Ghost of O'Leary House

Chapter Six

The teens sat around the campfire for a few hours, laughing and telling stories before the twins put it out with a bucket of water while everyone else walked about the site picking up litter and moving the great logs they’d been sitting against into a neat stack near the rise over the pond. David helped, trying to ignore the looks he was getting from Miley, who would only blush when she’d look his way. Luke seemed to sense this and didn’t take kindly to it, bumping into and berating David every chance he got, much to everyone’s annoyance.

As they packed away their bags of marshmallows in their backpacks (what was left of them anyway), Susan made to walk away from the trail David had come down, along with the rest of the group. When they noticed he was going for his bike and heading up that trail, they stopped him.

“David,” Susan said, waving him to stop and looking at him like he was stupid, “don’t go that way. That’s where the old woman lives.”

“Yeah, I know,” David said with a shrug.

“So why are you headed there? The houses are over that way.” Bryan said pointing his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the direction they were headed. “You don’t want to get caught out at night around the old lady’s house man, that ain’t a great idea. There are ghosts in these woods.”

“And they’re not too friendly, so unless of course you have a death wish I suggest coming with us.” Luke supplied, looking at David with veiled hostility.

“It’s really not safe to be there David,” Miley said, her arms folded over her chest.

“Well that’s where I’m staying for now, seeing as she’s my Grandma and everything.” David said, finally breaking the news to them.

They all gasped, save for Miley, who merely looked as if her suspicions were confirmed. Susan took a step back, slightly behind Jesse, while Jesse paled. Luke and Bryan looked equally murderous and Miley… Miley just looked defeated.

“You’re her grandson? Why didn’t you tell us?” Bryan demanded, taking a menacing step forward.

David took one back. “You never gave me the chance! The way you guys talked about her I didn’t want to just come out and say it!”

“Please don’t tell your Grandma what I did, David!” Jesse begged, a thin shimmer of sweat on his brow. “If she finds out I planted Witch-Hazel in her garden, she’ll do something awful to me and my family!”

“Jesse, calm down,” David said, holding up his hands. “I’m not going to say anything about what any of you said about her, because I don’t think she’s a witch.”

“We’ve never seen you before,” Susan said somewhat tersely, “so you don’t visit often. How well do you know her?”

“I’ll admit not that well, but I don’t think she’s a witch. And I’m most certainly not going to bring up anything that was said about her, or what you guys think about her.”

“How do we know that?” Luke said, taking a few steps forward, closing the distance between the group and David. “How do we know you’re not some kind of witch yourself?”

“Me, a witch? You’ve been reading too much Harry Potter man; I’m just a normal guy. Just calm down, like I said you have nothing to worry about man,” David said, trying to calm the Luke, whose left eye was twitching in anger. He wasn’t in the mood to fight, but if he had to, he would.

“Luke, what do you think?” Bryan asked his brother, putting a hand on his shoulder as he walked up. “Should we trust him?”

“Yes,” Miley said, shocking everyone. “Yes, we should trust him. I don’t want to believe he has anything against any of us, and he’s been nothing but nice since we hung out with him.”

“Yeah… but you hafta promise not to mention anything about the Witch-Hazel!” Jesse repeated his voice straining as he spoke.

The brought a nervous laugh from the group, all save Luke. Luke was still staring at David, his eyes narrowed. He finally looked away when Bryan tugged on his shoulder. “Whatever… just don’t rat us out David. You may not believe she’s something bad, but the people of this town know better.”

David breathed a sigh of relief. Bryan and Luke stepped away, their rucksacks hanging off their shoulders as they began to walk off into the dusk, the others choosing to follow them, each giving David a wave goodbye as they left. Miley gave him another strange look before jogging away, leaving David alone with his thoughts and his motorcycle.

Swinging a leg over the bike, he began pumping his legs to push up the twisting trail until he found the road. With the sun setting in the far distance, the road was bathed in a dim orange glow that made the entire area seem warmer than it was. From spending hours by a campfire, David had worked up a sweat, which was now chilled against his skin in the cool, crisp air of autumn. Driving down the road to his Grandma’s house, David didn’t even see the boy until he’d almost collided with him, the figure lunging out of the woods with a burst of switches and snapping of vines.

“Whoa!” David cried as he veered off onto the street, screeching nearly to a halt, avoiding the grabbing hands of the shabby figure he’d almost run over earlier. When he looked up, he narrowed his eyes.

The boy was dirty, covered in smudges from his head to his mud-caked feet, dressed in clothes that were practically hanging off his frame, soaking wet and dripping dirty water. He stank of rotting vegetation and had a blank expression on his face as he staggered after David.

“Freaking junkies…” David said before revving the engines and roaring away from the teen as fast as he could. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the boy followed him for perhaps thirty feet before stopping and slowly making his way back into the forest, disappearing in the foliage and darkness within.

Riding the rest of the way to his Grandma’s house with thoughts of the strange boy on his mind, he pulled into the open garage without really looking at anything. He moved to the door leading into the house, opening it slowly before hacking and coughing.

The whole place smelled horrible like something was burning. David didn’t have a chance to call out as his grandmother appeared in the entryway, smiling at David, a smoldering bundle of grass wrapped in what looked like hair in her left hand.

“David!” She exclaimed, motioning for him to come inside. “Come in, I have dinner almost ready!”

“It isn’t that is it?” David asked, pointing at the pungent wrapping of grass.

She looked down at it in her hand as if she’d forgotten she was holding it before smiling. “No, this is just some incense that I like to burn from time to time. Clears out the house. Don’t worry, I have the windows and back door open so the smell will dissipate after an hour or two.”

David could only nod as he stared at the herbs in his Grandmother’s wrinkled hand, her sweater and jeans now replaced with a loose blouse with a series of sashes and shawls hanging off her frame. David had to admit, she looked more like a witch now than when his Mom had dropped him off.

“What’s that incense you’re burning Grandma?” David asked, curious as to what would make such an awful stench.

She smiled and waved it over him a few times, the smoke forcing him to cough. “Sage dearie, just some Sage.”

“And you like how it smells?” David asked, pulling his shirt up over his nose.

His Grandma laughed a bit. “Oh, heavens no, it’s just something you do to clean out the house of foul odors is all. Masks them a bit, like one of those aerosol sprays. I’ll light up some cherry scented candles later to make up for the smell, okay dearie?”

“Okay, Grandma,” David said, logging away the fact that she was burning Sage as something to ask the other kid’s when he got the chance.