1 Chapter 1 Hide and Seek

1880

Somewhere in Tijja Saan

The flame flashed bright for just a split second, before it went out completely. Slowly, the cold seeped back into the room and into my body, making my bones stiff.

I adjusted myself on the bed, before staring straight at the opposite wall which was cracked up, showing just how old in time it was. It was only about time before it gave up and collapsed.

I would really love that, because if that wall collapsed, then I would not have to go through the torture of reading those messages.

The messages on the wall. Although it sounded impossible, but he sent them. Nothing was impossible for him, like tracking me down every damn time. He knew where I was. He always did. He was coming for me. The thought made me shudder in horror.

He had always known where I was. It seemed like he found chasing me amusing. Like we were playing a game of hide and seek. I had seen him only twice, and those were memories I tried not to dig out because they were awful. My first time encountering him, one awful night, he had killed my family in cold blood. Although, not my blood ones, but they were my family nonetheless, because I considered them to be. They took me in when I had no one, they took care of me. I knew nothing of my real family. Nothing. Infact, I really didn't remember anything about myself before then. I only remembered my name and age. I just woke up by a river bank alone and scared that was all.

He had oh so brutally slit my father's throat right before my eyes. With a daunting smirk on his face, he had regarded a scared fifteen year old me. His sharp black eyes, as lifeless as he made my family.

I remembered screaming my guts out as I watched him and his men slaughter my family. No one came to help. No one heard me scream it seemed, because by the time I managed to run out of the house, the whole villagers had been left with the same fate as my family.

I ran in a pool of blood, with tears running down my face, as I escaped, or so I thought then, but now, I know that he just let me go. Like he wanted to see how fast I could run, and how well I could hide. And let me tell you, I had been running for five years now, but he seemed to always know where I was. Like he was always watching me.

I never stayed in a place for a long time, as a result of my ever growing constant fear, and for the safety of the kind souls that always took me in. I didn't want them dead. I was planning on leaving the Gaiters household tonight, just after they'd all gone to bed, or little Chloe wouldn't let me go. I knew he would kill them all, even the villagers if I didn't leave. I had learnt that the hard way. He had also killed the next family I stayed with after slaughtering my first family.

Hatred for him burned hotter than lava in my heart. I would love to watch him wrath in hell.

The messages only stayed on the wall for a while, just long enough for me to read, before it completely disappeared. He was coming. He was close. Somehow, I could feel him.

It was the same everyday.

"Seraphina?"

Sam's quiet and soothing voice called, bringing me from thinking about my deepest fears.

My head jerked up to look at her form standing on the door way, leaning against the door frame.

"Food is served." She smiled warmly at me, and I managed one back at her.

"I'm not hungry, Sam. Thank you for your hospitality." I replied, the appreciative smile not leaving my face.

The Gaiters were nice people. Her husband hadn't been too keen on the idea of having me a stranger live with them in the beginning, but she had been quite persuasive, having taken a liking to me. So he had agreed that I could stay. I lived with them for the past months, helping them in all ways I could. I had grown quite fond of their only child, Chloe, and so she did me. She was such a darling nine year old child.

"If you're going to leave, then the least you can do for us, is come down and eat with us. I mean, this is the last meal we would all have together, that's if we never meet again."

I stared into her pleading and teary eyes, trying to keep my tears at bay.

"For Chloe. She's going to ask unending questions about you when you're gone."

There was no way I was getting out of this, was there?

No.

"Okay, I'll be right out."

I flashed a reassuring smile her way, and she smiled sweetly at me, before disappearing from my sight.

I let out a sigh, as a cold shudder zapped through me. The moon light shining through my window gave me enough light in the room to see without the fire.

I had left my room and I had already rounded the corner, just before I heard screams. Painful screams. They were like a thousand needles piercing my heart and I knew one thing; he was here. He was here for me. He was here to get me, and all those innocent people were going to die because of me. Immediately I got into the dining room, I saw Mr Gaiter with an alarmed look in his eyes. He rushed to a cupboard at the far end of the dining room, and just underneath it, he pulled out a gun, ready to defend his family even if it cost him his life.

Chloe's big brown eyes were wide with fear. Sam clutched tightly onto her in a protective stance, with fear evident on her face.

Me, I felt utterly scared. Scared for everyone. Scared for myself. As the screams intensified and grew closer, I couldn't control my tears. Those innocent villagers who had been kind to me, they were being killed because of me.

"Take Chloe and go to the secret passage." Mr Gaiter's voice shouted above the screams to Sam.

"Come here, Seraphina." She called out to me, with an outstretched hand, urging for me to go with them.

I looked at her hand with my tears clouded vision, and shook my head. I was tempted to follow her. Maybe he wouldn't be able to find me there, but I knew it wasn't possible. He would always find me.

Always.