Haunting-Adeline

another underhanded comment about ea ng another cookie I can’t afford.
She’d complain my ass would get too fat, but li le did she know, that’s
exactly what I wanted.
To this day, the woman s ll doesn’t understand why I don’t par cularly
like her.
“Are you here to try and convince me that I’m was ng my life away in an
old house?” I query, throwing myself into the rocking chair by the window
and propping my feet up on the stool.
The same one my great-grandmother and I tend to get stalked in.
Si ng in this chair forces my thoughts back to last night, the creepy note
and answering all of two ques ons from the police officer before he said
he’d hold on to it for evidence and make a report.
Waste of me, but at least the police will know that it was foul play if I
end up dead in a ditch somewhere.
“I have an open house today in town. I figured I’d stop by and see you
beforehand.”
Ah. That explains it. My mom wouldn’t drive an hour to come to visit me
just to have a tea party and play nice. She was in town, so she decided to
come lecture me.
“Do you want to know why Parsons Manor deserves to be torn down,
Adeline?” she asks, her tone dripping with condescension. She sounds like
she’s about to school me, and suddenly I feel very wary.
“Why?” I ask quietly.
“Because a lot of people died in this house.”
“You mean the five construc on workers in the fire?” I ask, recalling the
story Nana told me when I was a child about Parsons Manor catching fire
and killing five men. They had to tear down the charred bones and restart.
But the ghosts of those men s ll linger—I just know it.
“Yes, but not just them.”
She stares at me hard while my hesitance worsens. I turn to look out the
window beside me, contempla ng if I should just make her leave now.
She’s going to tell me something life-changing, and I’m not sure I want to
hear it.
“Then who else?” I finally ask, my eyes glued to Mom’s shiny black Lexus
parked outside. Schmancy. So schmancy that it almost seems mocking. A
stark difference to this old house, as if to say I’m be er than you.