The Ghost In My Basement ~A Short Story

The Ghost In My Basement

It was suddenly pitch dark. I could hear screams and shrieks in the background. When I turned around, I nearly jumped out of my skin. There, fluttering behind me, was a spooky looking ghost, with a mournful expression on its face, lurching towards me! I stopped dead in my tracks and screamed my lungs out. I felt faint, my head felt heavy, and I thought that I was going to die at any moment, when the ghost consumed my soul. I was always a little creeped out by our dark and eerie basement, and the sight of this ghost had proven that my suspicions were right! I somehow managed to come back to my senses and took control of my feet and ran out towards the exit. As I ran, I imagined the ghost following me, uttering sorrowful howls as it tried to catch up with me.

As a child, I had always enjoyed horror stories and films. I loved watching horror movies with my friends and family and screaming during all the scary parts, just for fun. When I was younger, I also used to believe in ghosts and dark spirits and several times, I remember lying awake at night, thinking that there was dark shadow under my bed, waiting to gobble me up. But as I grew older, I dismissed those silly ideas from my head and had never even thought about ghosts, until now! Today, both my parents had gone out for work and my younger brother was sleeping in his room. I had gone downstairs, to the basement of our house, to do the laundry, when this ghost had popped out of nowhere.

As I thought about it more clearly, it dawned on me that there was no one at home except me and my brother, who was asleep.

"Who could have screamed? I'm the only one at home and Rohan's asleep.", I thought to myself. 

Fear crept into my mind as I began thinking of the source of the shrieks.

"It's okay, I'm probably just hallucinating.", I nervously told myself.

I screwed up whatever courage I had left and tiptoed quietly towards the basement. There was only one way to uncover this secret. The ghost was still there, floating to and fro, as if impatiently waiting for someone. I nearly screamed again but stopped myself just in time. Where had this ghost come from? Were ghosts actually real? My curiosity got the better of me and I inched towards the ghost, to try and unearth some information.

All at once, I heard suppressed giggles coming from the left corner of the basement. A shiver crept up my spine. What now? Was there an evil spirit? But somehow, the giggles sounded oddly familiar and seemed to ring a bell in the back of my head. Suddenly, in a flash, I understood what had happened. I marched towards the sound of laughter angrily. And there, having the time of his life, was my pesky and irksome younger brother. He had played a prank on me! The ghost was just a bedsheet with eyeholes. It had looked oddly realistic in the neon light of the basement. The screams were just a recorded sound which he had played on his phone. I charged towards him, with an evil glint in my eye, and he ran for his life, laughing hysterically all the way!