Flowers For McGee

2 - Stop It

Rose walks into the bathroom and sighs with relief at the normalcy of the room. The bathroom had been redone a couple years ago so the only thing Rose found weird was the clawfoot bathtub and shower in the middle of the room.

"Oh, one slip away from a broken neck." Rose mumbles ad she stares at it with a distasteful look. Having lived only apartments, she wasn't used to things like this.

Although, Rose was convinced a normal person would have a normal bathtub.

She checks the lock on the bathroom door twice and for extra measures, she pushes a chair against the handle. It's not that Rose didn't trust her family to stay out, and she was afraid something else would try and get in.

Rose had severe trust issues after her mother sent her to live with her dad, and then after her father died, her grandma sent her back to the place she wasn't wanted.

There was no way Rose would trust the dead if she couldn't trust the living.

She sets her clothes in the chair at the door and hangs the towel on the hook next to the curtain as she turns on the water and undresses. She quickly steps under the water and she sighs.

Once Rose is done, she reaches out to grab the towel and she can't feel it, only the wall and the hook where it should be. She quickly yanks her hand back through the curtain and just stands there for a second with adrenaline rushing through her.

She slowly pokes her head out of the curtain and she sees that the towel has just fallen to the floor and she scolds herself for being silly and sighs.

"I don't know what I was expecting." She says to herself as she steps out of the shower. She takes her clothes from the counter and places them by the sink as she plugs up her hair dryer. As she goes to turn it on, she freezes.

She didn't put her clothes on the counter. "What the..."

She whirls around and looks at the chair still in the same place and she walks over and checks the handle. The door is still locked. "Okay, I must have moved them without realizing it." Rose says to reassure herself, but she knows it's total crap.

Rose walks back to the mirror and quickly dries her hair. She brushes her teeth and she dresses in record time. Rose moves the chair and unlocks the door and pulls it open. The hall is brightly lit and she is glad she turned the lights on.

Rose walks across the cold, wood floor to her room and she quickly opens the door. She smiles at the sight of her comfy bed and draws back the blue comforter and crawls under. She picks up her phone is just about to settle in when she hears something in the closet.

"Hell no, no way. You never check when you hear something or you die a fatal death." She says and she sits up and stares at the closet door and it slightly shudders again. "Dammit." She mutters as she looks through her phone to find Johnny's number and she calls him.

Moments later he is in her room and he looks angry. "Just want you to know that I kinda hate you. I was peacefully sleeping." He says and holds the hockey stick in his hands, a sport he used to play but long ago ditched, as he opens the closet door.

A small figure moves forward and they both scream and Johnny swings the stick.

He misses the thing completely and it falls to the ground. He shrugs sheepishly and Rose rolls her eyes. "This is why they kicked you off the team."

"Hey, they didn't kick me off because I sucked. I quit because I sucked." Johnny says defensively, trying to justify himself and she sighs.

A small child sized doll lays face down on the ground and they both groan. Rose picks it up and straightens out the dress. The face is emotionless and Rose pushes the hair out if its face.

She was beautiful for an old toy. She wore a frilly dress of purple and light green. Light eyes and light hair. "What's up with all the blondes?" Rose asks in exasperation.

"She is creepy as hell, but in surprisingly good shape," Johnny says and takes the doll and places it under his arm and looks in the closet. Old clothes and a couple dusty shoes are the only thing left. "This looks like what mom wore when she was a teen. Social suicide and a fashion emergency." He says and looks through the hanging bellbottoms and bright colored shirts and dresses.

"Gross." Rose says as she pulls him out of the closet and shuts the pink door.

"I'll put this is the other room with the others." Johnny says and Rose fidgets with her fingers as she follows him out into the hall.

"Others?" Rose asks as he pushes open the third door to reveal a room designed for a little girl. Unlike her room, this one looked as if no one had been in here since the house was built, which was scary you think about. That was so long ago.

Johnny lays the doll across the bed and Rose looks around. The toys in the toy chest were grey with dust and age. The bed was small and the window had curtains on them that were probably white at one time, but were now yellow.

"Why do you think all this stuff wasn't sold or put away?" Johnny asks as Rose looks through the assorted toys. Wooden trains and figurines. Tea pots and cups are scattered on the floor and Rose shudders.

"To make it even creepier than it is, obviously." Rose says. The room didn't have a closet, but a small wardrobe in the corner, and this time, Rose decided this closet door wouldn't be opened, no matter how much noise it made.

"Go to bed, scaredy-cat." Johnny says and hugs her before pushing her out of the room and shutting the door.

"Sure." Rose mutters and walks back to her room. Instead of going to bed, she decides to rid the room of the clothes in the closet. All her own clothes had been placed in the dresser.

She tosses the old items out in the hallway and then slams her door shut.

-

The next morning Rose woke to her mother throwing open her door and crossing her arms. "It's noon.'' Maggie says to her truant daughter and Rose sits up. Her dark hair was wild from a sleepless night of tossing and turning. The morning came to soon for Rose.

"Sorry?" Rose says in a questioning tone. She looks at the time on her alarm clock and sees it is only a little past nine. "Noon, huh? Mom seriously. It's Saturday and I am so tired.'' Rose says and groans.

"Get up, we have lots you do to the house. Starting with the mess you've made here in the hallway," Maggie says and points the heap of clothes and shoes in the hall. "Plus we are moving stuff upstairs."

"I thought that's what the moving men were for?" Rose asks and Maggie barks at her to get up. Rose grumbles in agreement and then falls back as her door is shut.

After a long period of pouting over being awake, Rose stands and strips herself of her pajamas and opens the dresser drawers. She pulls on jeans and an old shirt and quickly throws her hair up.

Rose opens her door ready to pick up her mess to reveal a clean hallway. She looks around the empty hall and doesn't spot and article of clothing anywhere, only a plastic plant at the base of the staircase. Rose shrugs it off and assumes it is a task her mother did and she skips down the stairs.

She sees Johnny walk out of a room on the first floor and he looks dead. "What's up?" She asks him and he motions toward the room that must be his. He looks awful. His coal colored hair stuck up in odd angles and his eyes had bags under them.

"I had nightmares all night. I'm guessing because of that stupid doll. I kept hearing crying and someone screaming I'm sorry." Johnny says and she pats his shoulder.

"Sucks to be you, my friend, I slept like a baby." Rose lies and Johnny rolls his eyes.

"Thanks for the concern," He says. "Let's go see what the slave driver has in store for us." He says and they both walk to the dining room.

Their mother had two men and they are looking at a piece of paper they all look up as the twins walk into the room.

"Oh! Kids, this is Manny, he is here to look at the pipes and this is Jesse, he is the new gardener." Maggie says and Johnny and Rose look at each other and back to their mom.

"This is the guy you've been coming to meet out here?" Rose asks and her mother nods as Rose looks at Jesse. Maggie drove out jere the first week to meet a man who was familiar with the area. Maggie and Jesse stood a little closer together than Rose was comfortable with, but she didn't say anything.

"We can afford a gardener?" Johnny asks in a hesitant, confused tone. Rose was glad he said something, because Rose wasn't one to hold her tongue, even if she gold herself she would.

"Courtesy of McGwire, and of course for your mother." Jesse says and nods to the two teens standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Oh." Johnny says and scratches his arm. "What do we do?"

"We are moving everything unneeded to the attic and the third floor." Maggie says.

Rose can't help but chuckle as she crosses her arms with a smirk. "An attic too? What did I say? Johnny is so getting possessed. Typical-"

"Stop it." Johnny and Maggie both say at the same time and Rose scowls at them and crosses her arms.

"What is she talking about?" Manny asks in confusion.

"Oh, nothing, just a unruly teenager. We've all been there." Maggie says as she tries justify her daughter's attitude.

"She likes to start trouble." Johnny says and Rose scoffs. She didn't like to start trouble, sometimes it just happened.

"Trouble won't be tollerated here, ma'am. Especially not with the name your family has and all the accidents in town." Manny says and Jesse nods. The two men both tall and Rose didn't like to be looked down on.

"What does that mean?" Rose asks and her mother raises her hand to silence her.

"Back in the day, your ancestors were tyrants," Manny continues. "They owned half the town, but they didn't own this land to begin with. They took it. Anne was the only good one anyone ever came across," He says and crosses his arms. "The ghosts of this house terrorize the town. You cannot make it any worse."

"How?'' Rose asks Maggie quickly shuts the conversation down. She didn't want this to fuel the fire in Rose.

"Rosanna that's quite enough, let's go gentlemen. No more talk of fairy tales." Maggie says and the three shuffle away and Johnny shakes his head at his sister.

"What? I honestly don't think anything I said was unreasonable." Rose says.

"Shut up and come on." Johnny says.