The Brown House

by Christy Sloat

  “I have to ask you something, please be open minded,” I started.

  “Sure go ahead.”

  “Well, what are your thoughts on Pearl Brown? Do you think the stories are true about her, and the house?”

  “Who told you about Pearl Brown, was it Lynley?” I shook my head.

  “No a girl named Kayla; I met her after just moving here. We met at the mall and I told her where I lived. She said I had to meet her to talk about the house, so the day I met you at Wilson Lake, I was with her first. When you showed up she sort of disappeared. Then the other day at school, it was her I was talking to after lunch. She told me the story of the Brown family. She told me all about the curse and the Barclay sisters. She also told me you Mayhew’s can be trouble.” I joked about the last part, but he let my hand go and put his in his pockets. We stopped walking just as we entered my driveway. He rocked back and forth on his toes and hung his head.

  “So you want to know if I believe in the stories, well then yes. I totally believe in them. As for us being trouble, that’s true too. We are known for trouble, but I gave that up. I told you that.” I touched his arm slightly, I felt bad now.

  “I believe you. I know you’re not trouble, I am just telling you what she said. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings Ephraim.” Now I felt terrible for making him feel this way. I didn’t think he, in anyway, was a bad guy. I knew he was good, I felt it every time we touched.

  “Who’s Kayla? Does she go to school with us?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “She used to go to our school.” How was I going to explain Kayla? Any person who heard about her would most likely react like the principal did.

  “She doesn’t go there anymore. Her name is Kayla Hart,” I blurted.

  Ephraim’s eyes grew wild and disbelieving. My face felt hot and I was now feeling like saying ‘just kidding.’ It was entirely too late for that now.

  “Kayla Hart is missing and she has been for two years. If you really saw her you have to tell the police Brylee. You must be mistaken though.”

  “Do you know her?” He did, I could tell.

  “I didn’t really know her too well. I was a sophomore when she went missing. I knew she was a party girl and she liked to dabble in witchcraft stuff. I knew she was nice to everyone. She also liked doing séances in the woods back there.” He pointed to our woods behind our houses. “That’s what she was doing the night she went missing. Her and her friends were trying to bring back the ghost of Pearl Brown to find out what really happened to her.” My skin crawled. A séance? Sounded like Kayla alright. She seemed like she was the type of girl to do that. She knew enough about the Brown family to be interested in that.

  “All her friends told everyone that she knew ways of contacting the dead. They said that night someone entered her body and she almost floated off the ground.” His face grew dim. “Then she started saying she was Violet Brown, and she needed to find the key to open the door. She said once the door was opened all the secrets in the house would come out.”

  “Wait? What secrets?”

  Ephraim shrugged. “I don’t know really. Supposedly she ran off to the stream that runs behind the house, she said the key was there. No one saw her again, all they found was her sweatshirt.” I had heard that already from the principal, Mr. Harris. All that was left of Kayla was a sweatshirt. Although, that wasn’t very true and I knew she wasn’t missing.

  “The key is in the stream, huh? I don’t know about the key, but that’s definitely the same Kayla. I told the principal about her and he about took my head off, showing me pictures of her in the yearbook. It’s was her alright. She isn’t missing.”

  Ephraim ran his fingers through his hair, which now glowed in the afternoon sun. I could have kept this all to myself but why be alone in this misery. I didn’t want to expose him to my story; I was taking a huge risk by trusting him. So I just said it, “I saw the ghost of Pearl last night after our walk. She materialized in front of me out of a sort of mist. Please don’t think I am crazy, I mean I might be.” I sighed. “But strange things have been happening in my house. The chair rocks by itself and the light in the corner room goes on even though we have no access to it. Doors slam in the middle of the night and a ton of other things. My parents don’t want to talk about it; they think I am making it all up because I don’t like it here. That may be true, but I didn’t make that little girl up or the things she said.” I realized the whole time I had been talking my eyes were closed. When I opened them Ephraim’s mouth was wide open. He was in shock apparently. I mean it’s not every day a girl tells you she saw a ghost.

  “What did she say?” He inquired.

  “She said she was a ghost and not the only one in the house. The others don’t like visitors and they do anything to get them out of the house. I was the first one to ever see her and if the others found out they wouldn’t be happy. She said she was brought back by the Barclay sisters. Her mom went crazy because she broke the promise of secrecy she made the sisters.” I paused for a moment to make sure he was still listening. He seemed a million miles away right now. “When her mom killed herself she did it in front of her and the sisters came and took her. Ever since, she has been stuck in that house. I don’t know what to do. But I really think I saw her ghost.” I waited a few moments to let it all soak in. Once his color returned he backed away from me. I gasped. He was afraid of me! I was wrong in thinking I could trust him. I turned around and marched toward my house, tears stinging my eyes. He didn’t follow me or call out after me.

  After my dad and I went to the florist and picked out an overly expensive bouquet I came back and went to bed. This day had started off a nightmare and would end as one. I heard Mom come home from the store, she was going to be disappointed when I didn’t go downstairs for dinner. I couldn’t face Ephraim after I told him all of that. After he pretty much showed me he didn’t believe me. He didn’t have to say it, I could see it all over his face. I pulled a pillow over my head to block the noise of Mom downstairs. I wanted to stay asleep until the grief of losing Ethan and Ephraim in one day ended. I screamed at the top of my lungs into my pillow. I was frustrated and scared. I didn’t want to be this girl that saw ghosts.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mom softly knocked at my door and I moaned, “Go away.” She sighed and pulled the pillow off my head.

  “Your friends are here to eat dinner. You should go down and say hi, you don’t have to stay and eat. We all know it has been a rough day.”

  I instantly felt guilty for making them stay down there. Mostly Lyn, Ephraim was on my ‘bad guy’ list right now. Mom had made a nice dinner for everyone, and I did want to eat.

  “Okay Mom.” I didn’t argue. I just got up and pulled off my shirt to change. She left the room and mumbled, “Wash your face too.”

  “I heard that Mother!” I called to her. She hated when I called her that, but this time she didn’t respond. After finding a nice comfy black t-shirt I went to the bathroom and washed my face. She had been right about my face needing to be cleaned. It was tear-stained and black mascara ran down it. Now that I was fresh faced I was ready to see Lyn, but not Ephraim. The tears were coming again and I couldn’t stop it. I grabbed a towel and cried into it. I felt so embarrassed that I told him everything.

  A loud thump hit the door that separated the other half of the room. I jumped, throwing the towel. I was not prepared to see anything weird right now. I backed out of the bathroom and felt that cool mist like last night. It washed over my skin as I froze in place. I remembered what Pearl had told me before about the other spirits. I had to pretend I didn’t see them or hear them, because they didn’t want me here. The mist fell to the floor and started forming feet, this time the feet were ladies shoes. I scrambled backwards not waiting to see who it turned into. But the mist started to follow me down the stairs. I couldn’t escape it; I could hear the feet following behind me. I reached the bottom of the steps and my radio upstairs turned on full blast. I screame
d, covering my ears.

  “Brylee shut your radio off,” Dad called. I ran back up the steps not wanting to see who turned it on, or what was waiting for me when I got to my room. I slowly pushed the door open. The radio played all by itself full blast. I got a sinking feeling as I entered my room.

  I pressed the power button and turned to walk out of the room when I came face-to-face with a woman. She had auburn hair pulled into a high bun, pearls accenting her neckline. Her black dress was pressed neatly as if she had just picked it up from the cleaners. She didn’t smile she instead looked fiercely upset.

  It had to be Violet Brown; there was no other woman that I had learned about that would be in this house. Although with the curse that the house held it could have been anyone. I went to speak but then remembered once again Pearl’s advice; don’t let them know you can see them. I could just walk right through her; she was mist and not flesh. I decided to look right through her, which wasn’t very hard to do, and to pretend that I was looking at my cell phone across the room. I walked right through her and picked up my phone. Walking through her didn’t feel any different than walking through actual water. I played it off very well and I left my room.

  She followed me down the stairs but I still acted as if I didn’t see or feel her presence. My throat constricted once I got to the kitchen table, Ephraim stared wide-eyed at me. Could he sense something was wrong or did he see her too? Or was he just afraid of me?

  “Well nice of you to join us Brylee. We have all been waiting on you. Are you okay?” Mom asked as she prepared my plate.

  “Uh, yeah. My radio just went on by itself, sorry about that.”

  Lyn reached across the table and grabbed my hand and squeezed. I loved her friendship, I was happy to have her. She calmed my frazzled nerves. I was unsure if the woman was still around me and I was too scared to look around for her. I was supposed to act like she didn’t exist.

  “So Lynley told me all about the Fall Formal, do you want to buy a dress this week?” Good old Mom, always starting the conversation off in an awkward way.

  “Sure, sounds good.”

  “Well Ephraim asked us if he can take you and we think it would be a great way for you to meet new friends. Also help you deal with your grief.”

  I pushed my peas around my plate and made circles in my butter sauce with my fork. I didn’t want to look up at him, but I could feel his eyes burning into me. So he had still asked them to take me out. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. He obviously still wanted to take me to the formal, but was that out of pity or because he wanted to?

  “What types of formal dress stores do you have out here, Lynley?” Mom asked as she took a bite.

  “Oh there’s a really nice store by the beach, it’s about an hour away. But the dresses are great. Everyone goes there.” Lyn’s pale cheeks turned pink, as she smiled at Ephraim. His face seemingly made of stone. His look of fear had not left it. Maybe my dad had scared him, no that couldn’t be possible. Ephraim didn’t seem like the type of boy to get scared by girl’s fathers.

  “How does that sound Brylee? Wanna go for a ride this week to the beach?” Mom woke me up out of my Ephraim trance.

  “Yeah sure sounds like a nice place.” I put my fork down and gave up on food. I couldn’t eat, not tonight anyway. I held too much inside my head to be able to eat a thing. I saw visions of Ethan, I worried if Ephraim hated me, and I noticed ghost’s upstairs.

  After I sat and watched everyone eat I opted to do dishes. It was the least I could do since I didn’t eat Mom’s well thought out dinner. I wrapped my plate in cellophane and stuck it in the fridge. Lyn and my parents sat on the screened in porch, I could hear her talking about the things to do out here. Things she planned on doing with me. I filled the sink up with dish soap and got to work. I didn’t feel the presence of the woman right now. That didn’t mean she wasn’t still here, though. I let my hands sit in the hot water while trying to think of something else.

  “I’ll dry if you want,” Ephraim said as I started into the sink. “I want to talk to you anyway, that is if you want to talk to me.”

  “Oh now you want to talk to me!”

  “Listen, about that. I didn’t know what to say when you told me. I was in shock I guess.” He grabbed the dishtowel and waited for a dish. I scrubbed one and rinsed then handed it to him.

  “I opened up to you about all this stuff. I can’t tell anyone else about it, Lyn would never come over her again. My parents would lock me away in an institution, but I thought you would understand. I don’t know why though, I just thought I could trust you with it,” I confessed.

  “It’s not like I don’t believe you Brylee. It’s just not the first time I have heard about that story.”

  “Wait.” I sat my soapy hand on the sink taking a break. “Where did you hear it before, you’re the only person I told about this.”

  “Not from you, from my dad. He used to come over here and help the landlady out with projects from time to time. Fresh coat of paint for new renters, replacing light bulbs, stuff she couldn’t do on her own.” He paused, looking past me as if he was transported to the very conversation he had with him.

  “He got a call one day from her, she said some teens had thrown rocks in the windows. She asked if he could go clean up the glass for her. So he came over, I remember because we were supposed to go sledding that day. But instead we had to wait for Dad.” I continued to wash and he dried as he talked.

  “They busted out the windows that were near the room where the little girl was locked up. Dad didn’t listen to all the stories; he said it was all rubbish. When he got back a few hours later he pulled me outside to tell me never to go in the house. I had to swear it to him, so I did.” His gaze fell.

  “You broke your promise to him tonight by coming here. What made him say that?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to hear the answer.

  “I am breaking the promise because you’re more important. I feel like I should be here to protect you. The things my dad told me he didn’t tell me right away, it took him weeks to confess. Right around that time he was starting to talk to himself a lot, he was skittish too.” He dried another plate and set it gently on the counter. “He was not the same guy that raised Lynley and I. He was so much different. The night he told me he was in bed with a cold, but I think it was his anxiety that made him sick. He was terrified of this old house and I asked him why. He told me he had been here many times before fixing up the house and he never had anything too weird happen. Just little strange occurrences, like lights turning on or door’s slamming. This day though, was different.” We had finished the dishes and were standing in the kitchen alone. Lyn and my parents still talked outside. I could tell Ephraim didn’t want her to hear us.

  “Come outside with me.” I grabbed his hand and dragged him threw the side door. We stood on the side of the house where no one could hear us. I sat on the grass as Ephraim stood looking nervous.

  “Sit down, it’s okay. My parents love to talk, they will have Lyn on the porch forever.” He loosened up and sat with me. “Okay go ahead.”

  “He came to the house and started fixing up the broken glass when he noticed a light on in Pearl’s bedroom. He thought someone had found a way into the room and was partying up here, like kids or something. So he tried to open the door, it was locked. He grabbed his crowbar from his toolbox and tried to pry it open. That’s when he heard it.”

  “What, a little girl?”

  “No a woman, a woman yelling at him to leave this house and never come back. He got scared and packed his stuff up when he was leaving a mist formed in front of him. A mist that formed into a little girl with curly hair and a woman standing with her. They told him to never come back here. That anyone in the Mayhew line is in danger if they ever set foot in this house.”

  My body was covered in goose bumps and my hair felt like it was standing up straight. I wasn’t crazy; his dad had seen her too. I didn’t feel better, I actually felt worse now
. Now I knew for sure that Pearl was real and I wasn’t the only one to see her.

  “I’m scared of this house Ephraim, I saw another one tonight.” He put his hands on mine.

  “I knew something was wrong, I could see the fear on your face. What did this one look like?”

  “She was a woman. I think it was Violet. I acted like I didn’t see her though.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Because Pearl said not to let them know I could see them. She said that they wouldn’t be happy about it.” I gently laced my fingers with his. He didn’t seem to mind, he actually seemed happy to be holding my hands.

  “It probably is best not to interact with them at all, even Pearl. I know that my dad said I would be in danger by coming here but I want to keep you safe Brylee. I want to be a good friend to you. I know you’re not ready to have a boyfriend right now, especially after losing your friend Ethan.”

  I assumed my parents or Lynley had told him I was more than friends with Ethan. I didn’t really want Ephraim to know how close we had been. I wasn’t sure if I did want to be just friends, but I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to be more than that right now. Ethan just died today and I hadn’t even really mourned his loss yet and here I was sitting with Ephraim holding hands.

  “Just give me a little time Ephraim. I really like you. Can we still go to the dance together?”

  “I want to go with you; there is no one I would rather go with. I will give you all the time you need. I am not going anywhere. As for this house, you can’t leave it, but you can ignore it. I think.”

  “I hope so.”

  I heard my parent’s calling for us so we went back inside. Back indoors Lyn grabbed me and hugged me. It was like she could sense I needed to feel secure or something. She and I sat on the couch and talked quietly about the dress shop we were going to visit this week. I felt Ephraim’s protective stare from across the room, where he talked to my dad about hunting. Mom prepared dessert and coffee for everyone in the kitchen.