What am I

MY WORLD.

The sharp freezing wind slices my smooth skin as I walk along the rocky beach, the sound of cold white water hitting the rocks that have been weathered for a million years beats in time with the whole village. In the middle of the village my grandfather’s telling old folklore to the young folk who’ve gathered round him with genuine interest.

"THE MONSTERS FROM ACROSS THE SEA WILL COME AND BREAK SOME HEARTS", he proclaims, instilling fear amongst his listeners, "THEY WILL COME AND CAUSE DEATH AND SADNESS, I’VE SEEN IT, I’VE BEEN LUCKY, YOU MUST ALWAYS BE ALERT, ALWAYS!!!". The ALWAYS tails off as his shout becomes a cough, he can’t continue, he hasn’t been well for some time now and I have watched him deteriorate over the past year.

Not everyone in the village listens to my grandfather, they scoff at him and say it’s all scaremongery, horror stories, but I feel the sceptics are papering over the cracks of horror my grandfather spoke of for the sake of harmony within our community. I could see their point, it’s so easy to cause panic within our humble land, so this is why so many disclaim his revelations.

I live here with my mum, dad, my twin sisters and of course my highly interesting grandfather. Life is simple here in the village, my dad goes hunting every day for our food, living in a village close to the sea means we eat a hell of a lot of fish. My mum stays at home and watches us kids, but all we do is play.

There’s lots of kids in our village and Hide and Seek seems to be the favourite game of all of us. There’s great places to hide in the rocky terrain that surrounds and is under our village, I’ve studied all of the rocks and I’ve found a brilliant niche, perfect me thinks for winning many games of Hide and Seek.

My twin sisters are the best, they look after me and all bullies quiver in fear before them, I love and admire them because they stick together and I think that’s what makes them an indistructible force, I feel so safe and secure with them around.

On to my grandfather then, I’ve told you about him already but there’s more to him than meets the eye. "How did you get the scar on your face grandfather" I enquire, "well son the monsters I told you about left me with this scar, I told you, you need to be lucky" he preaches, "who are the monsters?" I say wanting an answer, "well people from a far away land come and kill and steal from us, it happens at random all along the mighty coastline of our world, many villages suffer, who knows when it will be our turn" he says chilling me.

"KIDS, GRANDFATHER, DINNERS READY" my mother shouts, bringing my grandfathers solomn tale to an end, as we sit eating our fish I think of all my grandfathers words, I don’t know what to believe. He could just be going crazy or maybe the horror stories he spoke of were true.

My sisters pulling at me stop my deep thoughts, "COME ON, COME ON EVERYONE IS GOING TO PLAY HIDE AND SEEK" they excitedly shout at me in unison, I agree and we join the others for the game. As soon as the game starts I head for the hideaway I found earlier in the rocks, the good thing about my hideout was I could see everything that was going on but nobody could see me, so the game begins. "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX..........