The Spring Anthology ✔

A Story from T_Thom

Written by @T_Thom

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The sound of flipping the basements light switch on and off, combined with the echo that was created with the wide empty room, was enough to be heard through the entire house. Granted, it was a tiny, two bedroom house but I shouldn't have to announce to everyone that I was turning my light on and off.

I have been stuck in this basement every Christmas for the past eighteen years, with my mother and father. We stay here with whatever relative owns it at the time, which in this case is my nephew, who is twenty-two(Yes he's older than me, I have a weird family) and is currently living here with his girlfriend. I don't know why we stay here every year, but the word "tradition" gets thrown around a lot, how that also means sufferable I will never know,

So including Amanda, there are six people staying in a two bedroom house, unless you count a basement with a fold out sofa bed as a bedroom.

Amanda is a friend of mine -well, kinda. I've only ever communicated with her through drawings, usually stick men drawings just because it's a lot easy to keep a conversations flowing. I told my mother about her when I was younger but she just shrugged it off as an imaginary friend. I wouldn't tell anyone about her now because, well an eighteen year old that thinks he talks to a ghost? My parents would just think that I was insane and send me off to some hospital filled with people who where too stupid to fake ignorance. Even if I wanted to tell someone Amanda would get really angry, just like last time, and I hate it when she's angry.

A piece of paper came from the basement closet, which was one of the only pieces of furniture in the barren wasteland of a room. It was a drawing of the both of us next to the closet. I grabbed my notepad and pen and wrote "Hi, I missed you" I then slipped it through the closet door where the paper ended up in god knows where. Her drawings generally didn't have a lot of words, just playful stick men acting out what she was saying. They were always colourful and not playful, well except for one. The one that I will always remember.

I didn't keep that picture, I burned it, which she really didn't like. I usually keep all of her drawings in a box but that one I just couldn't. The drawing, it's hard to describe because it's mostly just scribbles but it was of her and, who I assumed was her dad, in the centre of the page, with red lines scribbled violently across the both of them, and the last part, the weirdest part was that there were black vertical lines with circles at the end of them all over the page. I didn't know what they meant but I think the drawing was depicting something to do with her -with her death. I don't really like to think about what could of happened to her.

A drawing came from the closet, this time of a ball. Good, I thought, something to keep my mind off of it. I wrote back "OK. But only for five minutes, I need to go to bed"

Another drawing came out, just the word "NO." this time. What? No to me going to bed? But I needed my sleep. Before I could ask the doors opened and a ball rolled out. I put a ball in there a few years back so whenever she wanted to play we could, but I didn't know where the drawings where coming from.

I know to most eighteen year olds passing a ball to a closet wouldn't seem like fun but to me it was. I was fortunate enough to have a genuine and friendly connection with an actual spirit, and that was enough fun for me. But after five minutes of passing the ball I wrote "I'm going to bed, goodnight" because I really needed sleep.

*CLICK* the sound of my lights switch echoed through out my house once again as I turned off the light and climbed into bed. I was only laying there for a few minutes when I heard something from the other side of the room. Another piece of paper had come through the closet door. It was weird considering she didn't normally try to talk to me while I was in bed, but I didn't want to ignore her so I climbed out of bed and walked across the ice cold floor.

I picked up the picture and looked at it, it was hard to see in the dark but it looked like a picture of me in bed, with her standing next to me, but there was something else, something in the corner. Once I realised what it was I jumped, it was the same vertical line and circle from the drawing I burnt.

I ignored it, believing it to be just some scare tactic to get me to play with her for a little longer. I went back to bed and wrapped my self in the warm blankets, it didn't take long for to me to begin to doze of to sleep.

*Bang. Bang. Bang* the sound of the closet doors shaking stopped from entering a much desired slumber. I again ignored her but she did it again, and again, and again. Dammit, I thought, she'll wake the whole house up if I don't stop her. I decided to get up, turn the light on and try to calm her down.

*CLICK* again the sound of the light switch echoed through out the house.

The banging continued. I had enough. I grabbed my note pad and pen and wrote "Please, stop Amanda. I'm not playing" I slipped through the door but as soon as I did the doors swung open. I stumbled back at she had done. She then proceeded to violently throw my clothes, that were hanging up, out of the closet.

I didn't know what to do, she had never gotten that angry before.

"Amanda" I said. "Please jus-" what was left in the closet after all my clothes had been thrown out made me freeze in place.

The black vertical lines with the circles, they were nooses. As I watched as the noose in the closet swayed from right to left I wanted to noting more than to turn around and run. But I couldn't look way. Was that how she died? Did she hang hersel-

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