Chapter 4 – Hide and seek

The two were simply drawing, all the content servants had left for their masters, who had something to tell them.

There was nothing out of the ordinary this cloudy evening. The rain had ceased to fall hours ago and the mud in the puddles had settled at the bottom, leaving them crystal clear, able to reflect the green shrubbery.

There was no wind so the reflections stayed clear and sparkling. Meanwhile, the floor had become littered with papers.

There was a total of at least fifty papers on the floor in the small room. It was quiet and calm. Almost too much like the calm before the storm.

"Let's use orange here!" She giggled and drew circles across the white paper.

"Ok! I'll paint the leaf!"

Page grabbed the crayon and together another flower was painted. They laughed and giggled. It was quite loud.

Sadly, too quiet to overshadow the loud bang. It sounded like a gun. Ann shrieked and Page dropped the crayon. It rolled all the way over to the other end of the square-shaped room.

Suddenly the door flew open, her mother, panting, stood in the door frame. Every sense of this nice calm had vanished. In fact, you could see a bead of sweat on her forehead.

"Children!" She rushed to the floor and hugged them both, for a brief time before facing them. She held each shoulder and locked gazes.

"Listen to me." Both of them stayed silent to listen.

Page felt a bit queasy and her mother's rushed demeanour wasn't helping.

"You two stay here. I want you both to hide." She tried to smile and speak slowly but the glances towards the door ruined that completely. It was clear that their mother was nervous right now.

Ann, who felt overwhelmed, began to cry and looked at her mother. Her mother, too stressed to answer, couldn't respond and instead just looked at her. This made it all only worse. Then

Page came to her mother's rescue. "You know, we are playing hide and seek. Mother is just saying that you and me will be the hiders. Mom will leave and seek for us."

Page looked at her mother, who felt reassured by her daughter. With a nod she happily agreed. Then she left the room.

"Ok, Ann! Let's hide in here. How about under the bed?"

"YES!" Ann, who was excited to play with her mother, luckily had calmed down.

Just as Ann was getting under the bed the clacking of boots could be heard. The steps were too loud to be far away.

They were here. Someone, and Page didn't have time to hide.

It was questionable if Ann alone could hide in time. Page who looked at the door saw the handle being pressed down. Hurriedly she pushed Ann under the bed.

As the door opened, she whispered to her sister. "No matter what you hear. Stay hidden. I'll search for another hiding spot!"

Ann said nothing and simply smiled innocently.

 Page meanwhile got up and rushed behind the door.

Her plan was to run when the man had turned toward the bed. Distracting him and luring him away from her sister.

Then the door was half opened, Page behind the door and the heavy steps filled the room.

One step in, halfway to the bed. Another step. Right in front of the bed. It was a woman; she was wearing black and carried a knife.

Her hair was even darker than Page's and tied up neatly. Within seconds she could feel her gaze focusing on nothing for long. A knife. Silver blade and black grip. How scary. Terrified, the girl just wanted to run.

 Page quickly stepped through the door, she looked back.

The woman had turned around and was on her way to the door when Page slammed it shut. Creating some head-start for herself she sprinted on.

Taking the second door. A white one. She was in her parent's study. There were bookshelves, a sofa under which she would never fit and-

"The desk!" hurriedly she ran and cowered herself under the desk.

She could only hope the woman hadn't seen where she went. If she did, she couldn't be sure what was going to happen to her. Then suddenly she heard another gunshot. At first one then two.

Then a scream "All of you get down here. We need backup with the leaders!"

Lucky for her the steps of the woman were quite loud so she could make out that the woman too should have left for downstairs wherever that was. She was just glad that it was further away from her.

Then as she felt a bit more secure, she looked out of the window in front of her. She could see the yard.

"Mother and Father are there!"

At first, she was happy, that was until she saw what was going on. Her face darkened and her hands began to shiver. Fear ate at her and her vision blurred. Tears were forming in her eyes.

This after all was tough for her little heart. She worried for her life and those of her loved ones for the first time.

It was painful knowing they all could fall into a deep slumber in the matter of seconds. She hated the uncertainty that evoked terrifying unending fear in the little Page's mind and body.