Disclaimer except for Rose Review Please and Thank you I use manners because I am a vampire! Baack to Rose's POV
Chapter 6: Rose knows more
"There's some pizza, that's probably still warm. Help, yourself." Grandpa said. "Bet you 10 bucks Riley dives into the pizza," I said to Abigail. "In this important of a time? You're on." she replied. She clearly didn't know Riley. Or thought I was desperate. Either way I gain ten bucks. "This better not be about the dumb treasure." I heard grandpa mutter to Ben. I looked away. "Dad, I…we found the Charlotte." Ben replied. Grandpa looked mad, at first but then he stopped. "You mean she was a ship?" He asked intrigued. Ben nodded. "Did you find the treasure?" He asked.
"No, but we found a clue that told us-"
"Yeah, a clue then you'll find another clue. Then another, and that's all you'll ever find! Just more clues. I wasted ten years of my life on that! But, you know what? I got a family. At least, I had you, and your mother for however long a time." Grandpa pointed out. "You have Rose, you know." He muttered to Ben, making sure I didn't hear but he didn't know how well my hearing could get. "And, what? Him?" He pointed over to Riley, munching on a piece of pizza. I smirked over at Abigail. She slyly handed me a ten dollar bill. I smiled. "Ben, you don't even know if there is another clue." Abigail pointed out. I scowled. "I know a way to find out." I said. They all looked over at me, confused. "How?" Riley asked. "Lemons, cue-tips, gloves, and umm…the parchment." I instructed. "Now!" I said. I cut the lemons into wedges. "What is that?" Grandpa asked. "Animal skin?" He asked. "Uh…just very old parchment." Riley said. "Dad, you could use some rest." Ben said. "I'm fine. How old is that?" He questioned. "200 years, at least." I replied automatically. They looked at me. "What?" I snapped. "You sure?" Grandpa asked. "Pretty darn." I responded. "You know self fade inks only come up with heat. Could throw it in the oven." He said my eyes went wide. "No." Abigail and Ben said. "I'll just…uh…go on." He said wandering into the back of the house. "Okay, now if there is actually a map on there'd probably be a symbol marking it in the top right hand corner." Abigail said. I reached out to do the lemons. Abigail stopped me. "You can't." She said. "It has to be done." I simply stated. "Then a trained professional document handler, will do it." she claimed. "Fine." I snapped. "I'm so getting fired for this." She muttered. She hesitated, but rubbed the lemon on. Waiting….nothing. "I told you, you need heat." Grandpa came back. Ben, and Abigail looked at each other and took breaths onto the Declaration of Independence. A faint symbol came up in the corner. I smiled. "We need more juice." Abigail said. "We need more heat." Ben muttered. "I'll go get the hair dryer." I said.
When everything was uncovered I noticed it was an Alfa door cipher. "It's an Alfa door cipher." I noted. "A what?" Riley asked. "Numbers referring to a certain key or text, usually a random book or letter." Abigail explained. I nodded. "In this case the Silence Do-good letters. Dad, do you have the letters?" Ben asked. Grandpa got a nervous look on his face. I frowned. "You know, the Silence Do-good letters were letters Benjamin Franklin wrote to his brother at the New England Current were found in a desk that-""Dad where are the letters?" Ben asked exasperated. "I don't have them, son." he replied. Ben cleared his throat to calm himself. I shut my eyes. "Where are they?" He asked. "I donated them to the institute of Franklin, in Philadelphia." He said. "Okay, we better get going." Ben said. I nodded. "I just never would have thought that this was on the back all this time." Abigail said. "On the back of what?" Grandpa asked lifting the document. "No!" I said. He already saw. "Oh my God, Oh my God…how….Ben! This….this is the Declaration of Independence!" He wailed. "Yes, and it's very delicate," Abigail said taking it from his grasp. "Did you steal it?" He asked. Riley being him, pointed over to Ben. I looked away. "He dragged you into this?" Grandpa looked over at Riley, Abigail, and me. "Literally." Abigail muttered. "I volunteered." Riley stated. "Um…a little." I shrugged. "I was just curious." I added. "Ben you, just threw your life away! They only made up the treasure to distract the British, and keep them looking for buried treasure! There is no real treasure!" Grandpa shouted. "And now you dragged me into this." he muttered. "I refuse to believe that, and we can't have that." Ben replied. Riley went to go get the duct tape, I quick ran upstairs. I grabbed my picture of my mom and me, when I was four and stuck it in my pocket. I ran downstairs but stopped when I heard Ben and Grandpa talking. "Ben, before anything. Know that you're Rose's guardian. That means you keep her safe. She's not safe, Ben." Grandpa told Ben. I frowned. I was perfectly fine. "Dad, she's safe, trust me. She's with me." He said. "Yeah, with you. You aren't seeing that something can easily happen. It's too dangerous for her, Ben." Grandpa replied. "Dad, she'll be okay. She's too tough. If anything get's too dangerous I'll send her back." Ben promised. I fought the urge to snort, I doubt that'd happen. "Ben, you don't know when to stop though. There's no limit for you. I mean, look, you stole a priceless artifact!" He shouted. I pushed back tears. "Dad, I only stole it to protect it from…others." Ben responded. "Others?" Grandpa was getting angry. "You just can't stop it Ben, can you?"
Once in the car on our way to The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, we decided to get new clothes. "I'd like to go shopping too, but we have no money." Riley said. "Here," Ben said handing Abigail a booklet labeled common sense in gold. "Common Sense. How appropriate." Abigail approved. I smiled. "He usually tucks a few hundred dollars somewhere in between those pages." Ben said. "Your dad has a sweet ride. When are we going to get there? I'm hungry." Riley complained. I smiled. "This car smells weird." He said. I rolled my eyes. "Go to sleep already!" I exclaimed getting pretend fed up with him. Secretly I guess I had a crush on him. I rolled my eyes at the thought. Once checked into a hotel for the night, Abigail and I got a room, and Riley and Ben got one. We just kicked off our high heels, and washed off our make up. "So…what's your family like?" I asked. "Oh," she sighed, "I'm single right now." She said. "A mother?" I asked. "I wish. What about you? What's your dad like?" She asked. I looked away. "Ben's…not my…dad. My dad left before I was born, and my mom died in a shooting when I was ten." I explained. "Oh, I'm sorry." She replied. "Ben's my uncle, my mom hadn't really been keeping in touch with him, but in her will, he was my legal guardian." I said plainly. She nodded. "He's a good guy, besides the whole stealing-The-Declaration-of-Independence thing." She said. I laughed at that. "You'll learn to get past that." I said. We laughed some more. "So, what about Bill or Riley?" She asked. I smiled, blushing at the way she asked. "He's just our techie that makes the jokes along the way." I said. It was all true too. It felt good to tell the truth. She smiled. "Well we should probably go to sleep, before it's time to leave." Abigail pointed out; the time was 2:30 A.M. My eyes widened at the time. "Good morning." I said as I drifted into a sleep.