“Hey, doll. You do not look ready to go out on an adventure,” Olivia hugged her and then assessed the sweatpants, t-shirt and socks.
Mariah had done nothing this morning except throw on clothes from the dryer.
“I just need to get ready. I wasn’t expecting Greg to show up,” Mariah said, turned, and walked upstairs to get more appropriately dressed for hiking around the woods. “Feel free to make yourself some coffee or tea. I’ll be right down,” she yelled behind her.
“Hey doll, you also left your attic light on. Thought you should know,” Olivia said.
Mariah stopped, frozen to her spot. She turned slowly to face Olivia who was nonchalantly heading into the kitchen.
“I don’t have an attic,” she said to Olivia’s back.
Olivia stopped and turned to face Mariah, her face crunched up in a confused grin, as though this was another joke to her.
“Of course, you do. Every old house has an attic and the light is clearly on. Come look I’ll show you,” Olivia gestured for Mariah to follow her outside.
Skeptically Mariah followed her. They went out to the yard and walked a little down the driveway in order to get a good look at the top of the house. Like Mariah had thought, there was no light on in the ‘fake’ window at the top of her house.
“I swear it was on a few minutes ago,” Olivia scratched her head and wondered back towards the house. “Weird,” she said shrugging her shoulders as she went.
Mariah shook her head, took one more look up at the house and wandered back inside to get dressed. With the contractors not coming for a week or more, there would be plenty of time to get other things done that were less boring. She could also start other projects, like cleaning the air vents and trapping little critters, specifically the ones residing in her bedroom.
Once dressed, Mariah headed down to meet Olivia in the kitchen. She could smell the coffee and knew Olivia must have made herself a mug. She figured she could use one more coffee to kick her day off on a better, less sad note. She walked into the kitchen and found Olivia, sitting at the old oak table with the old mask tied to her face. The mask looked beautiful, but she could have sworn that she had left it upstairs in the room next to the window. Olivia, seeing Mariah watching her with a quizzical look, took the mask off and gently laid it on the table.
“I see you cleaned her up enough to uncover the owners name,” Olivia said happily.
“Just the initial, but nothing more,” Mariah grunted, her annoyance and suspicion beginning to show through. Annoyance more than anything. Had Olivia gone snooping around the house and she hadn’t noticed?
“Well, it says ‘Olivette’ here clearly, more than an initial in my book, but maybe we have different views on that,” Olivia said waving her hands up in surrender.
“What?” Mariah practically ran to the table and jerked the mask up into her hands. There it was, clear as day. ‘Olivette’ carved right there in front of the O that Mariah had seen last night. How could she have missed that? Mariah turned the mask over in her hands, puzzled by Olivia’s ability to find things that she couldn’t, in her own house. First the mask, then the dolls and now the name.
“Maybe you should move in, we might find the attic that doesn’t exist,” Mariah quipped. She stared at Olivia, her blood beginning to boil from the tricks she was now sure were being played on her.
Olivia shrugged, obviously sensing Mariah’s aggravation, she finished her coffee and placed the mug in the sink.
“Well, maybe we will find that, and maybe we find more. Or maybe your house likes me better,” Olivia stated flatly, turned her nose and walked out of the room.
Mariah set the mask down on the counter, made herself a small mug of coffee and waited for Olivia to return.
When she did, Mariah said, “I’m sorry, I’m being rude. Can we just move on?”
Olivia nodded and they headed out the side door. Mariah was still so caught up with the mask that she hadn’t even noticed the small trash bag sitting in the corner of the kitchen, the back door still slightly ajar.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mariah showed Olivia the pond and they were able to pull the boat up to the house where Mariah planned to sand and repaint it once the house restoration was complete. She showed Olivia the huts that were littered around the back of the property. Olivia looked quite at home venturing around the grounds. They established that the huts were once the living quarters of servants. They were poorly upkept, and it looked as though they would be better off being completely torn down, for safety reasons. After meandering around the pond area, a little more, Olivia suggested they go into the woods, a place Mariah had yet to spend much time investigating.
Olivia found an overgrown trail which they followed for some time into the trees and brush, but found nothing except a ton of bugs. Mosquitos. “Blood sucking little demon bugs that were better off dead,” Mariah had voiced several times. Olivia, ever the prepared one, pulled bug spray out from her small bag and sprayed them both down thoroughly before continuing through the brush.
Oddly enough, Mariah was sure that the bag Olivia was using to carry supplies was one of her bags from her closet upstairs. It was entirely possible they both had the same bag, but Mariah made a note to check when they got back.
When they finally saw an opening and rushed forward, they found only an open field, one that was surely once used for farming land. “Possibly corn,” Olivia pointed out as she nudged an old pile of stalks that were decomposing. Mariah was sure that was pure coincidence, no one had lived there for so long, no way was corn still growing. It had to be wild.
They turned and went back the way they had come, only instead of going straight back toward the house, they took a right and went further into the woods. Eventually, they wandered upon what appeared to be a very old well. This kind of find was expected, however this well was quite far from the house, which Mariah found interesting. Maybe it was the servants well? Mariah pondered that while Olivia peered over the bricks into the darkness below. There was nothing to see, just darkness.
There was no way to access the water, or whatever it was that was now at the bottom, so after watching Olivia toss in a penny and make a wish like a small child, Mariah headed off in a new direction. They talked for a while as they walked, and Olivia told Mariah all about her childhood and the things she had seen.
Mariah decided that her family must have been military with the amount of time her father was away on business.
Mariah shared her story, about her loving happy family and the house that was passed down from generation to generation. She told Olivia about her father’s death and the time she had spent in New York for school. Olivia listened, but she didn’t seem very interested. She wanted to talk about herself and her story more than anything. She told Mariah about all the siblings she had, which made Mariah think she was a bitter middle child with a complex for needing attention.
Olivia joked about wanting to live in haunted houses just for fun, even though she didn’t believe in ghosts. Mariah listened without saying much until Olivia told her that Illinois was among the top ten most haunted states in America. Mariah laughed at that. She’s lived here her whole life and surely that is not true. Sure, there were plenty of old homes and decrepit buildings in need of repair, but haunted? While Olivia didn’t believe in that kind of thing either, or so she claimed, she still wouldn’t dispute what other people claim to be their personal experiences. To each their own after-all.
They were so busy chatting about ghosts and ghouls, that they hardly noticed they were walking on what seemed to be a small family gravesite. It wasn’t until Mariah’s foot got wedged between some stones surrounding what looked like a child sized grave that they stopped. The headstones were all flat in the ground so they were easily missed at first, being covered almost entirely by dirt and leaves. None of the headstones had names. Some were sticking up in odd ways due to time and the settling of the ground. They found a small building that had names, and dates. Almo
st like a tomb but without the bodies inside. It reminded Mariah of a war museum ledger but on a smaller scale. Oakley was engraved across the top, which was not surprising given the house was called Oakley, as well as the town. Along the list were names and the ages when they died, but no dates. Mariah read the list out loud, gently tracing each name as she went.
Mayor Oliver Oakley age 68. Baby Oakley born asleep. Christopher Oakley age 3. Michael Oakley age 1 day. Samuel Oakley age 1 day. Timothy Oakley age 1. Olivette Oakley age unknown. Under the Oakley names was another name, Monet. There were only two names, Sophia Oakley-Monet, and Ophelia Monet age 2.
Mariah was beyond happy with this find. She would be able to research the owners of the house more in depth with names and ages. Taking out her phone, she snapped several photos of the engravings and then she tied several ribbons around the area so she would be able to find it again.
“Hey, do you think it’s strange that the children all died so young?” Mariah turned to ask Olivia. She had completely zoned out while reading the names and taking pictures that she almost forgot Olivia was with her. Olivia however was nowhere to be seen. Mariah spun in circles looking in all directions for where her friend had wondered off, but to no avail.
“Olivia!” she yelled through the trees. Nothing. She pulled out her phone to text Olivia but remembered that Olivia didn’t have a phone. There was no service in the middle of the woods anyway.
“Of course, why would anything be easy,” Mariah yelled at a tree.
Mariah stomped back to the trail and headed in the direction of her house. Olivia would have to find her own way back. She followed the trail back to the field and then back through the brush. She hadn’t realized how far they had ventured until her stomach started grumbling and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything that morning. Maybe it was the hunger talking, but Olivia was on her last nerve. This friendship may not be worth cultivating, she thought as she made her way past the pond.
The house came into view and Mariah picked up her pace. She wanted to eat and take a nap. Looking to her house she saw what looked like a person standing on her roof. Greg couldn’t have come by to work after he just told her that morning that they were taking time off. Mariah picked up her pace and started jogging towards her house.
“Hey! You need to get down from there,” she yelled at the top of her voice, hoping the man could hear her from so far away. The man didn’t turn around. He must not have heard her yelling.
“Get down from my roof!” she yelled again.
Nothing, the man just stood there. Mariah started running. This lunatic was going to get himself killed. That roof was not safe. As she fumbled over a small hill, she hit a hole in the ground catching her foot and fell face first into the grass. Rolling over to assess her own damages, which were minimal at best, she stood back up and prepared to start running again.
The man was gone. The roof was empty, and no one was anywhere to be seen. As she came up her driveway, she saw Betty and her Nissan, but no other cars, trucks or anything else. I must be really dehydrated from all the hiking, making me hallucinate, she thought. That would teach her to not take water or eat breakfast before a hike. He looked so real though. Mariah shivered and went inside through her back door. It was open. Not wide open but cracked. She panicked, thinking some teenagers had broken in and that was who she saw on her roof moments ago. She rushed forward into the house ready to call the cops and have a go at some stupid kids for breaking into her house.
She fumbled into the kitchen jumping out of her skin when she saw Olivia just sitting at the table wearing the old venetian mask and the clothes that had now been thrown away multiple times. Olivia sat stone still at the table, her head turning slowly to look at Mariah through the mask before she let out a shrill scream and threw herself onto the floor.
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 a
ngry, 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.
The Secrets of Oakley House Page 6
