I hid behind the curtains, trying my best not to breath too loud. I peaked through to see masked men enter the house. They chose such a timing on purpose. A night of a storm, when everyone prefers to stay indoors. They walked around quietly, placing every step with care. They held in their hands a form of dart gun. My anxiety was at its peak, wondering what they would do to me if they accidentally saw me.
When I was a child, I had played hide and seek a million times. If Em were here, she would definitely be better at this. I was always the first one to get caught. It was not the places I chose or the noise I made; I just couldn't handle the claustrophobia that came with the hiding. Eventually, I would give in and let the seeker catch me. This case was different. The seekers would not just catch you; they would harm you. I had to pull it together and make sure I don't make a single sound.
They walked around the dining table, laughing at the drawings on the fridge that my parents took pride in. They took down the paper which called Emilia to the institute and put it in a black plastic bag. They started moving upwards, not to seek but to mock the people they had so easily conned. I could hear their sneaky laughs and unfunny jokes through the curtain. My heart was racing and my mind was raging. I had to stay in control of my anger or else I would lose the opportunity to find my family and friends forever. They came back downstairs, vigilant of every creak the stairs made.
One of them even dared to open the fridge and check for food. When he grabbed hold of my mother's famous chocolate pudding, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't eaten anything in a long time. My body felt weak, as if it had suddenly remembered what food used to taste like. My mother used to make me a chocolate pudding after every achievement in school. I guess when she got the letter, she might have made some to celebrate. My poor mother, she was unintentionally feeding the culprits behind this whole chaos. I watched the masked man dig into the pudding with a spoon. I watched him open the bottom of his mask to devour the scrumptious piece he had taken. As he placed it into his mouth and chewed away with delight, another man snatched away the pudding and said, "we will take this to go, okay? Just put your mask on. We could be watched. The punishment for breaking a rule is death." I felt jealous of the pudding as it would get to see the location that I have been trying to find since ages. The voice put a thrill of worry down my spine. The word death echoed through the halls as they wrapped up the chocolate pudding with ease and walked towards the table. I didn't quite recognize the voice but the fear I sensed in it suggested that they were just playing a part. They too were being forced to play a part, just like the rest of us.
They grabbed hold of the envelope on the table and added it to the black bag they carried. I wondered how many times they had done this. How many parents did they kidnap? How many parents were fooled by the institute and looted of their chocolate puddings by these amateurs? I tried to count the number of girls that had disappeared and quadrupled that to include their family members. The number was uncountable. If this kept going on, they would soon have everyone they wanted and more. I watched them steal more food, as if they were kept hungry and the only source of food they got was when they were stealing for the monsters. I wondered if my family was getting any food over there. I wished they weren't being starved to death as I took a gulp of the saliva that had filled up in my mouth. Jane had always had a big appetite. Some days, she would manage to eat more than all of us combined. Mother always made extra so that Jane's hunger was never left unsatiated. What if she was not being given food? A person who has eaten a lot every day of their lives cannot spend a day without food. I worried for them and told myself, I can't allow myself to eat before I find them. I knew it was an impossible promise and I would never be able to go through with it. I had to tell myself something in order to stay in control or else I would give away my hiding spot to the masked men.
The room was silent. They had what they wanted and were about to leave the house. They checked every drawer they could in the kitchen to find all kinds of foods to steal. The house was stripped naked in front of strangers. They opened the door and that's when my worst fear came through. My stomach couldn't hold it anymore. My hunger didn't survive the wrath of the chocolate pudding. A loud gurgle was heard. It echoed through the room into the masked men's ears. "Someone is here!", one of them screamed. They immediately shut the door. I felt my soul leave my body as I panicked. "Check the curtains. Now!" I was made. My location was compromised. There was nothing to do and nowhere to hide. As one of them opened the curtain I was hidden behind, my eyes shut tight.
I woke up the next morning in my room. Not my room at the house, my room at the hostel. I was drenched in sweat, as if I had been travelling all night in a body bag. They must have made me unconscious with the dart guns they carried.
The real and most mind-boggling question was, why did they not kill me? Why was I back here in my room, safe and sound? Were they so unafraid of me that they did not even consider me as a threat to their mission? Or was I back here, not as Neil, but as a pawn to their side of the game?