The Secrets of Oakley House

by S. A. Robinson

  “You know mom, you worry too much. My new friend that lives in the attic thinks I’m doing just fine,” Mariah said, and let out a loud snort followed by a fit of laughter.

  The look of horror on her mother’s face was priceless. Maybe laughing about the girl in the attic would alleviate some of her worry about the possibility that she might actually be going crazy.

  “Who is living in your attic?” Her mother stood her, voice quaking slightly. “Are you telling me you are seeing things, or seeing people in this house Mariah?”

  Her mother was getting ready to go full-blown crazy. Mariah needed to wind this down if she had any hope of making it through the day still in possession of her house, and possibly her freedom.

  “I was joking, it was a joke. Geeze mom, take a joke.” Mariah rolled her eyes in a very dramatic fashion, then gulped down the rest of her coffee.

  Her mother slowly sat back down shaking her head at her daughters’ cruel humor. She didn’t find joking about hauntings funny. Hauntings called for a priest to come in and help rid the house of whatever terror was there. She had already suggested that path to Mariah but was brushed off as usual. She believed in ghosts though, good ones and the nasty spirits that want nothing but to cause trouble. She’d seen enough movies about possessions and otherworldly things that there was no way she was going to take that risk.

  “I’ll call our priest, I know you aren’t religious but it would give me some peace of mind, especially after that boy just killed himself on your property,” her mom said.

  She said it so matter of fact, Mariah almost agreed. She sounded sincere, and Mariah knew her heart was in the right place, but there was no need for her house to have any kind of ceremonies, much-less an exorcism. A priest being summoned to the creepy old Oakley house that was recently purchased at an incredibly low price by that silly twenty something girl that thinks she can rehab it and then make some money on it, would definitely get people talking around town. Afterall, men are the ones that are supposed to buy houses to flip, women should just decorate and look pretty on the side. Nope, that was not happening. Mariah was determined to flip this house, with only the help she needed to hire out for permit purposes.

  “No. Mom the house is great. I have an exterminator coming today.” Mariah looked around for the time, her phone was still upstairs, dead. “Crap, what time is it, mom?” she asked.

  Glancing at her cell, her mother told her it was almost nine thirty. Mariah stood up, and rushed into the laundry room off the kitchen, she opened the dryer and threw on the first reasonable thing she saw. A sleep shirt would be inappropriate for the pest guy. She walked back into the kitchen with the sole goal of getting her mother out the door. She didn’t need her to hear about any kind of infestation going on in the house, or she would surely drag her back home with her and Mariah would never be allowed out again.

  “Mom, I have an appointment arriving at ten. I’m fine, my house is fine. Do you want me to come for dinner tonight, or tomorrow?” Mariah helped her mom up, pretending to be a doting daughter but really just trying to push her mother out the door a little faster.

  She didn’t know why, but she was getting incredibly agitated, whether at the situation or at her mother, she wasn’t sure which. Trying to push aside her aggravation, Mariah walked her mom back to the side door, but her mother was having none of it. Mariah watched as her mom pushed herself back into the kitchen and began to walk into the next room.

  “You haven’t even showed me around your house yet, Mariah,” she said boldly.

  Mariah slapped her hand to her forehead.

  “Mom, this is not the time. We can do dinner here if you want but I HAVE to be able to handle the contractors that will be here soon.” With pure exasperation Mariah grabbed her mother’s hand and again began pulling her to the door. Again, her mother pulled away. What is her goal here, Mariah wondered?

  “MOM! What is going on, seriously you have to go, I. Have. An. Appointment. Coming at ten. I still need to brush my teeth and throw my hair together. Not to mention plug in my phone.”

  The agitation was really showing now and it was obvious that Mariah’s mother could see it clearly. Her eyes beaded with tears and she choked back a sob.

  Fantastic, now she would have to console her mother’s hurt feelings. Good gracious Menopause has really gotten to the woman, she whispered in the quiet of her mind.

  Just as Mariah was about to graciously resign and give her mom a tour, the front bell rang. Her mom stood straight and wiped her face on her sleeve. Good as new. Mariah huffed, and turned to go open the front door, supposing her mother would just have to accept that the house was infested with some kind of rodent, and spiders, of course.

  Mariah swung the door open and standing there on her doorstep was her mother’s Priest. Behind him was a nun, and behind her was the exterminator. This was looking like a bad scene from ghost busters. She hoped to all that was holy there were no cameras nearby. Crying internally, Mariah stepped to the side and ushered the odd group of people into her house. Side stepping to her mother as she went, she whispered, “You have some explaining to do,” and she closed the door.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Late 1700s |Town of Oakwood

  Oliver, Olivette’s father arrived home weeks later to see the scar on his daughter’s beautiful face. He was livid. Sophia had broken his trust by striking his little girl, and he was unsure if that trust would ever be repaired. Sophia, fearing she would lose her once doting husband begged for his forgiveness. She claimed that the lack of a child of her own was causing her heart to grow sad and bitter. She would strive to do better as a wife and mother to Olivette.

  Oliver ultimately forgave Sophia, but the hate in her heart was not abated. She went out of her way to dote on her husband, often baking sweets that he would enjoy in his office while working long hours. Meanwhile, Olivette, ever the loving and adoring daughter, stayed as far from Sophia as she could. She went out to the huts regularly to spend time with Jeanette and Jacob. She confided in Jeanette that she was afraid. She feared that even though Sophia was being kinder, there was something not right about their home and family. She told Jacob that she was afraid that Sophia would try to get her out of the way so she could have her father to herself.

  Weeks went by, and Oliver left for another trip. He swore he would only be gone a short time, but he had a surprise to pick up for Sophia as a reward for her new found loyalty to caring for their family.

  Olivette spent her days outside, visiting Jeanette in the huts more and more. Even though Jacob and Olivette lived in completely different worlds Olivette found him to be the most interesting of all young men she had met. She listened as he spoke as though he were the smartest man in the world.

  Sophia, fearing that Olivette would get into trouble spending so much time with a servant boy, had the telescope brought from the observatory and placed in a room on the third floor, the room faced the huts. She would be able to keep a closer watch on Olivette from there. The dolls and their cabinet were moved to the room as well, and the door to the room was bolted closed with Sophia being the only one with keys. Sophia spent most of her time in the room, watching Olivette and the property through the scope.

  When Oliver returned, he brought with him not only a surprise for Sophia, but also a shock for Olivette. He returned from a town in the south that had been ravaged by war, and with him were two orphaned children. Christopher, was a three year old boy that looked half starved. Timothy was a one year old, chubby baby that could hardly walk on his own yet.

  Sophia looked at the boys, taking in the decision her husband had made to bring home children who were at such tender ages, she knew they would never recall that Oliver and Sophia were not their real parents. She hugged each child and thanked her husband. Together they readied a room for the boys to share, and Oliver asked Jeanette to come back to the main house and care for the children.

  Jeanette would never turn down the opportunity to care for small child
ren, especially knowing that Sophia was so unkind to Olivette. She came back happily. The only rule Sophia had was she alone would be the one to cook the young boy’s foods. She was sure they were on the brink of starvation and needed careful tending when it came to meals. Jeanette agreed to the strange terms of their new agreement and added that she would continue to stay in her hut with her son, therefore giving some separation from her work duties and her own family. Sophia and Oliver agreed, and so began the new Oakley household.

  Olivette stayed out of the way, only appearing when absolutely necessary. She spent countless hours walking the grounds with Jacob. He even saved his money in order to buy Olivette a beautiful Venetian mask, hand painted and at the base he had the maker carve her name. Olivette cherished the mask. She could wear it for fun and for balls that her father occasionally hosted.

  Love was blooming between the two, and Sophia was not blind to that fact. In between cooking for the two young boys, she would spend countless hours stewing in her hatred in the room she had bolted shut. To her the mask was but another toy, and extension of the dolls that she had taken from Olivette.

  Sophia devised a plan. She told Jacob that she had some areas on the roof that were beginning to leak, and she wanted them fixed before the rains of spring began. She would have Olivette help, and while the two were occupied, she would lock the mask away with the dolls.

  Jacob being young and able, often fixed things around the property, and agreed to climb through the attic window onto the roof and repair any places that looked rotten. He spent several days on this project while Olivette sat in the attic window, each day, waiting for him to climb back in safely. On the third day, Jacob was leaning too close to the edge, and fell. Olivette watched as the young man she was in love with, fell to his death on the stones in the back of the house.

  Sophia blamed Olivette. She told everyone that Olivette had been a distraction, and that Jacob fell to his death because she was being overbearing, trying to converse through the window while he worked. Jeanette was broken. She spent countless days and hours sobbing in her hut, mourning the loss of her only child.

  Olivette could do nothing but cry alone in the attic. Her heart was broken, and the blame from Sophia was almost unbearable. She reserved herself to wear the mask Jacob had given her, vowing only to take it off to eat. Sophia had failed to take the trinket, and a young man was now dead because of her plan.

  In a move of pure sadness, Olivette convinced her father to move her bedroom to the attic. She wanted to be as close to Jacob’s memory as she could. She told her father that the happy conversations they had shared there would help heal her heart. Oliver agreed. He even had a dumbwaiter built, so Olivette would be able to eat in her room without coming down the stairs. Food would be sent straight from the kitchen to the attic. Olivette needed to leave only on rare occasions, and to anyone’s knowledge, she was hardly ever out of the attic again.

  With Jeanette melting in sadness, and Olivette holed up in the attic grieving, no one was around to help care for the two young boys that were alone with Sophia. Sophia was starved for attention. Her husband was concerned about his daughter, and when he wasn’t worried about Olivette, he was working. Sophia was left to her own hateful, conniving devices. Christopher and Timothy being her only means of attention.

  It wasn’t long before Christopher began to show signs of sickness. Sophia blamed it on poor nutrition and continued to spend countless hours preparing food for the young child to boost his health. No matter how hard she tried, the boy grew sicker. Doctors could not find the cause and eventually the child died, leaving Sophia and Oliver heartbroken. Villagers came and doted on the grieving parents. They sent gifts of food and flowers to Sophia, and even sent flowers for Olivette for the loss of her adopted younger brother. Sophia finally had the attention she was seeking, though not the kind she desperately needed.

  Olivette, not caring much about the death of young Christopher, stayed in the attic. Oliver was angered that his daughter would not leave, even for the funeral of her younger brother. Olivette, however, could not care much for a child that was brought home to replace her. She viewed the boys her as competition and felt, upon their arrival, that she was no longer important to her father. The fact that her father had forgiven Sophia and rewarded her for hating Olivette did not sit well with her. As far as she was concerned, Oliver Oakley would pay for her hurt just as much as Sophia would. Time would tell.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Stepping back to assess the small group of people now gathered in her front entry room, Mariah shook her head in disbelief. Of course, her mother hired a priest before even coming over. How could she be so stupid as to think her mother actually wanted her house rehab to succeed. Mariah smiled and greeted each person, welcoming them into her home; albeit by sheer force.

  She shuffled the priest, and the nun into the kitchen to sit with her mother while she dealt with the exterminator. She showed them all the coffee and teas then excused herself for a few minutes. She led the exterminator to the second floor, the one where she had woken several times to the sounds of scratching. The exterminator was as kind as he could be and explained that mice generally stayed to the kitchen areas unless there was food upstairs to attract them. Mariah, of course, had been eating in the room, and mentally kicked herself for being the probable cause of her rodent infestation in the bedrooms.

  She left the man to poke around, explaining that he was welcome to go into any room he needed, so long as he watched his step. The floors were still not completely fixed, which was something she hoped to convey to the priest and her mother in just a moment.

  Making her way back down the staircase, and into the kitchen hall, Mariah took a deep breath to ready herself for the crap fest that was about to take place. Her devoutly Catholic mother hired a priest to exercise spirits from her lesbian daughters’ creepy old house. What could possibly go wrong?

  Mariah stepped back into the kitchen only to find it empty.

  “CRAP!” she shouted, though no one heard her.

  Running her hands through her thick red curls, she stomped to the window like a small child that wasn’t getting her way. There they were, the Priest, Nun and her overbearing mother, standing in the back of her house observing the bloodstained bricks that lay in the spot Johnny had landed. Fantastic, her house was becoming a freaky side show. Mariah took three more deep breaths and went outside to see what in the Lord’s name was going on.

  “Mom, today is not a good day. You really should have called ahead to plan this little excursion with me.” Mariah stated her case as calmly as she could. “I have a ton of things going on. I promise you, this house is perfectly fine. Johnny’s death was a tragic accident…well, probably not accident but you get the idea, it was tragic. I’m handling it. I don’t need to be all over the news outlets in town with the crew from ghostbusters banging down my door.” Sucking in air after her tirade, Mariah stood back and waited for her mother’s response. Surly this would be called off.

  Her mother said nothing, it was in fact the nun who spoke first.

  “Young lady, have there been any times when you feel overly angry since living in this house?” she asked solemnly.

  “No,” Mariah blurted.

  “What about overly happy, sad, or any other emotion that you normally don’t feel as strongly, since you moved in?” she asked.

  This nun is all about feelings, Mariah thought.

  “Well, I do have a crush on this paramedic that has been helping me. SHE has felt a little lightheaded when she’s over, usually when she’s upstairs in my bedroom.”

  Mariah stood back and watched that bomb sink in. She didn’t actually have a crush on Olivia. She was a beautiful woman and Mariah would consider seeing her, but she didn’t entirely trust her yet, and Olivia was giving off no signs of sharing the same preferences.

  The Nun looked to the Priest who looked between Mariah and her mother. Her mother’s face was beet red. Surely, she didn’t tell them t
hat her daughter was not a practicing Catholic, and was, in fact, not heterosexual. Laughing internally at her mother’s new predicament, and debating when the three of them would leave, Mariah smiled and waited.

  “Like I was saying young lady,” the nun continued, “has there been anything out of the ordinary about the house?”

  “Nope, nothing,” Mariah lied as the exterminator appeared in the door way behind her. “Crap” she whispered to herself, hoping this guy wouldn’t say anything too crazy in front of the small group of raging lunatics.

  “Ma’am, I have found no evidence of any kind of infestation. You said there was a kind of scratching coming from the walls? Could it have been a tree branch scraping a window or something?” the exterminator asked kindly.

  Mariah looked from him over to her mother, who was standing with her hands on her hips, glaring right back at her. The Nun was also standing there with a look of liar on her face. The Priest seemed somewhat incapable of speaking. Dropping her head down, Mariah had no choice now, she either had to agree with the branch idea which was not the case because there wasn’t a branch touching the house anywhere that she had seen or argue with this guy and send him in to look again. Mariah chose the former option.

  “You’re right, it was probably a tree branch hitting the house. Come to think of it, it was windy when I heard it,” Mariah lied again, deciding instead to just get a cat.

  A cat would definitely eliminate any creatures living in the house. She could use the company of someone that doesn’t talk back, too. Maybe she would end up being the crazy cat lady in the haunted house that everyone is afraid of. I could really play that one off when Halloween comes around, she thought.

  Mariah finished up with the exterminator, paying him for his time and showing him to the front door. She was stuffing her debit card back into her bag when she heard her mother scream. That scream didn’t come from out back, she thought as she ran to the basement stairs where she was pretty sure the scream had come from. The light was on, which meant there was someone down there. Mariah shook her head and walked down the steps. Taking her time to avoid freaking out at her mother for showing herself and two strangers around her house without permission.