My great uncle passed away when I was seven, I don't remember too much about him but I do know that the floating figure on my stairs is definitely him. Or at least something disguised as him, it's hard to say when he's been dead for well over thirty years and the only photos of him are from his old army days rather than his decrepit final days when I was dragged along to visit by my grandparents.
They always said it was important that I meet older relatives and learn from them but all I remember my great uncle talking about was the damned buttons on his shirt being too fiddly for his arthritic hands and how much he hated modern music. Hardly anything to inspire a new generation.
By all accounts his death was welcome and quiet - his heart failed in his sleep and he just slipped away overnight after many painful years of everything else failing first. He didn't leave any unfinished business that we knew of and never mentioned any lasting regrets and yet he's been floating about a foot high on the seventh stair for almost a week now.
He's only there between the hours of 11PM to 4AM and then he just fades out as quickly as he faded in. I tried talking to him once and he just raised one hand to his face, silently motioning for me to shut up and as soon as I do he lowers his hand and goes straight back to staring at nothing.
Well I thought it was nothing til last night when I tried talking again, heard an odd noise behind me and turned to meet a gaping mouth full of jagged teeth. I instantly stopped speaking, moving and breathing - just watching as it slowly closed and began to retreat.
Me and the ghost of my great uncle stood in silence, staring at the closed mouth of a monstrous behemoth whose full form we couldn't see for all the twisting shadows that writhed across its body. Then, without any sound or fanfare, at 4AM both it and my great uncle faded away. Waiting in nothingness until 11PM the following night.
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