It awoke her in the night, the loud bang coming from her ceiling as her eyes busted open.
Elise sat up in her bed, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for another noise to arise; but there wasn't.
She waited a moment longer, her mind interjecting thoughts into her mind as she finally huffed and got out of bed; she grabbed her sweater from off the floor as she wrapped herself in it before exiting her bedroom.
"Dad?" Elise whispered.
Yet her father did not respond to her, she looked down the hall at her fathers' bedroom door that was still closed; she inched her way towards it as she tried not to disturb the wood floor.
Elise grabbed the door knob, holding her breathe as she turned the knob and gently opened the door to find that her father was fast asleep.
She closed the door gently as to not wake up when she heard it again, the sound of footsteps coming from the attic.
Her mind went empty as she stared at the ceiling, unsure of what to do as she looked around the hallway as if she expected a flash light to magically appear.
Elise quietly made her way back into her bedroom where she grabbed her cell phone and turned its flashlight on to use for her journey into the attic.
She swallowed hard as she found the dangling string coming from the ceiling, gently grabbing and pulling the door down to reveal stairs; she wasted no time climbing up the stairs with her 'flash light'.
Her heart raced as she stuck her head into the attic, using her light to examine the entire attic only to find nothing, except a familiar box Elise was certain she had thrown out earlier that day.
Elise hummed, climbing up the attic to get a closer to look at the box; she removed the top to see the projector and films that she had found earlier that day.
"What the fuck?" Elise muttered, looking up and around the attic once again before she put the top back on the box and dragged it to the attic door.
Elise then decided to wait until morning to throw the box in the trash once again as she climbed down the ladder and gently closed the attic door shut.
She made her way quietly back down the hall and into her bedroom where she turned off her cell phone and placed it back on her night table before crawling back into bed.
As she was dosing off to sleep she heard another bang coming from down the hall, her eyes bolted open and she once against sat up in bed.
She contemplated getting out of bed as her body struggled to stay away long enough to go investigate before giving up and laying back in her bed.
Elise couldn't help but smile as her body rejoiced as she began to go back to sleep, ignoring every bump and creak in the house as she blamed the noise on squirrels.
She awoke with sunlight in her eyes, Elise groaned as she rolled around in bed as she tried to fight the morning and stay in bed all day.
"Elise!" she heard from a distance.
Elise groaned as she covered her head in her pillow while her father entered her bedroom.
"Elise!" her father called again, pulling the bed sheets away from her sheet.
Elise released the pillow and looked at her father "What?" she asked.
"It's almost noon, get up!" Harold said.
Elise groaned, fighting her father as she stayed in bed; Harold huffed "Sweetie, to put it into perspective for you, I've already taught two classes."
"Okay, you've made your point." Elise muffled through the pillow.
Harold folded his arms "Up!" he said, grabbing Elise by her arm and pulling her up in bed.
Elise took her arm back, letting one giant yawn escape her lips as she sat up in bed and glared her father down "I'm up! You can leave now."
Harold laughed "Oh, no, missy. Not until you physically leave you bed and march into the bathroom to brush your teeth."
She sighed as she slowly moved out of her bed and walked into her bathroom where Harold followed closely behind her.
Elise looked at her father as he leaned against the door frame and smiled at her; Harold watched as his daughter grabbed her tooth brush and began to brush her teeth.
"And on that note, I'm going back to work!" he said, walking down the hallway.
Elise stuck her head out of her bathroom with her toothbrush still in her mouth "You came home just to wake me up?" she managed to get out.
Harold shook his head "No. I came back for lunch…figured I'd kill two birds with one stone." He said before going down the stairs.
"Please unpack at least ONE box today!" she heard Harold yell before leaving the house.
Elise sighed, rolling her eyes to herself as she continued to brush her teeth and finally waking up for the rest of the day.
She had finished her fathers' one request of unpacking one box; her energy level was high as she moved on to another box only to realize that it belonged in the attic.
Elise struggled to carry the heavy box towards the attic as she finally dropped the box below the attic door as she pulled the string that pulled the ladder down.
It had taken a few minutes but Elise managed to get the heavy box up onto the attic where there she remembered the troubling box from yesterday.
Elise pushed the box further into the attic as she picked up and moved the 'home movies' box towards the ladder and began to make her way down towards the second floor.
She walked her way slowly down the stairs before making her way to the front yard where the trash was already waiting to be picked up.
Elise threw the box into the large pile of trash, saluting the box as she made her way back inside the house quickly as the breeze began to get a chill to it.
She locked the door behind her as she took a deep breathe, trying to feel her toes that had come into contact with the bare concrete of the front yard; she then looked out into the open living room where boxes began to pile up.
It reminded Elise of a game of Tetras as she cracked her fingers and took a deep breathe out "Lets do this." She muttered to herself.