Wait, shouldn't House be capitalized too?

After eating, Theresa disappeared from the kitchen while Maddy cleaned up. When the girl reappeared, she was dressed in a blouse and corduroy skirt and dragging her school satchel behind her.

“There are things in my room,” Theresa stated, flopping down onto a kitchen chair.

Maddy smiled tightly. “What sort of things, sweetie?”

Theresa shrugged and traced the dark woody loops of the table top with her fingers. “Just some junk. And the, um. Ax?”

“Yes dear,” Maddy confirmed and turned back to drying dishes. When she finished up with the last plate, she turned back around to see her daughter staring pointedly at her. Theresa preferred to wait for knowledge to come to her rather than asking too many questions, but the events of the night had obviously brought out her more quizzical side. Maddy could almost see the questions forming in her daughters mouth. The sight made her giggle. Theresa pouted.

Maddy grinned and set about putting now clean dishes back in their places, praying they’d stay there. “The house probably just dumped some stuff from the attic in your room. You know how it is.”

There was a pause and then Theresa said, “I should leave soon.”

“Oh, baby,” Maddy said, sitting across the table from her. “I don’t think you should go to school today. You had a rough night.”

Theresa shrugged. “Okay. Can I have another glass of orange juice, then?” She had never been that fond of school anyway.

“After I’d just cleaned up!” Maddy scolded good naturedly and went about finding the glasses all over again.

Maddy left Theresa doodling in one of her father’s old sketch books and took a proper shower. Her hair was almost completely flat now, so she swept it back in a simple knot at the base of her neck. She slipped into a faded blue dress, hoping the color would help tone-down her pinkish skin. Everything she tried with her meager supply of make up seemed to make her questionable complexion worse, and the house seemed to have misplaced her jewelry box again, so she returned to the kitchen with a naked neck and a tick in her eye.

“Hey sunshine,” she greeted, smoothing Theresa’s hair with her fingers. She peeked over the girl’s shoulder at her drawing. It was what Theresa always drew– a smiling sun, a family of rabbits, some flowers with uneven petals, and a tree with a little owl in it. Theresa’s brow furrowed with concentration as she sketched out individual feathers in the open wings. “Another one for the refrigerator?” Maddy asked.

“No,” answered Theresa. “It’s in the upstairs bathroom.”

“Hm?” said Maddy.

“The refrigerator,” Theresa explained, starting on a friend for the owl.

“What?” Maddy whirled around to stare at the empty corner the refrigerator had once occupied. The Ax sat unassumingly on the slightly discolored patch of floor.

“THAT. IS NOT. FUNNY,” Maddy screeched, aiming several well-meaning kicks at the wall. The house groaned around them, and Theresa continued working on the second owl, nonplussed.

“Theresa, sweetie,” Maddy asked sweetly, although glaring like a tiger with a toothache at the wall. “Where is the refrigerator now?”

Theresa blinked up at her. “Still in the bathroom. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, sunshine.” Maddy leaned over and patted the countertop in what she hoped was a friendly way. Damaging the house wouldn’t help. “I’m just going to put the Ax away, and we’ll see where the refrigerator is then.” She stroked the countertop. “Isn’t that right?”

Ignoring the giggles from her daughter, Maddy hefted the Ax over her shoulder and carried it into the closet where a linen closet usually was. It was in place, and she dropped the Ax onto an empty shelf. “And see that you stay there,” she hissed. Closing the closet back up, she spied Theresa’s room down the hall. Sauntering over to it, she reached up and flipped the horseshoe hanging above it.

“How do you like that, hm?” she said to it. Nothing happened, but when she returned to the kitchen, the refrigerator was back in place.

The thing that bothered Maddy most about the house was that one could never actually see it moving and shifting about. It felt a bit like she was going mad, even though she knew that was part of the house’s charm. She wasn’t sure if the house simply couldn’t move if it were being watched or if it was somehow doing this on purpose.

“Sweetheart, I need you to come with me to run some errands, okay?” Maddy said, checking around the refrigerator to make sure it was in working order. “Go put your stuff away and I’ll go warm up the car.”

Theresa gathered up her drawing supplies and wandered out of the kitchen without more than a nod of consent. Maddy opened the refrigerator door. Behind an unopened bottle of salad dressing, the Ax glinted up at her. She slammed the door and put a lot of self-constraint into not screaming.

In the car, Theresa rolled down her window and peered out at the little town, her dark hair whipping around her face. Most of the houses were the same: narrow and pointy with steep roofs and deep porches. They sat right up on the edge of the road, or the side walk if you lived on a wealthier street, but most had decently sided backyards with ancient trees looming over the houses. There was almost no traffic.

Maddy drove through downtown without stopping. It was only a few blocks long, with stops and restaurants and government buildings all packed together and people on sidewalks waving at each other and birds squeaking at each other on power lines. It was when they were starting into the dingier side of town that Theresa observed, “We’re going to see the man with all the cats.”

Maddy chuckled. “They’re not cats.”

“But we’re going to see him, right?”

“Yes, sunshine, about the house.”

“What’s wrong with the house?”

Maddy tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “It’s… it’s mischievous. It misplaces things on purpose.”

Theresa cocked her head. “I thought you just lost things a lot.”

Maddy wanted to laugh and smack her head against the dashboard all at the same time. Instead, she glanced over at Theresa for a moment and smiled. “Remember how you couldn’t find your room this morning, sunshine?”

“Oh.” Theresa turned back to her window. As they moved further from downtown, the houses became further apart and set further back from the road. They also became boxier and less well kept. Maddy stopped the car in front of a particularly rundown one and pulled right into the front yard, which was mostly packed dirt anyway.

Maddy stepped out of the car and observed the house. It had once been painted light yellow, but the sun had baked most of the paint off, and what was left looked grimy. Only one shutter was left on any of the visible windows, and it was crooked. A hole in the roof was covered with a black tarp.

“Kitty!” Theresa chirped and bent down to gather something furry up into her arms.

Maddy shook her head. “I told you, sweetie, it’s not a cat.”

Resting a hand on Theresa’s shoulder, Maddy led her up to the front door and knocked. Theresa cradled and poked at the thing in her arms until a man answered the door.

(The best thing about this is that I don't actually have to know what I'm talking about because someone else is stuck with the next part!)