Rhett and Link One Shots

An Unexpected Friendship

1902: Wake Forest Manor, Ireland

"Charles! Come here, darling!"

Link jumped up from his bed and ran to his find his mother getting all ready to go out with his father.  The little eight year old boy looked up at his mother with curiosity. "Mother, Father, where are you going? When will you be home again?"

"We are going out to visit some family back home in America. We are taking a ship across the sea, we should be home in about a month. In that time, your nanny, Carol Anne, will be taking care of you. We'll write often, dear. Be good for Miss Carol Anne, all right? I love you, darling." Sue bent down and kissed her son atop the head. Little Link frowned, his parents were always gone, and he never had any friends to play with. To make it all worse, Carol Anne was mean, never letting the boy do anything fun. And Link could swear there was something off about his nanny.

"Goodbye, Mother, goodbye Father. Have fun in America. If you see any of my old friends, could you please tell them I said hello?"

"Of course we will, son. Goodbye, be good!" Link's parents then turned and walked out to their car, only to be driven away by the family chauffer. The day dragged on, Link was sad and lonely. That night, the ship his parents were on came to an unexpected storm, they never made it to America.

1943: Wake Forest Manor, Ireland

The thunder rumbled outside shortly after the bright streak of lightning lit up the dark nighttime sky. Rhett sighed as he stared out into the darkness. The young boy was supposed to be asleep, but this storm was keeping him awake. He and his family had recently moved here, about a month ago. This lifestyle change was very hard for young Rhett. He had been living in America, when his father received a call that he inherited this mansion from his great aunt who had just recently passed away. She had been a wealthy woman who bought this mansion in the early 1900's after its previous owners died. At least, that's what she said. Rhett's family eventually moved here, not wanting to pass up the opportunity to live in another country, all the way across the world.

As Rhett listened to the storm outside, he faintly heard crying. Rhett darted his eyes around and then hopped out of bed. He walked down the long, empty halls, listening for the crying. It slowly started to get clearer, someone was definitely crying somewhere, and Rhett wanted to find who it was.

As he walked farther down the hall, it got clearer, louder, he was getting closer. He stopped in front of the door to the attic and pressed his ear against the old wood. The stairway that lead to the attic was kept locked, and Rhett was told he must never go up there, it might be dangerous, but he could tell, there was someone up there, and that someone was crying. A little while ago, Rhett had found where his parents hid the key to the door. It was under their bed, hidden in the lining of a decorative box. Rhett stepped back from the door and silently crept to his parents' bedroom. It was empty, his parents must have been downstairs still. He ran into the room and crawled under the large bed. There, near the wall, he found the box. It was dark, but the lightning served to light up the room frequently. Rhett opened the box and dug his small hand around until he felt the cold metal touch his skin. His fingers wrapped around the key and he snatched it out from it's hiding place.

Rhett crawled out from under the bed and jumped up to his feet. The thunder outside cracked particularly loudly and Rhett could hear a soft yelp, followed by harder crying. The eight year old darted out of his parent's room and down the hall, the floor boards creaked as his slight weight pressed down on them. His bare feet padded softly against the old wood flooring. The boy ran to the door at the end of the hall and put the key in the lock. He turned it and heard the soft click as it unlocked. Rhett realized it was pitch black up there, and he had no flashlight, this scared him, but he could tell the crying was definitely coming from there. He slipped the key into the breast pocket of his pajamas. He licked his lips in anticipation and quickly looked behind him to make sure there was no one around. Once he was positive he was alone, Rhett turned the old knob and the door creaked open. Rhett immediately shut it after stepping in.