The Crooked House

A new home, a new life. After a year in this place I realized that phrase holds no merit, Still went to the same school, still get bullied by the same kids and still have the same feeling of impending doom. I believe whatever the problem was in our old home, it followed us to our new home.

​My mother was always watching me, but now I feel like the creatures I see are watching me too. Well, at least one of them is. Sebastian stood by my window throughout the night and I can tell you that in doing so he made it next to impossible to fall asleep.

Still, I did fall asleep and with a blink of time it was morning. Warm sunlight flooded my room and I reveled in its warmth. All was going well so far, until I opened my eyes and saw her.

“I heard you speaking,” my mother informed me as I opened my eyes. She looked cold once more, despite her being so creepy waking me up with just staring at me.

“I’m asleep...well, was asleep,” I replied. I rolled over so I didn’t have to see her, yawning into my pillow. “Maybe you’re hearing voices now.”

“I doubt it,” my mother murmured and walked back to the door of my room. “Maybe you were talking in your sleep…”

I had a lock and for a short time I thought it useful, that is until I learnt one day that my mother had a key. In essence, the lock was useless and she could jump in any time to see if I’m acting crazy. Now, however, was different. I believe I was going crazy and I would do anything to keep her from finding out.

Climbing out of bed I saw that my mother had opened the window, but Sebastian wasn’t standing there. I rolled my eyes, but was curious as to where he went. I did the morning routine and had an easy breakfast before saying I was going out. My mother found it surprising, but she was happy to hear it.

I usually stay in my room, afterall, so me leaving reinforced the idea that I made a new friend. I walked straight up to the front door and opened it, shocked when I came face-to-face with Sebastian. He had been waiting outside the front door this whole time and I stopped myself from screaming when I bumped into him. My mother was in the kitchen behind me.

“Bye, mom,” I told her and closed the door, sidling past Sebastian.

He followed me as I walked up the pavement, checking my bag to see if she placed anything inside. Sure enough, I found a small electronic listening device. She was become a nuisance in my life.

I crushed it, throwing it in the closest trash can. I began rummaging through my things further to see if she had placed any more.

“There’s one sewn into the strap, sewn in the strap,” Sebastian told me.

“Mph,” was my only reply.

I followed his bony finger to the part of the strap and saw there was in face a slight discoloration in the string, though I had to give her credit, that was clever. With a pair of scissors I cut the microphone out and threw it at my feet, crushing it with the heel of my shoe.

Once we were far enough from my home I looked at Sebastian and mouthed the question, “Anymore?”.

“No, you are in the clear, in the clear, you are in the clear,” he replied.

“Right,” I murmured, finally able to speak aloud.

“Your mother is certainly a strange one, strange,” Sebastian told me.

“Well, I doubt there are any mothers with children like me.”

“Where are we going, going where?”

“I want to visit my father, I’m sure we will find some peace there.”

With that we walked in silence for nearly half-an-hour until we reached the graveyard. I nodded to the guard as we walked through the gate and made my way over to the gravestone. It was a walk into the graveyard and uphill before we reached it. Standing in front of it I looked over at Sebastian.

“You’re everlasting, right?” I asked.

“That I am,” Sebastian nodded, which only strange with his incredible hunch. “I found myself in existence and now I will never leave it, no, never leave existence.”

“Did you ever think that maybe you are a ghost?”

“Would that make your gift seem more reasonable, reasonable gift, seem more, see-seem more reasonable?”

“Well, it has been known that some people claim to see the dead. So, yeah, it would make me seem more normal than I really am.”

“I am not a ghost. My life as what I am has been long and dull, dull and long, but never had I lived amongst men, amongst the people. Although, my appearance is similar to humans, I’m not human, I’m similar.”

“Huh, yeah, well, I was just wondering.”

“Why did you bring me here, bring me here?”

“Nothing, I just thought maybe you could do something, but you can’t,” I muttered.

“You wanted me to talk to him, want to talk to him?” Sebastian asked.

“Can you?”

“No, but maybe I will try one day, one day.”

“Um...can you try today?”

Sebastian lowered his gaze to the grave and his lips moved, but I couldn’t hear a thing. His mouth stopped moving and then it started again. I watched closely and it took me a moment to realise he was having a conversation.

“Edward asks about the crooked house, the cr-cro-crooked house,” Sebastian told me and my blood ran cold.

That was my father’s nickname for a home with my mother. Broken and built on bad ground with bad material. A crooked house indeed.

“Can he hear me?” I asked in a hoarse whisper.

“He always can, always listening, always can,” Sebastian told me.

I looked down at the grave.

“He is over here,” Sebastian told me pointing next to the gravestone. “Standing, standing there.”

I looked in that general direction.

“Dad...I’m scared of her,” I told the air.

“Good, then you’re not as cr-crazy as her f-f-family,” Sebastian spoke for my father.

I wanted to smile, but I couldn’t.

“Sebastian, I need you to do this for a while,” I told him.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he replied. “I’m here."