[BC] A Game of Hide and Seek

It was a blazing hot day in the middle of summer vacation. A group of nine-year old friends are sitting outside on Janice's front porch eating a melting popsicle. The popsicle is literally dripping slowly down their fingers. Eventually, the friends decide to head inside Janice's house, where there is air conditioner.

The group of friends decide to play a game of hide and seek. Janice is counting to ten. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven ,eight , nine, ten, ready or not here I come... Adrenaline kicks in Lauren. She finds herself standing in front of an old door with paint chipping off of it. The first thing that came to Lauren's mind is that she's about to enter Janice's basement. She opens the creaking door quickly and walks in. The rusty hinges of the old door squealed like fingernails on a dusty chalkboard.

Once entering, she finds herself surrounded in a  blanket of darkness. She hears a loud slam, noticing it's the door behind her. Lauren's heart rate is increasing as the feeling of panic is making it's way into her. She tries to search for the light switch around her, but she suddenly remembers something. Before the game, Janice had warned the group of friends to not hide in the basement because the light switch is towards the back wall of the basement. She felt as if someone had spun and blind-folded her, then shoved her inside a closet. She somehow makes her way down the old concrete stairs one step at a time. She finds her hands touching a  sharp, rough surface. At first, she's thinking that she's going to use this to help keep her balance down the stairs. She then realizes that this is the stair railing. She grips the railing and feels something soft brush across her left cheek. "It tickles", she thought to herself. She shakes her head and and touches her cheek. A soft, sticky feeling brushes against her fingertips. It was a gross, old spiderweb. She shrieks. She was grossed out for sure.

Lauren finds that the rough surface is disappearing. She makes her way down the last step. Stepping foot on the smooth concrete basement floor was comforting, yet that meant she now has to search for that stupid old light switch. She walks into a wooden drawer. She uses her hands to feel what it is. Her hands touch something that feels like powder. She concluded that "powder" being dust. The feeling of panic is rushing back again. Sweat was forming on her hands and slowly, dripping around her eyes, down her face. Blood is rushing down her face. Her face is beginning to burn up. She's suddenly feeling nauseous inside. She thinks positively and makes a detour from the drawer. She touches a smooth yet rough surface again. It's a brick wall. She made it to the wall. She's patting the wall in search for that light switch. Jackpot, she felt the light switch. Lauren felt like a bunch of bricks have fallen from her shoulders. She flipped the switch, but nothing happened. She tried again, but still nothing. The ancient light bulb must have burned out a long time ago.

Lauren has no more hope left inside. She makes a decision to go back up the stairs. This time, she's on her hands and knees. She kneels on the cold, solid ground. She crawls into to something firm, but light. When she pushed it, it slid over. She used her hands to identify what this object was. It was an empty cardboard box. She pushed it to her left. Finally, she reached her first step. Slowly, she made her way up one cold step at a time. Suddenly, a sharp pain hits her head. It had a rough surface. It was the stair railing. Somehow, she managed to crawl right into the railing. A few minutes later, she found herself face-to-face with the solid, rusty-hinged door . She twisted the rusty door knob and she was free at last. A burst of brightness hit her eyes, as if she was a newborn opening its eyes for the first time.

Lauren ran out of the darkness and caught up with her friends. Her friends were calling her name, but apparently, she didn't hear them. She told them what happened. Janice warned her in the first place. Lauren agreed to never step foot in a basement again alone, or at least without a flashlight!