My name is Jack. My family and I just moved into our new house.
One day, my father called me into the room.
"Son, you need to start sleeping in your own room. How long are you planning to keep sleeping with me and your mother?"
I replied, "Dad, I'm just not settled in this house yet."
"No more excuses," he said firmly. "You're sleeping in your room tonight."
Now here I am, forced to sleep alone on the second floor—and I'm terrified.
I have a little sister and a little brother. I tried telling my father that they could sleep with me for company, but he shut me down.
"They'll sleep in their own room," he said. "You're seventeen years old and still scared of sleeping alone? Shame on you."
I wanted to argue—why is my room the only one on the second floor?—but I bit my tongue and just muttered, "Okay."
My bed is soft and comfortable, but I've been lying here for two hours without a wink of sleep.
Then the lights start flickering.
"What the fuck?!"
After a minute, the flickering stops—except for the one bulb in the far corner. It keeps blinking… and blinking… and now it's been going on for half an hour.
"It's just an electrical problem," I tell myself.
I close my eyes again, but soon a creepy scraping sound starts coming from that same corner. A shadow appears on the wall.
The shadow begins moving toward me.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
I scream at the top of my lungs.
But then the shadow stumbles, falls, and its head thumps hard against the corner of my bed frame.
A soft crying sound fills the room.
The shadow… is crying?
I hesitate, then slowly lean forward and look closer. Beneath the messy, tangled hair is a small, cute face streaked with tears.
"Are you okay?" I ask, my voice shaking.
She stares at me for a moment, then jumps to her feet and starts making that creepy scraping sound again.
Should I be scared? I think so.
She keeps going with the noise, louder now.
Finally, I can't take it anymore. "AHHHHH! I'm so scared! Save me—there's a ghost!" I yell dramatically.
The "ghost" suddenly stops. A huge grin spreads across her face.
"Yesssss! I did it! I did it!" she cheers. "I scared a real human!"
I blink, totally confused. "Are you okay?"
"Yes!" she says brightly. "And thank you!"
"Thank you for what?"
Before I can react, she throws her arms around me in a tight hug. Something very soft and round presses against my face for a second.
Then, just as quickly, she lets go, whispers "Thank you" one more time, and vanishes into thin air.
I sit there on my bed, heart still racing, trying to process what just happened.
A ghost spent half the night trying to scare me… and when I finally gave her the reaction she wanted, she was so happy she hugged me and disappeared.
Maybe sleeping alone on the second floor won't be so bad after all.