I sat there, paralyzed. No words came out of my mouth.

"Tis me, Octavia."

I opened my mouth to say something-anything but words failed me once again.

"Would you prefer my other form?" She sighed.

I responded with silence.

Then, her layer of muscle melted away. It seemed to evaporate into steam and disappear in the air. A skull was all that was left of her head. She still had one eye.

"Pray speak now. Or are you mute?"

"No, I'm not mute," I finally answered.

"Get off the ground."

I scrambled up, using the wall behind me as support.

"You're the one who's been writing the journal entries," I breathed.

"Tis true."

"And you're the woman from the portrait. The one hidden in the Wakersfields mansion."

"That too."

"Why aren't you in the hall with the rest of them?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

I glanced to the left and to the right.

"Uh... because you're haunting the portrait?"

"Not quite." The skeleton took a few slow steps to the left. I could hear her bones rattling as she moved.

"Well?" I asked carefully.

"You'll have to ask Samson yourself," she sighed sadly while looking down.

"I shall." Tomorrow. Right now, I couldn't believe the sight in front of me. Nor everything before that.

I couldn't stop the beating inside my chest. Although I spoke calmly, in my head I was in utter shock.

"Wait, how will I talk about you to Samson? He doesn't know I saw your portrait or entered that room. It will be too suspicious."

Octavia looked up. Her body was sideways pointed left while her skull was at a complete 180 degree angle.

"Say you heard it from a maid. I am certain the man will believe it. Us Wakersfields folk give our trust too easily."

I assumed she was referring to how she trusted Blythe to stay. "What are you to the Wakersfields?"

"I am Samson's great great grandmother."

I expected that, seeing as her portrait was in that mansion. "You wrote that our pasts had intertwined... What do you mean by that?"

She turned to face me. "Do you not know?"

I shook my head.

Octavia looked at me with her empty socket and one green eye and revealed, "Blythe was your great great great grandmother."