The Ghosts of Oakleigh House (Gulf Coast Paranormal Book 13) Read online

  “That’s a good question.”

  Lucy sniffed and continued, “Ever since then, it’s been horrible. And then I started getting scratched.” She pulled up her sleeve to show me scratch marks on her arms. “I didn’t do this. Look at that. It looks like someone took a razor to me. I didn’t even know the marks were there at first until I felt the burning, like from the inside of my body. Then I looked and these were there.”

  My heart sunk at the sight of her mutilated arms. “I am sorry, Lucy. I have seen that before.”

  “Thinking about it, it’s kind of like something, a presence for lack of a better word was letting us know it had entered the building. Tell me I’m not crazy, Midas.”

  “Not even a thought. I don’t believe that at all. Is that about the time when all this began? The activity, I mean? So after the chair stacking?”

  “Actually, now that I think about it, yes. It was. I guess I knew that but never said it. I didn’t want to believe it. Something is in that house. I would bet money on it.”

  I patted her shoulder when I saw that Cassidy approached us. She was running late. Had the wedding dress fitting gone horribly wrong? She did not look too happy about being here. I wasn’t sure how to interpret her expression. Cassidy smiled at us as she sat beside me and removed her mini notebook from her purse.

  “Sorry to be late, Midas, but your aunt. She’s a pill. She insisted on taking up the dress again. How are you? You must be Lucy. I apologize for not being here.”

  Lucy smiled politely and even though high school had been long ago I saw the girl I used to love. And with some relief, I realized that the spell of that first crush had been broken.

  “Besides the scratches, I am okay. It’s one of the volunteers--his name is Artemis-- that broke his leg.” Lucy had her hands in her lap and she was sitting with perfect posture.

  Cassidy immediately went into investigator mode, “Are we allowed to visit with Artemis? Some hospitals only let family in. Do you think he would talk to Midas and me?”

  Lucy grabbed her purse and rose to her feet. “I’m sure he would and if we have to lie and say you are family, we will.” Cassidy walked beside her and Lucy whispered, “Artemis has experienced more than any of us. But none of us, no one could have seen this coming. Like I was telling Midas, there’s always been the odd sound, the occasional fragrance of cigars or old fashioned perfume. You know how it goes with old houses like Oakleigh but this is more than that. One of the spirits moves the furniture around. I think that’s when the bad stuff began, but I don’t know. I was hoping your team would be able to figure it out. No offense but I am desperate for answers.”

  As we headed to the elevator Cassidy asked, “Tell me about the furniture stacking? I missed that part. Sorry again.”

  “Where to begin? I mean, the furniture moving once in a while, just one piece or so, I could live with. But when you come inside Oakleigh and all of the couches are stacked on top of one another. Or all the furniture is piled into a tall stack in the center of the room? That’s just bizarre. And darn right scary!”

  Cassidy nodded her head as she wrote down the report. “So mostly inside the house? That’s where the activity is centered?”

  “No. The Cook’s House too. The pots used to clang in there, but we took most of those out. Not strange hearing pots clanging maybe in a breeze if the windows are open but we never open those windows. And those are cast iron cooking pots--the heavy kind. No wind is going to move them around. And once in a while, I’ve heard a man coughing and a baby crying.”

  “A baby crying?” I asked as we stepped into the empty elevator. Cassidy joined us and had her game face on.

  “Yes and also a bell. A supper bell, like an old triangle bell. We don’t have one of those on the property. I know where every artifact in the place is located. No supper bells.” After stepping off the elevator she turned to me and said, “I know you being here is above and beyond the call of duty, but I’m grateful. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. We have donors coming to visit next week. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”

  “We will do our best to help you. Cameron’s heart attack and Artemis’ fall could just be a coincidence. It’s a possibility, Lucy. But we will do everything we can to seek out a paranormal source.”

  “Someone had a heart attack?” Cassidy paused as she wrote something in her notebook.

  “Yes. Here we are. I’d like you to hear what Artemis has to say and then if you tell me this is all a coincidence I can live with that. This is his room,” she tapped on the door and the three of us went inside. The room smelled like bleach which was what you wanted to smell at a hospital. At least this hospital made an effort to keep the germs under control. An older lady sat beside the young man in the bed. “Artemis, Miss Dacia, these are my friends Midas and Cassidy.”

  Artemis grimaced as he extended his hand to me. He was a nice-looking young man with a broad smile and short dark hair. I put him at about twenty-eight, no older than thirty. I made the easy assumption that the woman beside him was his mother. They favored a great deal.

  “How do you do, Midas. Nice to meet you.” Artemis offered me a paint covered hand.

  “Hello, are you a doctor?” Dacia asked cautiously. “Can I take him home?”

  Before either Cassidy or I could answer Lucy broke in, “Dacia, why don’t we go find the doctor? I know you are anxious to get him home. I think I saw his nurse at the station at the end of the hall,” Lucy said with a nervous smile.

  Dacia seemed uncertain but eventually decided to give that a shot. “That would be great, dear. I’ll be right back, okay, Artie?”

  “Mom, I’m not going anywhere. My leg is in a cast and my arm is in a sling. I’m fine.”

  As the ladies left us alone I took the empty seat. “I guess you know why I’m here, Artemis. We are with Gulf Coast Paranormal. Lucy called us in to help you guys.”

  “Help?” He looked confused. “No offense Midas and Cassidy but you have no idea what you are up against. Oakleigh has changed. It is not...safe.”

  “I know what you’ve been seeing in the house and I know about your accident.”

  All the joy in his face vanished. “It wasn’t an accident.”

  “Someone pushed you then?” I gave Cassidy the look. He did not answer her.

  She slid her notebook and pen back in her purse. We had to tread lightly with Artemis. He didn’t trust us and I suspected that he didn’t want us to think he was hallucinating. That much was for sure.

  “You don’t know me, Artemis but I really am here to help. Nothing you say is going to sound crazy to me. I need to know what really happened. That’s why I am here. This is what we do. We help people who have experienced strange things. Like getting pushed off a ladder. Lucy thinks there is a problem at Oakleigh House too. And from what I hear from her, I agree,” I added ignoring Cassidy’s look of surprise.

  Yep. I was breaking my own rules. Don’t jump to conclusions, team. Consider the evidence first. Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound.

  Artemis rubbed his short hair with his right hand. “You must be like the paranormal people I see on television. I never cared for those shows. Are you bringing television cameras into Oakleigh? I can’t believe Lucy would allow that and I don’t believe that’s a good idea.”

  I said in a calm voice, “This is no paranormal show. This is everyday life for me, for us. This is what we do. We help people that are afflicted by the unusual, the paranormal. We go in, set up cameras--just for us. We review footage to help us understand, and we work on unraveling the puzzle. It’s like a puzzle, Artemis. Every situation, every client, their experience is like a puzzle. Understanding the phenomena can only help you. Help Oakleigh.”

  “I appreciate you saying that. I do. But I don’t want this to be true. I want to believe that I dreamed the whole thing. That’s what I want.”

  Cassidy walked to the other side of the bed and lifted the sheet to look at his cast. “That’s one hellu
va hallucination if you don’t mind me saying so.”

  He closed his eyes but did not let the tears flow. “Tell me what happened, Artemis. From the beginning…” Cassidy got really still after she dug out her mini sketch pad and pencil.

  “I would like to sketch you if you don’t mind.”

  “Why?”

  She smiled prettily, “No reason, except I like doing it. I’m an artist. Sometimes it helps us solve the puzzle too.”

  Artemis liked that idea. “Okay, but I want to see it when you’re done.”

  Cassidy agreed, but it was a dreamy sort of acknowledgment. She was already in another world as she dug in her pen bag for just the right sketching utensil. She must have found it for she immediately began sketching Artemis.

  Then Artemis spoke, softly at first, kind of timidly. When the words came, there was no calling them back.

  “Shadows surrounded the ladder. One shadow in particular, about the size of a child. All black but not just black; they were animated but empty. They were all the shapes of emptiness. Some were empty people, all small—others were like cats or some other things. I don’t know what they were, but they were there. I could feel their hate—see it in their faces.”

  “Go on,” I encouraged him and tried to maintain a passive expression. I already did not like the sound of this.

  “Their eyes were even darker than their bodies. They all had a similar expression, those dark eyes were molded and they were expressive. They hated me, Midas. Hated me being there. They wanted me to die. Then the one, the largest of the shadows began crawling towards me, up the ladder! There was nothing else I could do but fall. All I could do was get away. Or try to get away.”

  Cassidy paused and interrupted us, “Are you saying this shadow thing wanted to kill you?”

  “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. And it was speaking. Over and over again. It said in one collective voice, ‘Dead, dead, dead.” Artemis took a deep breath in and let it out. He looked like a man who was glad to be finally telling the truth about a horrible secret he’d been hiding.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” Cassidy murmured as she stuffed her sketchpad and pencils back in her bag. And she left the room. Apparently, she’d forgotten all about showing Artemis her sketch. Ten minutes later I emerged from Artemis’ room and found my girlfriend gone. Not only that, she wasn’t answering my phone calls. But she did leave me a text.

  I can’t show him that picture. I have to go. I’m chasing ghosts. I’ll be in touch.

  Chapter Three—Sierra

  I glanced up at the house expecting to see someone watching me pace around the yard but there was no one there. No ghost and no living person. Nothing at all that my eyes could see. I closed mine and searched. Nada. I breathed a sigh of relief, but I still felt unsettled. There was no doubt that something strange was happening on this property.

  Hmm…but not just the property. It was mostly snooping around the yard, but it had its sights set on the house. Oh yes, it wanted in. Inside the house.

  This ghost...oh no. Not a ghost. It was inhuman. It had not infiltrated the house yet. Yes, my mother-in-law had been correct. She definitely saw a shadow in the house, but it hadn’t actually come inside. That was merely a projection because it wanted her to see it and be afraid. That’s what this thing fed on, fear. But my mother-in-law wasn’t one to be terrified of anything. If she’d freaked out royally then it would be so much more powerful. So powerful!

  He had plans for the house--for the people there. He wanted them, to chew on them and he intended to have them. He had been called and he would not be denied.

  Oh no! What if Emily was visiting and it came in? Negative entities were attracted to children because they were so open. Was that what was happening here? The dull ache in my stomach told me no. There was another reason for it. Thankfully, this was only the beginning of the creature’s invasion.

  My afternoon walkthrough of the McBride home surprised me. The memory of that residual energy of Mrs. McBride’s encounter made me flinch.

  What the heck was this thing? It tasted…odd. Strange that I would have a tasting experience. I rarely had those. Usually, my other senses were engaged when I was checking out a place but this one was different. Whatever I now encountered left a cold, metallic in my mouth and I wanted it to stop immediately. Like the sensation, you get when you hold a battery to your tongue. Yuck. And my hands were cold and tight.

  I continued to walk the perimeter of the McBrides’ well-kept yard. The hedges were neatly trimmed. The grass grew to the perfect height and, as always, the yard had been cut with precision.

  Hmm…obviously these mad lawn care skills skipped a generation because Joshua’s grass cutting was nowhere near as neat.

  The one-acre backyard was a sight to behold with its even, decorative stripes cut into the grass. Yes, clearly my father-in-law’s work and not his son’s.

  I searched the newly-mowed grass for any indications of something off, like a painted rock or a fetish tossed into the yard. There was definitely a human agent involved in this haunting.

  This…whatever it was…oh no.

  It’s an entity and it isn’t random, but a summoned entity and that really narrowed down the field. It didn’t just wander in off the street. Someone very clearly called it to this location and not my good Baptist in-laws. They’d never be working in dark magic or intentionally attracting an entity to their property. This being was never unintentional.

  Well, not in most cases.

  Oh, snap. Don’t let this be a demon. No, I’m not jumping to conclusions but it was definitely not organic.

  The McBrides were very traditional. Mrs. McBride was the queen of her home from the top floor to the basement while Mr. McBride took care of everything off the front and back porches. He had his own garage which we joking called the “he-shed.” He enjoyed piddling around in it but even that was kind of Mrs. McBride’s territory. She recently installed a refrigerator and freezer in the he-shed for extra food storage.

  But he didn’t complain which was kind of sweet, I guess. Although the dynamics of their relationship seemed to work for them they weren’t for me.

  I heard a door slam and glanced up to see the neighbor’s back door close. The screen door sagged slightly like it was going to fall off the hinges at any moment. I got the sense that she, definitely a woman—and I’d seen before, had been watching me. And how had I not seen her? Yeah, she knew I was out here and she didn’t appreciate my appearance for she knew who and what I was and she had something to hide.

  Yep. That resonated with me.

  The neighbor’s house was a one-story ranch style home. Kind of dated. If I had to guess I’d say it was built in the 1970s. The previous tenant hadn’t been much better at keeping the place up, but at least he’d done the basics. It’s like the owner--I couldn’t remember the guy’s name at the moment, stopped caring about the property once he moved out. It had been a few years ago and I couldn’t recall the details of why he left. It’s not like he hung out at the McBrides’ house. But honestly, neither had I until my daughter arrived, but that was water under the bridge now. At least that’s what I told myself.

  I peered over the fence and stared hard. Nope. No one was taking care of the yard. A small dead oak tree lay rotting on the ground. There was a rusty old burn can overgrown with weeds. It was one of those metal drums and it was chock full of things that probably wouldn’t burn no matter how much gas they soaked it with. A twisted metal bed frame, like a child’s bed, poked out the top. The sight gave me chills.

  Why would they…no. I’m not going there. You’ve got a wicked imagination, Sierra McBride. Floyd had been an odd duck, but he would never hurt a child. Or anyone else.

  Floyd! That was the guy’s name. He’d been the man who lived at the home with his elderly mother. Floyd had never been big buddies with the McBrides’, but he had been quiet and friendly the few times I’d spoken to him. And he’d taken care of the house while he lived there, but his tenant
s weren’t as dedicated. I wondered if he knew how bad this backyard looked?

  I saw the broken blinds on the back door swinging slightly and saw the same dark-haired woman watching me. I couldn’t see her face fully, but man, the energy! The anger and hate that came off of her were truly unreal. Then the blinds swung back and she disappeared.

  Oh yeah, bad mojo there. Really bad mojo.

  I continued to walk along the fence line with my hands in my pockets. I wasn’t cold at all, this was a protective measure and I suddenly realized that I needed protection. Thank goodness I was carrying my favorite stones. I wasn’t one to normally use crystals, but I felt drawn to these as soon as I’d seen them in the metaphysical shop.

  Yeah, the natural energy had been moved around. Not in a good way. It’s like the new resident had intentionally gathered a bunch of it, all negative and tossed it over the fence. Out of her yard and into this one. And by doing so she drew the creature to it. But why? To what end? I didn’t understand this at all.

  “What are you?” I whispered as I rubbed the amethyst in my pocket. “Some kind of…”

  “Sierra? What are you doing out here?” Joshua asked with the baby perched on his shoulder. He glanced around the yard like I’d lost my marbles. I hoped he didn’t hear me talking to the air around me.

  “Just going for a walk,” I lied as I kissed the baby’s cheek. I hated the whole lying-to-Joshua thing, but I promised Mrs. McBride that I’d keep this unofficial investigation to myself. She wasn’t one to usually support our paranormal interests, but now that she needed us that had all changed. Well, she was my mother-in-law. I had to help her. “It’s a beautiful day.”