The Sexton House

Episode 15

“Harry, what’s going on?” fear is written all
over her face as she searches mine for any
kind of exclamation.

I fumble with my words, not knowing how
to tell her; or if I should even tell her.
“Harry, answer me, you’re starting to scare
me.” she grabs my hand and my eyes meet
hers. Just as I’m about to speak, the sound
of thunder booms outside, startling both of
us.
“I-I can explain… just not right now.”
After telling Madison to stay downstairs
while I go see what is making that noise,
even though I know exactly what it is, I take
two steps at a time, just wanting to get this
over with.

Once I have reached the top of the stairs, I
stop at the door, taking a deep breath. I
place my hand on the knob, slowly opening
it. Rain pours outside as lightning strikes
and thunder sounds, making this whole
thing ten times more nerve-wracking.
I walk in, looking around the room for any
signs of Anna. Luckily, I see none. I
probably do one of the stupidest things in
my life by locking the door behind me, but I
have to keep Madison safe. If Anna threw
that knife at me without a second thought
then I don’t even want to know what she
will do to my Maddy.

I walk over to the window, which is no
longer boarded up since I took the pieces of
wood of not too long ago with Charlie. I’m
about to turn around and leave, when I
hear what sounds like crying. For a second I
think it’s Madison, but it’s too close.
I slowly turn around, squinting to see in the
dark, and there, sitting in the corner of the
room, sits none other than Anna Sexton
herself. I take a step towards her, not
planning on doing anything, just making
sure my eyes aren’t playing a trick on me.
“What do you want?” she spits, looking up at
me. I take a step back, I wasn’t expecting
her to speak. She has her back against the
wall with her knees pulled to her chest,
giving her long dress little-to-no coverage of
her lower area. “Well? Are you just going to
stand there, or answer me?” she glares up at
me. “Or do you want me to cry some more?”
I’m at a loss for words, afraid I might say
the wrong thing and she will try to throw
another knife at me.
“I was just seeing what all the noise was,” I
whisper, looking down. She laughs.

“Well, it was me breaking that mirror over
there.” she points towards the corner
opposite of her, where there stands a
broken stand-up mirror. It’s shattered for
the most part, only a few shards are laying
on the ground.
“Why’d you break it?” I have to ask. I
actually liked it.
“None of your business,” she spits and
stands up, fixing her dress. I take another
step back, keeping my distance. I’m only
being this way around her because I don’t
want to get another knife thrown at me, or
worse: get killed by a ghost. I wonder how
my mother would cope with that. She
probably wouldn’t.

Anna takes another step towards me. I look
around me, hoping to find a weapon of
some kind, but sadly there are none. I spot
the glass on the ground near my feet and
bend down to pick it up, but notice a pair of
bare feet standing before mine. I slowly
raise up, coming eye to eye with Anna.
“Boo!” I jump back at the sudden noise,
making my feet come in contact with the
shards of glass. I curse under my breath, as
I can already feel the blood seeping out of
the cuts that are bound to be covering my
foot.
I stand back up, holding back the urge to
cuss Anna out, and hop over to the door,
unlocking it and going out right. Before I
do, I stop and turn to look back at her, only
to see a slightly guilty expression covering
her flawless features.
“Don’t come downstairs.” with that, I shut
the door and hobble down the stairs.
Madison meets me halfway and sees my
bloody foot.
“Oh my God, what happened?!” she runs up
to me, trying to balance my weight on her
by putting her arm under my left shoulder.

“I figured out what that noise was.” I laugh
painfully. “The mirror had broke and I-
being the smart man that I am- stepped
right on the shards.” she looks at me with
caring eyes.
“Oh, you poor baby.” she takes me into my
room and helps me up on the bed. “You stay
right here and I’ll go get the first aid kit.”
she runs off, not knowing where it even is,
but I know she’ll find it.
I lie back, thinking back to how sad Anna
looked. She almost looked guilty, but why
would she be? How could she be? She’s
dead, isn’t she? I have so many questions,
and no answers. It’s like everything I knew
about ghosts were just lies. Like, for one,
how I thought they weren’t even real; and
two, they have feelings. She can cry and
she’s dead! How is that even possible?
That’s just it, I don’t know, and it kills me
to know that I may never find out.

“I found it!” Madison comes back with the
first aid kit and opens the box, taking out
band aids, cotton swabs, and some kind of
disinfectant spray.

“This may hurt a little bit.” she looks up at
me from the floor where she’s on her knee.

My legs are hanging off, providing her
access to my bloody foot. I nod my head,
preparing myself for the sting that’s
destined to come.

She slowly wipes the cut, cleaning it, before
taking tweezers and starting to dig out the
glass. I flinch at the pain, but it’s nothing I
can’t handle- even though I did practically
cry upstairs when I stepped on the stupid
thing.

After a few minutes of her just picking at
my foot, she’s finally done and starting to
wrap it with some kind of white cloth.

“There, all better.” she stands back up and
smiles at me.

“Thank you.”