As I'm sure I've mentioned somewhere, I'm an aspiring novelist, and I really enjoy writing.

So, I'm going to sit down and write something right now. I have no idea what I'm going to write, the story will unfold on its own.

Oh, and if you see a grammar error, don't be surprised. The more text I type, the higher chance there is that something will be wrong.

So begins the untitled short story by Ryan Hoots.

I walked down into my basement, knowing I would find trouble. Whatever was causing the strange noises I'd been hearing for the last few days had to stop. The worst part was the fact that almost every time I had heard that noise, it was well after midnight. I was tired of losing sleep over this.

I turned on the lights, and scanned the room. Nothing seemed out of place, or disturbed in any way. I didn't spend much time down here, so there was really not a lot to be disturbed in the first place. Continuing my visual inspection of the room, I felt my heart pounding. I had never been good at handling unwanted surprises.

I almost jumped out of my shoes when my cat brushed up against my leg.

"Aww, you want to find out what's going on here, too? Well, let's go down there."

Armed with my flashlight, which was practically useless in the bright light of the ceiling-mounted LED light bulbs I had installed last year, I started my patrol, beginning with the large shelves I had built a couple moths earlier.

Everything checked out. Nothing had changed since last week, when I had been down here last.

As I continued my slow walk to the other side of the room, I noted some scratch marks on the side of the wooden shelves. They were certainly new.

Nothing else had changed. After looking at the scratches, I quickly identified them as being made by my cat.

"Maybe he knows what's down here. If only I could just ask him. Boy, that would make things simpler."

Picking up my little furry friend, I headed back upstairs to finish watching the football game. My team was down by more than I'd like, and things were getting worse with every play.

* * *

The game was now over, and my team had lost. It was really a shame, because I would like to see them in the Super Bowl again. Well, it's not going to be this year, I guess.

That's when I heard it again. A strange bump, as if something was dropping from a shelf.

I raced down to the basement, forgetting about my flashlight. Hitting the light switch when I passed it, I looked down the stairs into the basement.

Again, nothing. No sign of anything amiss. It was almost like the normalcy of the room was mocking me. I was just too slow.

As I turned around to head back up, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. Again turning to face the basement, I saw my cat walking out from behind the shelves.

"Did you see whatever it was, kitty?"

Of course, he didn't reply. He just jumped back up to the top of the shelf with two quick bounds.

And as he slipped and fell off the top of the shelf, I finally knew what had been causing those strange sounds.

Of course, like any good cat owner would, I removed the tissue paper from the top of the shelf. Who would have known it would cause my cat to stumble when he tired to get to his favorite spot for naps?

The (anti-climactic) End

Okay, well, that was random. I used the first person so I didn't have to come up with any character names, so now might be a good time for my to reveal this story's basis in fact.

1. I love cats, so it was natural for me to include a cat in the story.
2. The Indianapolis Colts lost a playoffs game today, which is a little bit of a bummer. I'm not much into football, so I don't care about it that much. However, it does make for a good plot device.

That's about it. I hope you enjoyed this totally random exercise in writing, I may do this again.