The Haunting of Ravenswood Manor

Chapter 7

"I can, you carry a token of mine so I can follow you wherever you go." Melanie smiled.

Marion froze and looked at Melanie.

"What is it I carry that is yours?" Marion asked wondering if she had picked it up on accident.

"Your necklace, I left it for you on the vanity and you picked it up thinking it was yours. So I am here to follow you dear niece." Melanie smiled again, no doubt happy to be out of the house for a while.

Marion sighed a light sigh of relief, she somehow feared one of the rings she wore once belonged to her aunt. Touching the emerald gem around her neck she realized she should have known this was her aunt's, after all it was her favorite gem.

"I'm just checking on filming, I must have been spacing out." Marion said as she began to walk again.

"That man, Jasper, he does like you. It's not an act, trust me I have seen the act and he doesn't hide anything because around you his defenses are down. He's sweet too, he's playing a pharmacist today." Melanie said as she pointed to the pharmacy set door that was open.

Marion and Melanie watched as the crew left the pharmacy set. Then Jasper came out, he had on a western style outfit and the smallest pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose that Marion had ever seen. She wondered if those worked, like even in Melanie's time. Jasper just happened to look over their way and the minute he saw Marion he smiled and waved. He quickly ran over to her and hugged her.

"I didn't think you'd come by today with all that reading you were doing in the library." Jasper said as he kept smiling while looking at her.

"She has the right to see her husband." Melanie said startling Jasper.

"Hello Melanie, happy to see you out of the house." Jasper greeted her.

"I can follow her since she's wearing my necklace." Melanie explains.

"You know I heard they were gonna re open the mine and take a look into it. Under the correct supervision of course, you wanna head over and look?" Jasper asked taking off his fake glasses.

"Sure, I don't think that's a bad idea." Marion said as she turned to Melanie only to find she had disappeared. "Where do you think she went? I thought she wanted to be out of the house for a while."

Jasper shrugged and they both looked around for a moment but they saw no sign of her. Nothing could hurt her, after all she was a ghost now. Jasper took Marion's hand and they headed in the direction of the mine. Melanie had left Marion but in truth it was against her will.

Walking up Jasper and Marion watched a man in a yellow hard hat pull the last board off the entrance to the mine. The man turned on a flashlight and began walking inside, alone. Marion felt uneasy as she turned her head to the side, it was as though she knew something bad was going to happen and she couldn't bare to watch. She heard the rocks come crumbling down and she gasped and turned her head right into her husband's arms. He held her as he too looked away.

The crowd gasped but somehow the man in the yellow hat came rushing out and took a deep breath as he exited the mine. That man had barely made it out with his life. She could hear as the crowd gathered and began to come up with ideas to get into the mine, they figured there was still gold left in there and wanted it for themselves. Jasper led Marion away from the mine hoping to get her back to the house and she followed him.

Back at the house, the whole place felt different. An oppressive atmosphere had taken over the manor. All the cleaning that Marion and her mother had done were for not. The house was back to the way it was before, dust, cobwebs and all. They were both shocked, it was like the house had gone back in time and preferred to stay dirty.

"What is going on?" Jasper asked as they looked into the house.

They both heard an eerie singing coming from the house. They had no idea who would be singing other than Melanie. Maybe she got sad all the sudden? The depressing atmosphere threw them off as they walked into the door. Suddenly a thunderstorm came rolling in and the flashes of lightning coming through the windows were adding a spooky affect to the house.

Marion led the way, her phone's flashlight shining the path ahead of her and with the light out in the house and the only true means of light being randomly lit candles, she figured this was the best idea. Jasper followed behind her trying to make heads or tails out of what was going on in the house.

The singing sounded lonely, desperate and weepy. Marion didn't know what to make of it until she saw Melanie in front of the grand window in the ball room. She was looking out the window longing and Marion wondered why. Jake had visited her, she knew what had happened so what had changed?

"Aunt Melanie?" Marion questions as she took a few steps closer to Melanie.

Melanie turned to Marion, tears running down her face and her eyes were not only filled with anger but pain and sadness all together. She looked far more upset than she was the first time that Marion had met her. It scared Marion as she watched her aunt.

"HE LEFT ME! HE NEVER SHOWED UP!" Melanie screeched.

Marion gasped and jumped back. Where had all this come from? Marion knew that Melanie was told what happened to Jake, he was killed in the mine...wasn't he? She tried to think back, everyone had found their bodies but 6 weren't claimed. Whatever if six were just a cover up? A deep laugh came from deep inside the house and Melanie cried out loudly before she disappeared from sight. The room went completely dark and then sudden sunlight shined into the nicely clean room. The house was completely clean again?! Marion looked around flabbergasted. How did that just happen? What had she just seen?

"Did you see what I saw?" Marion asked Jasper who nodded.

"I saw it, but I have no idea what to make of it..." Jasper replied.

"We need to get back to that study, come on." Marion said grabbing Jasper's hand and heading to the ballroom.