oneshots + random stories I come up with + stories from prompts

From Soots to Silhouettes

I've always had a hunch that my house was haunted. I remember, when I was little I would see these little black balls floating around me almost all the time. They looked very similar to soot balls, and I would always try to catch them but I never could. They were too fast for me. It was fun to play around with them though. I would put my hand under one and make it float up and down for hours. Once I got a little older and started to talk in understandable sentences, I told my parents about them in passing. I don't remember much of the event but my parents tell me they chalked it off as me being an imaginative child since they could never see the little, black, floating balls I spoke of.

Eventually, these "Soots", as I liked to call them, went away and were replaced by big shadows in the corners of my eyes that would appear and disappear at random. These shadows were very similar to human silhouettes but were often a lot bigger and taller then a normal human. I could never see them fully though. It was always a burred image, as if someone stopped a video halfway through and the image they stopped on was a distorted version of a landscape they were filming. From what I could tell, they were in constant motion, be it vibrating in their spot or sliding from one corner of my eyesight to the other. Another thing I could tell was that they never left the house. The moment I stepped foot outside, they would disappear entirely and only return once I reentered.

At first, I was scared of these silhouettes. To be fair, I was a 5 year old with next to no knowledge on the world and I had never before seen these... Things. Everytime I would see them I would screw my eyes close and hope they would be gone once I opened them again. They always were, and I began to see them less and less, though they were still there on occasion. By the age of 7 I had learned that they were docile and figured that if they didn't hurt me then I had nothing to worry about. They began to appear more often and I was alright with it as long as they didn't try to scare me. I made my point very clear by screaming it after I had been jump scared by one that quickly flew in front of my foot. They no longer came as close to me, especially when I was walking, and they made sure to no longer scare me. I was content with our agreement and it stayed this way for years.

On my fourteenth birthday, I saw one clearly for the first time. Right after I blew out my candles, I noticed a silhouette standing behind my mom. I was taken aback at first, considering that this was the first time I got to see one of my constant companions clearly. They stood there, and for a second I thought I caught a gentle smile shining through their black void of a face, but they disappeared in a cloud of black smoke before I could confirm my suspicion. After that moment, I would notice several different figures standing around my house. Sometimes they would make me laugh, like the time I saw one planking in the living room while following alongside an 'At Home Workout' video my mom was watching. I got a questioning look from her but that was all, and I made a mental note to leave the videos on while I was home alone so they could follow along once again. They seemed to enjoy them and would tune in whenever I had them playing on the TV. I would also occasionally talk to them if I had a particularly bad day and needed someone to talk to. They never said anything, but I could tell they were always listening and paying attention to my every word.

A few times, I thought I was going insane because of the fact that only I could see them, but I figured I was sane enough considering that that thought even came into my head. They became my own little family and I found great comfort in the fact that I always had someone to turn to. I figured out that there were 7 of them in total, and one seemed to be a lot older then the others so I figured that was their dad. One was very small and I thought they looked very cute and childlike, so I thought they were around 5 or 6. Three of them seemed to be around my age, and the other two were older then me by a little.

At the age of 16, a thought popped into my mind. What if they could hold a pencil? This would open up a while new world if communication for us. I tested it out and they could! It took some getting used to since their handwriting was absolutely atrocious, especially the child's, but we managed and I finally learned their names and real ages. The smallest was Hariss and she was 8, the second youngest was Ouvrel and he was 15, the third youngest kids were Jamis and Renre and they were 16, like me, the second oldest was manila and he was 20, the oldest kid was Nagi and she was 21. I later also found out their dads name was Opis but he much preferred to be refered to as dad by me and everyone else, and he was very very old.

As I talked to them more and more, I noticed some of them were picking up on my speech. At first, it was the occasional hum or cough, but it eventually became attempts at words and sentences. This finally evolved into conversations between me and my family once I was home alone.

I got along best with Jamis. He was sarcastic, I was sarcastic, and that was all we really needed.

We all got very close. Once I moved out for college, they had to stay at the family home. My parents ended up both dying in a freak accident while I was away so I came back and took over the house. Although I was incredibly sad for a long period of time, having my family around me helped me through the worst of my depression and grief and helped me get back onto my feet. It took a while but I finally managed to smile and laugh with them like I used to.

I eventually got married and had two kids. I learned that my family could make themselves visible to others as well, so I introduced them all to my kids and wife. They were all sceptical at first and my wife nearly passed out from shock, but she stayed around for the entire meeting and then slowly integrated herself into our family. The kids spent a lot of time around my dad and I started noticing the little Soots I hadn't seen in ages pop around them all the time.

I was so glad for my family, even though they were a little odd. I love them all dearly and wouldn't change then for the world.