my mother would always manage to walk past me at least three times in those twenty minutes. I’d always hear her speaking as she walked past me. Come out Clara. Clara please come out. I’m sick of this stupid game Clara, it’s cold and I just want to go home.

I ignored her. When we first started with the games, I’d been foolish enough to leave my hiding spot. My mother’s face immediatelly turned into one of fury. She’d walk up and grab me tightly by the shoulder as she scolded me relentlessly. I told you not to listen to me! Didn’t I! She would drag me back to the car, and ignore me until the next day, when we played.

I didn’t know why she did it. After I’d stopped listening to her during the twenty minutes of game time, it would no longer trick me. I knew she was lying, and it simply seemed like a waste of breath and energy to keep calling out for me.

She got angry when she found me to. The park was a huge place, and if she hid somewhere I would never find her, but somehow my mother was excellent at tracking me down. It was like she sniffed me, and hunted me down.

Instead of getting angry at me, she got dessipointed. She’d sigh loudly, and her eyes would tear up, before she’d dejectedly walk to the car. That gave me the worst feeling ever, filling me with inadequacy. One time, she found me after only two minutes, and she broke down sobbing. I didn’t get it.

I felt a huge urge to win. I needed it, so I started to get creative. I hid myself in the bushes. I’d change my clothing to be more green and black and generrally more inconspicous. I got high up in trees, so it would be difficult to see me from the ground. I learned how to stay still, really, really, still.

And when I won, my mother would give me a smile. It wasn’t a smile of happiness, or a smile of pleasure. It was more a relieved smile, but I felt so proud when I saw it. We’d go home, and I’d have an easy time falling asleep.

Then my father came.

One day, when I came back from school, I saw him talking to my mother. He was almost never home, actually, I’d seen him twice in my entire life, and my mother never really spoke about him. He was really just a stranger to me.

I noticed the expression on my mother’s face immediately. It was pale, white, shaking, eyes wide. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, so I got closer in towards them. Of course, their conversation stopped just as I did it.

Well my father stopped speaking, the expression on my mother stayed the same. He turned to me and smiled in a wolfish way. It made me recoil away with disgust. He sneered. He fucking sneered. I thought it was normal, that was how my classmates acted afterall.

Later that same day, when my father was off in the toilet, my mother got close to me a whispered. “Don’t come out. Not even after twenty minutes

My father got really energetic right before bed time. I thought we’d skip the whole hide and seek thing. My mom looked really sick, and looking at the clock, she said, “Let’s take a trip to the park.”

I immediately noticed that she didn’t mention hide and seek.

“Why?” My father asked.

“Why not, get some fresh air maybe.”

“Fine,” he said. “I like em active anyway.”

What the hell did he mean by that?

Mom told me to change with a certain look, and I caught what she meant immediately. Put on hiding clothes. After doing it, we got into th car and we drove to the park. My mother was silent the entire way but my father hummed.

We walked together in the park for a while, my dad mumbling about work. I don’t remember much of it. Honestly, it didn’t sound like any job I’d ever heard. Then, suddenly my mother pointed at a tree in the distance. I noticed that it was the same tree she’d found me hiding behind the last time she’d caught me. “These trees get so old. Then, they die. It’s a shame they’re stuck in place, unable to get away from the virus.”

She was saying, get away and hide.

“Death is the way of all living things,” dad said. “No need to fear it.”

“I think I saw a squirrel in that tree,” I said. “I’m going to go check it out.”

I dissapeared into the forest, I’d grown well aquainted to. I got behind a hill, before changing direction and moving away. I made sure to try to move on the spots that wouldn’t leave a mark. I needed to get far away before they noticed something was up.

I thought about climbing a tree and hiding there, or, about diving into a couple of bushes. Trees were only effective if people didn’t check. Bushes worked great, but, you’d have a small, if no, view of your surroundings. I chose the bushes, jumping into them, and trying to control my breath.

After a couple of minutes, I heard my parents walking in the distance.

“Clara,” Dad shouted. “Where are you sweetheart? If you’re hurt please say something and we’ll help.”

“Clara!” Mother said. “Clara can you hear me darling?”

My heart beat faster. I knew for a fact that I shouldn’t leave the bushes. That was the absolute worst thing that could happen. I kept me breathing under check as they moved further and further away from me.

Then, they came back.

“Please Clara, your dad isn’t dangerous, please come out.”

“Clara, please, I need to get going soon, please come out.”

“Clara,” mom said. “Where are you?”

“Stop this silly nonsense,” Dad said.

Their voices eventually faded out. I stayed there, in the same position, for nearly a whole hour. My body started to ache, and I could feel insect crawling around on the back of my leg. I really wanted to leave this position.

I heard a stick snap in the distance. It came from behind me. I hadn’t heard their voices at all, had they just stopped speaking. That terrified me, and I felt I needed to turn around and get a view, but I knew that would give me away.

“Clara stop with this silly nonsense, come out.”

I was entirely silent.

“Clara please come out.”

Her voice was turning more and more desperate. More guttural. Fortunatley, it was what semeed to be around seventy meters away from me. But she was appraoching.

“Clara,” Mom said. “I’m getting tired. I just want to go home eat, and sleep.”

I stayed silent as the voice grew louder. She was approaching me.

“I know you’re in the area. It’s only a moment of time before I find you. I will skin you, haha.”

“I’ll start with your forearms, peeling off your skin with a dull knife, just like peeling back cheese. I wager there’ll be lots of blood coming out. And screaming. I won’t be able to focus, but that’s alright. I can always switch to your other arm.”

She came closer.

“You won’t like it. I certainly wouldn’t, but I’m not as stupid and fucking disgusting as you are Clara. No. I’m glad I’m not a creature of filth like you. The only good you can serve is by being in my belly. By fueling me.”

“I’ll find you.”

The voice was only twenty meters away.

“You’ll regret not coming out.”

Ten meters.

“You know, I don’t eat the bones. They get stuck in my throat, but I can’t leave them. I’ll probably take take them home with me, and suck on them. They have a good taste you know. It’ll be perfect.”

Two meters.

She giggled. Did she find me? Oh no. I debated whether I should stay still and hope for the best or if I should look back. My fear was killing me, and it had to know, but I know looking would make noise. No. I had to stay still.

“I know where you are,” she said.

Fuck.

But then, she began walking away from my spot.

“I’ll suck on your eyeballs before swallowing them. Their better whole, and they’re always wet and squishy so they go down the throat easily. If not, there’s always blood. Oh a mouth full of warm blood. Is there a better feeling?”

I stayed still for that entire night, even after I was certain that they’d gone away. It was only when the sun was above me, and I could hear other children, that I stood up. One child jumped back and shrieked. He must have gotten properly terrified.

Then, I made my way back home.

Dad wasn’t there, but mom was. She hugged me.