Stories of average horror - Housewife Ghost

  These short stories are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread 

He woke up to the cheese being left on the wrong shelf in the fridge.

Any other day he might not have noticed, but he specifically remembered having moved it to one of the lower shelves before going to bed. Sneaking late night snacks often meant enjoying just a bite from the block of cheese.

Making an executive decision to ignore everything like this until he had a cup of coffee, he headed that way. Fortunately, everything else seemed to be right, perfectly normal, in fact he found nothing else being touched even creepier.

As the coffee began to brew, he slowly calmed down and took the cup to the balcony, overlooking the garden and pond. A gaggle of geese were enjoying the water and slowly making their way around the entire thing, dipping their heads below the water when needed.

By the time his coffee was finished he had forgotten about the misplaced cheese and went to take a shower and drive to his office. The ride was uneventful, not even a traffic problem, and even better was the rest of the day, where he could relax and finish off some basic paperwork.

It wasn’t until he returned home, with the setting sun making everything shine in gold, that the feeling of something being wrong slammed into him like a truck in an anime. There on his small, two seat dining room table was a bowl he was sure had been packed away in his closet.

In fact, the entire house seemed slightly different in a way he couldn’t explain. The corners seemed cleaner, brighter, and as the last of the sun’s rays hit the house, he could swear he smelt something different.

Opening his fridge he found the cheese back at the top shelf, neatly arranged to even be in line with everything else around it. He felt a presence behind him and whipped around to find nothing but an empty room and a light that suddenly seemed too low.

He grabbed his stepping stool and replaced t he two blown lights in his kitchen and decided that he must simply be forgetting things he had done. Opening a few windows and turning on a small fan, he made sure that any trapped gasses that could affect his memory would not be there.

The rest of the evening went without incident, he made food, decided to do the dishes later, and went to watch a few movies in the living room. He was nearly asleep when a clatter woke him up, causing his body to jump into the air and his soul to nearly leave his body.

It was coming from the kitchen and whatever was happening was getting louder, the clang, swish, slam, and overall movement was tearing him in two. Mostly because whether he wanted to run away from whoever it was or confront it, he would have to go through the front door.

Deciding to be brave he ran into the kitchen and what he saw did actually cause his soul to leave his body for a split second. The pot, plate, knife and fork he had left to be washed later were floating in the air, getting washed with an equally floating sponge.

Whatever was doing it got spooked by his rapid presence and almost dropped it all, but at the last second it all floated down slowly, landing in a surprisingly neat pile. He stammered something incomprehensible, somewhere between a shout, moan, and groan.

Then there was the sensation of something approaching him at speed and all the lights went off at once, leaving him in complete darkness.

He fell over, landing hard on his ass, his entire body shaking, he managed to pull himself up using a cupboard and then grabbed his car keys and headed straight for his sister’s house.

When he arrived she refused to listen to him, instead laughing in his face until she noticed he was still shaking. He spent the night, sleeping on their small two-person couch, before deciding to go to a local temple.

There he got the advice to sell his house, leave everything in there, and one day hope to forget what happened to him. It all seemed perfectly reasonable until he realized that that it wasn’t the 1990s but the 2020s, which meant he was lucky to own a house at all.

Sucking up what little courage he had he decided to try and chase it away, whatever was going on would have to leave his house. He called his mom on the way home and she made the point that something cleaning his dishes wouldn’t be the worst thing.

When he got home the outside still looked the same as ever, with the noonday sun lighting everything in a bright white. However, he immediately noticed upon entering the house that everything was different.

His couches had been moved, the dining room table cleaned and covered by a tablecloth, and even the kitchen furniture rearranged. Whatever had scared him had spent the night going crazy in his house, clearly not as shaken as he was.

He walked through the house and was shocked to find that every inch had been cleaned, with even the dust in the corners removed. Moving to his at-home office he was pleased and surprised to find that nothing had been changed there.

Slowly going to sit he heard a door slam on the other side of the house and he knew it was done to get his attention. Plucking up all the courage that he could barely feel he went to go see which door had been slammed, finding the laundry room door repeatedly locking and unlocking.

With a shaking hand he opened the door, finding that it went into the unlock position as soon as his hand touched the handle. The light went on as the door swung open entirely, and he found all of his clothes cleaned and folded on top of his drier.

Right beside them was the empty washing liquid bottle he had been meaning to replace. None of this was what scared him, what scared him was the small folded note with a crudely drawn daisy on it in a deep scarlet red ink.

Shakingly he picked up the note and unfolded it, reading:

“Honey, dear, occupant, unwilling roommate, please replace the washing liquid. Also, next time you run out of the house and don’t close the door I shall have to throw a proper fit.

Your New Housewife Ghost.

P.S. I found your dirty magazines underneath your bed. I look like the Nino Nakano girl from the Quintuplets anime.”

 

From that day on he took off his shoes before entering his house, and got a virtual collection of magazines.