"Did you hear that?" I asked my brother. The hairs on my arms rose.
"Hear what?" My brother Richard asked me back. He raised an eyebrow.
"Someone said hello to me," I answered quickly. "A girl."
"I didn’t hear anything," he responded. Then he looked me straight in the eye. "You’re lying. You’re just trying to scare me."
"No, I’m not!" I defended myself. My voice was high-pitched.
"Let’s take a look around," my brother suggested. I nodded.
We took a look around the attic. We didn’t see anything except scarce furniture, lots of dust, and cobwebs.
"Ugh, this place is gross!" I complained. I removed all the cobwebs with my hands. My hands got dirty. As I searched through the attic, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching me. A shadow coming in my direction.
"Ha!" Someone touched my shoulder, and a male voice yelled at me.
I turned around and screamed aloud. "Ah!" I was startled.
It was my brother. I rolled my eyes. He laughed. I slapped his shoulder with my hand and berated him, "It’s not funny!"
"It certainly is," he responded while grinning widely. "Come on, you should see the look in your face." He continued laughing.
"Richard, Imogen!" Our mother called us from the ground floor. "Come here, we have ice cream!"
"Yay!" My sibling and I yelled happily in unison.
We carefully came down from the attic, then ran to the second floor, and finally down to the ground floor.
Mom stared at me angrily. Uh-oh. What did I do wrong?
"Imogen, your hands are full of cobwebs!" She reprimanded me. "Go wash your hands first before you eat your ice cream!"
"Okay, Mom," I replied in my small and weak voice. I went to our new kitchen sink and washed my hands thoroughly, then wiped them.
I rushed to the dining table. Dad, Mom, and my annoying brother Richard were all gathered around it. My parents were currently eating ice cream with cones. My dad told me to get my own scoop of ice cream. There were two flavors in the bucket: cookies and cream and rocky road. Mom ate her rocky road ice cream. Dad ate his cookies and cream. My brother ate a combination of both. I ate cookies and cream.
Delicious! I thought as the cookies and cream melted in my mouth. The ice cream colored my tongue icy black and white. It felt like eating a melted white chocolate cookie. After I finished my ice cream, I took a bite of the top of the cone. Crunch! The top of the cone disintegrated as I bit it off. Crunch-crunch-crunch! The sound of my enjoyment as I savored the cone echoed in the air. I slowly ate my cone purposefully just so I could show my brother that I still had my ice cream while he was about to finish his. Well, his ice cream is gone now. The entire thing was in his belly. He saw me still eating my cone.
"That’s unfair!" He yelled at me. He was frowning. He was frustrated. "You still have your cone!"
"It’s not my fault you eat so fast," I retorted in a teasing way. I stuck out my tongue.
"Hmp!" he exclaimed in frustration. He glared at me, looked away from me, and crossed his arms at me.
The unloading of our personal belongings and other important things was finally finished. Dad paid the movers. Each of my fellow family members placed the suitcase that contained clothes and other stuff in their bedrooms. My family members cleaned their rooms. I cleaned my room.
I swept all the dust and dirt with a broom, I cleared the cobwebs with the feather duster, and I washed my hands and wiped them with a clean white towel in my own bathroom. Yes, my bedroom has its own bathroom. Back when we were staying at Aunt Agnes' house, my brother and I would fight over who would be the first to take a shower in the visitor's bathroom. But now that I have my bathroom, there will be no problem like that. It has been solved.
I then arranged all my clothes and shoes in my new wardrobe and put my powder, lip balm, big pink hairbrush, and cotton candy-scented perfume on my vanity table. For effect, I put my light pink music box with a dancing ballerina in the center. I played the music box. The ballerina gracefully spun her lithe body to the elegant classical music.
I wonder why I was the only one who heard the girl's voice earlier. Was I crazy?
I hope not. I don’t want to be crazy. If I got crazy, that would hurt my family members, especially my parents. I didn’t want to disappoint them. I wanted them to always be proud of me. It’s why I achieved a lot in school.
I worried for my sanity. I pushed my long, straight black hair back and scratched it with my slender fingers. I then calmed myself and brushed my hair with my fingertips.
A cold breeze entered the room. The music and the ballerina stopped. The electricity in the house was gone. Is there a ghost? I thought. No, that couldn’t be. My parents had probably checked out this house and made sure there were no ghosts or other elements. But was this house already blessed by a priest?
This was all in my mind. This was a new house. I was just not used to this. We used to live in a city. Now, we were in a rural village. I should get used to the sound of a breeze, a draft, and other strange nature sounds. After all, we were surrounded by nature. The electricity came back.
I stared at the small television on a wooden table. I plugged the TV into the brick wall. I pushed the "on" button.
A cartoon involving talking bears was on. I took out the remote control and switched channels. As I was about to switch to another channel, I saw something unusual.
A shadow of a girl moved swiftly onto the screen.