Hide and Seek Encounter

From: Riena Nicholas (dark_libra77@yahoo.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: My Old School
Source: Form Submission

I bet every child in this world knows the meaning of hide and seek. A game that is still very much popular until to this day. A fun game to play but can be scary if played at a wrong place. Ever heard of children being hide by ghosts? I often dismissed the story as an excuse not to play the game. Only a coward wouldn't play the game, scared of being hide by ghosts.

As for a group of close friends and me, hide and seek is a must to play game. At the age of twelve, my group is known to wreck havoc among other students. We kind of a bit naughty but never have trouble with the disciplinary teacher, who is my class teacher. The only thing is, we're a bunch of girls who seemed to amuse ourselves with games and arguments with boys. Three days a week, our teacher would give us an additional class starting from 2 until 4 in the afternoon. My friends and I will not go home and just stay at the school, waiting for the class to start.

After having our quick lunch one sunny Friday, we decided to play hide and seek to pass the hour. I hate to be the one to seek and unfortunately, I ended being the one to count until ten and seek for my friends. I closed my eyes and leaning against the wall with my face toward the wooden wall, I started to count. I could hear my friends giggled and hurried away to hide. "Ready or not, here I come!" I shouted and started to look for them around the school. I searched from one classroom to another, looking at every corner, under tables and behind doors, but I couldn't find them. Everywhere is quiet and not a sound could be heard.

After searching for 30 minutes, I started to feel irritated. Where could they be hiding? I called out their names, but no answer from them. I searched and searched until I grew really fed-up with them. Still feeling irritated, I stopped to read a notice from the school that I haven't read on the notice board. Suddenly, I felt a gush of wind at my back; as if someone is walking pass me. I swung and looked around, but could not see anyone. Thinking my friends are doing tricks on me, I shouted out loud, "This is not funny!" I started to walk back to my classroom when I heard a strange sound behind me. It's a sound of heavy chains being dragged along the floor. I turned around but strangely enough, nothing was there!

At this point, I began to feel goose bumps. The school suddenly felt so strangely quiet. Not a sound could be heard. Once again, I searched for my friends but I still couldn't find them. Cold sweats trickled down my forehead as I frantically searched for them. In my search, I could hear strange sounds around me; marching boots, whispers and even cries of anguish.

At this point, I begin to believe that my friends were being hide from my view. Not knowing where to go, I ran to the playground, the site where folks believe the burial ground of hundreds of perished Japanese soldiers in 1940's during the war. To my horror, I saw hundreds of hands coming out from the ground. A few grabbed my legs until I couldn't move. I struggled to free myself from their grasps. When I'm finally free, I ran as fast as I could with a scream of fear escaped my lips. At a corner, I bumped into my friends who'd been searching for me high and low. They asked me where the hell have I been? Trembling and sweating with fear, I couldn't utter a word. To tell you the truth, I almost pass out right in front of them.

Until to this day, they didn't know what happened to me. I don't know whether the ghosts hid them from me or me from them. It's a thing that still a mystery to me until to this day. From what I learned, nothing unusual happened to them. They just felt it strange that I didn't go looked for them until they got tired of waiting and searched for me instead. They failed to find me anywhere. That scary experience is enough to freaked me out from playing that game again. I was lucky to be found. What if they never found me?