Chapter 12: The Garden

The moment Alice stepped out into the rising humidity, the tang of rain in the air, she regretted her choice. Overgrown and tangled, a veritable jungle of weeds choked the space behind the house, filling the large back yard with dead vegetation while new pushed its way through the rotting grasses left behind, forming giant, waving fronds overhead. Alice shivered despite the heat, a cold sweat breaking out over her skin as she stepped down off the bottom step and onto the grass.

Shudders ran through her feet, up her legs, wobbling her knees, making her sway until a little jab of pain pressed against her heart. She gasped in the thickening air, but the sensation was gone as fast as it came. Alice almost returned inside. Her hand grasped the knob, half-turned when she heard the sound of her mother talking, coming toward her.

Jungle or not, Alice plunged into the foliage and lost herself in the thick green.

It didn't take her long to see a path through the mess, if overgrown as well. After pushing through the first barrier of weeds, she found herself in a tunnel-like section of plant growth, only bits of sky visible through the bending fronds.

The further she traveled, the more uncomfortable she felt. As though there was something with her, watching from under cover. Silly, ridiculous. But she couldn't get the feeling out of her heart, whipping her head back and forth, staring into the dark of the undergrowth. Any second now, it would leap out. Attack.

Kill her.

Alice's steps sped up, knees shaking, feet stumbling over pulling grasses, hands fumbling around her for support. She rushed forward, breath coming in sharp, harsh gasps. Her sock caught on a wiry root, stubbing her toe and sending her sprawling forward. The one plant she managed to grasp gave way, flimsy under her weight. With a small meep of fear, Alice fell face-first into a wall of foliage.

And landed in a clear patch of ground. Panting in relief, she dragged herself forward, pulling her legs free of the grasping greenery, finally turning and climbing shakily to her feet.

This time she did scream, though muffled behind her hands, at the sight of the winged woman looming over her. Alice's fear turned to jittery laughter as she giggled and hugged herself. She'd seen this statue from her room, stone blackened with age, marked here and there with bird droppings. It gave her the creeps looking at it from a distance.

Up close wasn't much better. The stone seemed to ooze some kind of ichor. Dark green stains ran from the statue's vacant eyes. One of the large wings chipped off at the fourth feather, the remains of it lying broken and ignored on the ground next to the base.

Alice slowly circled the angel, keeping her distance as best she could, wondering why this part of the abandoned garden was different from the rest.

A low pond of the same stone as the angel hunched just past her, its surface slick with scum, water dark and miserable. The stench alone was enough to keep Alice from exploring it further. Something about looking at the surface making her feel like choking.She turned from it, chest heavy, coughing softly, feeling like she did when she accidentally swallowed water in the swimming pool at school in Denver. The odd sensation stayed with her as she eyed up the old wooden shed perched in the corner of the lot.

It leaned into, rather than supported, the fence behind it, a wide, rusted chain wrapped around the handle and through a large ring attached to the building. Though the chain itself looked ancient, the shiny padlock hadn't had time to rust out. A new addition, then.

Had Betty put it there? Why? To keep Alice out, no doubt. She grumbled under her breath before she shrugged. For all she knew, it was to prevent Evan from ransacking the place. Though Alice highly doubted he'd find much inside of interest. Like the majority of the house, the shed didn't radiate wealth. At least, not any more.

Which made Alice sad. As she turned slowly back toward the house, she saw a clear view of the yard. The only part of it filled with weeds was a large section by the back door. The rest of the grounds looked kind of dead, the grass withered and brown, though there were areas looking like they had been overgrown as well at some point. Almost as if something poisoned the plants, slowly leaching toward the house.

Alice shuddered. Not her problem. Though she'd be careful out here from now on. Glum, she stuck her hands in her pockets and kicked at the dead grass. Just her luck, the ground would turn out to be contaminated or something and they'd have to move after all.

Unhappy with her exploration, Alice circled the other side of the pond before heading back toward the angel.

And froze. The horrible shudder she'd felt when she first stepped outside came back. She felt it burning through the soles of her socks to her bare feet, the ground here moist and almost gooey. Alice looked down in disgusted nervousness, to find the patch of dirt she stood on bordered a large, roughly rounded patch of blackened earth.

A deep shudder tore through her, making her teeth rattle. Alice had thought the stench came from the algae laden pond. But no. Far from it. The smell she'd caught a whiff of earlier emerged from the spongy, black earth before her.

Alice didn't think, fear rising in a tide so powerful it drove her backward, to the fence. The wood cracked under the pressure of her shoulders as she slipped in her wet socks andfell, crashing through the age-weakened wood with a cry of pain and landing on her back on a patch of soft, green grass.

A cold, wet spot soaked through the back of her sweatshirt, the stink of feces burning her nose. Alice pushed herself up, turning to look down at the pile of smeared dog crap she'd landed in. Her shaking hands barely supported her as she struggled to rise, legs just as wobbly, the two planks she'd broken hanging precariously toward her like a rough doorway.

She'd only barely made it to her feet when the sound of a door slamming and the pounding of feet spun her around. A tiny woman in a deep pink track suit stomped toward her, hair in a perfectly curled coif around her head, the wrinkles on her face making it clear blonde wasn't her natural color.

"Get off my lawn!" She started screaming before she even reached Alice. A tiny ball of golden fluff bounded along at her feet, yapping counterpoint to the woman's shrieking voice.

Alice stumbled as she held her hands out, tears rising in her eyes. "I'm really sorry," she said.

That was all she said.

"Damned teenagers!" The woman jerked to a halt in front of Alice, a few inches shorter, barely a hundred pounds if she weighed anything, one of her withered hands rising to point an index finger tipped with a sharp, pink nail right at Alice's heaving chest. "I'm calling the police!"

The tiny Pomeranian hopped and snarled and snapped around Alice's ankles while she fought for breath. Panic rose in her chest, her fear of being noticed, pointed out, driving to take over.

"I fell," she said, pointing at the fence. "I live next door."

"Get off my property!" The woman wasn't listening to a thing Alice said, her little apple face turning bright red, pale hazel eyes snapping in fury. "Get off!"

"Alice?" Betty's voice came from the other side of the fence. She peeked her head through the hole, eyes wide, mouth an "O". "What happened?" Alice almost sobbed in relief. Her mother was here. It would be fine now. The woman would stop screaming and keep that ugly, nasty little pile of horrible creature yapping at her feet away from her.

But instead of calming down, the woman simply turned on Betty while grasping Alice's arm in an iron grip for such a tiny old lady and shoving her forcefully toward the fence while the dog barked and circled.

"Keep your brat off my lawn!" The woman didn't seem to have any other volume but screech. "You damned Blunts aren't welcome here!"

Alice felt oddly hurt on top of her roaring anxiety. What had she done to this woman? "Mrs. Talbot," Betty said, a cold edge to her voice while she caught Alice from

stumbling at the end of the push. "I'm sure Alice didn't meanÑ"

"I DON'T CARE!" She did have another notch. Alice pressed her hands over her ears, tears pouring down her face as she huddled next to her mother while the dog nipped at the bottom of her pant leg. "GET OFF MY PROPERTY AND DON'T COME BACK!"

Betty practically jerked Alice through the gap in the fence, catching the pocket of her jeans and tearing a hole in the hip on a rusting nail. Alice spun around behind her mother as Betty, shaking herself, pulled on the two pieces of wood, shutting the old woman and her dog off from sight.

"And get that damned fence fixed!" Mrs. Talbot's voice was no less grating from behind the broken wood. "Or I'm calling the town!"

A few short yaps finished off the verbal assault. Alice sagged as the sound of the yapping Pomeranian retreated, ending with the slamming of a door.

Betty turned to Alice, irritation flashing across her face. "What happened?"

Alice blubbered another moment before shaking her head. "It was an accident," she whispered. Shuffled from one wet sock to the other, eyes locked on a fat bubble rising to the surface of the dark patch of the lawn, just over Betty's shoulder.

"I'm sure it was." Betty sighed. "Just stay away from Anastasia Talbot, okay? She's never been friendly with the family and it seems her dislike hasn't improved over the years."

Alice just nodded and sniffled while Betty stepped forward, nose wrinkling."What's that smell?"

Alice burst into tears, forgetting in her humiliation her mother was probably talking about the heavy scent of rot hanging over the garden and fled back to the house with the stench of the dog crap plastered to her back chasing her like a bully.

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