one of the favorite past times of children, back when i was one, was hide-and-seek. and in lazy afternoons, after classes end, my friends and i would play hide-and-seek until our respective guardians came to fetch us.

the year before i moved schools, a new building was constructed to address the growing population of students in my old school. it was a novel things for us kids. we saw the building rise from cement and wood. every afternoon, we would try to catch a glimpse of the construction from the guarded make-do wall they erected.

and then one day, the building was finished. and it was guarded no more. the quiet hallway invited us. the explorers in us reveled. it was the perfect place to hide for our next hide-and-seek session.

sure enough, the next time we played hide-and-seek, four of us decided to hide in one of the new classrooms. no one was using it yet, so we were free to go in, close the door, and pretend that we were katipuneros hiding from spaniards. that’s how quiet we were.

then an hour passed. two of my companions started to worry. what if our seeker decided to give up and left? but that couldn’t be, we could hear her outside, calling us. one of my companions wanted to leave, because her guardian might already be looking for her. but her leaving would give our hiding place away. so we pressured her into staying.

thirty minutes later though, we were all tired of the game. we decided to leave the room. the problem is, we couldn’t. the door wasn’t locked, as that would beat the purpose of the hide-and-seek game, but we couldn’t open it.

finally, our seeker heard us trying to get out. she tried to open the door from her side. no go. in her frustration, she left us to call one of the friendly maintenance crew. but we didn’t give up trying to get out. we pushed, we pulled, we tried everything we could do.

one of us decided to exit by window. we heard our seeker come back with the maintenance guy she asked for help, but we were decided that we wanted out no matter what. we had already moved one of the chairs towards the window, and our tallest friend was already climbing up.

outside, the maintenance guy was using a knife as a wedge, to get the door to open.

five minutes later, we were all out. the maintenance guy was freaked out about the door, and left us to our devices. he said he needed to report the door. i slowed down, deciding to walk with our seeker who was lagging behind. i asked her: “why’d it take you so long to find us?”

she told me to come with her, back to the classroom. we weren’t that far away yet. at the doorway, there was a spray of blood on the floor, on the corner of the door frame. then my friend told me, “i didn’t even notice there was a classroom here until i heard you guys trying to get out.”

the door, which we left open in our hurry to get out, slammed shut. the two of us quickly ran after our friends.

i never stepped foot inside that classroom again. after that particular school year ended, i started at a new school.

and yes, this was the same school where i used to play by a mango tree.