Hide And Seek And Find

20260203

Written for Bradley Ramsey’s “Flash Fiction February Day 3”.

“Alright.” Steph smoothed out the crumpled instructions. “One more time. We have to get this right.”
The other girls nodded. Their eyes wide and expressions sombre.
Normally they wouldn’t even think of dabbling in magic, much less a spell which threatened you with being lost forever if you messed it up. But Lorna had been missing for days, none of the grown-ups would talk to them about it, and they were worried sick.
“Step one. Have a doll with an object from the person inside it.”
Everyone looked at Chloe’s lopsided felt creation. It was definitely doll-ish. And it had Lorna’s favourite pencil topper sewn inside, the glittery one she swore brought her luck in quizzes.
“Check.” Steph decided, and the others nodded. “Step two. Burn two cups of dried willow leaves and collect the ashes.”
Anya held up the plastic bag she’d brought, a quarter full of dark powder.
“Check. Step three. Add a teaspoon salt, a tablespoon of chalk powder, a teaspoon of witch hazel essential oil, and enough lemon juice to form a paste.”
The other dry ingredients were in Anya’s second bag. Chloe had brought a bottle of the essential oil, which she measured out with the care of someone concocting a bomb.
“When it says ‘form a paste’…”
Steph pursed her lips. “Step four is painting eyes on the doll with it, so I think it just needs to be wet enough for that.”
“O-ok.”
Drop by drop the lemon juice from Steph’s kitchen was stirred in, until the mixture stuck to the paintbrush.
“Check. Step four…”
Naomi flexed her fingers and picked up the brush. While she usually worked with pencils, she was by far the most adept at drawing. And the diagram only showed basic circles on the doll’s face. She painted carefully, tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth, and produced two excellent staring eyes. To find Lorna with.
“Check.” Steph took a deep breath. This is where it could go horribly wrong. “Announce that you’re going to play a game of ‘hide and seek’. Name the doll the seeker. Hide within the room. The doll should come to life and look for you. If it doesn’t… you’ll be lost forever.”
A shudder rippled around the group. But nobody moved.
“Once it finds you - which I guess means all of us - it will head towards the target, the ‘last player’. Follow it, and don’t let it out of your sight.”
Slow nods.
The loft was full of old furniture and boxes, plenty of places to hide which hopefully wouldn’t be too hard for a doll to-
“Whoa, whoa. What the fuck kinda messed-up game are you twerps playing??”
Never had a big sister’s sudden appearance been so terrifying! The group scrambled to hide the doll and ritual components, while Steph babbled “Oh, we just, uh, we…”
Josie folded her arms and scowled. Her usual annoyance at having to babysit her little sister and friends ratcheted up to eleven. “What the fuck, Stephanie? Are you seriously having a seance or some shit while mom and dad are out? Give me that!”
Though Steph whisked the instructions behind her back, that proved insufficient to ward off her sister’s long arms.
“What is… the fuck!” Josie yelped, suddenly pale. “This has a tier six Arcana Council seal on it! This is bona fide dangerous magic! Why the hell would you…??”
Faced with the grounding of a lifetime, it all spilled out. Lorna not coming to school. Teachers not even calling her name during attendance, and refusing to answer questions about her. Their parents just insisting she’d “be coming back soon”.
“Oh. Ohh. Shit.” Josie slowly sank to the floor so she was almost sitting the anxious circle of much younger children. “Um. Yeah, ok, I get why…”
She faltered and looked uncertainly at them. Then decided that adults trying not to worry them clearly hadn’t worked. “Lorna caught measles. Apparently her jabs didn’t take, or something? So she’d in hospital, and really sick, but she should be ok.”
A soft round of “ohhhs” as the girls exchanged confused, relieved, concerned looks.
“And this-” Josie waved the ritual instructions with a stern scowl “-wouldn’t help!”
“W-well, we had to do something…” Steph grumbled - somewhat half-heartedly. Glad their plan was no longer necessary.
“Yeah. Well, next time you’re gonna mess with dangerous powers from the beyond, tell me first, ok?” Josie shoved the paper in her pocket and gave her sister an awkward, one-armed hug. “Come on, let’s get this cleaned up before we all get in big trouble.”
“R-right!”
The girls jumped into action, quickly erasing all traces of their preparations, while chattering amongst themselves about making Lorna a “we’re thinking of you” card.
“I’m sure she can have presents, right?”
“Uh, yeah!” Josie nodded encouragingly. Figuring it couldn’t hurt - unlike some other stuff they might try!

Prompt was “Create a ritual or supernatural game in any genre you’d like. Write a story or poem about its effects and consequences, including the exact steps to conduct the ritual/play the game.”