Peek-A-Boo

"Peek-a-boo, I see you!"

Little Allison Hastings stood smiling and pointing at her playmate, happy to have found her crouching behind the bushes.  She watched as her friend studied a bloody snake, its glassy eyes and forked tongue rested on the grass.  Her favorite softball lay next to the unfortunate beast, stained with the animal's carcass. 

As the years passed, Allison remembered that day she spent with her family, vacationing in the cabin by the lake.  There were so many places to hide, so many secrets discovered.  The place, a virtual goldmine for her favorite game of Hide-And-Go-Seek, possessed dark secrets. 

Now as an adult, she searched in the dwindling sunlight for her secret hiding places.  An expert at the game, Allison used extraordinary stealth to surprise the hidden ones, those she called marks. 

When she reached an abandoned ranger station, she spotted a trail of blood that led to a rusted freezer.  With her adrenaline picking up steam, she opened the lid and cringed.  A bloody corpse, chopped to pieces, lay inside.  She recognized her father.  Instantly, memories flashed before her.  The man's hideous breath, his grimy hands, and his overwhelming strength combined with the rancid odor of his present state, forced her to swallow back some bile, burning her throat. Her hands trembled as she shut the lid, wondering about his missing head. 

Upon exiting the station, she heard her friend's girlish laughter.  Never nice, always naughty, her friend dominated their relationship.  For years Allison did anything to please her.

A stone's throw away from the abandoned station, an old fashioned wooden outhouse stood battered but erect.  She paused, listening to the solitude.  The sun's quick departure signaled that it did not want to bear witness to the grizzly events.  Neither the crickets, nor the owls dared to voice their objections.

Standing a yard away from the outhouse, her shoulder length black hair impeded her vision as a gust of wind threatened to crumble the frail structure.  She wondered what held the flimsy door in place. 

Summoning the courage to find her mark, she pulled open the door and screamed when her mother's body knocked her to the ground.

Allison brushed the corpse aside, remembering the cold touch of her mother's iron palms.  She recalled her adolescent years, imploring her mother to stop the monster from climbing into her bed, but the impending cries resulted in an icy stare from her mother's mean gray eyes, and a barrage of slaps and punches.

"Whore!" her mother yelled.

Allison's current predicament shook her from a time traveling mind trip.  Upon inspecting the body, the old woman had a spear driven through her vagina, up her intestines, and out of her gaping mouth.  Her eyes held empty sockets.

"Who is the whore now, mother?"

She had only one more mark to find, her friend.  Upon entering a cave, a rancid odor made her gag.  Deep inside the cavern, against a wall, a lit torch displayed skulls.  Her thoughts of discovering an ancient burial ground disappeared when a multitude of skeletal severed hands of all shapes and sizes displayed on another wall.

The gruesome evidence signaled her friend's presence nearby.

"She must have doubled back to the house." Allison said aloud.

No sound emitted from the cabin but the lights promised illuminating revelation.  The wooden floorboards creaked under her weight alerting her best friend of her arrival.

She passed through a narrow hallway that led to the kitchen.  Its modest decor remained clean and tidy, except for the foul stench of something burning.  Smoke escaped the microwave and she jumped when a horrid plopping explosion shut it down.         

Allison, her hands trembling, opened the microwave door and stood back aghast.  Her father's head, oven roasted and charred, destroyed the appliance.  His bald cranium reminded her of a distorted giant mushroom, stuffed with melted Parmesan cheese. 

Prepared for the inevitable, she approached her parent's room.  The closed door confirmed her friend's presence.  Nailed like a Christmas wreath, her mother's mean gray eyes dared her to enter.

At last, the inevitable confrontation awaited beyond the door.  She twisted the knob, pushed forward and clenched her teeth as the squeak revealed her presence.    She hated imperfection and the old cabin displayed it like a withered smile.

When she entered the room, Allison recalled that long ago she tried to tell her parents about her secret friend, but they called her crazy and threatened to lock her up in an insane asylum. 

Now, she stared at her reflection, her naked body covered in blood, and her burnt arms rested against her bruised thighs.  The bloodstained machete extended from her hand.  Her white teeth were a glorious contrast to her blood-filled face. 

"Peek-a-boo, I see you!"

Tomorrow, Allison and her friend will continue to play their favorite game of Hide-And-Go-Seek at her mother-in-law's house, up in the country. 

811 words