My creative writing assignments

Ghost Story

Original title: The Cries that Come from the Bathroom at Night

The house was old but nice. It was incredibly cheap for a four bedroom house. I knew there had to be something wrong with it given the fact my parents could afford it but they wouldn't tell me. But despite the lackluster water pressure of the shower and the refusal to heat up to the point of hurting that way I liked the house seemed fine.

My room was bigger than my old one. I didn't like it. I liked my old room, with the mess where I liked it and the paint stains on the floor. This place felt stilted and I hadn't had the time or care to make it feel like it's actually mine.

So that night when I heard my sister screaming in the night for the third night in a row I realized just why the place was so cheap. My sister wasn't just having nightmares. This place was haunted.

I got up out of bed and rubbed my eyes. I walked out of my room at the same time as my dad.

"Go to sleep," I whispered.

"You're a good brother," He whispered back before he tiredly walked back into his room.

I walked into my sister's room and shut the door behind me. She was hiding her face under her pink bedsheets when I walked over to her bed and sat down next to her.

"What happened?" I pulled the blanket down under her face.

"There's someone in the bathroom..." she whispered as she hid her face in my stomach.

I looked to the bathroom that connected her room to mine.

I wrapped my arms around her, "Don't worry, there's nobody there."

"You don't hear the crying?"

Yeah we're so fucking haunted.

I held her tighter. "What crying?"

"In the bathroom, someone's crying," she began to tear up again.

"Right now? Not just in your dreams?"

"Right now. It's so loud. Why don't you hear it?" Claire hugged me tightly.

I looked up at the bathroom then back to Claire, "Look, you go to Mom and Dad's room and I'll go check out the bathroom, okay?"

Her eyes were wide and scared, "But what if it's a monster?"

"If something's crying in there it probably needs help. Now c'mon, let's go to their room," I got up.

She hesitantly stood up on the bed and I picked her up to bring to my parent's room.

I knocked on the door for a couple seconds, when my dad answered he sighed and grabbed my sister.

He looked tired as I passed her to him. I guess he fell back to sleep and I woke him up.

I went back to my sister's room, because honestly yeah I think this place is haunted. I walked into the bathroom and looked around. I stood against the door and crossed my arms

"This is so stupid" I muttered.

So I went back to bed.

***

I sat at the dining table about two days later eating cereal when my dad walked in.

"We're taking Claire to the doctors today," he said as he turned on the sink, "After I pick her up from school."

"I'd take her straight to a therapist," I mumbled, "Every night for five days crying about someone in the bathroom. Like, either we have a ghost or she's hallucinating."