The Chair

We sat at the table talking when we noticed from the corner of our eyes the door seemed to open and close again. No one took much notice of it; each thinking it was a draft that had caught it. Then we watched amazed as the chair at the far end of the room began to move on its own. Each time it caught our attention the chair stopped. Turning back to our conversation from the corner of our eyes, we watched the chair move again. Each time it inched closer towards the table where we sat. Our guests and we were hypnotised by the spectacular of the moving chair. We had lived here for many years and nothing like this had ever happened before. We all watched intently the chair with not a word being spoken. Whatever was moving it could clearly not be seen. Someone smiled and said, “That is a neat trick you must tell us all just how you’ve done it.” I shook my head and replied, “It is not us doing this.” Faces paled at the thought of the chair moving on its own. The chair then stopped and the outline of a figure appeared, its eyes were flaming red and it stared intently at us all. “Who are you? ” Someone asked. “Who do you wish I be? ” The reply came from a voice that seemed to surround us. You could see the fear begin to inherit everyone’s eyes as the eyes of whatever looked around at everyone. A crackling laughter then arose. “Who are you? ” I asked, “You are frightening everyone. I tell you now you were not invited; your presence is not welcome here. Be gone I say, be gone and leave us in peace.” The flaming eyes stared at me as if to devour my soul. Outside a lightning bolt struck, its explosion made us jump. When we looked back, the chair was where it should be and the flaming red eyes were gone. Was this an hallucination or did we really see a ghost. Whatever, when we returned to talking, we abandoned the conversation of strange phenomena we were discussing before our encounter. 15 November 2009