“What’s all the noise in the stable about?” My mother, the owner of this farm said. She pointed toward the direction of the stable.
“I’ll go check” I uttered to my mother, and then I ran to the stable. The stable was mostly fine except for the horses, they have went wild and I has no idea why. It’s strange, the horses were usually quiet and chill.
“How troubling, I’m certain they wouldn’t stop unless I do something” I went to the storage and equipped my whip, the horses bellowed as I fiercely hit them with it. Soon they’ve gone quiet, and I hope they stay quiet. After I’m done with the job, I saw my mother gesturing for me to go back.
“Hey, did you find out why they’ve been making the noises?” My mother asked me as she no longer hears the voices of the horses.
“No mother, but I made them quiet” I told her what I did, and that the horses were unwilling to stay quiet.
“I heard rumors that some animals can sense the storm coming, how about you go check the weather broadcast while I go for a walk?” My mother ordered me as she left the barn.
“Mother, there’s no need to do so, it’s just rumors” I tried to persuade her as I’m not familiar with the technology stuffs and I don’t like dealing with them. But a horse abruptly interrupted our conversation and darted around the place, we stared at the direction of the stable and what we saw baffled us. A storm, a big one, one big enough to destroy the whole place. We instantly ride on the back of the horse and left without our valuables. I still do regret not listening to my mother, perhaps if I do so, we could’ve bring a few valuables with us.
“What the heck? How is this possible?” I said astonished by what I’ve seen in my hand. I can hardly believe it but I saw my parents name across a profile. I checked once more, not a single difference between the names. I mused, why would my parents both download a dating app? Perhaps they’re just playing a game with each other, I thought. But this theory was overthrown by me as soon as I remembered my parents were’nt even willing to talk to each other lately. I then had the worst of all qualm, they cheated on their own significant other. I sincerely hope that it wasn’t what I thought it was. But one Sunday, I had seen both my father and mother hug with a stranger that I don’t know. To be very honest, I’m disappointed in them to cheat when they still have a kid to raise, my brother.
“Father, are you cheating on my mother?” I queried him as I can’t hold it anymore. He look baffled by my words.
“Of course not, what made you think I did?” He replied in a tone like he’s actually surprised by my question.
“I saw you in a dating app!” I declared irritated by my father’s dishonesty. But abnormally, he laughed out loud.
“You thought we were the one who use the app?” My father uttered, asking a seemingly stupid question to me.
“Who else could it be?” I said to him, and he pointed toward my brother’s room. And then I realized that it was my brother who had been using the dating app, not my parents.
“But who was the girl that hugged you on Sunday?” I asked my one last question.
“That’s my sister, your aunt” He answered finally, and that’s how this event ended.
“How’s my niece?” The muscular man to the nurse. Inside a pure white room sits the one they’re talking about, in an asylum.
“She’s been doing well lately, hopefully she can be out soon” The nurse replied to my uncle humbly and politely, while pulling out a form under the desk, showing my performance in the asylum.
“I see…what is the soonest time my niece can be discharged?” My uncle asked with qualms, he glanced at the direction of my room pitifully.
“Pardon us, but we still need her to stay for around a week to fully ensure she’s safe to be with” The nurse apologized, but I’m 100% positive that I saw a sinister woman in the eye.
“Well, that’s all I’m here to say, bye” My leaving uncle said as he walked away from the asylum. I don’t know why, but I had the feeling that it was the last time I’ll see him. That night, as I was brushing my teeth, my senses told me this mirror doesn’t feel right.
“I know you’re watching me.” Said I, staring at the mirror as no one else was around. Voices of murmuring from behind the mirror were starting to be heard. All the voices slowly seemed to unify and asked me a simple question.
“How do you know this is a two-way mirror?” The voice of a man I don’t recognize questioned.
“I’ve watched a video about how to identify these kind of mirrors before, now can you tell me who are you guys?” I answered and asked a question.
“You’ll see soon” The voice of him said with a wicked tone. Suddenly the door slammed open and mans in black uniform caught me on their back. I didn’t know what this was about back then, but now I know, this asylum was a organ selling organization in hidden.
“3, 2, 1, GO!” The referee announced commencement of the arm wrestle competition. The two men’s vein in a sudden bursted out, their arm twisted, twirled, in attempt to overcome the one in front of them.
“I can feel you’re strength decreased, worned out already?” The man insulted in hope of tarnishing my confidence.
“Maybe if you used the strength you used to insult on your hand, you might win” I vehemently replied to his comment. In a flash I prevailed against his strength and slammed his hand on the table. I celebrated with my arm up as I earned the trophy. I bragged about this astonishing news in my school, I showed off my trophy too. This information spread all over my school, girls get attract by me, boys envy my robust body.
“Quite being so cocky, your strength will become your downfall one day” My parents lectured me, they have no idea how great my power is, there is absolutely no way this power could bring misfortune. On a typical usual day I received an invitation to my friend’s party, with no reason to deny, I came to his party. The party was located inside an arcade, piles of arcade cabinets filled the room, brimming neon lights all around the place. We reveled by dancing, drinking beers, and of course playing arcades.
Abruptly, someone cried from within the crowd, “fire! There’s fire!”. People screamed in horror, they all rushed to the one and only exit. Flames devoured the one who aren’t fast enough, I tried hard to not join them but my huge body couldn’t squeeze through the crowd, nor the arcades cabinets blocking my way. As the blazing flames touched my body, I felt the most intense pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. My body has fallen unconscious from the enormous pain, when I woke up I’m already on the bed of a hospital. It really is a relief that I survived.
“Poke! Poke! Where are you?” The little girl screamed as loud as she could in hope of finding her lost pet dog, Poke. She wears a oversized coat that barely fits her, gifted by her own sister. Struggling to keep balance, she cautiously stumbles around.
“Ah, Poke there you are” The girl said as she finally finds her dog, Poke shoved his head inside the girl’s body in order to keep warm. She tried to went back from where she came, but she realized she was lost. She roamed around the frozen lake while shout her father’s name. The fog blocks her view, all she could see in her sight is the lake.
“Poke, you’re so heavy can you please come down from my chest?” The girl said as she can’t bear the weight of the dog no more, Poke reluctantly left her warm chest and darted around the lake. Surprisingly, the dog kept his balance very well despite him running around. As so she no longer worries about him tripping. But ironically as soon as she removed him from her sight, she heard the shriek of her dog from tripping. She attempted to hurry to his side but she forgot to keep her balance and fell on the hard ice. The ice started to break, cracks crawled to the girl as she watched in terror. Poke barked and rushed to her but it was not helpful at all.
“Dad!” The girl in peril cried, miraculously his dad quickly came to her and saved her from this terrible situation.
“What did I told you to stay away from this frozen lake!” He demands while hugging his daughter, “do you know how worried I am?”
“I’m sorry dad, I’ll be more careful next time” the girl promised as she left the lake with her father.
“Dave! Come wash the dishes we finished our meals” Alex, my nominal wife said. I am a man originally belonged in the slum, Alex who had recently lost her husband found me in the corner of the street. Her parents pushed her to marry another man, since she just lost the one she had been married to due to unknown reasons. With all the conditions that had happened, as a result she have to find a new husband, and she have chosen me to be it, perhaps because of my good looks. Although she is my nominal wife, she treats me like servants, including her young children.
“Eat this you disgusting creature, your existence is giving me a nausea” one of her children declared while shoving a brown object that’s omitting unpleasant odor into my plate. My status here is low as dirt.
“Eww, what’s all the smell? Transfer this filthy thing into where it belongs in!” Alex demanded as she walk down the stairs grasping her nose.
“Pardon me, ma’am” I followed her order as I have no choice but to obey. This undignified object disgusted me but this family disgusted me even more.
“I’ve had enough!” I yelled at the woman, “I am leaving this miserable palace and back into where I should be!” This declaration baffled her, she never expected me to give up my current life and back to where I once was.
“Hold on a minute, are you sure you’ve think it throughly? It is a frivolous action for you to leave” Alex said trying to persuade me. My ability as a servant was too high for her to easily let go.
“I never belonged here anyway.” I said to her and to myself, I’ve finally reached my long lost freedom that is forbidden from being sealed in here.
“Whoa, what is this?” I asked astonished at what my friend showed me inside his newly arrived package. The thing inside is covered with a black sheet of paper.
“Secret, I’ll show you tomorrow” he replied to my question, he folded the box and put it in his closet. The box isn’t big enough to contain boxes of snacks, nor so small to just only contain just a iPhone. I was requested to leave right after the show of the package. As I am walking on the street, returning home, I couldn’t resist or suppress my curiosity and urge to take a look at the veiled package.
“A peek wouldn’t hurt” I said to myself, I changed my destination to my friend’s house, I decided to sneak inside and check the hidden secret behind the hinder. The temptation was too great for me to resist. The light was still on in my friends house, I could see the shadows of their family, seemingly decorating their house. I cautiously tip toed to the open window of my friend’s own room. I crawled into the room quietly without anyone noticing, silently opened the closet then the package. At last throw the last obstacle, the black sheet of paper, aside and what’s inside baffles me.
“Birthday hat? What the heck is this, I thought it’ll be something more interesting” I complained, stand up and prepared to get out using the route I take to get in.
“Who’s there!” My friend bellowed to me, “why are you here? I told you to come tomorrow” he uttered, shocked by my appearance in his house.
“Sorry, I couldn’t hold back my curiosity” I apologized, “you ruined the surprise!” He yelled so loud that his family all heard him.
“Ok, I guess we seriously wasted our time preparing this birthday party for him” his brother said.
“Bastard! I won’t allow you to wreck havoc anymore!” The hero declared, “HA!” He yelled as he approached the monster. In just one blow, his punch penetrated the monster’s body and opened a hole on his belly.
“We’re saved!” The crowd cried, an abundance of journalists rushed to the hero, newly arrived one shoved their way into the crowd of journalists. They all attempted to interview the hero, no one noticed the assistant in the corner.
“Dammit, I already told him to not fight so recklessly, it’ll take a lot of money to heal and repair the mess” I complained, “at this rate when will I accumulate enough money to buy a house”.
“Ugh, all the cost of the damage is taken from my salary” he said letting out a sigh, his lecture to persuade the hero to fight less reckless always end up in futile, they pay not to care about minor peoples. Another miserable day of him, he went back home.
“Dad! The hero is so cool I wanna grow up into people like him” my son said while he was watching the video of the hero beating up evil monsters. I felt so jealous of the hero, even my son admire him, I thought. Yet, there was nothing I can do about it, I’m just a nobody. It made me even more depressed thinking of the fact that no one recognized the character behind the stages.
“What’s wrong with you? You’ve hardly ever been in accompany with our son lately” my wife asked sincerely.
“I guess I’m sort of depressed, the salary I am getting is way too low, and that hero jerk” I uttered, but she didn’t reply, she just left me in my room. I lay on my bed and thinks of life, maybe I should be more optimistic, I thought and went down stair to my son. I played his favorite game with him, watching him laugh and smile, so did I.
“Who wanna play hide and seek?” The literacy teacher asked loudly so everyone can hear her, as kindergartners, we screamed to express our excitement. Once we got out of the building and in to the playground, we immediately scattered around and hide everywhere, we watched and waited until the teacher count to zero.
“Three, two, one, zero! Ah let’s see where had you guys been hiding?” The teacher said playfully, some of us can’t hold it and let out small giggles. The teacher found us on by one, we didn’t know before that she was just pretending to not find us, if she tried to for real, we’ll be all caught in a minute.
As only about a half of kindergarteners remain, the cunning teacher said “oh no! It was time for you guys to go, come out everyone”, a few of us believed her ruse and came out resulting them being caught. Fortunately, I have a watch so I didn’t fall for her trick. The teacher seemingly noticed tremors inside her pocket, she picked her phone and had a brief conversation with the one in the other side.
“Come out everyone! There’s a kidnapper coming toward the building, we need to go inside!” The teacher urgently shouted and gestured for everyone to come out, but of course, nobody answered her call for converge. We were deceived into thinking that it was another trick to fool us to expose ourself, but this time it was for real. Stress, anxiety, and pressure tarnished her mind, the one whom was originally capable of easily finding us suddenly couldn’t anymore.
“AAAAAH” one of the hiders screamed across the playground, a man in black cloak had him in his arms. The kid cursed and kicked but the man just won’t loosen his arms. He kidnapped and carried the kid to his car before the teacher could reach them. This incident spread throughout the school, now no teacher bring students out to play hide and seek.
“You’re inviting your friend to go on a road trip today after school?” My mother asked me before I get on the school bus.
“Yes mother, I won’t be back for dinner tonight” I reassured her in case she forgot and made an extra meal as she did in the past.
“Enjoy the road trip with your friends today” my mother blessed me, I went on the bus right away before my mother could continue yapping.
I arrived at school and had an usual routine, finally after dismiss, I can go on the road trip. Me and my friends converged at where the preordered truck parked.
“Who’s excited for the trip!” I shouted across the parking lot, everyone raised their hands high up in the air, “let’s go!” I celebrated.
The internal of the truck was narrow and unpleasantly dark, “by the way, why did you ordered a truck instead of a bus?” One of my friends asked me.
“It was the cheapest one I could find, quite complaining, the truck may be unpleasant but it has its charm” I said in order to stop the complaint.
“I just hope that it won’t take us to a trafficker group that will steal our organs” one of us cracked a joke, everyone in the truck let out a laugh.
The truck driver turned around in astonishment, “you’re right, how did you know?” The truck driver said in a deep voice, “umm, Mister is that joke?” The friend who told the joke said.
He gives us a smirk, and kept driving, we all sense something to be off. We looked out the window, the truck isn’t going where it was supposed to be going.
“Quick, somebody call the police!” I cried, but nobody reacted, “what’s wrong? Why aren’t any of you calling the police?” I questioned urgently.
“Our parent forbidden us to bring our phone…” all of my friends said altogether.
