Haunted

The First Week

Sorry I've been so slow to update! I've been so busy, but I'm working on getting these out more frequently :)

After that, Hester visited every day. And every day it seemed as though Anadil was surprised to see her, but never upset. Hester took that as a good sign. There was something enigmatic about the ghost of Anadil White, and Hester was absolutely fascinated by her.

Friday...

Hester walked into the manor for the third time, met with the now familiar musty scent of the old house. It had only taken her an hour this time. Progress.

Anadil was already sitting in the chair this time, and Hester was surprised to see her holding a book, sporting the unmistakable dustjacket of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

"Are you reading Harry Potter?" She asked as she stood in the doorway to the sitting room. Anadil looked up, her piercing eyes meeting Hester's.

"You came back. And yes, I am. It's too bad he can't turn the rat yellow."

Hester looked back at the book. "Where'd you get it? Those are only, like, a few decades old."

Anadil turned open the cover of the book, glancing at those little blurbs of text that Hester never bothered to read.

"Yes, it was published in 1997. Someone dropped it while running out of my house back in 2000. Have you read it?" She asked, closing the book.

"Yeah, they're pretty damn good. Which one's your favorite?" Hester asked, reclining into the same plush armchair she'd sat in the previous days.

"I only have the first." Anadil replied, her tone wistful. One of her rats crawled on top of the pages, looking up at her. She stroked it's head and it squeaked in response.

"Oh." Hester responded absentmindedly, an idea forming in her mind.

Saturday...

Hester walked up to the manor on Saturday after a fifty minute walk through the woods. The walk was significantly more laborious as she'd been carrying the entire Harry Potter series, save the first book, with her. She had her own set, but she knew her mother had had one as well. She'd hunted through boxes for an hour the night before until she found the dusty stack of books.

She looked up at the round, clear window at the top of the building, and caught what anyone else would have dismissed as a trick of the light. Hester knew the ghostly outline to be Anadil though, especially when she saw the two red eyes looking down at her. Hester balanced the stack of books in her left arm so she could wave, and then she walked up to the door.

When she opened it, Aandil was at the top of the staircase, hovering slightly off the ground.

"So is flying, like, a regular thing for you?" Hester asked, half joking, half genuine.

"You came back." Anadil replied.

"Nice observation. I brought gifts."

Anadil tilted her head, eyes falling upon the stack Hester desperately wanted to get out of her hands. Her mother couldn't have bought paperbacks? She just had to get the heaviest possible editions?

"Books." Anadil said simply, floating down and taking a few steps closer.

"And another brilliant observation. You're on a roll." Hester responded sarcastically, but she handed the stack to Anadil anyways. Anadil took it, reading the title of the book on the top.

"Harry Potter." She said, and Hester could hear the edges of a smile in her voice.

"Yep. Had an extra set lying around. Figured you might as well have them. Plus, no one likes a cliff hanger."