Short story

[Sk1zzard]

Hello, I decided to write a short story for halloween... but as I see that it will not be finished before halloween I will continue to write afterwards. I only ask that no one posts in reply to this, and that anyone who even pays attention to this thread will enjoy reading the story.

Part 1:

I peered out the window at the people moving in downstairs, smiling grimly to myself as the plan began to pour into my mind. This would be yet another family that moved out of the historical house, which sat on the corner of Willow's Oak street, a street well-known for a murder that happened in 1986. I was seventeen years old then, and the event of the murder had made my family move far, far away.
I turned around to face the door, in which someone had turned the knob. I began to smile, and slid against the wall until I was backed up into a corner.
A young woman stepped inside, she had raven-colored hair, and eyes as blue as the sky. A fair woman, who wouldn't stop looking around my bedroom in amazement. She reached out her hand, and moved it over the dust that coated my desk.

"Get out." I demanded, stepping from the corner with my arms crossed.

She spun around, facing me as if compelled to.
"Who are you?" She questioned, clutching a necklace that hung around her like a noose.

I tilted my head, a soft smirk appearing on my face. "Just listen to my words, and take your family elsewhere. This is not the perfect home for you."

She narrowed her eyebrows, "You get out before I call the police, my mother doesn't even have to know about this... if only you'd leave!"

I began to chuckle, "Me? Leave my own house? I'd kill you before I gave up my property to you."

The woman had taken my words to a threatening level, and rushed for the door.
However, I reached her wrist before she escaped my room.

"I cannot harm you." I sighed, feeling nothing but remorse for my actions. "I'm merely the ghost of this house."

She nodded, almost as if she had understood exactly what I meant.
I released her wrist, and she sprang down the hallway.
I allowed her to go, for now...

~

I was sitting on a leather couch down in the basement, when two men came down the basement stairs discussing how they would refurnish the entire house. I stood up as they began to push the couch to the wall, and stood back in the darkness. I would observe them as they adjusted the basement, and learned the following about the family: The two men down in the basement were brothers, Michael and Aaron. They had to move due to an downfall in opportunity in the town they used to live in. I almost felt bad to them, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
I walked up the stairs, sighing as they fell against the couch in exhausted.

[Sk1zzard]

Part 2:

I crept up the basement stairs, pausing once coming to stand in the doorway. In the kitchen was an older man and presumably his wife, who was putting away groceries as he sat down a box on the counter next to her.

"Well?" He seemed to anticipate her approval.

She stopped to smile, "I mean... It isn't Anderson Falls, but... it's perfect."

It is most certainly not perfect.

He moved closer to kiss her, and with open arms, she welcomed him into an embrace.

"You know," He leaned his head back, "It wasn't easy for me either."

"I know."

"That was our home... But we can make this our home, too."

It was almost like someone had left a tea kettle boiling on the stove, a loud, obnoxious rage-- hatred. I wanted to scream. I ran out from the basement, slamming the door behind me, into the living room and then up the stairs to my room. I slammed the door behind me, pressing my back against the door and sliding down until I curled into a ball.

This was no home. Not to them, not to my family, not even to I. This was a prison. Some come and go, others stay and rot in the walls, but no one remains the same as they were before.

"You again?" The girl's voice croaked.

I looked up to find my once empty space, now filled with pink and white furniture and boxes. There she was, sitting with her legs crossed on a twin-sized bed.

"Look, I'm going to have to say something to them. If you really are a ghost, which you are most certainly not if I'm able to see and speak with you, then that is totally fucking creepy."

I shook my head in disbelief, "What did you do to my room?"

"Your room? This is my room! Hello? You're creepy."

I quickly stood up and rushed over to her, shoving her back against the bedding, losing total control of my emotions-- " You're going to fucking die, Paige! It's going to be slow, and horrible, and then they are going to seal you away inside the walls, making this house your tomb. Forever."

She had begun screaming and crying, batting me away with her hands, and erupting a chaotic chain reaction throughout the house. Her father busted through the door with her mother standing over his shoulder, and behind them both were her two brothers. They seemed oblivious toward me, filling the space between her and I, her father coming to stand directly in my place as her mother took residence beside her on the bed.

"She knew my name..." She cried out, "And she said I was going to die... Slowly... And horribly..."

"Oh, sweetie..." Her mother said as she wrapped her arms around her and began to rock her slowly.

Her father seemed to be in shock, "Who?"

"Yeah, we'll kick her ass!" One of her brothers shouted from the hallway.

"The girl..." She said more calmly, "The... Ghost... Of this house."

Her parents seemed to lock eyes.

"Did you say 'the ghost' of this house?" The other brother asked.

"Whatever." Said the other.

"I'm serious!" Paige began--

"Now boys, knock it off." Their father said sternly, "She's obviously exhausted from the move. I think we all are."

[Sk1zzard]

The next morning there was a crisp knock at the door, and while I knew better than to answer, others did not. The family was settled in the kitchen-- the warm, sweet smell of pancakes and maple syrup filling the air. Everyone seemed surprised to hear the knock, everyone except for the father who raised his brows and smiled with his mouth full. He excused himself as he slid his chair out from the table and quickly left the room. Once at the door, he twisted the knob, opening the door to met with a familiar shit-eating grin.

"Ah! Mark! Come on in!" The father stepped aside to allow the real estate agent in.

"I take it you're enjoying the new place?" Mark said as he stepped in.

"It is wonderful."

"Good," Mark followed the smell of breakfast to the kitchen with the father trailing along behind him, "I'm glad you folks are enjoying it."

The mother chimed in as the pair entered, "Oh, yes! I especially love the spacey attic."

"Oh," Mark paused briefly, his grin fading. He eventually regained his grin and continued, "I'm glad you love it."

There was a short, awkward silence that followed his words... He eventually spoke again.

"Is there anything I can do for you folks? Any questions? Concerns?" He asked as his gaze traced the family around the table. Paige seemed to catch his eye the most, and he pointed at her, "What about you?"

She cleared her throat as she swallowed down the pancake, "I do have one question... Did something happen in this house?"

"Lots of things have happened in this house! Just as any other house!"

"I mean... Like, death. Anyone die here?" She asked.

"I see," He said as his features suddenly grew serious, "There was a family who lived here in 1986. I'm afraid I can't give out too many details, but the daughter..."

"-- She died." Paige finished.

"Eh... We're not entirely sure." He glanced to the other faces around the room who seemed to grow invested, "She went missing. The mother couldn't bare the emptiness in which her little girl could no longer fill, and so they moved on to new oasis elsewhere."

"No one stayed to find her?" One of the boys asked.

"They stayed for as long as they could before ultimately coming to the conclusion that she just would not be coming back home."

For some reason, this sentence had made the agent laugh... Giving everyone the creeps. It's a good thing that he didn't stay around for much longer! He had other business to attend to, and eventually left the family alone to enjoy their morning.

-

Later in the evening, Paige sat in her room alone. She called to me.

"Hey... Ghost? I have some questions that I need answered... And please don't be mad at me."

"It's Emily." I chimed, allowing myself to break through the fields in which typically allowed me to spy unseen.

"Emily... What happened in 1986? Were you here when that happened?"

"I died." I said, "And what Mark told you was a lie... I never left this house. He came over to do some construction on the house, and my parents left me home to keep an eye on him. That's when he strangled me, plied open a panel in the wall, and stuck me in there like some sort of hidden treasure."

"Your parents never questioned the fact that he was the last person to see you alive?"

"He told them that I was never here... That he let himself in. He had also packed up some of my belongings in my school bag and put it in the wall next to me. He staged my run away. Then he convinced my parents to leave this 'painful reminder' and they... they fucking listened to my murderer."

"I'm sorry," Paige said, aiming to reach out and touch my arm.

Her hand completely phased through me, and I vanished.