For about fifteen minutes I've been hidden behind this wall.
My sitting down, in its very small amount of shade, the wall being the gate to my house.
I feel like people would look at me weird if I were to sit on the other side of the gate, making looks at me that'll say:
Steel ain't raising that kid right…
Or maybe just ignore me, because I'm a four year old kid, playing with his friends.
'I should remember that, I'm a kid now, not my older self, the sad self, the one that had the mother that didn't appreciate anything I did, and pushed me under the pedestal when I could have walked higher. The one with a father that never even looked his way unless it was to get something from the television.'
Footsteps on the other side of the wall breaks me out of my mindless wandering experience.
The crunching of dirt has never been more scary.
The sounds of crunching stops, as if it was right behind the other side of the wall.
I take a deep breath as I turn my head completely up to get the best use out of my singular useful eye.
Nothing.
I sigh as there is nothing.
Then I heard a rock fall on the left side of my eye, the place I can't see from.
Turning my head completely I see Wes climbing over the wall sneakily, unsuccessfully I might add.
He looks down at the ground, then toward me.
Just like I've understood what to do from the very moment he dropped that rock from the gate.
I rush away, with a backwards crawl as he fully makes it over, no longer caring about being able to get to me sneakily.
"You gonna chase me?"
I start hopping left and right.
"Not fair you're too fast."
"You said the same about your sister."
He grumbled as he looked at me.
The gate to my left, kinda impossible to see with my peripheral vision.
So I have to rely on the amount of walls behind Wes.
Bouncing from the right to the left.
Wes jumps into action running straight for me.
I hop left and with the most amount of force I can muster I jump over the rocky gates that protects my house.
I trip on the top rock making me nearly fall face first to the ground.
I pull myself up and to my feet, running as fast as I can, tripping, once, twice, thrice, before I'm fully able to get to my feet.
I turn back and see Wes over the gate already.
I push as hard as my feet can and kick dirt in the direction of Wes.
I smile as I forget the horrible memories that I was just remembering, now embracing the currency moment that I'm in.
A child, young and happily running from a friend while playing hide and seek.
"Freak you Lazuli!"
Wes says as his voice gets further and further away.
'Life has been good so far, excluding a few moments, besides that. I wouldn't change it for anything.'
I continue to run.
Slowly ever so slightly.
I turn back to see how close Wes is to me.
And like a jump scare he's right behind me, hand sticking out as he reaches for me.
I continue running, picking up speed, as I fly past many people, mostly adults that are walking around:
"Sorry!"
Flying past another person's house and a big rock, that has a sign next to it reading:
The Golem Of Erical.
The tree is in my sight, Marcilene and Elsa talking unaware of the chase, and turning back once more, Wes isn't as close as he once was.
I give a sigh, but I don't slow, learning after my mistake.
"Can't catch me, I'm too faaaaaaasst!"
I say as I get closer to the tree, and I hear footsteps getting louder behind me as I get closer and with my eyes closing for a minute not wanting to look back in fear of another jump scare.
Marcilene looks in my direction first, follow by Elsa.
They both wave to me to hurry up.
I push my feet faster.
"I'm right here."
I can hear the strained voice in Wes' voice.
'He pushing himself faster to catch me, but can't go faster to get away from his sister?! Freak this guy!'
I push just a bit harder.
The distance between the tree and myself shrinking again and again.
"Come on, I'm so close."
Wes says again, giving himself a pep talk.
My back grows chills, as if I've already been tagged by Wes.
Slowly and slowly the world around me shrinks, purely focused on the tree that is deemed our home base, that has both Marcilene and Elsa there.
For a second I hear the sound of clicking again, the same one from very early this morning the one that frightened Steel and Rez, making them send me back and putting them on an expedition to find out where it was coming from.
Closer and closer I get the clicking is like it's growing louder in my head and, I step on my other foot, I trip roll and tumble as I'm ever so close to the tree, but with a slight tap on my back.
I've been deemed:
It.
With both the last two players here, I'm left to count now, my head placed on the tree trunk.
"Have fun Lazuli!"
Elsa says as she take Marcilene in her hand, both of them giggling as they walk off.
Wes follows them for a bit, but Elsa turn to him:
"Girls only."
"But we can both hide to…"
She swipes her finger in his face.
"Wes, we both know you'll most likely get caught, again."
A good amount of emphasis on again, as Elsa continues to grab Marcilene and walk off.
"I'm gonna count soon, Wes."
I say turning once.
He nods then walks off.
With his nod and walk away my counting begins, but in the process, like its clockwork at this point, I hear the clicking again.
'It's like the clicking is calling me.'
With a tilt of my head and me looking away from the tree trunk I turn in the direction of the treeline.
I slightly lift up my eye patch and see the say color of an aura, that was the same as the Marcilene and the girl back at the tent of the slavers.
Looking closer it looks like she is pointing at something.
Trying my absolute best at looking for her finger I see weird colors in front of me, after my vision goes over the tree that we are using as a home base.
My eye begins to sting a bit from looking at it.
Lifting up my hand I grab at the weird colors, as soon as I grab it the colors start to crumble to reveal singular colors that take a completely different form.
One being an orange color aura that covers over Marcilene, and a blue colored aura that covers Elsa.
"That's cheating you took off you eye patch."
Marcilene says as I put my patch back on.
"Yeah… wait how's that cheating?"
Marcilene looks at Elsa.
"He can see people's Soul Energy."
Elsa tilts her head.
"That means that when you activated your invisible magic, he saw us immediately."
She badly whispered.
"What?! You are a cheater!"
She points at me and gives me a face of guilt.
I give her one back as well.
"That doesn't count your using magic to hide yourself, how were we ever supposed to find you?"
I pause just having thought of more:
"No better yet, how was Wes supposed to find you?"
They look between each other and shrug.
"He wasn't supposed to."
'Goddamned cheaters!'
"So he was supposed to be looking for eternity?"
"Yeah."
'Like twin evil doer's!'
My mental face gives them both sour looks, my physical faces looks at them with squinting eyes.
"You guys are the cheater."
They both look between each other.
"Atleast we didn't need to run."
I grumble at them.
"Okay, you guys lost help me look for Wes."
"Nope."
Elsa shakes her head and looks away.
"Why?"
"Because you have to look. That's how hide and seek works. We help we're it."
"Your it regardless of what you do. You were caught first."
I say.
"I thought it was last caught, why would it be last caught, if they had a better spot and hid better?"
Elsa asks as she looks at Marcilene.
"I don't know, I've only ever played with Lazi."
Marcilene defends herself.
"Why don't you know?"
Marcilene asks looking at Elsa.
"I only ever played with Wes."
Elsa defends herself.
They both sigh.
But something dawns on me, the clicking sound is no more, it was like she was helping me win hide and seek.
"Doesn't matter just help me find him."
As it turn to walk away, I bump into someone.
A woman wearing a poncho and a cowl, that has both hoodies of them off, and is somehow managing to wear both of those in this horrible sunlight.
She has purple hair, natural from the way, the color starts at her roots.
'Wow.'
Her face having one of the dullest but scary RBF's ever.
Her eyes alert for almost everything with the black irises that take down my entire childish form.
Her height about two feet taller than me, and I'm like three foot, nine, so that lady is pretty short, her face does have wrinkles hinting at her age, but they look smoothed out, liked the wrinkles faded away with time, not stretching with it.
A blinging necklace, with the eight sided Star swing back and forth on her neck.
I pause and look up at her.
"Sorry…"
I rub my head.
The lady still eyes me up and down.
"Be more careful next time."
She says in such a harsh tone. As she begins to walk off and ignore me.
Marcilene comes beside me, along with Elsa on the other side, just out of my peripheral because she on the left.
"You okay Lazi?"
Marcilene asks.
"Yeah I'm fine."
'Damn, what a mean ass woman.'
Wes comes back from seemingly no where as he walks beside an adult, disguising himself as their kid before finally breaking off and heading to the tree, or better yet, homebase.
"I got the base…. You guys suck."
He flaunted as he got off of base and hopped around like he had just completed the best thing in the world, then both Marcilene and Elsa stare at each other.
"Dang it."
They say in unison, then they laugh.
"How about we both be it?"
Elsa says.
"What..?"
"Yeah."
Marcilene agrees.
"What..?"
Like my voice isn't heard.
"You can do that?"
They look at me and both nod.
"Yes we can."
'They turned into the most annoying twins ever.'
All of us walk to the base and explain it all to Wes, most of the time he looks to Marcilene instead is Elsa as they both explain.
He doesn't say anything nor does he complain once.
'This sucks as a hide and seek game mode.'
~~~
Steel lays on the couch, his hand covering his head, as it feels the most comfortable thing to do at the moment.
A knock at the door.
"Who's it?!"
He yells from the window.
And then he feels a slight presence of something beginning to make their way toward the window that he lying next to.
Steel wraps his hand in Soul Energy, the color vibrant on his hand.
And as he launches himself to get ready to attack before they do.
He's greeted with a bow to the face.
He smiles, ingeniously.
"Well, if it isn't the wonderful Sply!"