When Matthew and Mason Hoover receives an invitation from a long-lost colleague, they were offered to join him at a secluded resort to spend the holidays together. The siblings were thrilled. But it all goes downhill when a wicked cult ruins their v...
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Eastern Grove Academy, December 16th, 11:00 AM
The moment I stepped inside the Eastern Grove Academy's grand library. I deemed an awestruck reaction. Where all of the school's history is stowed upon its founder. There were also the school's manuscripts, legends, newspapers, yearbooks, and don't get me started on the trophies the school achieved for more than five years of industrious work.
Besides having an extravagant yet lavish interior with arches assembling a curved silhouette in the middle of the place, the massive pillars aligned at every corner, and having a royal, ancient and chronological theme, the library will forever abide by the Academy's existence.
I first went to the front desk of the library, and as I gazed upon the spotless countertop, I immediately noticed my entire face from the reflection. It appears that the academy oversees its abundance of sanitary. It didn't bother me, instead I was impressed by the Academy's care even on the tiniest details.
"Mason Hoover." The sweet yet hushing voice of the librarian handed me my I.D, and after I got it from her, I marched silently to aisle twelve where all the books about Astronomy are stored and labeled, after finding the perfect topic about Constellations , I tried finding an empty table. It didn't even took me a second to find one since the area was so tremendous.
"Perfect," I whispered to myself as I formed a slimmed smile and quietly approached it. I sat down and opened my laptop so that I can finally complete my article for the school's front page. As I sit down on the chair, constantly thumbing page sixteen to page twenty-one, I started typing and revising the missives of the textbook, after twenty minutes of flipping pages and typing back and forth, I finally did it. All I need to do is send it to my professor through his e-mail.
I barged through my door full of excitement but I didn't know that my brother, Matthew. Is inside the dorm as well. "Dude!" Matthew exclaimed. I apologized plus I forgot that I and Matthew are roommates and to put the cherry on top... He's my brother!
My brother Matthew is nineteen-years-old and can be a little bit chaotic sometimes, but he is as shrewd as me, but what makes me grieve in envy is that he has hazel-shaded eyes following his sharp jawline and has the side of our great-grandfather's ethnicity. Matthew is half American and half Hispanic.
I'm also half American and half Hispanic as well, but between the eye color and the jawline... then we all know who's the favorite. And I'm one year younger than him.
While he and I are still inside our dorm, Matthew pointed out to me that he received an email that goes by the name of Nick Foster, an old colleague since freshmen year.
I knew from the top of my head that something wasn't right. Nick Foster is one of the weird kids who sit in the back of the class, he has no family, and he also has the poorest grades in the class, Did I say, class? I meant the entire campus. Along with his silver braces wrapping his teeth, curly black hair, those wrinkled checkered shirts that he wears in a year, and nerdy rounded glasses as if he was Harry Potter.
"Have you read it yet?" I asked my brother, and as a response, he hasn't. Matthew wasn't sure if he should be reading it, we were both too paranoid thinking of foul assumptions, maybe a death threat, a scam, he was hacked? The possibilities are endless.
"I'm reading it." Matthew couldn't stop foreshadowing. I tried to stop him but it was too late. He didn't listen to me, I facepalmed at his idiocy and told him in regret "Why?"
My brother then read it out loud as his voice echoed around the room. "Your invited?" Matthew said. I quickly jumped in to check if he went blind or not, and he wasn't. A literal invitation from Nick Foster himself. My brother and I felt honored. Nick's expecting us to join him at a secluded resort tomorrow.
That's the perfect date since our winter break schedule starts on December 17th. As we read more about Nick's email, we were too stunned to speak, but I still wondered... why us? to be honest, I haven't remembered doing one random-act-of-kindness for him and he's repaying me with a vacation at a luxurious resort... that's ironic.
"I can't believe it... we're going on vacation!" I yelled at Matthew and hugged him with dignity.
Soon the bell tingled loudly for five seconds, making me leave Matthew in the dorms alone to report my article to my professor in Science class. I presented my report in front of the whole class, I did the best I could to explain each statement with a vigorous mouthpiece.
"Such an excellent presentation Mr. Hoover, everyone please give Mr. Hoover a warm round of applause!" Professor Lewis's voice made the entire class clap in one demand as I bowed like a gentleman would. As I walked back to my seat, the professor calls out another student to present their work in front.
While I listened to the next presenter a whisper caught my attention "Great job" Jillian Anderson whispered as she writes in her spiral notebook. I didn't want to be rude to her so I replied, "Thanks."
After the second period, I exit out of the campus while carrying my bag at my back, While walking, the girl from my class started to catch up with me. "Hey, it's me again," Jillian said.
I answered back stating her name again, "Jillian, right?"
She answered back, "Yes, Jillian Anderson." I told her if there was a reason why she called me. She does, after hearing that winter break is tomorrow, she offered me and Matthew to join them on their vacation.
"About that... an old colleague of mine already beat you thirty minutes ago," I told her.
Jillian was cool about it, but she was curious about the person though. "And who's that old colleague of yours?" Jillian's skepticism aims high.
I replied to her, "Nick Foster" Jillian didn't like when she heard Nick's name. Her face started to straighten as she also carries her bag.
"Goodbye, Mason" Jillian stomps her white shoes on the floor wildly. I looked at her constantly getting further and further away, "What's her deal?" Matthew crept up on me from behind, "No clue... come one let's start packing"
Out of nowhere, the speakers started to commence with a deep voice from over the recording room. It was the principal announcing tomorrow's winter break, everyone at the campus froze for a brief moment and listened to Principal Wellington's announcement.
"I would like to announce that Eastern Grove Academy will commence a winter break starting December 17th until December 22nd! We wish you a happy holiday here at Eastern Grove Academy! Have a remarkable day everyone!"
With that memorable announcement, every student in Eastern Grove Academy applauds the principal, other students hollered in excitement while the girls squealed with their bestie's excitement. Just thinking about their plans for tomorrow's break.
Not for long, driblets of snow started to plunge from the clouds, everyone outside saw them coming, and this made them yell for even more extravaganza. While Matthew and I, and all of the students from inside the main building didn't see it coming.
Later on, students from outside the campus ground announced to everyone from inside that it started snowing, the other scholars were exhilarated the second they heard the word snowing. But out of all of them, My brother and I were way more delirious.
Everyone including us dashed outside, looking at the snow gradually sinking to the ground, the outside started to become crowded when more students came outside to take a glance. The more students, the more excitement. My brother and I started yelling eagerly.
