Under The Rug

• Ananya Saini, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2020

“GHOST, GHOST!” John cried. His wife came running from the kitchen and asked, “What happened, why are you screaming?” Trembling, John told his wife what he had witnessed, “There was a mysterious noise coming from the rug and when I looked at it, I saw something move under it and disappear, IT WAS A GHOST!”
“You just came home from a long and exhausting day of work, you’re probably hallucinating, have your dinner and get some rest.” John finished his dinner and went to bed, but he still couldn’t forget what happened. He kept having nightmares about what he saw. The next day John arrived early from work. He had completely forgotten about the ghost he saw. It was when he was doing his office work, he heard that mysterious sound. When he ran to the living room he saw his wife there too. “You heard that sound, it’s just like yesterday. Look over there at the rug.” His wife saw something move under there and then disappear into thin air. His wife was in shock, she stood frozen and petrified for a while. “There’s actually a ghost, you weren’t just imaging yesterday, we need to call the ghostbusters!” said his wife. “I will go to them in the morning.” The next morning, John took a day off to go to the ghostbusters. He told the ghostbusters what he and his wife had witnessed. “I will go and see the ghost” offered one of the ghostbusters. “Hi, I’m Nicklous, you can call me Nick. I will just need to stop at my house and pick up some tools and then we will go straight to your house and solve the mystery of this ghost”. After picking the tools from Nick’s house, they went straight to John’s house. John was explaining to Nick exactly what happened when they heard that mysterious sound. “That’s the sound” John yelled. John took Nick to the living room and pointed to the rug “That’s where my wife and I saw the ghost.”
“But there’s nothing there,” Nick told John. “There, that bump in the rug,” replied John. Then Nick saw it. It started moving and then disappeared. “Hmmm, I know. Tomorrow we will set up a camera under the rug,” Nick said and John agreed. Nick decided to stay at John’s place for that night. The next morning, after having breakfast Nick and John sat in the living room waiting for the ghost. They set up the camera under the rug. They didn’t see or hear anything until the afternoon. As soon as they heard the mysterious sound, Nick started recording. Then they waited and after it disappeared, Nick took out the camera from the rug. Then they saw the recording. It wasn’t a ghost, after all, it was a mouse. The mouse would disappear through a hole in the floorboards. “Haha, it was just a mouse,” said Nick. John’s wife came downstairs laughing “I knew it wasn’t a ghost.”