300 Horror Writing Prompts- Prompt # 20
Chapter 2
A week crawls by with the family enjoying every day with Aiden being home, on his leave. They go out to have a beautiful day at Dolly world and out to a lake to play in the grass while having an enjoyable picnic. Carol and Aiden make plans to drive out to Florida to visit family and to take the kids to Walt Disney World.
As a new week starts, Aiden has noticed things going missing or moving to another room. He brushes it off, thinking that either Carol has moved it or that the kids moved the items when they play and forgot where they had put it so they can put it back. But as the month comes to an end, his agitation gets the best of him.
“Marcos, are you moving things around?” Aiden asks his son one morning at breakfast time.
“No, daddy, it wasn’t me.”
He turns his gaze to the twins, “Are you two the ones playing games and moving things around?”
Leah and Lance shake their heads. Aiden looks over at Carol who also shakes her head, making Airden even more confused as to what is happening in the house. “Well if it isn’t Marcos, and it isn’t Leah or Lance, and it isn’t mommy, then who keeps moving our stuff around?” He puts his hands to his face, lowering his voice. “Do you think we have ghosts?”
His kids all laugh and shake their heads, “Noooooo!”
The family laugh but it quickly turns to a frightened scream when a loud bang comes from the upstairs, the sound banging off the walls around the house. Marcos clambers out of his chair and runs around the table over to Carol who scoops him up into her arms. The twins begin to cry and try to get out of their own seats, but they need help to get in and out of their chairs. Carol puts Marcos down so that she can help the twins and soon mom and three children are huddled together, eyes on the ceiling. Leah and Lance bury their faces in Carol’s chest, sobbing in fear.
Aiden instantly jumps out of his chair and shifts into the protector. He rushes out of the kitchen and up the stairs, looking for the thing that fell. He moves from room to room, searching the closets, under the beds, in the showers, and behind doors, ready to get his hands on whoever scared his family. He finally enters his and his wife’s room to find that the lamp on his side is laying on the ground. The light bulb is shattered on the ground and the cord has visibly been violently ripped out of the wall. He quietly combs the room but doesn’t see anyone hiding anywhere a live person could hide. He punches the wall angrily since he couldn’t find anyone in the room. He turns around to see Carol standing in the doorway looking at him worriedly.
He sighs heavily and points to the lamp, “I came up here and found the lamp knocked over on to the ground. The light bulb has shattered so I will be a bag, a broom, and a dustpan.”
Carol nods and disappears for a moment back downstairs, reappearing with the items he requested in hand, still not saying anything. She glances around the room to see if anything else has been disturbed but she sees nothing out of place. She crosses the carpet to her husband, holding out the items to him, and being careful as to not go near the glass.
“I’ve already searched the room and there is no one here. No idea how the lamp could have fallen over like that when there is no one up here.” He takes the items, then gently waves her to get back to the door to keep from stepping on any shards of glass.
“I’ll stay downstairs with the kids while you clean this up,” Carol tells her husband before she leaves the room.
Aiden groans and begins to clean up the mess, careful to not sweep the glass further into the ground. Maybe he should have asked for the vacuum cleaner instead. He sweeps up the glass as best as he can then gives in, grabbing the vacuum from the hallway closet and finishes the job by sucking up the rest of the glass. He puts away the vacuum then heads downstairs with the trash, making sure to keep everything in the bag so that the glass doesn’t fall out all over the floor. As he passes the living room to go through the kitchen to the outside trash can, he sees his wife sitting on the ground, reading a book to the kids. When he returns, no one is in the living room. He looks around confused and walks around the house until he finds them sitting on the front porch.
“Well, there you all are,” he says as he closes the door behind him and joins them on the porch. “You all were in the living room just a second ago and then poof! You all disappeared.”
“Every last sliver of glass has been picked up and tossed in the outside trash can.” He sits down and enjoys the morning watching the kids play in the front yard with his wife. He takes a hold of her hand, pulls it up to his lips, and kisses it gently before turning his gaze back to his children. He laughs as the twins chase Marcos, his wife’s laughter mixing with his own.