There is a tale in my town that dates back to the 1800’s about an abandoned house on the edge of town. No one has lived in it or ever really gone near it since the accident happened. Legend says that there was this little girl named Sophia who lived there with her family until she was nine. Sophia was a strange child, she never wanted to play with any of the other children in the town. She didn’t have any friends who weren't imaginary, and rarely left her house. The window was like her best friend, it was always there for her. There were rumors going around that she was a witch, but they were fake. Sophia would sit in the window in the front of her house and watch as the other children played. She was like a statue, she never moved. Her long, thick black hair was always in a braid, and her skin was so pale, the kids called her a ghost. She was short and slim. She had these mesmerizing deep blue eyes. You would look into them and think you were looking into the ocean. All the other kids thought she was crazy and weird looking, but that didn’t bother her. One day her mother was cooking dinner, when a kitchen towel caught on fire. The entire house was engulfed in flames within a matter of ten minutes. All the children who were playing in the field ran for their lives back into town to get help. Sophia never moved a muscle. She sat there as her house burned into nothing. She died that day, and so did her entire family except her youngest sister, Olivia. She was playing in the field with the other kids and ran into town with them when the house caught fire. None of the firefighters got there in time. When they finally put the fire out, they looked around the house, and everything was destroyed accept that window. Every other window in the house had cracked, but not that one. Even today people say that her ghost still haunts the window. Those brave enough to go inside now say that you can hear this humming noise all through out the house, except by the window. They say that the window is silent. They say that in the summer the window is open and in the winter it is closed. Over the years people say that they have seen a ghost of a young girl in the window, looking into the field. It has never been proven that there is a ghost there. I think they said it to get attention.  I don’t know weather or not her ghost is there. I do want to know though. The crazy, and stupid daredevils of this town over the years have all tried to break the window at one time or another. Most of them were drunk or doing it on a dare. Almost everyone is too afraid to go near the house because they think the family haunts the house. Every time someone tried to break it, the window didn’t even crack. It withstood a fire and multiple rocks and bricks being thrown at it. Nothing ever happened to it. I think Sophia is protecting it because it is the only thing of hers that isn’t destroyed or broken. Without that window she would have been a ghost of stories, a loose figure in my mind. But she is not. She could be real, or she could just be a story created to keep kids away from the old house. Either way, I decided I was going to the house to see it for myself. I need to satisfy my curiosity and this is the only way. I tried researching it in the library, but all I saw was an old family portrait before the fire, and a book on Sophia that was fiction. 
I approached the house one day after school. From across the field I thought I saw kids playing in the distance. But I didn’t. As I got closer I could have sworn that I heard kids playing and laughing, but there was no one there. I got to the house, and I looked in the window. There was nothing there at first. I looked away for a minute, second guessing my decision, when I looked back there was a little girl in the window. She was pale and had burns all over her. Her hair was this dark black and in a messy braid. Her dress was ruined and she looked like she was in pain and cold. Her lips were blue and she had a sickly look on her face. She looked look she had been abandoned. The look in her eyes showed fear and loneliness. They were lifeless and dull. The teddy bear she held in her hands was falling apart. One of the eyes was missing, and there were burns all over it. One of the ears looked like it had been singed off. I ran into the house and instantly heard the humming noise. I rushed over to the window and she was gone, and so was the noise. I turned around in a panic and saw the girl running up the stairs. When I got up there, she had disappeared. I went into the first bedroom on my right, and there she was. She was sitting on what looked like a bed, holding the bear. I walked slowly towards her, when-
I woke up in the basement, two floors down from where I was. I had fallen through the floor. I had no idea what time it was, all I could think about was how hot it was. Bang- a piece of the ceiling had fallen across the room, and it was on fire. I got up as fast as I could and ran to the door. When I opened it I saw that the house was engulfed in flames. I looked over and saw the little girl sitting in the window, looking out into the field.  She snapped her head over and looked at me like she wanted to rip my head off. She got up and started walking towards me, I tried to run away but I was trapped by fire. The flames kept on getting bigger, hotter, and closer to me. The girl walked through the flame circle that surrounded me, and she looked me in the eye and said, “You shouldn’t be here, you should have never come back here Olivia.” And just like that, the flames went out. The girl was gone. 
I ran to the front door and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. I turned around in a panic looking for a way out, there was only the girl.  “Why do you want to leave me Oliva?  We are sisters. Everyone else is gone, I’m all you have. Please don’t go again.” I ran to the back of the house and yelled at her, “I’m not Olivia, and I’m not staying.” I got to the back door and it was in flames, and so was everything around me. “You’re not going anywhere. I’m in charge of you now Olivia. Mommy and Daddy are dead. What do I have to do to make you stay?” The flames went out and the little girl looked like she was going to cry. It finally clicked, she was calling me Olivia, she must be Sophia and think I’m her sister for some reason. “Sophia, I’m not Oliva. I’m not your sister. ” Sopha looked really mad again, and pieces of the ceiling started falling down around me. She screamed at me,”You have to be Oliva, I have waited almost two hundred years for her. You look just like her, you have to be her. You are her.” More of the ceiling fell, and the house started shaking. She walked over to me and put her hands on my face. They were ice cold and really rough. She started to cry, then she just got really mad again. She somehow threw me across the room and through a wall. I now had cuts, burns, and bruises all over my body. I could barely move, I was in so much pain. I had no idea that the ghost of a little girl could inflict so much pain on a person. Sophia started walking towards me, with a burnt, pointy ceiling beam that had fallen. She stopped half way across the room and threw the beam at me. I moved at the last second, and the beam missed my heart by what seemed to be three inches.  She started screaming at the top of her lungs. Then she said,”Everyone is dead, why is everyone dead? Olivia and my entire family, we are all dead. I just want them back.” She started crying and the house was up in flames again.  I got up, and ran to the front door, opened it and ran like hell half way across the field. I looked back and Sophia was in her window throwing a hissy fit. I tripped on a hole in the ground and I broke my leg. The pain shocked through my entire body. I looked back at the house as the firefighters and ambulance arrived. The house was still on fire, and Sophia was still in her window, watching the world as hers came to an end. She had that same look of abandonment on her face as she had when I first arrived.
It has been five years since the incident at the old house. The town tore the house down and built a playground where the house once stood.  When the construction workers were tearing down the house, the window that Sophia used to sit in is the only thing from the house that survived. None of the workers understood why, but I have my suspicions why it survived being torn down. Kids play at the park like nothing ever happened there.  Sometimes when I walk by the playground, I can still see Sophia, and hear her cry. Other times, I see her playing with another little girl. They laugh and play together for hours on end, just like sisters should.