Read No Evil: Anthology of Terror

The Girl in the Window

This story was contributed by JanePeden

"Someone finally bought the Rose House," my mom says, pouring cereal in my little brother's bowl, while he runs around the kitchen in his pj's practicing web shooting for his Spider-man costume. He's got these wrist attachments that squirt out silly string, and I can't believe my mom is letting him do this in the house.

My sister looks up from her phone, and Emily never looks up from her phone. Unless she's with her boyfriend, Josh.

"Are you serious?" Emily says. "I'm surprised someone would buy that place, after what happened there."

"What happened?" says Noah, who never pays attention to anything anybody says unless it's something you don't want him to hear.

"Nothing," my mom says, and gives Em a hard look. She just shrugs and turns back to her phone.

"Which house is that?" I ask. My mom is a real estate agent, and she has names for all the listings. But I haven't heard her mention this one before.

"It's that big house over on Shady Lane," Mom says. "The one with the overgrown yard and those wild rose bushes."

"Huh," I say, because I don't remember ever noticing it. Of course we've only been here a few months, since Dad got transferred and we moved to this little town in Connecticut.

I don't mind living here. Even if most of the girls in my class think my short haircut and the pink highlights are kind of weird. I just haven't made any real friends yet.

* * *

It's my job to make sure Noah gets to school every morning, because God knows where he'd end up if left on his own. He's eight years old and he's not stupid. He's just easily distracted. Noah's school is next to the middle school, so we walk together.

I stop and text Emily. What's the deal with the Rose House? She doesn't answer.

"Hey," I say to Noah. "You want to walk past that house Mom was talking about?"

"Sure." Noah shrugs. "I don't care."

And in a few minutes we're standing looking up at it. There's an iron fence around the property. A lawn service truck is parked out front, and a couple guys are raking stuff and chopping things down.

I'm just staring at the house, and Noah is bored already, shifting from one foot to the other.

"Come on, Madison, we'll be late." He tugs on my arm.

"Ok, ok," I say, but for some reason I don't want to look away. Then a movement catches my eye. "Hey," I say to Noah, "did you see that?"

"What?"

"I think I saw the curtain move in the window up on the third floor."

"So?"

"So, maybe somebody moved in already."

"Who cares, Mad, let's go." He tugs my arm again and I glance back as I start to walk away and this time I'm sure I see it. A flicker of the curtain, and was that a face? I could swear I saw a girl looking out the window, with pale blond hair. But it was only for a second. I shake my head and let Noah pull me down the sidewalk.

* * *

I don't really like being in a new school. You get to reinvent yourself, think how fun that is, my mom told me in the chirpy voice adults use when they are trying to make something bad sound like it's actually a good thing.