Do you want to play?

“Do you want to play?” she asked with her hair in her face and her knees all scuffed up. My little sister was cool, probably the coolest girl I knew. She liked to do her own thing, so when she asked me to play, I normally dropped what I was doing to follow her.

She started up the stairs and led me to the bedroom that we shared. It was large and had two huge windows that looked out from the front of the house.  The best part was that our Dad had grown up in the same house, and although I often forgot, he shared that very room with his brother when he was younger. The floor boards were old and held years of paint; they were perfectly uneven, making it easy to roll toy cars and marbles along them. We played upstairs often- but only in the daytime. It had to be the daytime.

“Let’s play hide and seek,” she said with a grin. It was one of our favorite games. Sometimes it would last for hours because there were so many nooks and crannies to hide in. “I’ll hide first!” She volunteered and took off before I could object. I didn’t care, though, I was THE BEST at finding people!

I stood with my face in the corner of the room and covered my eyes. “1, 2…” I started to slowly count out loud.

“You better go and hide,” I said between numbers— I knew she was standing behind me waiting to jump when I turned around. We were always scaring each other. “…7, 8…” I paused again. I normally counted to 15, but I could feel her breath in my ear. I whipped around, “Come on! Go and hide, already!”

– but no one was there.

A chill hit my bones as I took my time surveying the room from my frozen position. There was no way Kate could’ve moved that quickly, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of someone standing behind me as I counted.

I realized just then, that I was now standing in HER spot, in the center of the room. How did I get here? Another chill hit my body and begged me to move.

“Ready or not, here I come!” I yelled as I darted toward the walk-in closet. It was Kate’s favorite place to hide, probably because it was a “shared closet” connecting two rooms— our’s and our parent’s, and it was jam-packed with hanging clothes and boxes.

I peered around the dark opening leading into the closet and saw a few winter coats swinging in the back toward the other room. I smiled- knowing that I had her!

I crouched down low to the floor hoping that I would have the last scare! As I moved closer, I could hear her breathing. I could just picture her all curled up in a ball— she’d be SO mad that I found her so quickly – and I couldn’t wait!

“Gotcha!!” I yelled as I yanked back the coats—

but a box of books was lying there, instead.

“Kate?” I called, knowing she couldn’t have gotten far. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I sang, trying to keep my voice from cracking. My heart began to race as I rummaged through the rest of the hangers. Where did she go? Just then, I heard a giggle from the other room. I pushed my way through the hangers to get to the door that led into my parent’s room.

Opening it quickly, I rushed through the door to catch her.

– She was gone.

I heard another giggle, this time from the hall. I made my way through my parent’s bedroom to the hall door. I crept it open to reveal the long hallway ahead, but still no Kate. A braided rug lay stiff on the floor. It led me past our older sister’s room on the right, and our bedroom on the left, followed by the stairwell immediately after. I normally stopped there. But today, she taunted me. Straight ahead the old wooden door was open.

-The attic door.

“Come on! No fair! That’s off limits!” I called as I inched one foot in front of the other. She knew the rules. I hated when she did this. I took a deep breath and moved closer. I didn’t want to look in there— not even in the light of day.

I shivered. It was cold at this end of the hallway.

“Game’s over, okay! Come out, already!” my voice grew stern. I stood with one foot placed just inside the attic, my heart was pounding in my ears. She giggled again, this time from the far left corner and I saw a trash bag full of clothes laying open on the floor. –“Okay- this is stupid.” I took off toward the stairwell.

“You can hide all day if you want! I don’t care!” I yelled as I bounded down the stairs and into the living room to watch TV.  I was so annoyed.

“Oh, hey!” She said, as if nothing happened. “– I forgot my favorite show was on.” There she was, my little sister,  strewn across the couch with her feet perched on the top.

“Wait- how long have you been down here?” I asked.

“I don’t know… I remembered when you started counting.”

My eyes grew wide, I felt a chill run down my spine and into my toes.

“Kate!” I yelled. “I went into the attic!” Panic coursed through my body.

She stared at me, a look of fear swept across her face.  “That’s off limits… you know that!”

…

I’ve created this page to share the spooky stories that made me— the haunted me—
Do you have a SPOOKY STORY to share? Email me at growinguphaunted@gmail.com — you know I want to hear it & maybe our readers will, too! – Abbie Richey Butler

(c) 2018 Abbie Richey Butler
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