Chapter 2: The Paper That Scratched Itself - The Table That Had A Ghost.

Imp note

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Sighing, I scrutinized my surroundings. All the unpacking had drained me. My room was not a mess now but it wasn't what you could call clean either. It was just okay. My bed was not made and my books were all scattered over the study table. Teddy was lying on the floor - teddy was a gift-, the file containing my friends' goodbye-letters was about to fall off the table and the top-most letter, paper-clipped to the others, was dangling.

Okay, I will admit that the view in front of me was a tad bit messy but the view from my window, that was ethereal.

I had luckily checked all the rooms before choosing which one would be mine. The window in my room was a transparent glass one and was as wide as the wall so I could see the view in the front clearly.

The three mahogany trees stood tall, waving their branches from time to time sending a gentle breeze towards me through the open window. The trees stood next to each other, their branches swaying gently from side to side. It all looked heavenly.

I froze when I saw movement from behind the trees but grinned the very next second because my dad emerged from behind the trees with a hammock in his hands.

I breathed a sigh of relief. We had finally moved. I had the college acceptance letter and now all was good.

"Fi, sweety, come help me with the dinner.", mama shouted.

God, why is she shouting? My room is just a few steps from the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes at her and was about to reply when - "And please don't forget to take a shower."

I glared at the wall in front of me and slowly, moved my nose to my armpit and sniffed. It wasn't that bad, guess I could have dinner without showering. And for mom, I'd just have to use some deodorant. She'd of course, believe I had showered. Hmm, would she?

And why did she even want me in the kitchen, because mama and I both knew that I was a disaster in kitchen. She probably wanted me to learn how to cook but the last time I tried to cook something, I had nearly burned down the kitchen.

After applying the deodorant, I scanned my closet and donned a 'look, a chicken' shirt - which my cousin, Sofia, gifted me last Christmas because the day before she had given me a dare and I wouldn't do it because as she said, I was too much of a 'chicken' - and jeans so mama won't know that I hadn't showered.

I skidded towards the kitchen, because I love skidding and tried to scare mama by screaming loudly when I stepped into the kitchen but that only resulted in Dad shrieking crazily and mama and I laughing.

Did I forget to mention that by the time I had finished changing my clothes, all the cooking was done? Just a coincidence, of course.

My mama was the best cook. Everything she cooked and baked, even, was droolworthy and delicious. I was quite the opposite. I couldn't cook for my life and hadn't even thought of baking after my disastrous baking when I was 11. Mama had bought me an easy bake oven with cookie dough to bake cookies and I, being the clumsy person I am, managed to melt the fricking oven with cookie dough inside it. I had cried that night to sleep because of it.

I looked at dad and mama, and smiled gratefully. Then, I looked at the table and smiled even more gratefully because mama had cooked my favorite, tomato sauce spaghetti. The dinner passed in a blur, with Dad making silly jokes and Mama and I doubling over with laughter. After dinner, mama and dad did the dishes whilst I all but stood at the corner of the kitchen, eating ice-cream out of the ice-cream container.

I returned to my room and jumped on the bed, trying to act as if I had passed out but then grinned at myself and rolled all over the place, took teddy in my arms, kissed it's forehead, then cuddled with it, knowing very well that it would be lying on the floor in the morning because of all the kicking I used to do while sleeping.

No, I am not crazy, okay? I just love my Teddy. Even if I threw it out of the window last time I was throwing a fit.

I sighed and closed my sleep, trying to succumb to the sleep that was calling for me, when I first heard it, the sound of paper scraping against the floor.

I blinked my eyes open, thinking it was just my imagination. Then I rolled again on bed when I stopped hearing it and closed my eyes.

Scrape.

There was it again. The haunting sound. This time loud and clear. I sat up abruptly, my heart thumping. I shifted in my bed, slowly, still sitting, towards what I thought was the direction from where the sound was coming.

Scrape.

I gulped. It was definitely a ghost, coming to gulp down my soul first and then my body. Were ghosts even cannibals? Were they able to eat humans alive? Could they taste what our skin was like? Was our skin tasty? What am I even thinking? Maybe it wasn't a ghost. Maybe, it was some animal. No, what if it was a vampire? What if I was his mate and he had come to drag me down the road to take me with him and make me pop babies every now and then? Okay, I was definitely going crazy. What if it was nothing serious? What if it was just a piece of paper from my own book? I mean, my books were scattered across the table.

What if that paper was from one of my books? Oh God, what if it was from one of the Harry Potter books? I shuddered at the thought. Then trying to be brave, I stood up, trying to ignore the trembling of my hands.

I'm not going to lie. I was a little scaredy cat in such situations. I didn't even watch horror movies because of it.

Scrape.

I jumped again.

I moved towards the source of the sound. It seemed to come from... Under the table? Wait, what? I thought it was a ghost or some shit. Aw man.

Then I rolled my eyes at myself because if the sound was coming from under the table, it meant something was there.

What if it was a ghost? I trembled again. Literally? I just wanted it to be a ghost and when I got to know that it might be a ghost, I am scared again?

No, I'm not scared.

So, I puffed out my chest, not that there's something there to be puffed out even *insert eye rolling here* and leaned towards the table. Hmm. Why was it quite all of a sudden? Sitting or should I say squatting down, I -

Scrape.

There it is again. I quickly moved to turn off the ceiling fan to concentrate more on the sound coming from under the table and returned back to my previous position, narrowed my eyes at the table, giving it my best 'Snape' glare and lo and behold, there was it. The piece of paper that was somehow glued to the back leg of the table. I leaned a bit more to reach out, pick it up and started reading it.

"Dear piano, or should I say Fiona? Because you're going to forget anyway that I used to call you piano (pls don't forget. If you do, I'll kill you. ). I love you, you know that and you love me, I am damn sure you do because I am your best friend. Don't you dare get a new best friend and forget - "

Wait, this was Eve's letter. I straightened, bashing my head against the table because somehow I had moved under the table. Sighing, I frustrated-ly, hmm is that even a word?, shifted from under the table and stood up. My fist thought was, 'ow, my back hurts'. And the second was 'yay, it wasn't a ghost' . And the third was 'awww, I miss my best friend'. And the fourth was how did it started scraping? I furrowed my brows at the thought. I was doing too much of it, the thinking.

I let out an exaggerated sigh and bobbed my head up and down, which I tended to do whenever I was thinking way too hard. No I didn't. I just thought I would look cool if I bobbed my head. And no, you can't sue me. I looked at my surroundings, and my eyes darted towards the ceiling fan. I froze. So that's what happened. I had turned the speed of fan to maximum before jumping on the bed and the file with my letters was already open. The increase in the speed of the ceiling fan caused the letter to fall on the floor which in turn, caused the paper of the letter to scrape against the floor.

I grinned at the Sherlock-Holmes-was-my-teacher-investigation of mine and was about to go all co-co on my bed when I stiffened. Paper scrapes when moved against floor, not carpet.

Did I forget to mention that half of the rooms in this house were carpeted? Including mine?

I gulped and advanced towards the table once again. I squatted once again and gave the table a 'Professor-McGonnagal' stare this time. Then I leaned towards the spot where Eve's letter was lying the last time.

Hmm, nothing peculiar.

Wait, Eve's letter was not the first one in my letter-file, which meant the other letter was somewhere over here. Now, you must be wondering 'why oh why was my best friend's letter not the first one?' And whose letter was the first? The answer to these questions is that the first letter was Uhm, uhm's. Yes, you guessed it right.

Oh God. What if it's missing? I can't just text him and say, hey your letter is missing because my table-ghost tried to gobble it up, can you mail me your letter this time? Oh God, what if the table ghost was real? I was going to cry. This table wasn't even mine.

I am sure that I again forgot to mention that the table in my room wasn't mine. When I saw that this room, that had half a window in the place of wall and an intricately designed study table which the previous owner for some generous reason, had left, I of course, had announced that this room was going to be mine. Had I known that the table was a ghost-table, I would've claimed another room as mine.

Oh my God. I'm totally crazy. I should just check around for the letter.

Hmm, why hadn't I think of that before?

Because I was contemplating whether the table had a ghost or not?

I rolled my eyes at my crazy self. I guess I should check around. I patted around the spot. To the right, nope nothing here. To the left, no. To the south-or-north-or-fucking-something, - pardon my swearing please but I don't really know directions and just wanted to look smart - yes, there was something. I patted down on it again, just in case and yes there, indeed, was something. Now that I notice it, it was indeed peculiar, how the something-i-just-patted was very lumpy and close to the corner of the wall. Why? Because a piece of paper does not feel like that. It was supposed to be just a single piece of paper.

Cautiously, I roamed my hands around that particular spot now and voila, the edge of the carpet at that very corner was tugged in the upward direction as if someone had constantly pulled it upwards. And a little area of floor was left uncarpeted because of it. Had no one noticed it? Then again, it was a pretty easy sight to miss.

So that's the secret. The paper must have been scratching itself against the floor here. I almost snickered at the thought but thought opposite of it.

I leaned more so now I was lying on the ground and tried to peek under the carpet but to no avail. Moving my hand from around the table leg, I tugged at the carpet which was tugged too much and now felt even a little more tugged. Do I love the word tugged or something? Then, roaming my hands under the carpet, I felt it.

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Hello, it is i, your beloved author(hehe)

Please vote and comment if you like the first chapter. I have tried editing it as much as I could but if there is anything else I forgot to edit or if there's any mistake let me know :). Enjoy.

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