An inkwell prompt: Family Reunion.

The Rashford’s were having a family reunion at Grandma Hilton’s mansion. This huge family came from a generation of riches. Grandma Hilton’s children; Joe, Miranda, Georgia and Austin were all married. Joe got married to Virginia and had three children; Marcus, Allison and Skyler. Miranda got married to Robert and gave birth to two children; Alex and Samantha. Georgia got married to Zion and gave birth to three children; Paris, Zoey and Aaron. Lastly Austin got married to Jasmine and gave birth to two children; Joan and Lucas. So yes it was a big family of four children and ten grandchildren.

The children were scattered all over the country with their own children so they hardly saw each other. This was the perfect time for a reunion.

Grandma Hilton had ordered all the help to get the house in proper shape. Everything had to be in perfect order for when her children and their families arrive.

Friday Evening

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Miranda and her family were the first to arrive, few minutes later Austin and his family arrives. In thirty minutes Joe and his family arrives and finally in about ten minutes, Georgia finally pulls up with her family. Everyone was complete now, they were all in the sitting room downstairs while the maids had carried everyone’s bags to their respective rooms.

“Where’s mum?”. Georgia asked her siblings amongst the chattering between family members.

“I’m right here!”. Grandma Hilton announced while making her way down the flight of stairs with a beaming smile on her face.

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“Grandma Hilton!”. The grandchildren screamed simultaneously as they all went to give their beloved Grannie a hug. Grandma Hilton had always gone out of her way to spoil her grand children lavishly, she did have the money for it.

After a lot of hugs were given and pleasantries exchanged, it was finally time to freshen up and everyone needed to be shown their rooms. Dinner was supposed to be in an hour.

“Alright everyone! I think it’s high time we all get to our rooms and freshen up. Dinner is in an hour!”. Grandma announced.

“Can we get to pick our rooms?”. Paris asked

“No dear, they have already been assigned. Well of course my children would still maintain their previous rooms with their spouses. While you my grandchildren would be mixed up, I thought it would be a fun and nice way to bond”. Grandma Hilton replied

There was a little bit of silence because the grandchildren were hardly with one another, they usually just spoke on the phone or saw once in a while during holidays.

“Now where was I? Okay, Marcus and Aaron you guys get to stay together, Paris and Samantha you guys are together, Lucas and Alex you guys are together, Skyler and Joan you guys are together, Allison and Zoey you guys are together. Christina! Take them to their rooms, their parents can find their way”. Grandma said while settling to watch some tv.

Christina had been one of the oldest maids that had worked for Grandma Hilton, she has been here as long the children and grandchildren can remember.

Marcus and Aaron were both in college, they were both twenty two years old. Paris and Samantha were in college too, both twenty years old. Lucas and Alex were still in high school, they were both eighteen years old. Skyler and Joan in high school as well at seventeen and sixteen year’s respectively. Allison and Zoey were both ten years, the youngest.

30 minutes to Dinner

Allison and Zoey were both in their rooms, they had finished unpacking early, well Christina had done the unpacking for them since they felt they were too small to do it on their own.

“Allison I’m boredddd”. Zoey dragged.

“Me too! Should we play a game?”. Allison asked.

“I don’t think we came with any board games”. Zoey added

“Us too”. Allison said.

“Let’s go ask Grandma Hilton for one”. Zoey said

“Yea but she’s all the way downstairs. Let’s just go check in her room and maybe do a little snooping around”. Allison suggested.

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With that they headed down the hall to Grandma Hilton’s room which was the last, as they passed each room they heard chatting, laughter and a lot of noise, their cousins were getting along pretty well. As they got the room, luckily it was open so they just entered. Her bedroom looked magnificent.

“I don’t think the games would be in here, it’s probably in her library”. Zoey said.

As they tried to open the library door inside her room they found out it was locked. Zoey then brings out a Bobby pin to pick the locks and it opens almost immediately which leaves Allison in awe.

“Where did you learn to do that?”. She asked Zoey.

“Boot camp”. Zoey replied with a shrug.

They then entered the library and started looking around. As the girls kept walking around, they noticed a floor board kept squeaking.

“What if that loose floor board was actually a hidden passageway?”. Allison asked.

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“C’mon let’s check it out”. Zoey added and attempted to raise it up.

It did come up and lo and behold there was a red button there which Allison pressed and suddenly one of the book shelf moves aside revealing a staircase. The two curious girls proceeded down the staircase. A lot was going through their minds; “why would Grandma Hilton have a hidden passageway? What could she possibly be hiding? Why was the library locked earlier?”.

What the girls saw when they finally reached the end of the stairs shocked them to their marrow. One, there was an already made bed there meaning there was someone living there. Secondly there was a pile of bones by the corner somewhere and those did not look like chicken bones. Almost immediately, the toilet was flushed, meaning the person living here would be out soon.

They can hear grandma shouting “Girls Dinner is ready” “Allison! Zoey!”. They needed to get out of there ASAP!

“Uh-oh. I don’t think we’re supposed to be here, Grandma locked it for a reason”. Zoey said.

“We need to get out of here before they realize we’re down here and I’m not so eager to see who’s in the bathroom”. Allison said as they both scurried towards the stairs.

Just then the bathroom door opens and a tall lanky figure appears. It was Grandpa Morrison! This couldn’t be true. He passed away two years ago! They were present at his burial! His tombstone was outside the mansion! They couldn’t believe their eyes.

Grandma called again. “Allison! Zoey! Where did you two wander off too!”.

The two girls hurriedly climbed the step and pressed the red button beneath the floorboard to close it and they put the floor board back in its place. Just then they heard Christina in the bedroom.

“Girls where are you”. She asked.

They immediately pretended to be going through the bookshelves.

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“There you guys are!”. She said

“Hi Christina”. They said nervously.

“What were you girls doing in here! Grandma Hilton doesn’t like anyone in her library. Now get downstairs for dinner the whole family is waiting for you guys”. Christina said crossly.

The two girls ran downstairs and took their seats after being scolded by their parents.

“Where were you both?”. Grannie asked them.

“Looking for a board game to play”. The both said.

“They were in your library!”. Christina added from the door where she stood.

Grandma’s face changed Immediately, she had a mixture of emotions. The girls knew something was up. Just then Allison looked for something to say.

“Yea but we barely got there before you came. We had searched the storage room first and didn’t find anything there plus Grannie’s room and library were wide open and we decided to check and that was when you came to call us”. She said

That way Grannie would know they didn’t have time to notice the loose floorboard.

“Christina why was my room wide open?”. Now Grannie was cross with her and the girls were happy.

After dinner everyone had retired to their rooms. The girls were eating a bag of chips and soda drinks.

“Allison what do we do?”. Zoey asked.

“Should we tell anyone about what we saw and the hidden passageway?”. Zoey added.

“No I don’t think they’ll believe us plus grandma doesn’t look like someone you should mess with. She definitely had her reasons for doing everything”. Allison replied.

“So what now? Do we go back and check? Because I’m beyond petrified right now”. Zoey said.

“No. Grandma’s room would be under serious lock now and they would probably be monitoring our movements so I doubt we’d have access into the room again”. Allison said.

“That’s true but this is September right and the whole family is supposed to come back in December to celebrate Christmas. I think it’s better to strike then. Hopefully Grandpa would still be there”. Zoey suggested.

“Sound like a plan!”. Allison said.

December

The whole family was back for Christmas as was planned. While the whole family was preparing for dinner, the girls snuck into Grandma Hiltons room again and found their way into the library. They searched for the same loose floorboard but it wasn’t loose this time. Had Grandma covered it up? Or changed it?

They found another loose floorboard and a button under it which they pressed. The shelf moved again and the staircase was there. They climbed down but were suprised to see nothing there again. It was just an empty space, no beds, no bag of bones, no toilet door. Everything was gone! They knew they weren’t dreaming when they came down here in September.

“That smart old woman!”. Allison exclaimed.

“She was definitely unto us and cleaned up her tracks”. Zoey said.

“Now what?”. Allison asked.

“We go downstairs, have dinner and pretend like nothing happened”. She replied.