Title: Gawker
Theme: Curiosity
Pairing: None
Rating: K
21. Curiosity
Maddie Fenton was used to visitors – gawkers, really, but she liked to call them visitors. But the visitors she usually had were teens from the local high school that dared each other to run up and tap the door, or stand on the porch for as long as they dared. It usually ended with them running back to their cackling friends when the doorknob wiggled. The only other kind was the occasional nut looking for some kind of séance, but that was rare and even rarer as their reputation was spreading.
However, the visitor in front of her was neither of these. Seven yards off, with bright violet eyes and strawberry blonde hair that fell to her lower back in thick waves, a bright yellow sundress that stopped mid-calf, right above cute yellow shoes. She had her head leaned back, up and down the building a lot like she was looking at a candy store. Thinking for sure she must be scared or lost, Maddie stepped outside.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked, leaning towards the young girl.
She looked up and down at the older woman, just as she had looked at the building, calm and perceptive, then asked, "Is this the ghost place?"
"Sorry?"
"The ghost place," she said again. "You hunt ghosts, don't you?"
"Yes, but-"
"Because I have a ghost." The small girls explained further, "She's very, very tall and says that I have to wear pretty clothes. She just like my mother, but I can handle my mother. I can't handle a ghost. She puts dresses on me no matter what I do, and whenever I try to wear cool stuff she keeps me awake all night."
Maddie blinked. "What's your name?"
"Until the ghost is gone, I have to be Samantha, but I want to be called Sam."
"Do you want us to hunt it so you won't be scared anymore?" Maddie asked sweetly, suddenly understanding that the little girl was probably just scared of some monster under her bed, and it was very doubtful that she had a real ghost haunting he room.
But then she grinned, and Mrs. Fenton caught a surprising glint of seriousness and excitement in the little girl's eyes. "I want to see how you get rid of it."