CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

 

Noticing Ben was in a trance-like state, Austin rushed to Ben’s side, tearing the berries from his hands. He watched in horror as his love fell onto his side, convulsing and vomiting all over the small bed. As he was heaving, blood began to ooze from his eyes. Austin held him, as he lay dying, knowing there was nothing he could do. The poison had already done its job. Ben was gone.

Austin screamed a low, raspy, mournful cry. The moment didn’t seem real. He laid Ben gently back down and turned to the others. Mariah hadn’t moved an inch, not even to get help or try to help Ben in any way. She simply watched Ben die, with no emotion. Austin was angry, he threw himself forward, throwing a small side table through the window. Olivia, having been standing next to the very same window, flew backward straight into the night.

Austin stood in shock, realizing what he had done. He had never felt such hatred in his entire life. He pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket, only to realize there was no signal in the attic. Looking to Mariah for help, he saw the room completely empty. Mariah was gone, the young girl who had been standing next to her was gone as well. Austin rushed to the steps, the long dark pathway leading straight down to the basement. Once in the basement, he ran up the steps to the kitchen and proceeded out to the yard. He needed to check Olivia and to see if by some chance Mariah had gone outside. He found the yard empty as well.

Turning in circles, Austin panicked. Everyone was disappearing in front of him. He ran back inside, heading for the library. He hastily threw all the pictures and the papers that littered the floor into the empty fireplace. The evidence of what they had been doing in the house needed to go. The last thing he needed was for the cops to come and see that they were all intoxicated and playing ghost hunters when Ben was poisoned by berries and everyone else was gone.

As fast as he could, he ran back to the attic, his lover still on the bed, cold and stiff. Austin paused long enough to kiss Ben on his forehead, then he gathered the Ouija board and any other items that the group had been using to call upon the dead and he booked it back to the library. He had no idea that Sophia, the woman that had been seen throughout the house on so many recent occasions, was slowly following him through the house.

Austin tossed the board and anything else he could find into the fireplace, not realizing that he was about to set fire to the only pieces of information left that gave insight into the history of Oakley house.

Spotting a bag on the floor, Austin rummaged through it looking for a lighter. He knew she had lit the candles earlier, so there had to be a lighter somewhere. In her bag, he found an old photo of a man, woman and little girl. The woman he recognized as the one he had seen in the house once before; the photo said her name was Sophia. Now he had a name for the face. The girl though, he could have sworn he had seen her as well.

“Witch!” Austin shouted, crumpling the picture up and tossing it into the fire as well. He found the lighter, grabbed a book off the closest shelf and lit it on fire. He tossed it into the fireplace not thinking twice. This night would simply look like one bad accident, no one needed to know that they were trying to summon the dead.

Once the fire was going, Austin left the house to look for Mariah, hoping she was still alive. He remembered that Ben had said something about a small grave site in the woods. That would be his first stop. He set off to the far side of the property and headed into the woods in search of the graves. He turned back to look at Oakley house before it was out of sight, only to see that woman, Sophia, was walking slowly, but in the other direction.

Austin left the woods and the graves for later and followed the Sophia. He stayed back so he wouldn’t draw attention to himself, but as they neared the pond, he saw that Mariah was sitting in a small decrepit boat in the middle of a small body of water. He watched as she pushed something into the water then sat solemnly. Austin jumped into the pond, swimming as fast as he could to reach whatever Mariah had just pushed in, only to find that it was an old Venetian mask and a bag of what felt like clothes.

The woman, Sophia, was now nowhere to be seen. Austin grabbed the mask and bag, tossed them into the small boat and began to pull Mariah back to shore. Water filled his lungs as he was ripped under water. His foot was caught on something. He pulled hard but nothing let loose. Austin felt a sharpness on his leg, followed by burning. He knew he had cut his leg on something.

Austin pushed the boat hard, hoping it would float the remainder of the way to shore, then he went under to help free his leg. His pants were stuck on something sharp. He pulled and pulled until the thing came loose from the mud on the bottom of the pond, then he swam the rest of the way with whatever it was still attached to his pant leg. He pulled the boat onto the grass and tried to get Mariah’s attention, but she was completely catatonic.

After a few moments, she began coughing. He sat back and waited for her to get herself together. As he sat there, watching her, thinking she was coming back to the present, she took something from her pockets and put it into her mouth. She chewed for mere moments before she fell over. Austin freaked out. He shook Mariah, listened for her breathing and when he heard nothing, he began CPR.

Austin couldn’t get her breathing, He searched her pockets for what she had eaten, but found only a small bean. He put the bean into his pocket just in case he would need it for the paramedics.

Mariah lay by the boat, vomit and white foam drying around her mouth. He wasn’t sure what the beans were, but they were just as deadly as the berries. Mariah was gone, but Austin still needed help, his leg was bleeding horribly.

“It’s going to be okay,” Austin whispered to Mariah’s body.

He pulled her over his shoulders and began to limp back towards the house, hoping her cellphone was inside to call 9-1-1 because his was soaked from his swim in the water.

The house in view, Austin laid Mariah down on the grass and ran inside to find her phone. He needed to call someone. They needed help.

He reached the Library in record time and found Mariah’s phone by the fireplace, right where he had seen it last. Glancing at the fireplace, he noticed that not only had nothing burned, but there were three small children sitting around it, watching him as he put the phone from to his ear.

Austin let out a shrill scream, similar to Ben’s earlier in the evening and then ran from the room tripping as he went through the door. The girl, the one from the attic, stood by the stairs blocking his path. Not caring, Austin ran right at her, he felt a rush of cold, followed by a deep sadness as he raced down the stairs and back out the door. Walking up the lawn, Sophia was slowly headed his way. Austin dialed 9-1-1 as he ran back to Mariah’s body, pulling her back into his arms and waiting.

He could hear the sirens of help coming, but something felt off. Austin stood, tears in his eyes as he felt himself leaving his body. It was as though he was watching himself go through the motions of walking. Back into the house, through the rooms, down the stairs, climbing the stairs from the basement to the attic. He felt he was watching a movie as he watched himself walk calmly to the window, shimmy out onto the siding, and pull himself up to the rooftop.

He saw Heather Litback, Mariah’s mom, screaming out from the yard. She must have come to check on Mariah. He tried to say something as their eyes met. She yelled to him but he couldn’t hear what she was saying. He saw her run frantically toward the house.

As if in a dream, Austin spread his arms and flew from the roof landing right on the ground in front of the firetruck with a loud smack. Olivia stood at the edge of the woods, near where Ben had walked out, watching. Moments later, Heather Litback fell from the attic window, where Olivette had once sat watching as Jacob fell from the roof, landing in that very spot.

“Goodbye doll,” Olivia said and smirked.

Mrs. Litback woke finding herself laying in a hospital bed, the sound of beeping all around her, and the familiar smell of hand sanitizer. She looked around, unable to remember what had happened. She closed her eyes and opened them up again hoping to remember something.

A nurse walked in moments later and screamed joyfully as she saw that Heather was awake. Soon the room was filled with doctors and nurses all checking her vitals and monitors. Heather assessed her condition as they went. She had a broken leg, three broken ribs and a fracture on her head. What happened? She thought. Then from around the door she saw the police, and then a woman poked her head into the room. She had light brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. She looked familiar. After a few minutes of chaos, the room cleared out and the woman came all the way in.

“Alice, darling,” she said softly. “I’m Alice.”

Alice could see Heather was holding back tears as she spoke,

“Dead, they are all dead,” Alice said.

Both women began to cry silently. After what seemed like hours of tears, there was a knock at the door and two officers entered.

“Ma’am, can we please have the room for a moment. We have some questions for Mrs. Litback. We won’t be long; the doctor insists she has memory loss from her head injury,” an ugly old officer said in a husky voice.

The officer closed the door. Heather thought hard and the memory began to come back in small pieces, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than the horrible truth that Mariah was dead. The officers waited until Mrs. Litback was calmer and then began asking questions.

“Mrs. Litback, you were found two weeks ago unconscious on the property of Mariah Litback. You had suffered severe injuries from some kind of accident, we think you fell from a considerable height, possibly the attic window. The body of your daughter’s friend, Austin Jackson, fell from the roof as the paramedics pulled into the driveway. The body of Mariah Litback was discovered near a small boat. She had eaten raw castor beans, which are extremely deadly. The body of Ben Seymore was located in the attic. He had ingested a large quantity of Pokeberries, which are also deadly. We found one burned book and a huge array of papers and photos in the fireplace with a Ouija Board. It appears as though someone tried to burn it all and failed. In a pile of clothes near your body, we discovered blood which matched Austin, and a bone. We do not yet know who’s bone but our coroner says it may be hundreds of years old.”

The officer stopped and went to the sink, unwrapping a small plastic cup. He quickly drank some water. The other officer continued in his place.

“Does anything ring a bell? We are trying to piece together that night, and how three young people ended up dead.”

Heather shook her head. She remembered driving to Mariah’s house after speaking to the priest. She was going to talk to Mariah about letting the priest bless the house. The rest of that night was blank. Almost as though she had spaced out after parking her car. Though she knew the memory loss was likely due to her head injury.

“Okay, well if you remember anything.” The officers nodded to her, then left.