The Sexton House - Harry Styles * COMPLETED*

11.

I head back over to the door, unlocking it and pulling the wooden door towards me.

"Hello!" Maggie, the bubbly girl that showed up on my door step, says as I'm face to face with her.

"Hey," I weakly say, not really in the mood to talk.

"May I come in?" she asks, looking inside the house. I step to the side.

"Yeah, yeah." I lead her to the living room to sit down on the couch, and sit across from her on a red velvet chair.

"So," she starts, pulling out a notepad from her backpack, along with a pen. "I'll ask you questions about the house, and you just answer them the best that you can, okay?" she squeaks.

I stretch in my seat, nodding my head at her. "Alright, so the house is named: The Sexton House, correct?" I nod. She jots that down. "How old is this house, and how long have you lived here?" I'm not really for sure how old the house is, all I know is that it's old.

"It's over a hundred years old, and I've only lived her for about a week now." It feels like longer than a week, but I know it hasn't been.

"Okay... have you ever encountered Anna Sexton?" she looks up from her pad of paper, raising a brow. I'm debating with myself whether I should tell her or not.

"No, I haven't," I lie. She'll be turning this paper in, and someone will end up seeing it. If word gets around that this place is still haunted, I'm afraid to know the town's reaction.

"Are you in anyway related to the Sextons?"

"Nope."

She asks a few more questions, mainly on the house since she believed me that I know very little of Anna. "Well, thank you so much for answering my questions. I've been dying to get a scoop in on this house." she smiles, placing her belongings back in her backpack.

"It's no problem." Just as she's walking down the sidewalk, I spot my mother getting out of the car, carrying a bag. My mother is a big shopper, always has been.

"Who was that?" she asks as I'm opening the door to let her in.

"Another Girl Scout trying to sell me a box of cookies," I tell her, grabbing the bag from her hands and sitting the object down on the coffee table. "Dear Lord, what did you buy?" the bag is heavy and solid as a rock.

"It's a cat," she explains. I back away from it, raising a brow. "It's not real, Harold." My full name, coming from my mother, doesn't seem to trigger the memories as it did from Charlie.

"Why did you buy a cat?" I ask.

"I've started collecting them!" she claps her hands together, a wide smile taking over her features.

"Oh, Lord." my mother has always had a thing for collecting items. I remember a time when we had over three hundred snowmen in a tiny apartment. When we first moved to New York it was awful, when my friends came over they would always tease me about it.

"Oh, just hush, I just lost my only child." she's making up excuses.

"You didn't lose me," I tell her.

"I know. It just feels like it." her eyes start to look glassy, welling with tears, and that's my cue to get the hell out of here. I practically sprint to the kitchen, acting like I'm just going to fix food, which I am, but that isn't the reason I was in such a hurry.

"Harry, where did you go?" my mother calls. I can still hear the emotion in her voice.

"I'm in the kitchen," I yell back. "I'll fix dinner, you just do... something." Anything, as long as she's not bothering me. I could really care less. I start getting out pots and pans, along with some canned foods and chicken.

Just as I'm turning on the stove, I hear what sounds like the creaking of the staircase. I pause, my eyes widening. "No, no, no," I repeat to myself, sitting down the pan I have in my hand.

I dart to the living room, my breathing uneven. She can't be upstairs, what if she sees Anna? She would flip her shit, and probably make me move back to New York, even if I am twenty-one.

Just as I enter the sitting room, I see her nearing the top step. "Don't go up there!" I yell, not realizing how bad that sounds. Now she'll really thinks something's up. She snaps her in my direction, whipping her hair across her face.

"Why?"

"Uh... there's..." I mumble, silently cursing at myself.

"There's what?" she looks between me and the wooden door.

"There's rats!" I spit out the first thing that comes to mind. A quiet gasp leaves her lips, before she hurriedly walks back down the stairs.

"Harry! Why would you buy a house with rats?" she screeches when she reaches me. I just shrug, glad she didn't actually get to see what is really behind the door.

* * *

It's Sunday, and Charlie told me I didn't have to come in today. My mother got a call late last night from work, notifying her that they needed her back in the office by Monday morning. Even though I had dreaded my mother's arrival, it's been kind of nice having her around.

After her belongings are packed, minus the large cat, I load her luggage in the back of my truck. I have offered to drive my mother to the airport, but she insisted that she will take the bus there.

The drive to the station is surprisingly silent. I enjoy the open land filled with livestock. The windows are down, even after my mother pitched a fit about how it will ruin her hair, but I think she's enjoying it now.

Twenty minutes down the road, we pull up to the bus station. I get out, grabbing her bag from the back and hauling it over to the building.

"Now, remember, when you send my cat make sure you wrap it up. Otherwise she will be in pieces," my mother tells me.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I roll my eyes, not in the slightest worried about the stupid thing.

"Don't 'yeah yeah' me. I'll bust your butt if she ends up broken," she warns, pointing a finger at me.

"You're going to bust my butt all the way from New York?" I chuckle. She just glares at me, then embraces me. I hug her tight, pulling away before she seems done.

"Well, I love you, and I'll call you when I arrive in NYC." After saying about ten goodbyes, she's finally on the bus and driving away. I get back in my truck, heading home with the windows down and music cranked up as loud as it'll go.

* * *

Just as I'm a arriving home, I see storm clouds rolling in, filling the sky and casting a dark blanket over the town of Russellville. I remember who seems to pay a visit every time the sky turns grey.

EDITOR: @directioneremo

[A/N]

Thank you for reading!

It's going to start getting more interesting I promise :) now that his mother is gone

Please VOTE and COMMENT or I will start doing goals again haha