Hidden In Plain Sight

Blinking herself awake, Alicia waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of her room. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she hopped off her bed. Not that she got much sleep; she was much too tired for that.

She felt her stomach bubble with excitement as she padded quietly over to her closet. She could still hear her father moving around the house loudly outside her door, but she didn’t pay it any mind. He would leave for work soon.

Opening her closet, she pulled out her sleekest dress: a simple white skirt with white trim on the sleeves and hem. It was still quite frilly and poofed up with its underskirt, but it was much better than her other dresses with layers of fabric that restricted her motion.

Pulling on the garment, she did her best to dress herself. Struggling on the buttons, she admitted it was much easier with Sebastian’s help, but she pulled through on her own in the end. She fell back on her butt and laced up her boots messily. Not the quietest for running, but they worked for what she needed them for.

Grabbing some stuffies off her bed, she got to work. She probably had thirty minutes until Sebastian arrived so she knew she had to work fast.

She had just finished setting up and was debating going back upstairs to pretend to be asleep when she heard the door click.

She could feel the underlying tension tighten the room’s air when she locked eyes with Sebastian, barely even a foot in the door yet. Feigning innocence, she blinked up at him as he took off his coat, hanging it on the metal hanger by the door.

Stepping out of the entryway he silently walked over to her, kneeling down on one knee as he reached forward for her dress.

“Miss, please don’t try to dress yourself. You’ve gotten the buttons all wrong.” He sighed, fixing the mismatched buttons quickly. Standing up again, he looked down at her coldly.

“What would you like for breakfast?”

“Cereal.”

He gave a small nod as he turned on his heels, pacing off to the kitchen with Alicia close behind him. She briefly entertained the idea of grabbing onto his tailcoat like she normally did, but decided against it. Things were already tense and she’d rather not make it worse.

Sebastian already knew something was up, so acting normal wasn’t going to fix that. She was never up before he was here, not unless she had things she needed to do without him knowing.

She could feel his eyes on her as she ate, studying her outfit. His gaze lingered on her boots curiously, but she paid him no mind, only stuffing another spoonful of cereal into her mouth as Sebastian finally turned away, leaving the kitchen presumably to go clean for a bit. She glanced over at the clock.

One hour.

She finished her breakfast quickly after that, jumping down from her stool to run upstairs. She tried her best to pass the time from there, playing with her blocks or stuffies, even trying in vain to read, but her attention span seemed to be getting shorter by the minute. She glanced at the clock again.

Forty minutes.

She squished the puppy plush in her hands, trying to calm her nerves, but it only served to kick up more anticipation in her stomach. Groaning, she rolled off her bed with a thump.

Thirty minutes.

She bounced on her bed, rolling along the floor, seeing how far she could jump across the plush carpeting of her room, anything to try and drain the excess energy she seemed to be harboring endlessly.

Ten minutes.

She resigned herself to the floor in front of her clock, watching as the minutes seemed to tick by painfully slow. She watched as the small hand of the clock finally ticked over to the big engraved ten, jumping up to her feet with restless energy, practically jumping down the stairs in her rush, the heels of her boots clicking loudly against the steps as she ran.

Sebastian was waiting where he always was, silver stopwatch laid plainly in his hand as he looked down at it, silver chain hanging over the tips of his fingers. His head lifted to look at her as she came to a stop in front of him.

Hide and Seek.

30 seconds to hide, 20 minutes to seek, one week of prep time. They played every week on Wednesday at 10 o’clock, no exceptions (a rule Alicia insisted on when Sebastian would try and tell her he was too busy to play).

Things had slowly escalated as Alicia had gotten better at hiding and Sebastian had gotten more serious in seeking, neither side willing to back down.

They had instituted the 20 minute seek time when Alicia had thrown a fit realizing she essentially couldn’t win, and with that change came the rules they decided to implement. Alicia couldn’t barricade off rooms or set any traps that would physically harm or affect Sebastian, but a trap that made noise in a certain room to distract him was fine. In exchange, Sebastian couldn’t actively attempt to foil or ruin any hiding attempts. If he happened to stumble upon an aspect and remove it from play before the game started it was fair game, but he couldn’t actively seek them out. That rule quickly became obsolete as Alicia learned to hide the things she needed to use away from his normal paths around the house.

No words were exchanged between the two as Sebastian wound the clock, setting it to twenty minutes before it would ring. He looked back up at her with a blank look.

3…

2…

1...

He closed his eyes.

She spun around on her heel, running through the house, allowing the heels of her boots to click semi-softly along the wood. She knew where she needed to go. She grabbed the kitchen chair, dragging it to the counter before she went to the closet, grabbing her noted papers and scattering them on the floor quickly before she booked it across the house.

20 seconds left.

When she was in front of the wooden engraved closet, she stopped. She let a precious second tick by before she pivoted on her toes again and with all her practiced care, she started to tread all the way across the house again. The boots were loud; Sebastian could easily track her path in the house, but she needed them.

Which was why she had spent late nights tip-toeing across the house in these boots, timing and planning everything to a T. She had to be quiet and quick if she wanted to make it. One small noise and her plan was void. She had done it over and over again till she knew the route like the back of her hand.

Along the carpet of the hallway, along the side of the kitchen to avoid the tile, and across the rug of the living room. She had counted in her head till she knew exactly how much time was left, but even with all that, she felt as though she wouldn’t make it in time.

15 seconds left.

She held her breath for the hardest part, passing Sebastian. He would be listening for even the slightest squeak in the boards. She gazed over at his standing form, eyebrows knit together in concentration as he no doubt listened for any noises. Her lungs longed for air, reminding her painfully but she didn’t give, slipping by him as fast as she could before she drew another quiet breath.

10 seconds left.

She crossed the living room carpet, locking her eyes on the dark purple curtain that hung parallel to the side of the couch. Spinning around it her hands sifted through the fabric till she found it.

A rip, about a foot above the hem of the curtains, a few inches long at most but it was all she needed. A smile broke across her lips when she found what she already knew was there.

Lifting her foot, she saddled the rip along the raised heel of her boot. Grabbing high on the purple fabric, she lifted her other foot up, standing solely on her right foot. She had tested it for hours, making sure that it would hold her weight. Standing there for hours in the dead of night was a bit awkward, but worth it for the fun. She held her breath like she thought it would rip, refusing to hold her weight now of all times but the curtain held strong and she let out a thin breath of relief.

0 seconds left.

The two succinct taps of Sebastian’s shoes sounded across the house, the only sound she was given to mark that they had begun, and then all she heard was silence.

Sebastian had long stopped making noise when he seeked, not after he realized she was using it to track where he was and slip around him. After that he somehow made himself so quiet she could only hear him when he was close. He had scared her many times by sneaking up on her when she thought he was across the house

She instinctively shallowed her breath, making herself as quiet as she could. Her plan was risky, riskier than anything she had tried before and if it didn’t work then she had ruined a perfectly good hiding spot.

It wasn’t long before she heard the near-silent pad of Sebastian’s shoes enter the room. He always started with a sweep of the house. No matter what distractions she had in place to lure him to the other side of the house immediately, he would investigate any traces or traps she might have left after he made a broad sweep and illuminated any obvious spots.

That was when she heard it, the jerk of a curtain. The curtain next to her. She held her breath. She heard nothing as he looked down at the decoy she had set, a bear she had stuffed into a similar pair of boots, before he stalked away

Her eyes widened comically as she realized he didn’t find her. He would never think to come back here now. Why would she hide so close to her decoy? There were so many things that could have gone wrong. What if he pulled back both curtains or hit her with his elbow but by some miracle he hasn’t found her.

She was able to vaguely keep track of the time as she stayed there, trying to hold herself as still as a statue, only moving to adjust her grip carefully as not to ruffle the curtain visibly. She knew that time must be drawing close as Sebastian’s steps had become loud and sloppy as he searched frantically for her, surely panicking that he had missed her somewhere.

That was when disaster struck, she had just moved her hand to re-grip the curtain when she heard it.

Riiiiippp….

She watched as all her tests and planning went to waste and the fabric ripped under her. She didn’t have any time to recover when the heels of her boots slammed into the ground loudly, sending her stumbling back into the wall. If Sebastian hadn’t heard the rip he had surely heard her landing

Nononono.

She heard his steps increase in volume as he ran across the house. She had nowhere to go. She didn’t have any backup plan for this, she didn’t even think she would make it this far, to begin with. She couldn’t give up now, but what options did she have?

Leaving her hiding spot she jumped in front of the couch, hitting the plush carpet roughly and just in time as Sebastian rushed in, immediately running to the curtain and jerking it back to reveal nothing but air.

She scrambled up to her forearms. What now, he was going to turn around and see her but she didn’t have anywhere to go. She watched as he started to turn back around.

Maybe if she could dive behind the chair- would she be quick enough-

Riiiiiiiing!

They both jolted at the loud chime of the stopwatch

That was the first time she beat Sebastian.

They both stood stock still for a moment, Sebastian’s eyes now trained on her as she laid on the floor. All at once, she felt a smile peel across her lips as she threw her arms in the air with a squeal, letting herself fall back onto the carpet happily.