Flowers For McGee

4 - Evil Deed

Rose was fine with storing furniture and old, useless antiques, but as soon as they moved to the child bedroom across from her own, Rose felt sick to her stomach. She felt very uncomfortable packing the personal belongings of people she didn't know into boxes and putting them away.

Maggie suggested a sale, but Rose shot the idea down as soon as it was brought up. Rose just got a feeling they shouldn't do that.

"Why? You can't and won't use any of these things." Maggie argues as Rose puts her hand on top of the box. She felt as if their every move was being watched.

"I just... I feel like we should just put them away. Not sell them.'' Rose says.

"Rose, can you wear this?" Maggie asks with a heavy sigh and holds up a faded blue dress.

"I can sure as hell try, right? I can totally rock blue." Rose says and Maggie rolls her eyes, fighting a smile.

Johnny runs down the stairs from the third floor with a book in his hands. He looks at the dress and frowns. Maggie lowers the dress and his eyes are still glued to it.

"Deja vu," He says and then quickly holds up a worn out book. "Check this out," Johnny says. "Our family was evil. They took this house from another family in the 1800s." He says and smiles. Rose scowls at his enthusiasm and takes the book from him.

"How neat." Maggie says as she looks over Rose's shoulder. The only words Rose was able to read at the top were family, terminated, estate taken.

"Mom, they killed people. I'm not sure neat is the right word." Rose says and shuts the book in their hands and they both scowl at her.

"I know, sweetie, but it's history. Our history." Maggie says and takes the book. The book wasn't anything other than logs, small entries of land, and business deals. But many things were scratched out and names were replaced. After the Bowsky family took over, they took over every land plot the original family owned.

"No way. I don't condone evil deeds. This is your history, not mine," Rose says. "Where did you find this?" She asks Johnny.

"First door upstairs. Since when did you turn into a saint?" Johnny asks his sister with a slightly agitated tone.

"I haven't," Rose Defends herself. "I just don't like any of this." Usually Rose didn't care about things like this, but this felt wrong.

"You already have a criminal record and you are going to throw stones?" Johnny asks and scoffs. Rose glares at him. He was right, but that didn't mean he had to bring it up.

"Yeah, it's not like I slaughtered a family, so shut up. I'm going to look." Rose say and rolls her eyes.

"Knock yourself out Mother Teresa." Johnny says and he and Maggie opens the book back up to look through it omce more.

Rose goes up the stairs to the third floor. She notices how that the age of the house stands out on this level painfully clear.
Wooden figures were carved into the railing of the stairs and in the walls. The first door was slightly ajar as she steps toward it. It was across from the room with the painting supplies.

She pushes it open and it surprisingly opens without a sound. Things were stacked in this room from the floor to the ceiling.

The first thing she sees is a portrait staring right at her. She stands in the doorway and the eyes seem to be peering right into her soul.

The portrait is of a boy who has raven hair and baby blue eyes. A smirk was painted on his face and Rose got the feeling that this was the painting missing from the dinning room. She steps over the piles of books and papers and kneels in front of the painting.