What Night Brings

Hide and Seek

Later that night Jimmy made an appearence in his room whre I was getting his sister ready for bed, "Hey Jimmy." I smiled up at him from my spot on the floor,  the top of my head reached his shoulder.

"Hello." He replied with a cool tone lacking all emotoion.

My brows furrowed at his strange behaviour, he was usually so upbeat and excitable, at least that's what it seemed like to me, well until now.

"Can we play hide and seek now since we couldn't earlier? Pretty, pretty, please! Me and my other babysitter always play it, it's super duper fun!" I smiled softly at him as he spoke, his arms were flailing in the air as he did so., that sounded a lot like the Jimmy I knew.

"Oh coarse but we'll have to play downstairs 'cause your sister will be sleeping and we can't wake her or we'll have to stop playing."

"I can do that..I know lots of hiding spaces, you can find me first?"

"Okay, just wait down stairs for me would you?" He nodded and hopped down the stairs to at a time. He is just so cute! I sigh before turning back to the little girl lying on the floor in front  of me, she giggled as I picked her up, cradling her head in the crook of my arm.

"You are just so cute! You and your brother!" I say in a baby voice playing with her little feet, she let out another little giggle, "Time for bed baby girl." I cooed dancing around with her for a few seconds before setting her down in the crib.

She made a little hiccup noise and I roll her onto her stomach, "Sleepy time baby, go sleepies." I murmur sitting down in the chair next to her bed so i could watch her more comfortably, I knew that I sounded rediculous even to my own ears but when ever I was near a baby I couldn't help it.

After a few minutes she had finally dozed off to a light sleep and I sighed pushing my hair away from my face, time to go play with her older brother.

I walked down the stairs trying to be as quiet as I could but every step I took the stairs would creek, the house was new and there for not 'broken in' yet which meant squeaky doors and squeaky floors.

"Nat?" Jimmy called from the kitchen, he had taken to calling me that at some point during the nights events not that I minded, it sounded so adorable coming from a 6 year old.

"Yup, okay, i'll give you 10 minutes than i'll go looking for you...k?" I walked into the kitchen just as I was finishing the sentence but he wasn't there, my stomach knotted instantly, "Jimmy!" I call, trying to be loud enough so he'll hear me but quiet enough so I wouldn't wake up the baby.

"YA!" Came his(very loud) reply, I face palmed myself.

"Shhh, your sister is sleeping, you can't be loud like that right now!" I scolded the still invisible child.

"OK!" I mentally groaned, I loved kids but sometimes they could be little idiots. Expecting to hear a startled cry that never came. I walked around the room for a couple minutes before going down the stairs to the basement where I supposed Jimmy was hiding.

I slumped into the over stuffed couch in the rec room in the basement, I had looked everywhere for him, I was beginning to get worried, i'd looked in just about every spot that I could think of, even if it wasn't practical but he was never there.

Where was he! Oh god, I hope he didn't get hurt or run away, loosing the kid on my first job is not a good idea. Ooh. I moaned, "Jimmy? I give up! Where are you?"

"Here." Came an instant reply.

From right next to me.

I shrieked.

"Shhh, you'll wake my sister." Jimmy stage whispered from my right, I stared at him wide eyed for a few minutes as he giggled inocently.

"Where were you?" I hissed as I felt my pounding heart through my chest. Jimmy just shrugged in reply and smiled up at me like nothing was out of the ordinary, "Alright Jay," I finally said after getting my breathing under control, "Why don't I go hide and once you find me I can put you to sleep okay?"

"Kay!" He exclaimed exitedly as he threw himself face first onto the couch, face scrunched up as he screwed his eyes shut and started counting.

I got up quickly and scurried into the first room on my right. I closed the door again softly so Jimmy wouldn't hear it then I looked around, I couldn't hide anywhere to hard because he was only a kid so I should go easy on him but then again if he was half as good at finding people as he was at hiding then I had nochance of wining this game.

And well, okay that kind of bruised my pride a little bit because this had always been my favorite game when I was a kid growing up and I had always won when it was me against my family and friends which meant that losing to a 6 year old at my age, with all of my experience then i'd be ashamed.

Of coarse there was no time to thoink about that, I needed a good hiding spot and Jimmy was already at 28 secons in the other room. As I pushed things aside looking for a suitable hiding spot which was near impossible considering my size, I found a little door.

"A crawl space? God that's creepy." I murmered as I shivered, i've seen way to many movies and read to many books to know that those things practically screamed evil.

Not to mention my over active imagination.

"Okay, looking, looking, lookin-Oh!" I saw a huge pile of boxes propped up next to an over sized chair, I pushed the boxes to the side so I could squezze between the wall and the chair before moviing the boxes back in place.

I wiggled once to gauge how much room I had before I heard Jimmy call, "Ready or not, here I come." his one while he said it sent another shiver down my spine because it sounded so out of place with his voice.

I didn't hear another noise for a little while, i'm not sure how long it had been since silence had taken over, anywhere ranging for a few seconds to 15 minutes, all I know was that the hair on the back of my neck had been standing up the whole time. Was that normal? I mean it's just Jimmy who was a sweatheart, if not a bit strange.

"Found you.'

I jumped slapping a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. . .again. "Ohmigod!" I finally said after exhaling, I looked up and saw Jimmy standnig on the chair looking down at me form where I crouched. "You can't do that." I murmured faking a smile at himso he wouldn't know how creeped out I was by how silent he had been. I stood up and stretched my cramped legs.

Glanincg over at Jimmy's smiling face and let out another breath before ruffling his hair, "Good job Bud, you're amazing at this game."

"Thanks! Can I have a snack before I go to bed? I'm hungry."

"Sure thing." I reply as I sliped my hand into his and led his out of the room and toward the stairs, "What do you want to have?"

Jimmy just shrugged, "I dunno, i'll look for something. Copme on Nat!" I whined as he pulled on my arm trying to get me to walk faster, except his tugging caused me to stumble forward, the kid was strong.