In part two of a story that began here, our hero finds himself about to enter round two of the Hide and Seek Tournament of Earth, a tournament held aboard an alien space craft, pitting eight representatives of the Earth’s sentient species against each other for the purposes of gambling. As always, user submissions are purported to be true by the writer. Let’s see where part two of this story picks up!
Jacob Bartholomew
I awoke again in my sterile white room seeming at the moment I tagged the wendigo, as if it were all a dream. I looked around the blank room, hoping to see what would be next. Suddenly the holographic sign snapped into existence before me. ROUND TWO MATCH: HUMAN V LAKE MONSTER it read as I gasped, questions bombarding my mind. What was a lake monster exactly? Like the Loch Ness Monster or the thing that’s supposed to be in Lake Champlain? If so, were those things supposed to be sentient?
Before I had time to think about these questions, the sign changed to read ENTER ZONE, with a shimmering portal and a five second clock underneath, counting down. I swallowed hard and jumped through the portal.
I landed with a splash, in the shallows of a giant lake lit with moonlight. I scrambled to the shore and tried to shake off as much as the water as I could. The holographic sign shown before me and moved with my vision regardless of where I turned my head, displaying the rules of the game again, that the seeker had five minutes to find the hider before victory was given to the hidden participant. In round one, I was to be the seeker.
The sign faded away and a timer was placed in the top right corner, a vibrant red five minute counter started to count down. The task of finding an aquatic animal in a giant lake was going to be a difficult task, and I started to scan the surface of the water for signs of my opponent. Under different circumstances, the serene moonlight shining off of the water would have been pleasant, romantic even, as the water was tranquil and quiet.
Suddenly with a splash, the surface of the water broke about 50 yards in from the shore. A massive horse-like serpentine head rose up from the surface and shrieked in my direction, water shown like diamonds of reflected moonlight as it sprayed from its open mouth. I was frozen in place. Even though I could be done with this round if I made contact with the creature, the rows of sharp teeth that extended below its opened lips kept me locked on the shore. It then turned and dove into the water, showcasing a tail at least twenty feet long which slapped the water before it disappeared. If I could just get close enough to graze that tail, I’d be okay. I started to trudge into the water.
The creature swam slowly away from me, surfacing every few seconds, its tail becoming repeatedly exposed as it flitted back and forth. I tried to reach out while swimming, as the ground beneath me became unreachable in the water. I was literally in over my head before the creature disappeared into the inky black waters.
I was alone in dark black waters, the shore behind me a distant memory. I looked around me before I heard a splash far to my right, then another far to my left. The thing was circling me at an unimaginable speed, causing the waters around me to swirl and begin to pull me downwards. I realized at once that I’d been played, the creature swam slowly to lure me into the depths, and now intended to drown me. Sentient indeed.
Just as the waters started to swallow me down, and I began to choke and gasp for air as I desperately tried to claw for something solid, a shrill buzz sounded to signify that the round was over. I was suddenly again on the shores, and it was my turn to hide.
I turned from the lake and sprinted to find refuge on an elevated land, trying to conceal myself amidst dense bushes. The lake monster darted along the shoreline, its massive form occasionally popping above the waterline in search of its elusive prey. It passed by without seeing me, and continued along the rocks that bordered the lake. From my vantage point, I watched as the monster scoured the distant shores, its efforts in vain as the seeking clock ticked down to zero.
As the third round loomed, I again had to hold my breath and let the coin toss decide my fate. The coin flew in the air and came down on its side, rolling along the beach’s rounded rocks. It settled showing the human side up, granting me the pivotal decision of being the seeker or hider. Opting for the latter, I was immediately placed in the shallows of the lake, next to a small island of heavy brush. I immediately scrambled ashore and struggled my way into the brush, briars and thorns tearing at my skin. When I heard a splash close by I stopped moving, my body held off the ground by layers of brambles, but concealed from the view of the shore. Or so I hoped.
The lake monster, fueled by its previous defeat, proved far more aggressive this round, sniffing the air and not moving from the shores of the island. Suddenly, it started to lurch out of the water, moving as a seal would on the shoreline, continuing to snort and smell the sands and rocks. Did it smell my blood?
My heart leapt to my throat as it looked my way and screeched. It had spotted me, and lumbered in my direction. The clock was ticking down as I frantically tried to get myself deeper into the thick brush. It snapped and thrust its head into the briars, snorting and shrieking as it did so. The snaps of its teeth were so close, I could feel the heat of each breath it exhaled.
I was saved by the bell once again, probably by a matter of centimeters, as I was declared victorious by means of the seeker running out of time. I was incredibly lucky the monster was hindered by its terrestrial limitations, and came perilously close to not only losing the competition, but my life to the snapping toothy jaws of the beast.
With two rounds in the bag, I now stood on the brink of the tournament’s final challenge, my mind buzzing with anticipation and uncertainty. As I prepare for the ultimate showdown, I wonder who my final opponent will be in this surreal hide and seek tournament. The stakes are high, the challenges unpredictable, and the thrill of the unknown awaits in the climactic finale.
James (Last Name Withheld to Protect Privacy)
Check in Monday to read the chilling final chapter of James’s story. And again, if you have a story you would like to submit for publication on our site, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll take a look at it. I do some editing to ensure it’s up to our standards and to make myself feel worthy of a paycheck, but I do not change anything pertinent to the story as a whole. Thanks for reading!
