Come Back Chloe

Every summer at the vineyard is the same. All the aunts, uncles, and cousins fly out to the-middle-of-nowhere, Connecticut to stay in the humongous mansion my supposed great,great,great,great grandpa left us before he passed. If you see it at first glance, the words "freak show" and "possessed" will definitely be plastered in your mind. It didn't look like it from outside, with the green meadows with newly planted flowers and a stone path leading up to the front door of the fortress. The inside couldn't be anymore different.

As soon as you walk in, the smell of old wood will embrace you with a great, big hug, while the stench of mold will hang in the air your whole stay there. The house was big enough for all the families to get their own rooms, so no one would've had to sleep on the old, tattering couches. They would wait until everybody got there before choosing rooms, no one wanted to feel like they didn't have a choice of where they slept.

The place had 4 floors, and 5 rooms with beds on each floor. Mom, Dad, Chloe, Lukas, and I would always get the biggest room, since we had the biggest family. The room had three beds total, plus a bathroom as well. Mom and dad got one bed, Chloe and I shared a bed as well, and Lukas was too stubborn to share so he got his own.

After everyone was unpacked Lukas just sat on his bed on his phone, completely ignoring mom's screaming saying, "YOU'RE ON VACATION! CAN YOU PLEASE PUT THAT PHONE DOWN AND JOIN YOUR FAMILY FOR TEN MINUTES?!!?"

He just sat still and pretended not to hear. Sighing, mom gave up and started muttering something along the lines of, I don't even know why I try anymore.

Meanwhile, Chloe was jumping up and down with excitement, like she had inhaled 500 tons of sugar on the plane ride here. She was aching to start playing hide-and-seek with the cousins. It was especially fun here since the house was so big. After she got mom and dad's blessing, she tugged my arm and begged me to come play with her as well. I can't say no to her, mom and dad will get mad.

Still tugging my arm, she forced me to come into the main hall with her where we met with all the other little cousins, none older than 10 years old. Already regretting my decision, somebody started explaining the rules of hide and seek to the others, like they haven't already played this game hundreds of times before. 

After what seemed like 10 hours, the lecture was over and we started the game. I was always the seeker because nobody ever wanted to search, it was more fun to hide. I started to count to 100, a number that I thought was too high, but I was overruled by exasperated little gremlins who wanted to take their own sweet time finding the perfect little nooks to hide in. 

I skipped a couple numbers, and then it was finally time for me to start my "seeking." I found one of them under the formal dining table, one in a closet in the farthest room for the spot I was counting, one even managed to climb up to the very tippy-top of the long falling curtains. 

After looking for about 15 minutes all kids were found, except for Chloe. I looked for 5 minutes, then I got bored and just waited until she came out on her own. That's how most of our hide-and-seek games usually ended up. I wasn't too concerned.

After 30 minutes, I was concerned. She usually got bored in a few minutes and came out with her hands on her hips with the most disappointed look on her face. 

"Chloe, you win! You can come out now!" I said. "Chloe?"

I screamed her name for a bit, enough to where everybody started getting concerned as well. Even Lukas put his game down. My mom was so scared to the point where she looked like she was second away from balling her eyes out. My dad tried calming her down, it didn't work. It only made her more hysterical.

"CHLOE IT'S NOT FUNNY, COME OUT RIGHT NOW!" my mom choked in between sobs. She didn't come out.

Everybody was scrambling as much as they could to find her, but she was nowhere. The whole family turned the entire mansion upside down, still no Chloe. 

"CHLOE I PROMISE, I PROMISE TO PLAY ANY GAME WITH YOU THAT YOU WANT," I shouted.

Still no Chloe. At this point my dad started crying too. Lukas even had the littlest bit of an emotion starting on his face. All the littles were crying as well. 

"Come back Chloe, please just come back," I managed

Every summer at the vineyard is the same. After that summer, everything changed.