Chapter 4

Halfway through the game Ella said she had to go home so we took a break and mom drove her home. As we were discussing what game to play next, Susie came out and asked to play with us. I wanted to say no, but then Alexa said she could. I figured she would get bored soon enough. Eventually we decided on hide and seek. I was hesitant because the last time I played hide and seek with Susie, she tricked me and ran inside. But everyone else had already decided so, that was that. We did rock, paper, scissors to determine who would be the seeker. It ended up being Daniel. He turned around, started counting, and we all ran to hide.  

I had just gotten into the forest to find a hiding spot, when I heard him call out “Ready or not, here I come!”. I decided to run a little deeper into the forest. I got to a little clearing and looked around. There were trees, but I figured that would be too easy. Especially since I can’t climb trees very well so it would really be me standing behind a tree.  So, I decided to hide behind a log I found. The ground was moist as I sat down. I waited for about 10 minutes and then started wondering why nobody had found me yet. Just then I heard voices. At first, I thought it was my friends coming to find me, but then I realized that they sounded different, almost like whispers, coming from deeper in the forest. I heard a twig snap behind me and immediately turned around. I didn’t know if my eyes were playing tricks on me or if there was something there, but for a moment I thought I saw something running through the forest. I rubbed my eyes, looked again, decided I was done with hide and seek for the day, and ran back into the yard. When I came out of the forest, I saw my friends coming over to me. “Where were you?” Daniel asked “We looked everywhere for you!”. “What do you mean?” I asked “I was just in the forest.” “We looked you weren’t there.” We were all silent. Then my mom called from the house “Kids! Your parents want you to go home for dinner!”. We looked at each other and then back at the forest, then we walked up to the house.  

After we took them home it was time for us to eat dinner, but when we got home, we couldn’t find Susie. Mom made dinner and asked my dad to tell Susie to come down for dinner but dad said he thought she went with us. “What do you mean?” mom asked “I thought she was with you!”.  

I started to worry, was Susie actually gone or was this just another one of her tricks?