13. Chapter 13
P ushing open the back door, we enter the kitchen with a few coughs and sneezes from all the dust. I look around, checking to see if the woman who was here last time is back.
Seeing no one, I sigh in relief. “Josh, can you and Patrick open a couple windows to air the place out? Then Quoth can come and go as he pleases too.”
We give Matt a quick tour of the downstairs. He gets distracted in the office space, looking for books we may have missed, and I smile softly at finding something in common with him.
Moving toward the stairs, I fall behind Josh and Patrick. They smirk at me but continue forward.
“You worried the ghost lady is going to appear?” asks Josh.
I smile at him and point forward. “Yep, and I’m letting you two take her on.”
“What are we supposed to do about a ghost?” asks Patrick.
“Hmmm… I hadn’t thought about that. Guess we will see if she appears.”
The guys laugh as we make our way to the foot of the stairs.
“We should be careful going up,” Josh advises. “We don’t know if they are still passable or if the wood has rotted through. I’d hate for someone to get hurt and us not be able to have help arrive. I doubt a firetruck or ambulance would be able to pass up the road to town.”
Josh takes the lead, slowly testing each step before moving to the next. After what feels like an hour but is probably closer to ten minutes, we reach the landing.
“Are we good now?” asks Patrick.
Josh shrugs. “This ground could still be bad, but it’s easier to jump sideways and not get as injured on a flat surface than on stairs. I’d recommend either sticking together as a group or at least pairs while we explore.”
We agree to the plan and move down the hallway. Entering the first room, we find a simple bedroom.
A large bed is centered across from the window. The mattress still looks fluffy, even after all this time. The bedframe is simple carved timber with what once were curtains, but now has more holes than fabric, hanging near the top. Simple tables sit on either side of the bed holding oil lamps, the wicks ready to be lit but the oil gone with time.
Under the window is a chest of drawers. The paint is chipped and faded, but it looks like it had flowers and other personal touches on it. On top of the chest sits a porcelain pitcher and a bowl, and on the floor in the corner sits a chamber pot. I grimace and am glad that indoor plumbing was invented long before I was born.
We spread around the room, seeing if we can find anything of use. I search the drawers with Josh. We find clothes full of holes for both a woman and a man, making me think this was the primary bedroom of the family. Matt and Patrick search under the mattress and the end tables, coming up empty.
We continue making our way through the second floor, finding more bedrooms. One other had a large bed, but the rest had multiple smaller beds set around the room. I’d guess for the children to sleep in.
Approaching one room, I hear giggling. I falter for a step before continuing on.
“Morrigan? Are you okay?” asks Matt. “Did you trip on something?”
“Are you injured?” calls Josh from his place at the front of the group.
“I’m fine,” I answer both of them, squeezing Matt’s hand to reassure him. “I heard giggles coming from the room up ahead. I think there are children here.”
I move past the others to the doorway from where I heard the noises and peek around. Two young girls sit on the floor, rolling a ball back and forth. The girls look to be no older than six and are both wearing white dresses with lace accents on the sleeves and hems. White bonnets cover their hair with the strings hanging freely.
I smile, watching the sisters play together. One of the girls looks up and locks her eyes on me.
“Do you want to play with us?” she asks. “It’s only been us for so long.”
“I don’t know if I have time,” I tell her.
“Please!” begs the other little girl. “Our governess went away. Can you please play with us?”
I glance over my shoulder to see the three guys standing behind me watching me engage in a conversation they can only hear my half of.
“Okay, I’ll play, but just for a minute.” I cross into the room and sink to the floor.
The girls clap and push the ball toward me. I wonder if I’ll be able to catch it or if it will pass right through me. I’d not considered the how of playing with ghost children when I’d agreed.
I hold my hands down in front of me to catch the ball. They are filled with a blast of cold like I’m grabbing ice. I shiver, pushing the feeling forward and see the ball go rolling toward the other little girl. They laugh and start singing a song I’ve never heard before.
Stand for yourself
Make your family proud
Don’t give in
When curses abound
Evil will stand
Evil won’t win
One day, the sun will shine again
One day, the land will be free.
When the ground grows,
When the sun shows,
The savior will come
To break the curse.
She’ll stand against Evil
She’ll set us all free.
She’ll bring the O’Byrnes back from the grave.
The Morigana she will be.
I freeze as I listen. “That’s a pretty song. Where did you learn that?” I ask.
“Nan taught us,” says the younger girl. “Before she went away. She said it was important that we learned it. It could help save the family.”
“It sounds like Nan is very smart.” I smile at the little girl. “I enjoyed playing with you, but I think my friends and I need to go now.” I push myself up off the floor.
“Will you come back?” asks the older of the two.
“I’ll try my best,” I tell her before turning and fleeing from the room.
I race down the stairs, not knowing where I’m going except that I need to get out before I’m sick, reaching the bottom floor before the guys catch me.
“Mor, are you okay?” asks Patrick. “Forgive me for saying, but you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Josh throws an elbow into his side before adding, “His words could have been better, but he’s right. One minute you were sitting on the floor and smiling, then your face lost all color, and I thought you were going to pass out.”
“And you’re shaking,” Matts says, moving to rub his hands up and down my arms.
I pull in a shuddering breath. “I’m okay,” I say. “There were two little girls in the room who wanted me to play. It was going well until they started to sing a nursery rhyme of some kind. It was about a curse and evil and savior of the family named Morigana.” I shiver again. “It seemed more of a prophecy than a silly made up song.”
The guys are silent for a few minutes, staring at me as I focus on my breathing and calming my pounding heart, and the nausea slowly recedes.
“It had my name in it!” I gasp.
All three of their mouths fall open.
“Maybe this town hasn’t been deserted as long as we thought,” Josh says.
“My family has been watching the town for multiple generations, but I don’t know how many exactly…At least a hundred and fifty years” Patrick trails off.
“Things are getting interesting,” Matt says, rubbing my back. “I’m glad I came along.”
“I’m glad you came along too,” I tell him. “So what now?”
We glance at each other, then a flicker of movement on the stairs catches my attention. I jerk, still not used to ghosts appearing and disappearing at random.
“I’m guessing we are not alone,” Matt whispers.
I shake my head, watching a woman in a mid-length, dark dress turn to face Matt. “And I don’t think whispering is working. She’s looking at you.”
He shivers slightly before turning to face the stairs. “My apologies, ma’am.”
The ghost smiles. “He has good manners. I like him. Most people just ignore me. Always have,” the woman says.
“She appreciates you talking to her,” I tell Matt. Then I turn to address her. “I think most people can’t see you.”
“Yes, yes,” she answers. “You never see the help. At least the children haven’t learned that yet. The adults completely ignore me unless they need to order me to do something, but I haven’t seen them in a long time.”
“I’m sorry you were treated that way,” I tell her, stepping closer to the stairs. “Have you been working here for a long time?”
“Yes.” she nods. “I was hired to be the children’s governess. I taught them, bathed them, played with them, and took them to see their parents for a short time every day. But then everything changed.”
I wait to see if she will tell me more before prompting her. “What changed?”
“The twins. They came back,” she whispers.
“Twins?” I ask. “The little girls upstairs?”
“No, those girls are sweet,” the woman answers. “The twins are the progenitors of the O’Byrne family. They had been fighting since the witch trials. I don’t know how they survived everything. I do know Adair’s twin brother turned on her to save himself. She was burned at the stake, but managed to cast a spell, so she didn’t actually die.
“When she came back, she started fighting with those who betrayed her and split the family in half. Eventually, she passed after she lost her family’s power stone, but it seems that has come to you.
“Adair was still in Spell’s Hollow that fateful night. In Morfran’s stand against the coven, the brother cursed us to get on his good side.. Used each family members’ magic against us. We were lucky to get some of the youngest children out of town. Putting them outside the wards, so they could come back and break the curses when they were strong enough. The witches who took the children away came back to a land depleted.
“Now the curses are acting up. There used to be more of us around here. Stuck repeating our days over and over. Never aging. Never changing. But since the last blood moon, people are disappearing. It’s like something is stealing them away, but I don’t think they are crossing over. There’s no light, and if you go near the family crypt, it feels wrong.
“I keep finding myself walking that way, drawn to it. Whenever I get closer, I feel the wrongness and retreat, but I hear screams and calls for help coming from inside. Voices that sound familiar. I think the missing ghosts are stuck in the crypt and that it is somehow calling to those of us who are left so it can trap more of us.”