Writer’s Digest.com Writing Prompt- May 12, 2009
You've recently purchased a new house. Upon your first full night there, you begin to hear noises but think nothing of it—until you see something that convinces you the house is haunted.
Please limit your response to 500 words or fewer.
The summer heat was unbearable. My clothes stuck to my skin and the constant water breaks made it excruciatingly difficult for me to get anything done on the first night in my new house. "Thank God the air conditioning is supposed to be fixed tomorrow," I sighed, looking at my dog Harry.
Hopeless and exhausted, I retired to the bedroom, but not before moving every portable fan in the house to my bedside. I cracked the windows and laid down to go to sleep, a thin sheet being all that I could bear in the stuffy heat.
"If someone broke in right now, how would I react?" The question I ask myself almost every night as I fall asleep- partially due to an unhealthy obsession with watching crime-related television dramas. Nonetheless, this is the same question that plagues me each night, the same question that rarely ever results in an actual answer. Instead, I occupy the majority of my thoughts going over details like, "Well, it depends, are they here for my stuff, or are they here for me?" and "It depends, am I asleep when I hear them outside my bedroom or do I awake with them standing over me?" All of these and more are the important questions that lay the platform for how the rest of my story turns out. As for the paranormal, I hardly waste my time wrestling with those thoughts- there is no way to fight a ghost, a feeling, or an unexplained act if you've never encountered one before.
Mid-way through my nightly ritual, right as my eyes began to droop and my body began to give into the heat, my eyes shot open at the sound of an unfamiliar noise outside my bedroom window.
My head was instantly flooded with thoughts of every possibility of what it could be, both good and bad. I locked eyes with the bedroom window and tried to remain positive, writing it off as normal house noises I had yet to become accustomed to. Then I remembered what the bedroom blinds were hiding, a window that I had opened to let the night breeze cool the bedroom while I slept. After which, only scenes from horror movies and ghost stories played in my head.
I started cursing myself for having so many fans on- while usually I welcome the soothing roar of a fan as I go to sleep, tonight it made it nearly impossible to discern what the rough rumbling noise outside my window may be. “I can’t make it out” I kept telling my ears as I strained to try and distinguish it, to recognize the sound, “Oh, please let me recognize the sound.”
Then I heard the same noise coming from within the house. I immediately focused on the light coming through the crack under my bedroom door to the hallway. No creepy shadows stopping at my door, that was a good sign. I got up from my bed, trying to move as silently as possible. I moved toward the door, wishing my dog was taking the noises as seriously I was. As I touched my hand to the door knob, my heart stopped. I heard the noise coming from within my bedroom and as I turned around a cool chill went down my spine and I smiled. The air conditioning was finally working.
We make headboards! (Well, I did at least)
