CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

 

The three filed out the front door into the fresh air, hoping to find Ben waiting on the porch. He was nowhere to be found inside, therefore outside was the only logical place left to look. Mariah closed the door to her house, and turned to see the priest walking up her driveway.

Tapping Olivia on the shoulder, Mariah pointed out the priest walking towards them. Olivia shook her head, rubbing her forehead in the process. How could this man be back after what had happened the last time he was here? she thought.

“Miss Litback, are you very busy at this time?” he asked as he began to climb the steps of the porch.

“Actually, we are playing a game of hide and seek and we are looking for our friend,” she lied. “Is there something you need this late?” Mariah spoke as kindly as she could, but this was obviously not the time for churchy things. They needed to find Ben and figure out what happened in this house, and what was still happening for that matter.

“I’ve come to bless your home. I know it is late but it has taken me a fair amount of time to work up the nerve to come back.” The priest shivered as he spoke, placing his hands into his suit jacket and pulling his small ragged bible out.

“You should come back tomorrow. I have company,” Mariah replied. She was losing her patience with her mother. That had to be who sent this man back to her house.

She knew she was being rude, but things were happening, and Ben was still missing.

The priest nodded, understanding that it was not a good time, but he was persistent, nonetheless. He told them about what the church knew about the past of Oakley and the family that originally owned it. They all listened intently, except Olivia, she excused herself after only a moment.

He spoke of the house being built for a small family, the mayor of the town, in the mid to late 1700s. “There was a little girl, too,” he said. The man married and they began to try to have more children. The priest told them about the rumors, and the sickness’ that no one could cure. He explained how the children seemed to be the only ones afflicted, and the townspeople began to gossip about witchcraft within the house, specifically with the mother.

Mariah laughed at the part about witchcraft. She wasn’t sure whether or not she believed in hauntings, but really didn’t believe in witchcraft. That was, historically, a horrible way for people to control their neighbors through fear, and for the church to gain more property by killing off single women.

The priest waited for her to compose herself again, and then continued. He told them that after the Mayor died, the woman of the house married his younger brother, that’s when the history cut out. Someone made sure that the family was never found. They disappeared. The house deed suddenly belonged to a new family and since then, this house has sat empty. Death followed the families that lived there or tried to live there. He pulled a piece of paper from the bible in his hand, slowly unfolding it as he walked over to Mariah and placed it in her hands.

“This paper is all we have left from the archives of this house. The rest is all stories told by other congregants throughout time.” He held onto Mariah’s hands for a moment, saying a silent prayer, then he turned and walked back up the drive into the darkness.

Mariah refolded the paper and shoved it in her pocket. Turning to the others she didn’t need to speak, they all knew that it was time to find Ben. That idea however was short lived, because Ben just happened to be wandering toward them from the woods. Austin ran to him the moment he saw who it was and pulled him into a huge bear hug. Ben looked shocked at the greeting he was getting. He looked from one person to the other as he tried to form words.

“Where the hell have you been?” Austin yelled as he shook Ben’s shoulders. “We heard you scream, then you were just gone.”

“I saw a woman; she took me by surprise. Then I saw a man, or boy, a teenager maybe? I followed him, he led me through the woods to this creepy little gravestone. Then he disappeared, so I walked back here.” Ben shrugged, obviously seeing nothing wrong with his absence.

Mariah and Olivia let out deep breaths, then they turned and headed back to the house. Stopping just short of the driveway, Mariah looked up at her house, and saw that the light in the attic was on, again.

Austin and Ben followed behind, and together the group headed back to the library to get going with their makeshift séance. Mariah excused herself at the stairs. She needed to check on the attic. There had to be a reason the light was on, and if it was teenagers, she was about to lose her mind on them. She headed off to the basement, stopping in the kitchen for water on her way.

She turned to the basement stairs and a cold shiver ran through her body. Standing at the doorway was one of the young boys. He stood so still, staring right through Mariah as though there was something behind her. Honestly, she didn’t want to know if there was. She took a breath and continued down the steps to the basement. She hadn’t been down there since the accident, and she wasn’t sure what to expect. Mariah stepped slowly onto each stair careful not to lose her balance and fall.

At the bottom she flicked on the light and looked around. Blood still stained the dirt floor around the bottom of the stairs, a depressing reminder that there was yet another life lost in the house. She set her sights on the attic steps, and jumped, letting out a small shriek, when something touched her arm. It was Olivia. She had somehow managed to tiptoe down the steps after her with Austin and Ben in tow. Ben was carrying the food, and Austin had the Ouija board.

“Figured we could do this shindig in the attic,” Ben stated plainly. “Since, you know, it doesn’t exist and all that.” He made quotation marks with his fingers in the air.

Mariah was sure at this point that Liza had to have known something about this house, she just didn’t want to lose a sale. Why is commission more important to realtors than the safety of the public? She shook her head at the thought, disgusted. Though, if she were being completely honest, Liza had tried to warn her.

They made their way up the dark staircase hidden in the walls. Austin tripped halfway up, skidding on his butt down three or four steps before catching himself. He turned on his phone light to see where he was going. Along the walls leading up, he noticed initials engraved with small mark. It looked to him like someone had been keeping track of time by writing on the walls.

He ran his fingers along the scratch marks, slowly, contemplating the person that had made them. Along some of the steps he could see what looked like dried blood, but it would be impossible to know for sure without forensic testing. Noticing the others were already in the attic, Austin hurried and made his way up the remaining steps. The board was tucked under his arm.

Appearing in the attic, Austin looked around, slowly taking in the room. Ben was sitting on a creepy old bed, one that kind of reminded him of a hospital bed, only with nicer coverings. Mariah was standing next to a girl in a nightgown, blood seeping from her eyes as though she had been stabbed in her tear ducts with a toothpick or a small needle. Austin let out a small cry of shock, and slowly moved into the room.

He was sure the others had to see the girl. Mariah was acting as though it was totally normal for a dead girl to be standing next to her. Maybe she didn’t see her? Olivia turned from the window, looking straight to Austin with pure anger in her eyes.

He was worried, that worry turning to dread as he looked around the room again, this time noticing that Mariah was as pale as a sheet, and though she was standing straight, her breathing was so slow you could count to ten between her breaths. He turned to the bed, his stomach dropping as he saw that Ben wasn’t just sitting on the bed, he was eating red berries.