The Haunted Read Online Free

I was really in the mood to be around more strangers. All I wanted was for Sleepy Hollow to be exactly the way it had been when I’d left it. Minus the crazy.
    We pulled up to our house, and Dad parked out front by the mailbox. I climbed slowly out of the car and stood looking up at the white siding. It seemed… smaller than I remembered. The green shutters weren’t as dark as they’d once been either. In fact most of them looked like they could use a fresh coat of paint.
    Mom came and put an arm around me. “Aren’t you glad to be home, Abbey? We have a special surprise for you. It’s up in your room.”
    I nodded, and we started walking toward the house. Inside, everything felt weird. I had the oddest sense of something being not quite right… or out of place… and a sinking suspicion that the not-quite-right thing was me.
    But I shook my head and tried to resist the urge to standin one place for too long. I grabbed on to the stair banister for support. My knees felt funny.
    Mom was grinning at me, and I started to get slightly nervous.
Oh God, what if she rearranged my room or something?
Was that the surprise?
    When I got to the top of the stairs and stood in front of my closed bedroom door, I found myself shutting my eyes. I stood there for a moment before I felt Mom move away from me and then I heard the door open.
    “Come on, Abbey,” Mom said, laughing. “You don’t have to close your eyes.”
    Yes. Yes I do
, I wanted to tell her. Instead, I took a step forward and opened one eye at the same time. Everything
looked
okay. With the exception of my floor being clean. Which was not how I’d left it. But if all she’d done was pick up my dirty laundry, then that was fine by me.
    I shot a glance over at my freshly made bed.
Not how I left that, either
. Okayyyy… so maybe she changed the sheets, too?
    Mom was still grinning, so I put a fake smile on. “You cleaned my room. Thanks, Mom.” I tried to look genuinely happy.
    “You don’t see it yet, do you?”
    “Sure I do—” I stopped and my jaw dropped open as Iturned to my right and looked over at my work desk. Sitting on the floor next to it was the most
amazing
curio cabinet I’d ever seen. It looked like a giant old-fashioned card catalog.
    “Oh. My.
God
.” I ran toward it. “Mom! Where did you guys get this? I love it!”
    I don’t think her smile could have gotten any bigger. “Uncle Bob found it in pieces at one of the supply places he gets his storage crates from. So he called your dad and asked if we wanted it. We went and picked it up; Dad glued it back together and fixed all the split ends. Then I painted it.”
    I ran my fingers over the gilded edges. They were a pale cream color and sanded down in spots to appear worn with age. The cabinet was at least three feet tall, and there were rows upon rows of little drawers, all stacked up on top of one another. Each drawer had a tiny gold rectangular handle, with a two-inch space above the handle to add in a nameplate. When I opened one of the drawers, I saw that it had been painted a deep gold inside.
    “I added some gold flaking to the bottom of each one,” Mom said. “I wanted it to have that special feel to it. It’s for all of your perfume supplies.”
    Stunned gratitude and sheer amazement took over when I realized how many painstaking hours she must have put intoit. “Mom, I can’t even… I don’t know what to say.
Thank you
.” I leaned over and wrapped her in a giant hug. She squeezed me back, and for a moment I pretended everything was normal again.
    Then she pulled away, and I saw a desperate look in her eyes. She tried to hide it. Tried to put on a smile, but I could see what she was thinking. She wasn’t sure if I was better yet.
    “I’ll let you get settled in and unpack your things,” she said. “Dinner’s in an hour. I’m making your favorite—lasagna.”
    “Thanks, Mom,” I said again. “Sounds good!”
    She gave me one last glance and then left my room.