Shizuru led him around to the backyard and sat him down by some bushes. "Were you by the Selling House?" Shizuru asked.
The Selling House was what they called a house on their street that no one ever lived in for long. It was always being sold to someone new, hence the name Selling House. Kuwabara had never bothered to think about why no one lived in the house very long.
"Yeah," Kuwabara said.
Shizuru nodded. "There's something that lives in that house. I'm not sure what it is; I think it's some kind of ghost or something. Whatever it is, it's mean. You need to stay away from the Selling House."
Kuwabara frowned. "But I've never seen anything there before."
Shizuru shrugged. "I couldn't tell it was there until I was in first grade too."
"Does-does everyone know it's there?" Kuwabara asked.
Shizuru shook her head. "I don't think so. None of my friends have ever noticed anything weird about it."
"Then why do we?" Kuwabara asked.
Shizuru shrugged. "I don't know."
"Did you tell Mom and Dad about it?" Kuwabara asked.
"Yeah, but they thought I was only imagining things," Shizuru said. "I don't think they can tell it's there either."
"Oh," Kuwabara said. "Are there other things like that?"
"Not in our neighborhood," Shizuru told him. "But yeah, sometimes you'll find other things like that. Most of the time they don't bother you. But sometimes they do."
"What do you do then?" Kuwabara asked, worried.
Shizuru rolled her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You can't fight stuff like this; you have to run."
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