Against All Odds Ch. 07

The night was still and silent, the only sound the soft rustle of the wind outside as it whispered through the trees. Riley lay in his bed in the rose room, the moonlight filtering in through the curtains casting a pale glow across the room. He had just drifted off into a restless slumber when he was abruptly woken by a strange sound, like the haunting wails of a woman crying. His heart pounding wildly in his chest, Riley say up, his senses on high alert as he strained to listen.

The sound seemed to be coming from the hall just outside his door, echoing faintly through the empty corridors of the mansion. Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, he saw that it was three in the morning, the witching hour, when the veil between the living and the dead was said to be the thinnest. Despite his growing unease, Riley shook off his fear, reminding himself that he didn't believe in ghosts. He took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves, and after a brief hesitation, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, his bare feet sinking into the plush carpet as he stood up.

The mournful wails persisted, growing fainter as they moved through the silent hall. At first, he dismissed it as a deception of his imagination, a figment of his tiered mind playing tricks on him in the dead of night. It made perfect sense. This was his first night, alone, and in an unfamiliar house. That on top of the ghost stories Noah had told him the day before, it was no wonder he was hearing things now.

He'd almost convinced himself that he'd made the whole thing up, then he heard it again. The pitiful lament of heartache. He knew then that he couldn't continue to ignore it. Whoever, or whatever, was out there, was real. Swallowing his apprehension, Riley grabbed his phone off the nightstand and slipped it into his pocket then he quietly padded across the room to the door. He hesitated only a moment, his heart pounding in his chest, and then, taking a deep breath, he ventured out into the hallway.

The hall was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the dim glow of the moon streaming in through the windows. Riley listened, following the woman's cries as they seemed to echo from somewhere in the distance. With each step, the sound grew louder, more desperate, sending chills down Riley's spine. How had no one else heard her? Riley wondered. Or, perhaps they had and were smart enough to ignore it. Riley sighed. He couldn't just ignore it. He was too invested now.

Following the mournful cries that seemed to echo all around him, he continued down the empty corridor. Rounding the corner, he froze, the hairs on the back of his neck and arms standing on end as his eyes caught sight of something that made his blood run cold--a faint trail of fabric, like the hem of a long gown disappearing around the corner and up the stairs leading to the third floor. His mind raced with too many possibilities, his rationality warring with his fear as he contemplated just what could be causing the eerie phenomenon. His mind immediately recalled a passage he'd read in "A Christmas Carol." Was what he was experiencing now just undigested food? One thing was certain, what he saw moving so effortless down that hallway was not a blot of gravy.

With a mixture of trepidation and curiosity, Riley pressed on. The floor boards creaked softly beneath his weight adding to the chilling atmosphere. The air grew colder with each step, causing Riley to shiver uncontrollably as he approached the foot of the stairs leading up to the forbidden third floor. Despite every instinct screaming at him to turn back, Riley continued on, his curiosity overpowering common sense as he carefully ascended the stairs. The old wood groaned beneath his feet and Riley flinched, holding his breath. He counted, one...two...three...convinced that his presence had gone undetected, he resumed his ascent, climbing each step with slow and deliberate movements, trying his best not to make a sound.

As he reached the top of the stairs, Riley's breath hitched at the sight that greeted him--a spectral figure, dressed in a flowing gown of white, gliding mournfully down the hallway, her long hair trailing behind her like wisps of smoke. She clutched something to her chest though what it was, Riley couldn't tell. Whatever it was seemed important by the way she cradled it, pressed against her bosom as though guarding it from some unseen threat.

She continued her decent down the long and darkened hall. Her sobs echoed off the walls and then stopped abruptly as she disappeared through a door at the end of the of the hall. Riley stopped where he was, not totally sure if he were hallucinating or not. "This has to be a dream." He whispered into the darkness. "Just a very bizarre dream."

That's all it was, a dream. He'd had super realistic dreams in the past and those were far more terrifying than this one. For the past two months he's had a reoccurring dream that he entered a bathroom in one the rooms he was cleaning and found a bloated corpse floating face down in the tub. In the dream he always runs from the room screaming and then wakes up, covered in sweat. He never understood what prompted that dream but since having it, he'd been fearful of cleaning the motel bathrooms.

Of course he never did find a corpse in any of the rooms that he cleaned and he was always relieved afterward. He told himself time and time again that he was being silly. It had just been a dream, or more like a nightmare, but that never stopped him from feeling that quick moment a pure horror a split second before entering the bathroom and glancing at the tub.

He kept telling himself that what he was seeing now was also a dream but deep down he knew that it wasn't. What he had seen was real though his skeptical mind refused to believe it. It defied all logic but his heart told him something entirely different. The third floor of Reaney Hall really was haunted, and Riley had just met it's resident ghost.

Riley thought about turning around and going back the way he had come. Back to the second floor and back to his own room. He had no business being on the third floor in the first place and he certainly had no business roaming the halls of Noah's mansion, alone, in the middle of the night. The smart thing to do, the logical thing, would be to leave. He knew that. He also knew that he wasn't one to just walk away from a good mystery. He wanted to know who that ghostly woman was, why she hadn't moved on, and why she was crying.

Riley tried to come up with answers to his questions himself. Maybe she was still mourning her own death. Passing away so young must have been extremely traumatic for her. That didn't seem quite right to Riley though. There was something else that was holding her there and not allowing her to let go. Riley wasn't sure how he knew it but he did. He was sure of it. The woman wasn't trapped in the house because she refused to let go of her life, she was trapped there because of something or someone else. Riley's heart went out to her. He wanted to help her if he could but the only way he could help her was by finding out what it was that she wanted and, he wasn't going to discover that while standing in the hall, quivering in fear.

Summoning his courage, Riley walked down the hall. He slowed his pace as he approached the door. "You can do this." He whispered, giving himself a pep talk. "It's just a room. What harm ever came from just...entering a room?" Carefully, he turned the door knob and to his relief found that it was unlocked. Pushing the door open revealed a nursery, it's once bright walls now covered in cobwebs and dust. Riley pulled out his phone and slowly scanned the room with the light from it. The room seemed frozen in time, the air heavy with the weight of years gone by. The scent of decay hung in the air, chocking every bit of life out of the ancient chamber.

Riley's gaze swept over the room, his eyes lingering on the faded toys and furniture that lay in ruins, discarded and forgotten. As Riley stepped further into the room, a feeling of unease washed over him and with it, a sense of dread that seemed to seep into the very fiber of his bones. This nursery, it was meant to be a place of new beginnings. A place where happy memories were made. It should have invoked a sense of joy and love but it did not. Standing there now, looking at the remnants of another time, all Riley felt was the icy chill of death.

Riley wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to stave off the cold. As he exhaled, a cloud of breath billowed out from his mouth, swirling and then dispersing into the surrounding air. 'This isn't right.' Riley thought to himself. 'I shouldn't be here.' Looking around, his mind began to race with questions and uncertainties. Whose child was this room meant for, why was it hidden away on the third floor, and what happened to that child? Had it died perhaps? Was that why the ghostly woman in white was crying? Was she mourning the loss of a child? Riley's heart sank. He could thinking of nothing worse than losing your own child. It was something that no parent should have to suffer.

Suddenly, being in that room felt like a violation, an intrusion into someones sanctuary. His very presence was disrupting the ghostly woman's time of grieving, a time when she would most certainly want to be alone. Just as the thought had entered Riley's mind, a powerful gust of wind swept through the room, sending dust swirling through the air and nearly knocking Riley off his feet.

Panic gripped him suddenly, his mind racing with thoughts of escape as he turned and fled from the room, his footsteps echoing loudly as he ran down the hall to the stairs and down to the second floor corridor. He didn't stop running until he had made it safely back to his own room.

Once Riley felt that he was free from any danger, he collapsed on to his bed, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as he buried his face in his pillow, on the verge of crying himself. His mind reeled with disbelief as he struggled to understand what it was that he had just witnessed. He wanted so badly to believe that it wasn't real, that there was some rational explanation for what had just happened but the facts were indisputable. That entire floor of the house had been closed off and the windows boarded up. There was no way, what so ever, that a draft of any kind could have caused that gust of wind. Especially one so strong that had nearly caused Riley to fall over. It just wasn't possible.

"Get a grip, Riley." He scolded himself. "You've seen enough horror movies to know exactly what that was." Even saying the words aloud didn't help to ease his mind. His first phantom draft had seemed more like a phantom tornado, it was unreal. Real life wasn't anything like in the movies, it was way more terrifying.

As Riley lay there in the darkness, the sound of the woman's ghostly wails still echoing in his ears, Riley couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had settled over him like a suffocating blanket. As he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, he couldn't help but wonder what other secrets the old mansion held hidden within it's walls.

***

Breakfast was much nicer without Noah's mother there. Riley did feel a bit guilty, thinking he was the cause of Noah avoiding his mother but when Noah told him that he normally took his break alone in his room anyway, Riley felt a bit better. Besides, Noah wasn't avoiding Lilian entirely. He'd actually spoken to her that morning and surprisingly, she hadn't mentioned Riley at all. Riley took that as a win. Perhaps Lilian was warming up to the idea of Riley staying there after all.

True to his word, Noah had planned a glorious day for himself and Riley. First breakfast in the small nook just off the main kitchen. It was a cozy little room with a plush, dark, burgundy rug covering a stone floor. Three of the walls were wood paneled while the fourth was entirely made of windows, from floor to ceiling. It was remarkable and allowed for a view of the yard and surrounding woods. There was an overhead light but it wasn't needed when the drapes were opened allowing the light from the morning sun to burst through the windows and light up the entire room.

A small table, big enough for three, maybe four, people was sat near the wall of windows. It was covered with a pale white table cloth and accompanied by two, Queen Anne style dining chairs. Noah and Riley enjoyed their breakfast, sitting across from one another and talking about the plans for the day while bathing in the warmth of the sun streaming in through the windows. The morning was so enjoyable that Riley had nearly forgotten about his frightening encounter the night before.

Not wanting the spoil the day that Noah had planned, Riley decided not to bring up his late night visit from the ghostly woman crying in the halls. He would eventually. He had so many questions about the woman and the abandoned nursery that he just couldn't put it to rest but his questions would have to wait. He intended to enjoy every second of his day with Noah, and not ruin the mood by bringing up the dark secrets of Reaney Hall.

After breakfast they began the tour of the grounds. The Reaney estate was so large that Noah drove them around on a four wheeler which, Riley thoroughly enjoyed. It was his first time on any type of all terrain vehicle. He loved the feel of the wind whipping through his hair as Noah sped through the vast open space located behind the mansion. More than that though, Riley loved sitting behind Noah, his arms encircling his waist, his head resting against his back, and his legs hugging the alpha between them. It was incredibly intimate and even a bit erotic.

They made their rounds of the property, starting with the stables. To Riley's delight, Noah had five beautiful horses housed there. Each of them were tall and muscular, strong riding horses. Riley didn't know much about horses, only what he's read or seen on TV, but Noah explained the ins and outs of horse back riding.

Cal, the grounds keeper, was also responsible for the care and upkeep of the horses and stables, occasionally using outside help when necessary such as a veterinarian, groomers, and trainers. Like the seasonal help that Cal employed for bigger jobs around the grounds that he couldn't do alone, Noah allowed the extra help as long as they remained outside where Noah wouldn't have to have contact with them. If there was ever an issue that Cal couldn't handle on his own he would defer to Thomas who managed all house related matters.

Riley did discover in his conversation with Noah that the up keep of the mansion did require more than just what the current staff was capable of. There were so many things that Riley had never even considered. A pool service was required to clean and treat the pool. Repairs needed to made from time to time and that required trained professionals with the knowledge and tools to make the repairs and once a year, around spring, a large cleaning crew was brought in to thoroughly clean the mansion from top to bottom. Well, maybe not top. From what Riley had seen of the third floor, it never got clean.

Noah greatly disliked so many unknown faces in the mansion but he understood it was necessary to maintain the mansion and everything within it. On these occasions he would stay in his own rooms and the invading workers were not permitted to enter his rooms under any circumstances. If Noah's input was needed, Thomas would speak with him and then deliver his instructions to the workers. As the house manager, Thomas rarely had to bother Noah, at least with trivial issues that he could handle himself.

The hierarchy of the house was designed so that Noah had as little contact with outsiders as possible. Tina deferred to Maggie, as did Baxter. Cal deferred to Thomas. Maggie handled deliveries and if something needed signed that required a signature from an actual Reaney and not Thomas, then Lilian would be the one to sign. Most of the time the outside help came in, did their work, and then left as quickly as possible. That was the way Noah liked it. The less strangers traipsing around his home the better.

Riley was learning so much more about Noah and the mansion that he was beginning to feel overwhelmed by it all. There was so much more to Noah's life than Riley had originally thought. Even being a shut in, as he was, Noah was still responsible for so much. He ran his business virtually from his home office, only meeting with people in person when absolutely necessary and when he wasn't working, he still had the mansion to deal with. Granted, Thomas handled most of the household management as well as working as Noah's personal assistant but Noah was responsible for the final approval in almost everything. It was a lot for one man to take on.

The more Riley learned, the more he admired Noah. He never allowed his limitations to inhibit his life. He'd graduated high school remotely then went on to complete college virtually and earned a degree. Thomas had taught Noah to drive though he'd never actually gotten a driver's license. He didn't feel that he really needed one since he never left the estate. Though he did enjoy taking the four wheeler out for joy rides through the grounds, as Riley soon discovered. It made him happy to know that Noah found time to relax and have fun despite his many responsibilities.

The tour continued on to the lake that Noah had mentioned the night before. He had said it was beautiful but his description didn't do it justice at all. The lake and the woods surrounding it were breath taking. The lake stretched out so far that Riley could barely see the shore line on the other side. The water was crystal clear and so inviting. Never had he seen anything so majestic in all his life. If it hadn't been so cold out, Riley might have stripped off all his clothes and jumped in.

"This is all yours?" He asked, utterly amazed at what he was looking at.

"All mine." Noah smiled. "There's a boat house there." He pointed in the direction of the small structure that was built half into the water. The boat house was surrounded by a charming little wooden dock. From the dock, one could enter the boat house, go fishing, or jump off into the water to swim.

"Someday, when it's warmer, I'll take you out on the boat." Noah said. "It's really beautiful at sunset."

"That sounds amazing." Riley smiled at him, taking Noah's hand in his. "And very romantic."

"I've always thought so too. I'd even considered building a gazebo near the lake."

"Why haven't you?" Riley asked.

Noah shrugged. "Seemed pointless when I didn't have anyone to share it with."

"Well, now you do." Riley leaned into Noah and Noah pulled him close, wrapping an arm around the omega's shoulders.

"Now I do." Noah agreed, his smile suddenly brighter than the mid-morning sun.

***

It was close to eleven in the morning when they made it back to the mansion. Thomas greeted them with the swim trunks that Noah had ordered. When Riley saw the bag they were in, his jaw dropped.

"Bourdon's?" Riley gasped. "Noah, Bourdon's is way too expensive."

Noah raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Are they?" He asked, non nonchalantly, "I get all my clothes there, they're top of the line."

"Really?" Riley opened the bag and peeked inside.

"What did you expect?" Thomas rolled his eyes. "Do you really think that someone like Noah would shop at a thrift store? That he'd actually wear second hand clothes?"

"Thomas." Noah narrowed his eyes, his expression dark and not at all amused. "That's enough, you're out of line."

"My apologies." Thomas said with a quick bow. Riley noticed that his tone was anything but apologetic, despite his words. "Will there be anything else, Sir?"

"No." Noah responded, sharply. "You may go."

Thomas turned without another word and left the room, the heels of his custom made leather loafers clicking loudly as he walked away.