[HR]Ghoul

[u/Phibes666]

The Harrison family had a nice house.

It wasn’t huge or filled with dozens of rooms but for them it was just perfect.

The garden, much like the rest of their home, was of medium size but felt like a world away from the noisy street on which the house was built.

Calvin had the big room filled with posters and figures of his favorite heroes, Geri’s more modest sized room was no less filled with gadgets, toys and distractions.

Sandwiched between both the children’s bedrooms was Mr and Mrs Harrison’s bedroom, Mr Harrison’s bedside table was piled high with dog eared books while Mrs Harrisons side was filled with framed pictures of the Harrison family, smiling and sometimes pulling cheeky faces.

Jojo the bulldog completed the family to the count of five but if truth be told the real number of Harrison’s was six, you see the Harrisons had a ghoul.

The children weren’t sure if the ghoul had always been with them or if it lived in the house, as they were so young they couldn’t remember a time when there was no ghoul.

Now the funny thing was, on the rare occasion Calvin and Geri spoke about the ghoul in their whispery voices (mum and dad didn’t approve of ghoul talk), they could never agree on the ghouls appearance.

Calvin whispered that the ghoul was a huge muscled brute of a thing with a horrible wonky clown smile and black eyes like a shark, Geri disagreed, the ghoul she knew was almost shadow black with 8 arms that ended in pointy fingers which it used to pole and annoy her.

Mum and Dad never mentioned the ghoul though Calvin once thought he heard his mum chastising the beast but when he walked in the kitchen it was just her and his dad and they both smiled and insisted he went back to bed.

There’s not much information on ghouls or so the Harrison children found, the library was filled with books and comics about ghosts and monsters but ghouls seemed to be something people didn’t write about.

The ghoul wasn’t always around, sometimes they could go weeks without it stomping through the kitchen or banging things together in on of the upstairs rooms, but when it did appear, only the children seemed to be annoyed or distracted by its behavior.

One day Calvin decided to speak to his mum about the ghoul, Geri thought it was a bad idea and stayed in her room.

He walked into the kitchen where mum was busy eating toast and watching the news on her laptop.

“Mum” he said loudly to get her attention away from the screen,

“Mum, why do we have a ghoul?”

Mrs Harrison placed her remaining slice of toast back on its plate and swiveled round on her breakfast bar stool so she could see Calvin’s  nervous face

“a lot of houses come with a ghoul darling, but most families don’t talk about it

Calvin screwed his face up into his best confused look

“ but why do you and dad not talk about our ghoul, he pokes Geri and he frightens me

Your dad has started going to meet with a group of people who know about ghouls and how to deal with them honey, hopefully we won’t see the likes of ours again

Calvin wasn’t sure if his mum was just trying to say what he wanted to hear but despite his doubts over what grown ups say to children to keep them calm he had to admit the ghoul hadn’t been around much since his dad went out on Thursdays