CHAPTER NINE

 

Mariah stood preparing herself for whatever was inside the cabinet. It had given her so much trouble and now it was finally open. Olivia smiled, and looked mischievously at her from around the doors. Mariah slowly peeked around the corner and looked inside.

“It’s a cabinet full of creepy porcelain dolls,” Mariah stated, disappointment radiating from her tone.

She had thought it would be something much more interesting, mostly because it was locked up, or, she had thought it was locked up.

“How did you even open it?” she asked Olivia curiosity burning through her.

She had tried and tried to open this damn thing, yet it seemed to just pop open when Olivia touched the doors. Maybe when Austin moved it to catch that blasted spider the locks or whatever was jamming the doors knocked loose, she thought.

“It just opened,” Olivia said shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

Reaching in they each began pulling the dolls out one at a time. First, a weird telescope pointing at the grounds instead of the sky, and now a creepy cabinet full of dolls. What the heck were these people into? Mariah wondered.

Olivia however, looked mesmerized by the old dolls. As she pulled them carefully out of the cabinet, she fixed their hair and dresses with careful precision. She set the ones that had fallen over back on their stands and then moved them gently down to the floor beside the cabinet. Mariah had not been so careful, as she set one down it fell over and a small piece of the hand chipped off.

“Crap, I didn’t mean to break that. These look so old, they must be worth a small fortune,” Mariah said. Shaking, she reached down and stood the doll up on its stand and set the chipped piece next to her. She would have to see if it could be glued back together.

Olivia watched, obviously offended that Mariah had been so careless. Maybe it’s time to call it a night, Mariah thought after seeing Olivia’s angry expression.

“I think I’m going to head to bed soon,” Mariah said. “Thank you for coming over to keep me company, and thanks for helping me poke around my house. With that mask and these dolls, I might be able to narrow down the time period of this house, or at least some of its former occupants,” Mariah said, heading for the door. Olivia, however, wondered over to the telescope and began to look out into the darkness.

“I should go,” she said quietly. “Maybe tomorrow I can come by and we could explore outside a little. It would be beneficial for you to have a paramedic by your side.” Olivia continued looking around outside as she spoke in slow methodical sentences. “You know, just in case you get bit by something, again.”

“That sounds nice. Maybe come by in the afternoon?” Mariah shut the light off signaling she was leaving the room. Olivia followed slowly behind almost in a daze.

“What’s with the telescope?” Olivia asked almost in a whisper.

“I have no clue. There are a ton of weird things in this house. I think I have a mouse or some kind of rodent problem too,” Mariah said, stopping halfway down the stairs, and turning back to see Olivia still standing at the top, unmoving.

“Are you tired? Like too tired to drive tonight?” she asked with the kindest tone she could muster.

She was getting annoyed and wasn’t sure how much longer she could be polite. Mariah was not used to people hanging out with her, much less for almost half a day. She needed some alone time, and soon. If Olivia was too tired to drive, however, she had no choice but to let her sleep over. After what happened to her father, she couldn’t in good conscious send a sleepy driver off into the night.

“No, I’m fine. Just thinking about the dolls. They were so beautiful. I wish I’d have had dolls like that when I was a kid,” Olivia said in a wispy voice as she descended slowly down the stairs.

“Well, you’re welcome to have them if I can’t get them sold. I hate those kinds of dolls. Seriously creepy with their frilly dresses and painted faces always staring at you.” Mariah turned and continued to the front door. Olivia looked happy with that offer and smiled as she followed her out the front door and onto the porch.

“You sure you’re, okay?” Mariah asked.

“Oh, I’m fine. I just got a little lightheaded in there. Maybe I’m just tired or the dust got to me. I’m just fine doll,” she said, staring out at the yard as if she had just snapped out of a trance.

Not sure what to say, mainly because she’s acting weird, Mariah just hugged her and told her to drive safe. Olivia headed out and Mariah went inside to find something to eat before showering and hitting her pillow. The day had been exhausting, physically and mentally. It just needed to be over.

Rounding the corner to the kitchen, Mariah froze, her heart beating faster as she stood in the doorway hardly believing what she was seeing. Folded on the counter, the mask sitting on top of them still soaking wet from the solution, were her bloody clothes. She bent over holding the door jam and began to dry heave. What kind of sick game did Olivia think she was playing? Mariah wasn’t scared of things often, but this was too much.

Shaking from head to toe, Mariah stalked over to the pile of clothes, picked them up, threw them into a trash bag, tied it tight and took them back out to the trash. She came back in and stared at the mask sitting on the counter in front of her. It was beautiful, porcelain with very intricate lips and perfectly painted cheeks. The eyes were cut out so the wearer could see, but the nose and mouth were completely enclosed. There was an old ribbon tied through two holes on either side in order to hold it to the face of the person wearing it. Gently turning it over in her hands Mariah examined it carefully. Along the bottom inside carved so tiny she almost missed it was a tiny O. Weird, she thought examining the mask closer.

Mariah took the mask, and two sandwiches of peanut butter and syrup, up to her room. She would have a long conversation with Olivia tomorrow about playing pranks on her in her own home. She plopped down on her mattress taking one small bite of sandwich at a time, still considering the mask sitting in her lap. She pulled her laptop closer, opened the browser and typed, “O, Oakley, Illinois. 1700s.” She hit enter and waited while Google did its thing. All she got was a few names that started with O that were definitely not eighteenth century, and a link to Ancestry.com, as though that was going to be any help when she didn’t even know the full names of the people she was looking for, much less dates. “Thanks for nothing Google,” Mariah said to herself, her voice dripping sarcasm. She shut the laptop and laid back on her pillows.

She didn’t remember falling asleep. She felt like she was losing time. The after effects of the recluse venom maybe. She woke shaking in the middle of the night, her second sandwich lay on the floor beside her, the mattress once again as flat as a pancake. She had woken from the worst dream, only bits and pieces remained in her mind as she struggled to wake herself more. She had been walking through the basement, a light coming from behind the wall, the wall she saw steps behind. She had felt the wall and suddenly she was in a room. Not a room she had seen in her house before, this room was different, but she couldn’t quite place why. Then she was falling. She woke as the crashing sound resonated through her dream. She must have been dreaming of Johnny falling from the roof.

Hitting the button on the mattress to blow it back up, she tiptoed over to the bathroom to splash water on her face and then returned to her room. Nothing, the mattress was still flat, there must be a hole that was too big to repair. “Nice” she whispered, anger growing in her like a pot of boiling water. Mariah kicked the mattress cursing. She supposed now she would have little choice but to sleep in one of the old beds. She took her blanket, pillows, and phone into the room next door. She hadn’t spent much time in this room yet, aside from moving a bunch of things into it when she had first moved in. She had basically left it alone, and now she would be sleeping there.

The bed was small, a simple twin size day bed. The linens were old, but not too old, maybe from the nineties. It looked to be one of the rooms that was updated when the previous owner had moved in for that short period of time. Now she was convinced that there was definitely an infestation of mice, or something. What else would have popped a brand-new air mattress? Mariah laid on top of the bedding, pulling her own blanket over herself, tossing the old pillows on the floor and laying hers down. The bed was actually comfortable, more so than the air mattress. She fell right to sleep, a sick feeling in her gut from the dream that had woken her not ten minutes ago.