Photo Credit: A Mixed Bag – 2016
“…18 Mississippi…19 Mississippi…20 Mississippi. I hate this game.”
Pete slid the barn door open just enough to slip through.
“Ugh! It stinks in here. Buddy, come on…just come out!” Silence.
“Buddy! I’m not kidding. It’s creepy in here! I’m going to count to ten and if you aren’t out by then, I’m leaving.”
“…8…9…10…okay…bye!”
Pete plopped in front of the tv. After several hours, his mom called from the kitchen. “Hey Pete, didn’t you say you were with Buddy today?”
“Yeah…I played with him. That lame game of hide and seek!”
“Well, I just got a call from Buddy’s mom. He hasn’t been home all afternoon. They’re starting to worry. Where did you say you last saw him?”
Pete slumped under a feeling of dread. “We were in the woods by that old barn. He wouldn’t come out, so I came home.”
Hours turned into days, days to weeks. They never found Buddy. It was years before the authorities were finally able to connect Buddy’s disappearance to a pattern of abductions in the area.
…And years before Pete could come to terms with the guilt. He never played hide and seek again.
kat ~ 9 January 2016
(200 words)
Al Forbes has provided the creepy photo above for this weeks Sunday Photo Fiction Challenge. You can read some of the other stories, or try writing your own by click HERE to visit Al’s page.
like mercury colliding... 