In the latest edition of an ongoing series of reader written experiences, started here and here, a truly harrowing tale unfolds in a galactic game of cat and mouse. As always, the authenticity of this story is purported to be true by its writer. This is the first of a multi-part article, as the nature of this story calls for more than one article.
Jacob Bartholomew
In the quiet expanse of the universe, where the stars whisper secrets, I found myself an unwitting contestant in a game that transcended planetary boundaries. This is the tale of my abduction by extraterrestrial beings and my unexpected foray into the cosmic spectacle of the Hide and Seek Championship of Earth.
I groggily opened my eyes and glanced around in confusion. I had gone to sleep in my bed at home next to my wife, but now I was alone in what looked to be a sterile white room with a lone chair in the center. Suddenly, a holographic being appeared before me and began to explain my situation in English. Apparently I was onboard an alien spacecraft, one that promised intergalactic patrons unique gambling opportunities for something called “space bucks”. I was to be the human entry in a tournament to determine Earth’s champion sentient species in the game of Hide and Seek. I frantically tried to think straight, unsure if I heard the last part correctly. Were they suggesting there were non-human sentient beings on Earth?
The rules were as alien as my captors, who explained there were eight competitors in the tournament, insisting I face off against a formidable opponent from the Earth in the first round. They swore to my safe return if I was victorious, but nothing more. Presumably, my opponents were being given the same introduction in their own blank rooms.
The being disappeared before I was able to question anything. A holographic sign appeared in its place, vibrantly showing the heading ROUND ONE MATCH – HUMAN V WENDIGO. I shuddered deeply, realizing the implications of the sign. Not only was the Wendigo, a fabled creature whose possible existence had chilled the bones of countless peoples on Earth, a real thing, but I would have to face one in an open confrontation for my survival.
A shimmering portal opened beneath the holographic sign, which had changed to show a message stating ENTER ZONE. A clock displaying 5 seconds appeared below it and started to count down. I hesitated for a moment, but not wanting to find out what happened when time ran out, I leapt into the portal as the clock from 1 to 0.
Our battleground: a wooded nightmare dreamscape, where the trees seemed to dance with spectral shadows, and the air held a frosty bite that pierced through to the soul. As if the setting alone weren’t ominous enough, the voices of my departed loved ones whispered in the cold wind, weaving a haunting symphony of the past. Clearly the wendigo had gotten home court advantage in our match-up.
The game’s structure was simple but unnerving. Two out of three rounds decided the victor. A seeker wins upon discovering the hider within five minutes, while the hider prevails if they manage to elude capture.
Round one saw me as the hunted. I ran to the trees and crouched in the bushes, shivering in the cold embrace of the surreal environment. Terrified and vulnerable, I waited as the wendigo, with its keen senses, effortlessly seemed to picked up on my fear. I heard distant screams, then whispers from my past, then a mixture of echoing low growls and sinister laughter. I heard the snap of twigs behind me and I whirled my head around. I scanned the forest, but saw only the black inky night. When I turned back, the horror was in my face, a haunting visage of gaunt jaundiced flesh barely covering a skull with yellow sunken eyes that shined in the darkness. As the shadows of its antlers enveloped me, it reached out and touched my shoulder, and even through my jacket, it felt as if my skin had turned to ice. I had lost my first round.
The second round found me as the seeker, which made me feel a little more at ease, but then I realized no one had been able to find the wendigo on Earth. I gulped hard as I looked out onto the landscape, an ever shifting nightmare now with a field of empty chairs. I spotted him easily, as the wendigo, burdened by its massive antlers, attempted to find refuge. Adapting to my human strengths, I moved stealthily through the dreamscape before breaking into a sprint, discovering the wendigo’s hiding place with relative ease. One-one.
The decisive third round hinged on a coin flip, and I held my breath as I watched the space coin dance in the air. When it landed human side up, there were no words to describe my sense of relief as I shouted that I wanted to be the seeker. Channeling every ounce of determination, I combed the nightmarish landscape, my senses heightened by the cosmic stakes. Against the wendigo’s struggle to conceal itself with giant antlers, I uncovered its location, clinching victory and advancing in the tournament.
As I stood victorious in that surreal dreamscape, the cheers of unseen cosmic spectators echoed through the void. The Hide and Seek Championship had only just begun, and I, an ordinary human, had become an unexpected cosmic contender.
In the vast expanse of the universe, where mysteries unfold like cosmic tapestries, my journey continued—a journey beyond the stars, where each challenge brought me closer to understanding the enigmatic nature of the cosmos and the extraordinary games played within it.
James (Last Name Withheld to Protect Privacy)
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