Those who are Hidden
“Roxie,” the voice was nearly inaudible. For a split second Roxie could see it, the creature, but by the time she realized what was there, it disappeared. She had already forgotten it.
“W-Who’s there?” Roxie asked hesitantly, her nervous hands clenching in her fear. Roxie was not a very confrontational person, she had always been very timid and it was that part of herself that she hated. So she repeated, but louder this time.
“Where are you!” Her shout was still barely over a whisper, her hand reaching out slowly, searching for the thing she could not see, but she could not find it. Roxie did not even remember what she was looking for, she didn’t even remember that the creature had spoken her name. The creature was a perfect hider, it was able to hide its entire existence, even if the creature was right in front of the girl’s face, she would have no way of knowing.
“Roxie, let’s eat!” Her father’s voice shouted for her, making the girl jump in fright.
“Y-Yes!” Roxie called back, a call that her father was unable to hear.
“Is anything the matter,” Roxie’s father asked as they ate in silence, “you aren’t touching your food, and you’re more jittery than usual-”
“N-Nothing’s wrong,” Roxie cut off his words, “Nothing is wrong at all.”
But something was wrong. Roxie could feel something watching her every move, staring at her, hungering for her, she knew that something was there, but she still could not see what it was.
Roxie usually stayed silent in school, but this time the teacher caught her interest.
“You know how nature has evolved to create the perfect hunters, right?” Her teacher asked the class, “But what about the perfect hiders? If there were a creature out there, a creature that was perfect at hiding, we would never be able to find it unless it wasn’t truly perfect.”
The teacher looked up at the class, excited to say her next words, “Who knows, you could be staring at those creatures right now, without you even realizing it, those creatures could be right in front of your face-”
“What would they do to us!” Roxie interrupted without thinking, “I-If there were such creatures and they were meant for hiding, wouldn’t they just leave us alone?”
Her teacher smiled, surprised at Roxie’s sudden response, “Who knows,” she said as her smile grew bigger, “either they would be hiding from their prey, or hiding to prey on others.”
Roxie’s eyes grew wide, what if the thing that was following her was stalking her out of hunger, what if these creatures were hiding to ambush their prey? The girl’s fear grew and grew until she couldn’t even hear her teacher’s words anymore, and for a split second, for only a fraction of a second, Roxie could see one of the creatures looming behind her teacher.
Roxie was too scared to walk home alone after what she had learned today. The school reluctantly called her father but he wouldn’t be home until late. So she had to wait hours for his arrival, dreading every passing second of it.
She was sitting alone in the hallway, working quietly on her homework. Outside had just begun to turn dark when she saw it. Only a glimpse of it. The creature that kept itself hidden from sight!
But there was more than one, they were all over the place, coming in all shapes and sizes. Roxie threw her homework to the ground as she sprang to her feet. Adrenaline rushed throughout the girl’s body as she began to run, and to her horror, the creatures began to run too, chasing after her.
Roxie ran towards the school doors, the creatures not far behind her, and she continued to run, running past her house, past her street, and onto the bridge nearby her house, but then she stopped.
Why was she running? The girl could not remember. She looked behind her and all around her. There was nobody there, so why was she running? The girl struggled to catch her breath, panting hard as she began to head home.
And that’s when she heard it. One of the creature’s voices.
“Jump, Roxie,” its voice reverberated through Roxie’s ears. The wind began to blow around the girl, waving her hair as her hand reached out towards the bridge’s ledge. She had already forgotten what the creature had said, but she remembered what it wanted her to do. She was being drawn towards the bridge’s ledge, unable to stop her steps. Each step she took led her closer and closer to her death. What was she doing? Why was she moving towards the ledge? Roxie did not remember, but she remembered that it was what she had to do.
“Come closer.” Its voice said, “Come now, Roxie.”
Roxie took another step, and another, until finally she was on the edge of the bridge. The girl looked down at the long drop below her and the water that rushed underneath it, but it didn’t faze the girl, her mind was in a trance, she was being lured to her death by the hidden creature.
“Jump!” The creature cried to Roxie and the girl did….
As she fell the creature appeared in her sight. Even now, Roxie doesn’t understand why the creature revealed itself to her, why the creature thought that it should torture its victim’s soul. But it did, and as she fell, Roxie could see the enormous frog-like creature, with its mouth wide open and a hideous smile spread across its face, as it swallowed her whole.