Ghost of O'Leary House

Chapter Four

The dirt path running through the woods was rough and curvy, large rocks and old trees leaning into it making the passage a right pain in the ass to navigate. He passed by a few handmade signs, featuring a painted arrow, that helped keep him on the correct route. Sounds of laughter soon broke the silence that seemed to permeate the woods, bringing a smile to David’s face; maybe there would be some teens he could hang with here after all!

Walking between two looming trees, David found himself staring at a rocky pond, a small ridge rising over the northern slope where two guys sat fishing. Three other teens, two girls, and another guy, were sitting around a campfire in swimsuits, roasting marshmallows on long sticks before pulling the sticky substance free to gobble down. They didn’t notice him at first, so he just left his ride at the edge of the path, propped against one of the looming oaks, before making his way towards the campfire.

His movements caught the attention of one of the girls sitting by the fire, a cute red-haired girl, her crimson locks pulled back into a simple ponytail. She was wearing a simple pink one piece that was threatening to hold in her impressive bust. She waved to him, alerting the others to his presence; the two guys fishing began reeling in their lines while the guy at the campfire stuck another marshmallow on his two-pronged stick.

“Hey!” The girl said as he came close enough to the fire to feel the heat. “Who’re you?”

“David, nice to meet you,” David said with a smile. The chubby guy with two marshmallows on the stick scooted over a bit on the gravel to afford a spot for David, who smiled and thanked him for the space.

“No problem have a marshmallow. My name is Jesse,” the chunky guy stated, his green trunks baggy, hanging well past his knees.

“I’m Susan,” the red-haired girl said, leaning forward, affording a generous amount of cleavage while smiling seductively. David swallowed the growing lump in his throat and merely nodded at her.

“Miley,” the other girl said quietly, not looking up from her seat. She had long black hair down to the middle of her back, and was, at least, a year or two older than everyone else, most likely nineteen or twenty. Her pale skin was almost luminescent due to the campfire’s dancing flames, showing off her two-piece red suit that afforded a considerable amount of skin. Her green eyes studied David for a moment as if she didn’t know what to make of him.

David sat down between Jesse and Miley, accepting a long stick from Jesse. He stuck a marshmallow on the stick before holding it lightly over the fire, smiling as he watched the logs burn and crackle before him. They’d dug a small circle of raised gravel around the campfire to make sure it wouldn’t grow too large or spread out of control, so David felt safe being around it, despite the warnings his mother would most likely give him.

“So where are you from?” Miley asked after a few moments of somewhat awkward silence.

“Austin,” David said with a smile. He looked to Miley who squirmed beneath his gaze. “I’ve never been here before, so I’m glad I found some other people my age.”

“Yeah, it can get boring out here,” Jesse said while nodding, “I mean, most of our parents don’t like us come out this far.”

“This far?” David repeated, confused.

“Yeah, this land is all owned by old Ms. O’Leary,” Susan said before giving a visible shudder. She made a cross over her heart and lowered her head for a moment before she looked back up, smiling.

“What was that for?” David asked, thinking about how his Grandma had mentioned she owned all the land around here.

“Well, Ms. O’lea- the old lady that owns all of this is rumored to be a witch, and every time you say her name, she knows who said it, and where. The only way to prevent her from casting her eye upon you is to cross your heart and mutter a short phrase.”

“What’s the phrase?” David asked, his heart sinking as he began to think of what his Grandma might be to the townsfolk. Were there really people this superstitious? He’d heard of them in Austin with his friends at college, laughing over small-town hicks. Was Alice Grove that way?

All three teens looked at each other before closing their eyes and slowly reciting. “Your evil eye we cast away, your unholy portal we won’t stray.”

“Unholy Portal?” David repeated.

“Yeah, we don’ know what it means either. We learned it from our parents, who all grew up around here when the accidents were happening,” Miley said, bringing her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as if she were suddenly cold.

“What accidents?” David asked, growing more and more curious by the minute.

“Back when our parents were children, a large plot of land was bought from the old lady, against her will. The government paid her for it, some law letting them take her land for public use.” Miley said, still staring into the fire.

“She went to a city council meeting and said anyone who worked on that land or tried to change it would be punished. The other adults just laughed at her and blew her off.” Jesse said, pulling his stick back and taking a warm marshmallow away from it. “They planned construction to begin the first of the year.”

“What happened?” David asked, expecting to hear of some sprained ankles or rainfall.

“For the first two weeks of January, it rained, flooding half the town and preventing construction from occurring. Then once the rain stopped, the machines that they were going to use to tear out the trees didn’t work. The water had shorted them all out. So, they sent in workers with axes to cut down the trees and dig up the stumps.”

David watched as Susan, who was telling the tale, pulled back her marshmallow as it had become burned due to her inattention. She continued after blowing on the oozing white and brown treat.

“The men were beset by rattlesnakes, wasps, and centipedes,” Susan said, pulling the hot sticky goo from the end of her pointed stick and popping it into her mouth, licking her luscious lips while eyeing David like a hungry animal. “My granddad was the foreman, and he told me he’d never seen anything like it.”

“Then while that was going on, children started to go missing. Only children of the workers, though they only figured that out after the fourth child was taken.” Jesse continued for Susan, who was chewing slowly.

Miley shivered a little before speaking up. “In the span of a month, over fifty injuries were reported on the worksite, the machines were sent for salvage and seven children went missing. At the next city council meeting, the old woman came in and asked that she be given her land back.”

“The whole town was ready to form a mob against her, but most of the people were too afraid of what could happen if she turned her eye on them.”

“So, what happened?” David asked.

The two guys who’d been fishing walked up from behind, their sandals crunching on the gravel. They dropped down next to Jesse and Miley, one giving Miley a kiss on the cheek, causing her to blush. They were identical twins, with blonde hair and blue eyes, though one sported a nasty scar on his right cheek. Both were wearing matching yellow trunks.

“What happened next is simple,” one twin said, plucking a marshmallow from the bag beside Jesse and tossing it to his brother over the fire, before fishing another one for him to eat.

“Yeah, the city sold the land back to her at half price. So, she hurt almost everyone in town and made a fortune doing it.” The scarred twin said, shaking his head before taking a bite of his treat.

“That’s why we say the rhyme, to keep her from casting her eye upon us when we come into her lands,” Susan said, passing the sharpened stick to the twin with his arm looped around Miley’s waist.

“Why come here at all, if you’re so afraid of her?” David asked, thinking of how kind his Grandma had seemed.

“Because she invited everyone in town to come and use the pond whenever they want, so long as they clean up after themselves,” the twin next to Jesse said. He looked over the fire at his brother. “Right Bryan?”

“That’s right Luke,” Bryan said, shoving a marshmallow onto his stick. “And if somebody didn’t come and make use of the pond every occasionally, she might just get upset again.”