Dreamnotfound Oneshots

[17] The friendly ghost

   "I know our house is haunted mom." I said throwing my hands up, following my mother down the stairs. "Clay. Seriously our house is not haunted. Your imagination is worse than it was when you were a child. What make's you think that? I mean honestly." She said, continuing to walk with her back to me, gathering her purse and keys. "I just know mom! I can feel it! Someone's always watching me, my lights shut off for no reason, floorboards creak, my doors will open for no reason, stuff goes missing all the time. It's haunted! There is 100% a ghost!" I said standing across the kitchen island to stare my mother down. "Even if there was a ghost, at least he or she is friendly...it could be a hell of a lot worse...like a demon!!" She said teasing me. I rolled my eyes and pushed myself off the counter, walking her towards the front door. "I'm off to work, try not to have any run ins with the 'ghost' while im gone." She said waving her hand to me. "Yeah whatever mom. Very funny." I grumbled, shutting the door and locking it behind her, lingering for a moment waiting to hear her car drive off.

   I sat down on the couch, too lazy to bring myself back upstairs. I sunk down in to the corner of the couch and stretched my hand out to absentmindedly reach for the remote, but snapping to attention when all I grabbed was air. I sat up and looked around both arms and the cushions. I stuck my hands in the couch and felt around for the remote, and when I came up empty handed I even ducked under the couch. I stood up with a groan and stood in the center of the room, folding my arms across my chest. "Listen here pal. I want my fucking remote so I can watch TV. Can you not go a day without making my life harder??" I said slowly turning around the room. I held my breath, awaiting a response; I got none and slowly let out my breath, feeling silly that I was talking to nothing. I sat back down on the couch and lent my elbow on the arm, resting the side of my face in my hands. I jolted as I felt something hard against my elbow, and widened my eyes at the sight of the missing remote resting right in front of me. "Either I'm fucking blind or..." I mumbled, staring down the remote as if it was going to get up and walk away. "Well this is going to be interesting." I hummed, my curiosity getting the better of me, wanting to take the initiative in this situation.

   I hopped up from the couch and went 'round my kitchen and gathered various candles, bringing the to the living room and placing them on the floor in a circle. I walked to the lightswitch and flipped off the main light, then I grabbed a candle lighter out of the side table drawer and lit the candles one by one, moving to sit down in the middle of them with my legs crossed. I sighed out, smiling at my set-up. "Okay..uh..hi. My names Clay, and I'm sorry for invading your space? I don't mean any harm, and I'd like to talk if that's alright." I said loudly, looking around the room. "I'm not too sure how to communicate with ghosts, but I saw this in a movie so..." I trailed off, letting my eyes drift towards a sudden absence of fire in one of the candles. I felt my heartbeat quicken half from fear and half from excitement. I shuddered softly feeling a slight breeze on my back. "I will take that as a yes??" I said then waited a few seconds before continuing. "So if you can hear me, can you make your presence known again? So I can see if that was just a coincidence?" I asked loudly, looking around the room with baited breath in anticipation of what could happen. Nothing did happen though, and yet I still sat there and waited. Nothing happened though. No candle going out, no breeze, not even a creak of the floor.

  "Fuck I guess I am just making things up.." I grumbled and stood up, stepping carefully over the candles to turn the lights back on. Suddenly it was dark. I turned around to see that the candle light had gone out entirely, every single one of them. Quickly but not at once, each of them went one right after the other. I left my hand frozen against the light-switch and widened my eyes, feeling my breath leave and my heart get caught in my throat, beating rapidly through my entire being. "Holy shit.." I whispered out, then took note of the sudden cold filling the room. I flipped the light on and stood against the wall, trying to catch my breath. "Okay...I guess you..that..woah." I choked out, unable to finish a sentence. I breathed out shakily, and shook my head harshly, "Get a grip Clay jesus.." I murmured to myself then returned to the center of the room. "You've made your presence loud and clear..jesus." I felt my heartbeat return to an almost normal speed. "So...I'm going to ask some questions and if you could uh...uhm..maybe knock once for yes? and don't knock if no? Does that work?" I asked then held my breath. Knock. I widened my eyes in excitement this time and mumbled out a small whisper of disbelief. "Wow..okay okay..did you live here before me?" Knock. I nodded my head and continued, "Are you going to try and hurt me? or my mom?" Silence. I sighed in relief, never being more at peace with silence. "Are you anywhere near my age?" Knock. I nodded again, "Would I be able to see you?" Knock. "Can I see you right now?" silence. I guess he was a shy type. "Maybe later?" I asked, my voice taking on an almost desperate tone. Knock. "Okay. I can wait I can wait. "Do you want to tell me how you died?" Silence. Then I felt the room temperature turn ice cold, before returning to normal. The lingering presence disappearing almost immediately. "Oookay...touchy subject. Got it. I'm sorry, I hope we can talk again." I said and frowned lightly, then worked to put the candles back before sitting on the couch and putting on the TV.