My Ghost Named Merlin

Chapter 1: Hello

Morgana tucked a stray lock of her raven hair behind her ear with one hand as she carried a box of cutlery and other brick-a-brack toward an old, wooden house. The house was in some obscure rural location that she didn't care to remember.

She walked up the creaky, wooden porch and entered the building (its large oak doors were already open). This lead to a long ominous looking hall way of more creaky, wooden floorboards and several iron wrought chandeliers with ancient half melted candles smothered by cobwebs. It was cooler in here than outside. So much so that goosebumps formed on her forearms and legs which were exposed due to her minimal summer clothing. Morgana continued walking down the hall way and found what Morgana would describe as a great hall.

Though in reality it could have been just a really large living room that was really long, had antique furnishings hidden under swathes dusty cloths and had a massive stain glass window of various coat of arms and crests. Not to mention a massive open fire place. But she would just have to get use to it because she would be staying here for the rest of her summer holidays until university started.

Morgana placed the box amongst other boxes and stood back to see just how much work that she and her half brother Arthur had to do before Uther arrived. Uther being her father, and the person who decided to buy this stupid house in the middle of nowhere on a pure whim.

And speak of the devil and the devil shall appear, after a second or two Arthur entered the room with a box filled with more random objects and placed it next to Morgana's box. He wiped his brow since he was perspiring quite heavily, not only due to his exertions but also because of the unnaturally warm summer day.

"That's the last box thank heavens. This is servant's work!" he exclaimed as he stretched his shoulder muscles.

"Yeah, whatever," she replied nonchalantly, still pissed off that she was here in the first place.

Arthur raised his eyebrows at her in an annoyed manner. Even though they practically lived with each other all their lives, half blood related or not, siblings are siblings and they generally don't get along not matter what age they. "It's not like your the only who doesn't want to be in this god forsaken place."

"Hmmm," she rolled her eyes at Arthur's whining and reached into the back pocket of her short shorts to retrieve her mobile to check the time. It was still quite early in the day.

"Are you even listening to me?" asked Arthur.

Morgana ignored him and continued browsing through her phone.

It was Arthur's turn to roll his eyes and be pissed off. "Well, if you want to do anything useful we can begin cleaning the rooms since we're gonna be stuck here for the next month or so. Luckily it only really dusty so no need for painting thank the lord. Also the furniture was already moved into the place a week ago. Just pick a room and begin." With that Arthur left the 'grand hall' and began with his own devices.

Morgana locked her mobile placed it in her front pocket and sat on the nearest chair (or what she thought might be a chair since the shape was blurred under the white cloth) and sighed.

For the rest of the day Morgana and Arthur purged the house of dust, spiders, leaves and anything that was deemed unfit to be in the building. The gloves that she put on six hours ago that were once pristine white were now a filthy, dark grey her face was beaded with sweat. She removed the gloves and chucked them into one of the many large, plastic, black bags full of rubbish in the now dust and cobweb free hallway.

Morgana decided to take the rubbish bags out and place them around the bin (since it was already full) in the front yard. Night had already fallen and with this change the temperature dramatically dropped; dropped enough that Morgana could see her breath frosting up. She had to be quick to take the rubbish out or she would freeze. She managed to accomplish the task in five minutes but in that time she was also able the admire or in her opinion just observe the surroundings of the plot of land the house stood on.

Indeed, she was correct the wooden yet once grandeur house really was in the middle of nowhere. She couldn't see any light around her besides those coming from the house (that were from candles since the electricity hadn't been connected yet and was being done tomorrow) and that of the full moon and stars. She couldn't even see the road down which Arthur drove down to go to town (which was some forty-five minutes away) and get dinner for the two of them. Their driveway was immensely long and the a good portion of the plot of land was surrounded by tall, dense tree like various conifers and oaks. The garden itself was in a wild state for it had been unattended for years and the plants had grown out of their set plots and probably onto the now non-existent pathways.

When Morgana finished observing the front of the house she saw two pinpricks of light coming down the winding drive way. It was Arthur coming back in his little old Ford. He parked in front of the house and came out carrying several bags of shopping and Chinese take-out. Morgana silently helped him carry a few bags back into the house and settled them onto a large, mahogany table in the grand hall.

Arthur had already laid out the things he carried on the table and was trying to start a fire with the wood that was neatly stacked next to the fireplace. At the moment he was failing. Morgana who already began eating her dinner sniggered at Arthur's miserable attempts. In the end he gave up and stalked to the table and began his own.

"What are you looking at?" accused Arthur when he realised she was staring at him.

"Nothing," Morgana answered with a small grin.

"I highly doubt that it's nothing." He shovelled more fried rice into his mouth.

"Oh, I just find it amusing that you can't even start a wood fire," she said truthfully.

Arthur swallowed whatever food was in his mouth, "Humph if you think your so good at starting fires I suggest you try."

"Fine I will," Morgana curtly answered and got up from her chair. She walked to the other end of the table and picked up some old newspaper and began scrunching them up into paper balls. Morgana removed some of the larger logs from the fire place and replaced it with the newspaper balls. She left some of the smaller logs there too. Morgana took the lighter and lit the newspaper which instantly became a lit. This caused the some of the smaller logs to smoulder a bit. She reached for the poker that hung from a hook by the side of the fireplace. The poker had one pointy and one hooked end. This hooked end was shaped like an eagles head. She poked the logs around to aerate them until they too began burning. The room was bathed in a warm light and heat diffused in to the room.

Morgana straightened up and turned around with a smug smile, "See easy-peasy."

But was only met with Arthur who settled on a nearby sofa chair with a blanket on snoring softly. Her expression softened upon seeing it. Morgana grabbed a blanket from the piles of stuff that littered the room and settled onto spare couch to got to sleep.

**M**

Swish. Swish. Swish.

Morgana's eyes fluttered open. It was still dark and the fire had died down, only a few embers persisted with their small reddish glow. Enough light for her to see that Arthur was still asleep and his mouth wide open. It was so tempting to throw something in it.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

She was perplexed with the sounds she was hearing. Her eyes had already adjusted to the light but still it was not very clear. However, she listened for another moment and heard nothing. Morgana decided to go back to sleep.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her eyes snapped open this time. Surely she heard something.

Swish. Swish. Swish.

Ok, there was definitely something making a noise and it appeared to be coming from the upper levels of the house. Morgana moved the blanket aside, exposing her body to the cool night air and got up and picked up a torch.

She used the torchlight to guide her up the stairs she cleaned earlier in the day and toward to upper floor. The upper storey of the building contained two bathrooms, a central living area and four bedrooms. They too were already furnished and were cleaned by herself and Arthur. She had already called dibs to the room on the north side facing the lake fifty meters behind the house.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

The noise was coming from higher up still. From the attic she guessed. Morgana walked to the far end of the living area and to another set of stairs that lead into the attic. She reached the attic door and tried to open it. It was difficult to open but after fiddling with the knob a bit she was able to pry it open. Morgana shone the torch into the room and it revealed more old furniture like chairs and a mirror which were opposite to a shelf full or books near some wooden trunks.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The sound was coming from behind the trunks. Morgana moved toward them and looked behind and saw some mice sitting in a metal bucket chewing on something, and there feet scraping in the tin, which amplified it. But as soon as she got closer they scurried off. Morgana bent over and picked up what they were gnawing on.

She put the the torch on the bookshelf and held up what looked like a red, silken scarf in front of the light. It was only fifty by fifty centimetres big, felt very silky and unusually clean. She angled it differently and saw a little eagle embroidered in one of the corners and a blue letter M in fancy script. Morgana brushed her thumb over the M, feeling every soft thread and brought it up to her face for reasons she still didn't know and savoured the cool texture.

"Hello," said a soft baritone voice, "Umm I suggest you stop rubbing your face on my neckerchief cause that feels a little too good."

Morgana sharply turned around and saw a tall, lanky man with dark messy hair and dressed in weird clothes. But she was'nt shocked by this fact. It wasn't the fact that he was somewhat good looking. Nor that his mouth was curved into a charming smile or that fact his brilliant eyes were the same shade of blue as the letter M on the now apparent neckerchief. But it was the fact that he was standing in front of the mirror and no reflection of him was yet to be seen.

So Morgana did what was most natural of the situation and screamed.

Author's Notes

I know, I know I should be updating my other story Remembering (if you are one of my readers) but this plot bunny kept flittering through my head so I had to type it up to get rid of it so I can continue typing up new updates. This story will probably be shorter than Remembering and more funny...hopefully. Also I think the characters are going to be pretty out of character but who knows and I can't decide whether to make this a romance or not. Anyway, again probably be sporadic updates so keep this on alert if you like and reviews are welcomed.