Steven thought that someone was breaking into their lovely home and destroying their belongings. Therefore, he added a safe room door onto the kitchen. If someone were to come while they were home, all they had to do was get to the kitchen and lower the lock in place. But the shenanigans had ended when Kelly told Steven that she was pregnant, which kept them home more often.
The first child born was named Geena. She was the apple of Steven’s eye. He took Geena everywhere and showered her with love and gifts. They would go to parties, dressing up in the most glamorous outfits and swirled around the dance floor, catching everyone’s attention. The four ghosts, Greta in particular, became jealous of Geena. The new child had taken away the attention that she was getting, and even though the Parker’ couldn’t see Greta; they still made her feel part of the family.
Steven Jr. came along five years later. He loved nothing more than to follow his big sister around, especially when the ghosts of the four children came out. Although Steven and Kelly could hear the noises of the ghosts, their two children were the ones that could actually see the four ghosts that had burned in the fire.
Steven Jr. would coo and awe at the ghosts as if they were right there with him. Steven and Kelly never heard the children talking to the ghosts. The two kids would only speak to them when they were alone in their rooms. Geena would have tea parties with Eve and Beth and later play hide-and-go-seek with Thomas and Greta. They would venture off and hide within the walls and knew their way around the secret passageways in the house.
Once, Genna tried to tell her father about Eve, Greta, Thomas, and Beth, but she had decided against it after Eve told her that he would probably send her to a mental hospital if he knew she was talking to ghosts that couldn’t see. Geena believed Eve and kept quiet about them. Geena also hadn’t known that her parents were aware of the four children being in the house and that her father had studied books about ghosts.
Steven Jr. didn't often speak to the spirit because he was afraid of what they might do to him if he did tell anyone. He has been particularly scared of Greta because she always had a knife with her and had told Steven Jr. that she would use it on him if he said anything to anybody. So, instead, he followed his big sister everywhere she went to feel safe.
Chapter 2
Due to the storm, the roads were immediately closed, and no one had any access up the mountain. If anyone had known there was an accident, the officials would have had help brought to the Parker’. But, no one had known, and Geena took it upon herself to get her and her brother Steven Jr. to the safety of their home.
Geena had watched out the window whenever her father drove and knew that they weren’t far from their house. She hadn’t wanted to leave her parents in the car, but there was no way to carry them up the mountain. She would have to go back for them, but the snowstorm dropped two feet of snow on the ground. There was no way Geena would be able to rescue her parents.
Days went by, and Geena began to blame herself for her parent’s death because if it weren’t for her wanting to go to Hawaii for her tenth birthday, they would have never been on the road in the first place. She hated herself and had locked herself in her room for days at a time. Steven Jr. cried and would lie outside her door, wanting to come in, but Geena pushed him away until one day someone came to the house to find them.
It was then that the children were to be taken out of their Victorian house and be placed in the care of Mariette James, a social worker from the state. She was to help find the children a good home, a new home for them to live in until the state was able to contact a family member to look after the children until the age of eighteen.
Mariette had tried desperately to contact their Aunt Julie Westerly, but she was told the aunt was away on a wilderness tour for the next month and had no means of communication. When Mariette attempted to place, the children in a temporary foster home, the children who were devastated by their parent’s sudden death, and refused to leave their house. Geena locked the doors so no one could get in and take them from their house.
After getting access into the house, Mariette realized that trying to force the children to leave their own home could do more harm than good, so she agreed to stay with the children in their house and look after them until their aunt returned from her wilderness trip.
Since Mariette moved into the house, Geena no longer found a reason to lock the door to her room. Instead, both of the children moped around the house, stricken by the loss of their parent’s. They nibbled on their food that Mariette had prepared for them but otherwise ate only a little.
Mariette tried everything to get the children to talk to her, but they would either sit by the window and stare out or stayed in their rooms not wanting to have anything to do with Mariette. It wasn’t until after a few days of living in the Parker mansion that Mariette noticed the two children had invented some imaginary friends. Probably, she thought, to help cope with their loss. She could hear them talking behind their closed bedroom doors. Mariette knew for sure that the children were in their own bedrooms and weren’t talking to each other as their rooms were far apart from one another. It wasn’t unknown for children to have this sort of behavior after a tragedy.
One evening after dinner, Mariette was finally able to get Geena to open up to her. Mariette sat patiently waiting for the young child to speak but was more surprised at the story Geena had come up with. It wasn’t something most children did, and in some cases were sent to a special hospital, but Mariette told herself to wait and see what the children would do next. Talking to themselves wasn’t always a bad thing, right?
Geena told Mariette about the four friends that she has had since she was able to speak at the age of two. "Greta doesn't like to be ignored, or she will become angry and throw knives at you," Geena said. “She loves shiny things and will hide them in places, especially in the walls where there are secret passageways.”
Geena went on to tell Mariette about all of the renovations done to the house from the early 1850’s to now, there have been rooms added on to other rooms, and eventually, dark hallways had been connected to get from one end of the house to the other.
Mariette looked conflicted by what Geena said, but didn’t want to say anything to her. She would just listen because Geena never talked to Mariette before today. Mariette would later sit down, think over everything that Geena had told her, and go from there. However, Mariette was curious of the secret rooms Geena was talking about. Mariette hadn't been in the house long, so she was never told of these secret places. She had become curious and would have to check them out.
“And you shouldn't be scared when Beth or Thomas break things or make loud noises; they’re just playing around. It’s something you’ll get used to the longer you’re here with us. Trust me; they're not as scary as they claim to be," Geena said.
“As for Eve, you must be careful after dark because that's when the darkness takes over her body and she becomes evil and does bad things," Genna concluded before telling Mariette about not going near the attic. "Bad things lurk upstairs in the attic," Geena trembled, as she spoke the words out loud.
“Please stay out of the attic. You are not to ever go up there. You can never to open the door, or you will let out the evil spirit that lurks up there.”
Mariette swallowed, almost afraid by what Geena just told her. She regained her composure and replied with confidence.
“Of course, my dear,” Mariette said, patting Geena's hand. "I promise to stay out of the attic, but only if you promise to go to bed. Your friends will be here in the morning. No sense in staying up all night like you have been,” Mariette said to help ease the girl’s mind.
She wasn’t going to believe the foolish stories that Geena was making up, but she could understand why they were. Mariette would probably do the same if she was in the children’s shoes and she’d just lost her parents in a tragic way, she thought, feeling foolish for actually believing the story.
Geena nodded and slid under the cover
s. Mariette pulled the blankets up, tucked them under Geena’s chin, and kissed her on the forehead. “Goodnight, Miss Genna,” Mariette said before turning off the light and closing the bedroom door behind her.
Mariette then proceeded to tuck Steven Jr. into bed before she got ready herself. She was exhausted and had a lot of things to do the following day. Houses didn’t clean themselves and lunches and dinners needed to be prepared.
~~~~~
The next morning, Mariette woke from a well-rested night of sleep. She hadn’t thought about what Geena had told her before they went to bed. It was all a made up story, and Mariette wasn’t going to take the children serious. She chuckled into the empty room before climbing out of bed.
After making the children breakfast, Mariette cleaned up around the house and dusted the knick-knacks while the children played in their rooms. She also sorted through all of the mail that accumulated since she had come to stay at the house, placing them in a box for the aunt to go through when she arrived.
The day sailed by quickly as she kept herself busy. She made phone calls and checked in with her boss to make sure that they were still trying to get ahold of the children’s aunt.
Before she knew it, Mariette was in the kitchen preparing dinner. She jumped when she heard the sound of a loud shatter in the next room. She ran to see what had happened and saw a crystal vase that was once placed on a table near the window, broken into pieces on the floor a few feet away from where it had been sitting.
Goosebumps spread quickly up both arms. It seemed to have gotten chillier in the room since she entered. She crossed her arms against her chest rubbing her hands back and forth to get them warm as her eyes etched around the room. It seemed to her as if the vase had been thrown against the wall not fallen from where it had been sitting. But that couldn’t be what had happened, she thought.
There was no one in the room but her. Had one of the children dropped it and ran out of the room before she had entered? Sure, it was possible, but why would they be playing with it anyway? She had no idea what the answers to her questions were that were entering her mind, but she would soon find out.
“Geena, Steven Jr., please come into the family room,” Mariette hollered.
When the children entered the room, they both gasped at the sight of the broken vase on the floor.
“That was Mama’s favorite vase,” Geena said as a tear quickly formed and ran down her face.
Mariette walked over and placed an arm around Geena. “Now, now,” she said. “I had assumed that one of you had done this by accident, but I can clearly see that you did not.”
“No, it wasn’t me,” Geena sniffled and looked over at Steven Jr. “Steven was with me, so it wasn’t him either.”
Mariette looked shaken by what Geena said. “Well, how did it get broken, if neither of you did it? There certainly has to be a good explanation for why this has happened. Next, you'll tell me that your imaginary friends did this,” Mariette stated.
Geena glanced around the room and saw Thomas giggling in the corner. “It was Thomas!” Geena pointed towards the wall on her left. “I told you that he likes to throw things,” Geena said with accusation in her voice. “Why don’t you believe me when I tell you about them?”
“Thomas?” Mariette questioned. “Thomas isn’t real. He can’t break things,” she concluded. “He’s just someone you made up to deal with the grief of your parents dying. That’s all he is. Stop this nonsense of made up friends breaking your mother's things, Geena!” Mariette yelled a little too loud, not realizing that she was probably scaring the children half to death.
“No, he is real, can’t you see him?” Steven Jr. questioned, and then remembered that only him and his sister could see the ghosts. “He’s the one who broke the vase. He can do anything he wants,” Steven said, stomping his foot down on the floor.
“It wasn’t me!” Thomas proclaimed. “It was Beth. She was the one who broke it,” Thomas said as he pointed to the other side of the room.
Geena looked around the room and saw Beth holding a china plate. “Sure, blame it on me, when you’re the one who did it,” Beth replied as she lifted the plate in the air getting ready to throw it at Thomas. "You started it, and I'm going to finish it," Beth said.
“Beth, put that down, now!” Geena yelled. “You’re scaring Mariette half to death. She is a nice lady, and we want her to stay."
The room fell silent. Mariette looked bewildered as Geena spoke to her invisible friends Beth and Thomas. She looked in the direction Geena was talking and saw no one there, but a plate was hovering in mid-air. She almost felt faint.
Beth huffed then placed the plate back in the cabinet. Geena could see that Mariette was afraid. "I assure you that Beth won't hurt you, Mariette. You have nothing to worry about,” Geena said. “Please don’t think we’re nuts or need to go to a mental hospital.”
Mariette shook her head from side to side and closed her eyes. When she opened them, the plate was gone. Was she losing her mind? God, she hoped not, but in any circumstance, she needed to help these children before they started to believe that the imaginary friends were real people. “Mental hospital?” Mariette questioned. “Why on earth would I take you to a mental hospital?”
Mariette wanted to believe that Geena and Steven Jr. made their imaginary friends up as a way to help cope with their loss, but part of her wasn’t too sure anymore. Did she need to get them some help? Maybe find them a doctor that could assist them before this imaginary friend thing got way out of hand? She wasn't sure, but it was scaring her to see this happening to these poor children who just miss their mother and father so much.
“No!” Steven shouted. “I won’t go to a mental hospital. Eve was right about you. She said you’d think that there was something wrong with us,” Steven concluded.
"Oh, sweet children. I don't think that you are crazy. I just…I just believe that you might need some medical help that's all," Mariette said. "I feel that you are just having a really hard time dealing with this loss and need someone to talk to other than me."
Both Geena and Steven looked at Mariette, then turned and walked back to their rooms.
Mariette felt defeated as she cleaned up the broken glass and threw the pieces away in the garbage can in the kitchen. She then finished preparing their dinner for the evening not giving what had happened another thought.
After washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, Mariette walked around making sure that all the doors and windows were locked up tight before she went upstairs. The children were bathed and in their pajamas for the night, waiting on Mariette to tuck them in bed.
Once she finished with the children, she slid under the thick blanket of her cozy bed. She closed her eyes, hoping to fall fast asleep after the tiring day she had, but the moment her eyes shut, she heard the creak of floorboards outside her bedroom door.
Chapter 3
Mariette kept her eyes on the door and quickly sat up in her bed. Someone was outside her room, but who? she thought. The children were fast asleep, weren’t they? She had just put them to bed. But who else could it be? There was no one else in the house but the three of them.
It was too dark to see anything, but she had to check to see who it was. She was just about to step out of bed when she heard the doorknob turn and the door squeaked slowly open. She grabbed ahold of the blankets and pulled them up to her face, cowering like a scared child. Her body started to shake under the covers when she heard the wooden boards creak under the footsteps of whoever was coming towards her.
When she opened her mouth to speak, it sounded more like a dead frog. “Who’s there?” Mariette croaked out. Her throat felt as if it was about to close up and she would die from the lack of air in her lungs. “I…I said, who’s there,” she stuttered.
“It’s me, Steven Jr.,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, but I can’t sleep.”
Mariette blew out a breath and relaxed against the headboard. Sweat beaded down her face
as if it were a thousand degrees in the room. “Sweet Jesus, almighty, come here, boy,” Mariette said as she waved Steven over to her. “Why did you have to scare me like that? You could’ve told me it was you the minute you came into the room.” She stopped as if to think of what to say next. “What seems to be bothering you at this hour?”
“I… I can’t sleep without my blanket,” Steven Jr. replied, almost in tears.
“Is that what this is about? Where did you leave it last?”
“I thought, in my room, but it’s gone, and…and I’m afraid to be out in the halls at night.”
“Oh, why? Are you afraid of the dark?” Mariette asked. Weren’t all children afraid of the dark? she thought. She was once afraid when the lights went out, but she had grown out of it as most people do. She knew there wasn't anything to be scared of, but she had to keep in mind that Steven was only five years old, and at that age, kids were afraid of just about everything, weren’t they?
Steven Jr. shook his head, and then suddenly jumped when the bedroom door slammed shut behind him. Mariette reached out her arms and tried to grab Steven Jr., but he was too quick and ran to the other side of the bed to hide from whoever wanted to scare them.
Mariette threw the blankets off her and stepped out of bed. She quickly ran to the door, yanked it open, and flew out of the room to see what was going on. To her surprise, she saw no one. There wasn’t anyone in the hall so she quickly made her way over to Geena’s room, thinking that it might have been her looking for her brother.
She strolled down the corridor like a woman on a mission, stopping abruptly in the hallway because she had noticed that the wallpaper was peeling all around her. She stopped to examine it and noticed that the mirror beside her was also cracked.
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