**I Thought It Was Just Another Kid Playing Hide and Seek**
This happened when I was 11.
A bunch of us were playing hide and seek at night in the woods behind our neighborhood—the part we weren’t supposed to go into. I found a perfect spot behind a fallen tree, completely hidden except for a small gap I could see through.
After the counting stopped, everything went quiet. No footsteps. No voices.
A few minutes later, I saw what I thought was one of my friends with a flashlight.
I assumed it