the house was haunted. [1/2]

This story was inspired by mochamura’s The Dummy’s Dummy, mouseinspace’s Vampire Boyfriend and Somali and the Forest Spirit! Please check them all out if you want some fun stories with a supernatural twist~

the house was haunted.

-snapshots of life in quarantine-

[ april 7th ]

“The Lockdown isn’t fun, Joshua.”

Joshua, who had been about to take a sip out of his tea cup, let out a quiet sigh. He had been doing that a lot lately, Abby noticed. She tilted her head, a question dancing on the tip of her tongue. She hoped he wasn’t getting tired - they had only just started tea time.

“I don’t even know what we’re locking down from,” Abby added.

Joshua placed his cup down on the little plate on the table. “People are getting sick.”

“Oh,” Abby said. She didn’t really understand, but she pretended she did. Then Joshua might not look so uncomfortable sitting in the tiny chair at her tiny table. They didn’t seem all that tiny to her, but they seemed really small when Joshua was nearby. He was so long and lanky; it was like his arms and legs didn’t know how to move sometimes. “Are we going to get sick?”

Joshua shook his head.

“Not if we’re careful,” he said. “That’s why we can’t leave the house.”

Abby tilted her head a little more. “But we never leave the house.”

Joshua paused for a moment.

Then he shook his head, a smile appearing on his lips. Abby liked when he smiled; it made him look less serious and sad. Abby would do anything to make him keep smiling.

“I suppose you’re right,” he agreed.

Abby beamed.

[ may 5th ]

Joshua was really good at hide-and-seek. When they had played it before The Lockdown, it had always been easy to find Joshua. He couldn’t hide under the table as well as she could, and he never thought of hiding under the stairs. His head almost always popped out from behind wherever he was trying to hide. And, if Abby couldn’t find him by his head, she always found him by his shoes.

But now that The Lockdown had started, Abby couldn’t find Joshua all the time. Sometimes she’d check all of the rooms in the house - not going in the attic, just like Mommy and Daddy said - and she still couldn’t find him. She had been looking for him for an eternity today. She had searched every wall, every room and every closet, but he was nowhere to be found.

Abby gave a frustrated huff.

Marching back into the living room, she decided she’d play with one of her toys if Joshua wasn’t going to play nice. Her toys never disappeared. Didn’t Joshua know he wasn’t supposed to disappear, either?

“What game are you playing now?”

Abby immediately shot up.

“Joshua!” she exclaimed, turning around and making a beeline for the doorway. “I found you!”

She tried to hug his legs, but she wasn’t able to get a grip. She never had been able to, but Mommy always said she could do anything if she tried hard enough. One day, she’d be able to hug him. She was sure of it!

“You did,” Joshua confirmed.

“You’re really good at hiding,” Abby said. “Where did you hide?”

Joshua didn’t give an answer. He just looked sad. Abby looked down at the floor, a guilty feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. She knew it was because she asked. Joshua had never liked it when she asked where he went before The Lockdown.

“...Sometimes I have to go,” he had said. He hadn’t ever looked her in the eyes. Whenever he had replied like that, Abby had been sure that he and his black, black suit were going to melt into the shadows of the house - just like something out of one of Daddy’s scary stories. Abby didn’t want ghosts to take Joshua away; he was her best friend.

Abby snapped back to the present.

She shook her head and looked back up at him.

“It’s okay, Joshua!” she said. “You don’t have to tell me where you hide. Someday I’ll find you there, and then it won’t be a secret!”

Joshua’s dark eyes still looked sad, but he gave her a smile. “There’s some places you can’t find me in.”

“But I always find you!” she protested.

Joshua just gave her a smile.

[ june 1st ]

Everything was dark.

And then, suddenly, there was Joshua, holding out a flashlight in front of him. Rubbing her eyes, she got to her feet and wandered out into the hallway. It was so bright when she stood in the flashlight’s light, but Joshua quickly turned the beam away from her.

“It’s late,” she said, her words a tired slur. “What are you doing?”

Joshua pointed towards the back door.

“I’m going outside,” he said.

She tilted her head. “I thought you said we couldn’t go outside together.”

“We can’t,” he said. He gave her an almost mischievous smile - just like the smile Daddy gave her. Abby didn’t know why he was giving the smile, but she decided she really liked it. “But it’s dark right now, so no one else is out there.”

Abby immediately perked up, all sleepiness forgotten. “Then…?”

“Then it’s safe for us to go out,” he finished.

Abby gave an excited cheer.

She ran to the back door, only to realize she had forgotten her favorite toy. If she was going outside, it had to come with her, too. When she returned from the living room with her stuffed bear in tow, Joshua was already holding the back door. She stumbled over to him, struggling to run with the bear in her arms - it was almost as big as her!

She knew Joshua wanted to help her carry it, but it was her bear. She had to be the one to do it.

Joshua, Abby and Teddy stepped out into the moonlight.

And Abby immediately gasped.

“It’s so pretty!” she exclaimed. The sky was an endless black blanket, filled with beautiful, twinkling lights that she had only seen out the window for the longest time. She had forgotten how much fun it was to run in the grass - to feel the cool summer air on her cheeks, to feel her favorite nightgown and hair spin around her as she twirled and twirled and twirled, and to know that the moon was watching over her all the while.

When she finally looked back at the door, Joshua was standing there and smiling.