The sigh you emit would be visible in the air from the cold, if it wasn’t for
the pitch black that you’re engulfed in.

You are crouched at the base of a tree, legs burning from the ache of the
stressed position you’re in, and your toes freezing despite wearing socks and
shoes. You feel the bark of the tree scratch against your back, due to how hard
you’re pressing yourself against it to hide. Your hurried breaths take in the icy air,
and it feels like knives to your throat. It brings an intruding and sharp chill into
your lungs. You swallow, attempting to soothe the itch in your throat, in order to
hold back a cough.

A gust of wind rushes past you, biting at your face and watering your
eyes. But the howling of the blow blends with a blood curdling scream, a familiar
one as well. You believe that it’s just someone who got caught, but you still
quickly and shakily attempt to turn off your flashlight, to stay hidden from
whoever is looking for you. However, it’s as if you’ve never used your hands
before: your fingertips are numb from the cold, but you manage to press the
button. Your elbows are at your knees, and you’re desperately hoping that you
turned off your light quickly enough to not notify… whoever is coming to get
you.

You acknowledge that this is just a game of manhunt with you and some
friends, and despite most people making a mixture between a cry and a laugh
when they get caught, the scream was most likely just someone overreacting. It
doesn’t prevent you in your attempt to cram yourself impossibly more into the
split of roots at the bottom of this tree, afraid that it wasn’t just someone getting
caught.

It doesn’t help that you and your friends watched a horror movie right
before playing.

And one would think that you are really setting yourself up to be
immensely scared; outside, in the dark, hiding from whoever is seeking you, right
after a movie where people are in the same exact situations, except they end
up dying. But it was the whole point of the game anyway, to get into the spooky
spirit of Halloween, and the horror that comes with it.

You come back to reality from your own head from a crumple of leaves
and you pray that it is only a small critter.

Your head is in your hands while you peek out just above your arm when
you realize the tall figure is not a harmless squirrel.