Chapter 5

Sarah sat in the school cafeteria for lunch, alone in a corner, as she considered what was going on at home. Why had she given in to that dildo and fucked it? Why had Thomas raped her in the bathroom? It had to have been him. What did dad dream happened last night? All she remembered is drying off and then waking up this morning with a sky blue thong, white garter belt and nylons on, with a sky blue bra pulled up to expose her breasts and three fingers plunged into her pussy. Was that what daddy had wanted to talk about? Had he seen her masturbating and wanted to talk to her about that this morning, but backed off as she couldn't remember anything happening? She wanted to know more about Thomas, but where to go? She was not going back into the basement! Then it hit her and she anxiously awaited the final bell of the day. Several minutes after flying out of the school parking lot, Sarah arrived at her destination.

She got out of her car at looked at the sign, Greene County Historical Society Museum. She had seen the pictures of her home here last summer but really hadn't paid a lot of attention to seriously looking for information on it or the Murdock's, Thomas in particular. She entered the museum and looked around. With the entertainment Mecca of Branson just 30 miles south, the Museum drew a small steady stream of visitors, going to or leaving Branson. There were several families, about a dozen people total, looking at the exhibits when she entered. She located the photographs but not much that she hadn't read in her book about the residents. She located the curator and asked her if they had anything on Thomas Murdock or his parents in the museum and got a funny look from the woman.

"Aren't you Sarah Green? The girl who's dad bought that old place?" she asked.

"Yes I am, and I wanted to learn more than my book from school had about them. You have pictures of the inside and outside of the house and the grounds and out buildings, but I can't find anything on Thomas and his parents."

"Mighty interested in Thomas, huh?" the woman asked. She appeared to be in her late 50's and at Sarah's nod in the affirmative, called to her assistant to take care of the visitors, she was taking this young lady to her office for tea and a history lesson on the Murdock's and their house, where she now resides. The younger woman, probably mid 40's, got a knowing look on her face and said,

"You do that, Mabel. They've been out there about 6 months and they should learn about the house, especially her." Sarah thought about that as she followed Mabel back to her office.

"Could these women know about Thomas? If so, would she finally learn what was going on?" she wondered. Mabel closed the door behind Sarah and motioned her to a seat. She placed a kettle on a hot plate and turned it on and laid tea bags in two mugs.

"Water be ready in a few minutes, would you like some cookies to go with the tea? I was restless last night and baked up a batch of chocolate chip one's, they're mighty good if I do say so myself." Sarah nodded; she hadn't had homemade cookies since before her mother had died. Mabel put half dozen cookies on a plate and then the plate on a server and brought everything over to a table between the chair Sarah was in and the one she sat in.

"Where to start," she began. "My knowledge of the house comes from my mother. Her parents bought the house in 1935. By 1936 her parents were in jail, her younger brother and sister in foster care and she lived in the house by herself, she was 18."

"In jail, what happened?" Sarah asked. Mabel kept quiet as she went to the hot plate and turned it off and returned to fill the two mugs with boiling water. She returned the kettle to the hot plate and then came back and began dipping her tea bag into the water. Sarah was too astounded to worry about the tea or the cookie half way to her mouth.

"Have you felt or seen anything strange out there?" Mabel asked without looking at her. "Tell me about your time in the house." Sarah told her the story of finding the trap door, the key and the various things that had happened, but without mentioning the dildo, rape, and disappearing clothes.

"You forgot something," Mabel said. Sarah looked at her in surprise. "My grandson goes to your school and told me about your cute bare butt and the spanking you got yesterday." Sarah blushed at this information, this woman's grandson had told her about her butt.

"Why did he do that?" Sarah asked.

"Because he's told me everything that happens to that house's residents, like his momma told me and I told my momma. So we could keep track of the happenings there. I guess you've met Thomas, at least by sense, you haven't actually seen him yet have you?" she asked. Sarah shook her head,

"No, not really, I've sensed his presence on a few occasions and saw the outline of a body in the steam from my shower yesterday, is all."

"But he has taken your clothes and forced you to just wear lingerie, right? Your underwear came up missing, that's why you were punished and Tommy says you had a garter belt and stockings on."

"Tommy?"

"Yes Tommy, named after my daddy and his great granddaddy."

"But why Tommy if you all know about Thomas?" Sarah asked as she finally got her tea ready to drink.

"He's called Tommy, short for Thomas. But we'll get to that. Have you found any other artifacts, other than the key? Have you had any accidents with clothes or other things as you searched the basement? Have you found the off shoot tunnel to the stairs and dead end at the top?" Sarah was puzzled, how did this woman know all that? Had her mother told her enough about the house for her to guess the sequence of events that had been happening? After a moment of thought she replied.

"Do you believe that Thomas's ghost inhabits the house?" she asked. Mabel nodded in the affirmative.

"Yes I do, I've never seen him, but I have felt him there in the house. Katherine, the other woman out front, is a realtor that volunteers here. She has sold that house a few times, but not to your dad. She found me out there about 20 years ago, when it was for sale and she was handling it, and threatened to have me arrested for trespassing. I had to tell her my story, that's why she thinks you need to know it also. I've told it to several girls that have lived there, if they come here looking for information like you did. All the things that have happened are doing so for the reasons you guessed, Thomas playing games, wanting to see your underwear and private parts. The treasure the key talks about does involve Thomas and not any real treasure or artifacts that can be sold. How do I know all this? Like I said my mother told me the story and I know it's the true story because Thomas told her." Sarah gagged and choked on her tea. After her coughing subsided she looked at Mabel,

"Thomas told her?" she asked dumbfounded.

"Yeah, that's what I said so give an old lady some respect and be quiet and I'll tell you Thomas's story, including the part my mother played in it. Like the school book says, Thomas was 16 in 1870 when he was killed. His father had been 30 when he married Thomas's 15 year old mother. She had Thomas at 16, so was only 32 when her son died. She was a real beauty and Thomas fell in lust with her. You notice I said lust, not love. On one of his father's business trips to Kansas City, Thomas raped his mother. She fought until his cock got to stroking her and she ended up getting into it. They carried on an affair for six months when his father caught them and his mother, seeing him arrive, turned her thrusts of lust into supposed escape movements as she cried for Thomas to stop raping her. The next thing he knew, Thomas had a headache and his legs were drawn up and tied together, his hands were tied behind his back, and he was gagged in the basement. His father had laid the barrel of his .45 across his head and knocked him out cold. With his foreman and another hand, they fixed a rope noose in that doorway where his body was found, lifted him up to place it around his neck and released him. They left him there to choke to death as the three went up and raped Thomas's mother. His father had learned of the affair from the hand, who had told the foreman and him. Therefore he knew his wife was willingly having sex with her son and intended to turn her into the ranch whore, for all the men to use as they pleased. The next afternoon the three men removed the gag and untied his wrists before notifying the sheriff, claiming it was a suicide. His body was lowered to the floor and that spot is where he must stay until his victim, always female, appears and finds that key and then removes it from the basement. His mother did it that first time and Thomas was able to come upstairs. His spirit then spooked his father's horse and he was thrown off and broke his neck. Thomas gained the ability to materialize and they lived together until her death. Thomas was wrenched back to his doorway as a ghost when she died and found that was to be his fate if he had no mate. Over the years women have died or managed to escape the house for 24 hrs and Thomas returns to his doorway to await his next mate, or victim if you prefer.