CHAPTER TWELVE

 

Standing over Olivia, Mariah had no idea what to do. Had she just welcomed a complete psychopath into her home? Mariah thought for a moment, then walked over to the sink, grabbed a rag, held it under the cold water and then walked back over to Olivia. She reached down to remove the mask from Olivia’s face and then rung the water out onto her forehead. Olivia’s eyes flew open as she sprung to her knees. Mariah jumped back; she wasn’t expecting Olivia’s eyes to burst open so fast. Much less for her to jump up like that.

“How did we get back to the house?” Olivia asked shakily.

“What do you mean how? I was reading the gravestones, and I turned around and you were gone. So, I had to walk back alone.” Mariah was disgruntled, but also creeped out by Olivia’s behavior.

Olivia didn’t say anything. She sat on the floor of the kitchen as though she didn’t believe that she had walked back to the house. She felt her body and the blood-soaked clothes. Olivia looked back to Mariah with a look of shock and worry.

“Did you, drug me?” she asked. “I don’t remember anything from the last few hours. The last thing I remember is standing with you and looking at the graves, then I saw a man. I walked over to see who he was and then I woke up here with you standing over me and water everywhere.”

Olivia must have lost her damn mind, Mariah thought. Did she think Mariah would believe that she had been drugged? Mariah laughed, then turned to the counter where the mask now sat. This was getting ridiculous. Olivia was weird, maybe she was crazy and now she had found someone lonely to latch onto. She had no idea who this chick really was.

Then there was that guy on her roof. Maybe it was the same guy that Olivia saw in the woods, or maybe it was just teenagers playing pranks on the new homeowner of the creepy old house in town. Hell, maybe Olivia was with them.

“Look, I didn’t drug you, so unless you took something that you brought from your house, then you’re just being crazy,” Mariah spat and raked her hands through her thick red hair.

Olivia didn’t say anything.

“Honestly, it’s getting annoying. First you act weird last night with the dolls, then you keep taking these damn clothes out of my trash and now you’re wearing them and creeping around in that mask like you’re the joker or something.” Mariah slammed her hand down on the counter, and stormed over to the cabinet to get a glass for water.

Olivia remained quiet.

“I don’t have many friends, and I think it should stay that way, especially if you’re going to act possessed every time you come over.” Mariah walked to the table with her drink and sat down, waiting for Olivia to respond. She knew she was being harsh, but she was over the drama and the lying.

Olivia sat staring at Mariah for what seemed like hours, before standing up and walking into the laundry room.

“Also,” Mariah yelled, “there was a guy on my roof. I saw him up there as I was walking back, but he was gone by the time I got here. You didn’t see anyone inside while you were alone, did you?”

“I just told you I don’t remember anything, but that guy in the woods, maybe it was him. Do you happen to know where my clothes are?”

Mariah rolled her eyes and stalked into the laundry room, looked around and tossed her hand in the air.

“No clue. You took them off, so YOU should know where they are.” She stormed back to the kitchen and threw herself into a chair.

“Fine, I’ll find them myself!” Olivia huffed.

Olivia walked back to the kitchen, then proceeded through the first floor of the house, searching each room for her clothes. After a thorough search of the first floor, Olivia walked back towards the kitchen. She was going to check the basement next. Walking right past Mariah, who was still sitting at the table, her cup now empty but the anger still boldly planted on her face, she went to the basement door and opened it, making sure Mariah heard each harsh movement she was making. She walked down to the light switch and flipped it on. Nothing happened.

“Do you have any light bulbs?” Olivia shouted up the stairs.

Mariah shuffled around for a moment before appearing at the top of the stairs holding a new light bulb. She felt so angry, she wanted to throw the bulb down the stairs at Olivia, but deep down she knew that was dumb. Mariah walked down the steps one at a time, delaying Olivia’s light for as long as possible. She felt like being as petty as she could.

The basement was chilly and Mariah shivered as she shuffled to the light to change the bulb. Olivia flipped the switch again, and the light flickered on. Mariah turned with Olivia to look at the basement, not expecting to see Olivia’s clothes strewn across the dirt floor and drawn all over in the dirt was the letter O. At the back of the basement there was a pile of brick and wood above which Mariah saw the stairs that she had found the night before.

“You did demo on my basement wall, without me?” Mariah said in shock. She didn’t know whether to be okay about this, or to be livid. This was on her list of things to do today, but she didn’t remember telling Olivia to go for it.

“I. I. I don’t recall doing anything like this,” Olivia said, obviously stunned. She claimed to have no recollection of coming back to the house, much-less doing demo on the basement, and drawing her first initial in the dirt floor.

“Well, it is your initial all over the floor, and your clothes down here,” Mariah quipped, gritting her teeth in anger.

Mariah walked toward the stairs, ignoring Olivia completely. They must have been sealed into the walls a very long time ago. She leaned in and looked up into the darkness before pulling out her phone and turning on the flashlight. Olivia followed slowly behind her, picking up the mess of clothes and then joining Mariah at the newly found staircase.

They climbed the stairs one at a time with the light facing up into the unknown. The stairs matched the other stairs that were in the main area of the house, only these were slightly narrower. Mariah thought for a moment, then decided they must be the stairs the servants used, that would make the most sense. There was no exit anywhere though, nothing that looked like a sealed-up doorway or anything.

Huffing further up, Mariah realized where this was leading. She looked back to Olivia who seemed to have realized the same thing. The illustrious missing attic that no one believed existed. Except Olivia, she seemed to have known it was there all along. Mariah was not blind to that fact at all.