Our eldest sibling died recently but my parents never told us how she did and it wasn’t something that ever came up at the dinner table. Because of the incident, I was forced to move back temporarily to our old place to spend more time with my family.
We live in an old wooden house that belonged to my great-grandparents but it was small enough for one family to live in. There were only two rooms upstairs but my parents already occupied the main bedroom while I gave leeway for my younger sister to stay in the guest bedroom.
I agreed that I’ll be sleeping on the couch over the next few days since I was only there for a week and I’ll be going back to my place after the funeral. We had a solemn dinner during my first night and prayed for our eldest. We had a couple of wine bottles and caught up with one another since it’s been years since we’ve all been together. After dinner was done, I told everyone I’ll be wrapping it up so everyone said goodnight while I cleaned the plates in the kitchen. It was a bit late but I still wasn’t tired so I decided to lie down on the sofa and pray for my recently deceased sister. A few moments passed when I realized a small creak was coming out of one of the wooden beams in the living room. I tried staring at the ceiling for a moment but I don’t see any particular problem so I disregarded it.
The following night, I was already sleeping on the sofa when I was awakened by a slight graze on my face followed by the same creak in the ceiling. I opened my eyes but I wasn’t able to see anything unusual despite opening the lights in the middle of the night. I shrugged it off and went back to sleep.
The third night came by pretty quickly and I felt the same sensation again which was getting annoying so I decided to call my girlfriend and asked her if she can move her schedule to tomorrow instead of the weekend when she was supposed to visit on the last day of the wake and the funeral.
My girlfriend agreed but informed me that she’ll arrive early in the evening as she needed to run some errands first. I agreed and we said our goodbyes. I went back to the sofa and lay down but since it was too silent, I still heard a faint creak in the beams so I decided to wear my earphones and listen to some music until I fell asleep.
The following day came and my family left to get some groceries for the wake as well as tend to the guests. I told them that I’ll be with them shortly as I was waiting for my girlfriend to arrive. It was still early in the afternoon when I decided to take a nap on the sofa. I was awoken again by the same sensation of something grazing my face followed by an obscure creak directly above me, but the first thing that came to my mind was to check my phone and call my girlfriend to ask where she was.
She said she was near so I waited for her in the living room. I was still hearing the creak in the beams so I kept staring at the ceiling when I heard the doorbell ring and opened the door for her. She hugged me and offered her condolences but paused while I was embracing her.
I released her from my arms and looked at her but she became pale and was stunned for a brief moment as she stared into the living room.
I asked her, “What is it? What’s the problem?”
She replied, “Don’t you see it?”
I said, “No. What is it? What do you see?”
“I can see your sister with a noose around her neck, dangling above the sofa.”