The Seeker

• Lily Fernandes, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

Will kept absolutely still as the footsteps got louder, his breathing becoming ragged as his heart rate spiked. He slowly put a hand on his mouth trying to stop himself from making any sounds.
“Where are you?” A voice called out, a sweat breaking out on Will’s forehead.

He poked his head out of his hiding spot, under a table, he hadn’t had enough time to hide in a better spot. As soon as his head peeked out, the person got closer and Will could see their legs walking towards him. He quickly went back to hiding, holding his knees to his chest trying to suppress his shivers.

“Where is he?” The person mumbled to themselves, walking past the table once more, and going into another room. Will’s thoughts were racing; he knew that he needed to hide somewhere else. So taking a hazardous chance, Will rolled out of his hiding spot and ran into another room, quickly taking cover in a closet.

Will sat in the closet clothes piled on top of him, as the person moved around moving things and looking for him, he could hear their movements becoming more frantic. His body was as still as possible as the person walked past the closet, when he had heard their footsteps receding he let out an inaudible sigh of relief, but his relief was short-lived as his nose started itching. He tried to cover his nose and mouth but nothing could stop the sneeze that was building up in his throat, achoo! Will panicked knowing that the person heard him, he could hear them walking toward the closet, the door let out a massive, creeaak, and light poured onto Will…

“I found you!” She said lifting Will into the air, making him giggle.
“Mum! You always find me so quickly!” Will complained when she put him down, his lips turned down in a pout.
“I only found you this time because you sneezed! You had a really good hiding spot!” Will’s mum exclaimed. Will started to grin as he thought about her words,
“I did have a good hiding spot didn’t I?” Will said proudly. His mum bent over to pick him up again, kissing him all over his face and tickling him all over. Will laughed loudly wiggling around as he tried to get out of his mothers grip.
“Now I need to find you!” Will declared, his mum gave him a thumbs up and he turned around, starting to count. `