The spirit next door episode 1

??The Spirit Next Door??
Part One

The house next to ours has been vacant for years. No one except the previous resider who was also the owner has explanation to the reasons why he vacant the house for 20 good years.

Since the day I and my family moved into our house 6 years ago, many people has been coming to make enquiries from us concerning the house because they have interest in renting it. We have no idea about the house and we know no one that can be connected to the house, family and friends left the house 20 years ago.

Rumour bears it that the house was the first to be built in that area and the owner also left the place before the arrival of other landlords and land lady, hence the reason why no one can give explanation for reason why he left.

Spending 6 years beside the building, we didn't notice any ill occurrences in the house. The house was clean and dormant like every abandoned house. No one will assumed that the house have any problem.

Then one day, a family of eight moved into the house. I was on my way to my friends house when I saw two big lorries carrying heavy household equipment. The lorry packed at the front of the house and some people including the driver got down.

They started offloading the loads and was transporting it directly into the building. I guess someone has been to the house already to clean it up. I was surprised I didn't notice.

As a jovial and friendly person, I moved towards them to help them packed their load inside. I was actually doing that because of two reasons. I wanted to establish a friendly relationship with the family and to also get myself acquainted with a girl I saw there. She seems to be my age mate and also the second child in the family. I later learnt that her name is Precious.

I've never for once entered the house. That morning will be my first time. I helped them carry most of the heavy household materials in order to impress the girl.

I was really surprised and confused when I entered the house. The house looks to beautiful to be vacated for years. I began to assume that something spiritual would have been the reason why the owner disappeared into thing air.

It was when I entered the compound that I discovered that most of the basic household material of the previous resider was still there. Sofas, beds, tables and machines. The new family packed everything away and replaced it with theirs.

I called my friend and cancelled my appointment with him. I spent the rest of the day arranging the house that is not mine. I was really surprised to eat my lunch and even dinner in their place. They were really friendly and my parent thought I'm in my friend's house. I made sure I acquainted myself with the girl before going home.

I retired to my room immediately I arrived home. My countenance really seems dull, so I believed my parent and sibling thought I was tired so they didn't disturb me.

I was woken up by a very loud scream in the middle of the night. I got up instantly and went to the parlour to check where the sound came from. I was wrong, I was not the only one woken up by the scream, both of my parents and my sibling too were woken up. We returned back to bed after searching everywhere and finds nothing.

The same thing happened the next day and the week after, it was consecutive. No one could give explanation to where the screaming comes from. I decided to visit Precious's house to ask if they heard the noises.

I started questioning her immediately I got to her place. I was really curious to know what happened.

It was when I asked that she unravelled part of the mystery surrounding the noise to me. She told me that the noise started the first night they spent in the house. She said they didn't notice anything until the third day that they saw the dead chicken under the three that was at the front of the house.

She explained that they find dead thing under the tree whenever they hear scream. We knew that the issue is a serious thing but we tried to relay our fear by saying that the death of those things was natural.

Everything changed one night when the youngest child of the family died.

I was really angry and sad because I knew the cause of his death. I couldn't forgive myself so I decided to find solution to the problem. I finally discovered that the tree in the compound was the reason for the night screaming.

I told Precious's father and he paid some people to cut off the tree.

The first one week was noiseless and scream free. I was right, the tree was the cause of the screaming and death tolls. Everything started becoming normal until the week runs out.

I just came back from Precious's house. I ate and played with my siblings before going to bed. I was sleeping peacefully when I heard this scream from my sleep. It was louder than every other scream have been hearing. It was as if the person that screamed was outside my room.

I stood up from bed immediately and started running to the parlour. The scream was resounding simultaneously in my head. I don't know when I opened the door that lead outside.

Then I opened the door to see something impossible to believe and hard to explain. I felt like vomiting because the spirit next door has finally here to pay me a visit.

? Elijah Taiwo Fagbemi