Flowers For McGee

1 - Predictable

A week after the letter arrived, Rose sat in the backseat of their van and she was making little braids in the ends of her raven hair as she spoke to her brother and mother. "I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now what's gonna go down. We're gonna get there, the place is going to be run down and completely stranded. There is going to be a list of typical things to do and not to do left by the old woman-" Rose rolls her eyes as she speaks and Maggie sighs front the driver seat.

"The will, Rose, now would you-"

"No no, I'm not done," Rose says as her mother tries to stop her rambling. She had to get it out. "We carry out the things and we begin to clean up and blah blah. Something creepy is discovered, it turns out the entire place is haunted. Someone gets possessed, we battle evil, we leave and then never return. It will all happen to Johnny since he is a friendless nood." Rose says.

"Do you ever think this is why you don't have any friends?" Johnny says and Rose doesn't say anything. She is used to this from him, but to be fair, she started it.

"Shut up, Johnny," Rose says and crosses her arms. "I can't believe I'm the only one who sees how dumb this is. I didn't even know we had a great grandmother out here. Did you, mom?" Rose asks. She knew the answer, it was no. Maggie could not lie and Rose knew it.

"Well, not really, but the name sounds familiar." Maggie says and Rose groans. She puts her head phones back over her ears and she counts the raindrops rolling down the window.
-
"What did I say?" Rose asks and this earns an aggravated groan from her brother, who spins and looks at her while holding a box.

"Okay, we get it. You think you know stuff when in reality, you don't. Of course the house is going to look like this, it's several hundred years old." Johnny says and rolls his blue eyes at his sister.
"Two-hundred-and-seventeen to be exact." Rose steps around him to admire the beautiful exterior of the place.

The house, as they called it, was really a mansion. Instead of being long and wide, the place was built up tall like a tower. Vines trickled up the walls and the roof seemed to scrape the sky. Window after window, brick after brick, Rose's amusement and annoyance grew. Weather stained and broken statues stood in the overgrown yard and around the house was bare grassy fields for a mile at least. After this mile of open field, a thick wall of trees could be seen.

Rose grabs a box and sighs. She and Johnny walk up to the opened door and look down the long hallway. Their mother was already inside. Johnny stops and looks up. Rose stops beside him and searches for what he is looking at. Above the door, an engraving was smashed out. Rose eyes the broken plate above the door and frowns.

"Her name was Bowksy, right? Bowsky doesn't have an "M" in it." Johnny points out and Rose agrees.

"First mystery. Damn, I love being right." Rose says with a smile and Johnny gives her a look. "Okay, sorry. Look, maybe the house belonged someone else before mom's family got it," Rose says, not really feeling like suffering her brother's wrath. "Or maybe it was just weather or something.''

"Yeah, maybe." Johnny mumbles and they both watch as their mother and an elderly man walk to the doorway and the twins both smile politely.

"It was destroyed in wages of war." The man says solemnly and they all are silent. Rose glances back up at the broken plate. Wages of war sounds a little intense, but sure.

"Mr. McGwire, this is my son Jonathan and my daughter Rosanna." Maggie says and Rose examines the man from head to toe. He wore a full black suit, despite his pasty completion. He had sunken eyes and looked as if he could drop at any second. Honestly, Rose was one second away from calling a hearse to take him away. His pale eyes flicker between them and Rose felt uncomfortable. He looked like death itself.