Chapter One: Fairytale Garden
Rose Wheeler stared blankly at the small house before her. A simple brick house, with pastel-colored curtains in the windows and typical white entrance door. The garden around it was big and seemed a little unkempt, seeing as the previous owners left the house a couple years ago and no one really cared about it. The house matched perfectly with other buildings in the cul-de-sac. Rose hated it. She despised the house, the neighborhood and everything about the place from the very start. And she could bet anything she won't like the people. She could feel a migraine coming.
"Oh, isn't it lovely?" Mrs. Wheeler, or Amanda as her older children liked to call her, gushed. "I've always dreamt of living in a house like this one! It looks like the one I've grown up in!"
"Wow, must be old, this house," Trevor, the oldest of siblings, said, which earned him a slap on the arm.
"I just can't wait to settle in," Mr. Wheeler said jovially, then noticed the dark look on his only daughters' face "What's wrong, Ro'?"
"Dad, I don't even know where to begin," Rose replied and, with a sigh, followed her mother and two brothers into the house. She immediately headed towards the stairs and climbed up all the way to the top. On the top floor there were only one doors and Rose guessed it must be an attic. She peeked inside, eyed the empty room with a critical eye and returned to the car to get her things.
"I'm taking the attic!" she called out loudly, so that her brothers would hear. Trevor didn't reply, since he was too busy unpacking in his new room, directly under the attic – or Rose's room. Denis, the youngest, waved at her from the kitchen.
Putting out the furniture and other personal belongings took them all day, but eventually, the Wheeler family finally settled in their new house. But before Rose could throw herself on the bed, her mother called everyone for a late supper.
"So kids, how do you like the house so far?" Mr. Wheeler asked as they all sat down.
"It's so cool, I like it, so big and spacious, and painted in nice colors too, and I finally have my own room and I don't have to share with Rose!" Denis gushed while stuffing his face with food "I was getting irritated by all her girly stuff in my room! And the closet was full with her clothes! And she always staid up late and I couldn't sleep because of the music she's been listening to-"
"Hey! I've had headphones on!" Rose defended herself.
"Well, that didn't really worked since I still could hear it!"
"Okay guys, stop arguing this instant," Mr. Wheeler, or simply James, said, making the two go quiet. "What about you, Trevor?"
"Oh, I so love it," the 19-year-old rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping off his voice "Everything is so colorful and so plastic!"
"Now, now, you don't need to be sarcastic, Trevor!" Amanda cut in "I personally think this house is terrific."
"I think so too, darling," James agreed "It's certainly bigger than our previous house and that's all that matters. It's comfortable, and has enough space for the three of you."
"I can't imagine having a party in here, though," Trevor uttered, looking around "Definitely would blow the house away."
"I assure you that no parties will take place in this house, young man," Amanda said warningly.
"See, now you'll have to sneak out to go partying somewhere else," Rose grinned at her brother.
"Yeah. Good thing my room's not too high from the ground," Trevor joked, making Mrs. Wheeler glare at him.
"No sneaking out!"
"Okay, I'm done," Rose announced, getting up from the table and putting her plate into the sink "I'm gonna crash. Good night," she saluted playfully and went upstairs.
It was day three since the Wheeler's moved to their new house. Rose was walking home from school, lost in thoughts. She was near her destination when she spotted a big mansion on top of a hill, not too far away from her neighborhood. She stared. It looked kind of dark, dangerous, and really scary. Almost like from a horror movie or something. Rose tilted her head; she could remember someone at school mentioning a haunted mansion, where no one had gone, ever since a tragic accident had taken place many, many years ago. To her it sounded stupid, but she thought it would be cool to go there, just for the sake of spending some time in a building everyone else was afraid of. The secret feeling of superiority over the rest townspeople was tempting.
A hand landed on her shoulder and Rose jumped up, startled.
"Whoah, relax, I just…" the voice was male, and somewhat familiar "Rose?"
"Huh?" she turned around and saw a boy, a little taller than herself, with messy golden hair and sparkling green eyes. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
"Are you kidding, it's me!" the boy looked both expectant and excited.
"Uh…" then it clicked "Jason? Oh my God, Jason!" Rose grinned excitedly. "What are you doing here?"
"Hello, Ro', I've been living here for 3 years now," Jason laughed.
"Oh." Rose knew Jason since she was 10. His parents moved a lot, due to their jobs, so Jason never had many friends. One day he's been sitting all alone on a playground, occupying one of the swings, when a girl came up to him, sat down on the other available swing and demanded he'd push her higher and higher. Jason had never met anyone as annoying as her. But somehow they became friends, then were best friends, and he never could explain how did that happen.
"Well, now I will be joining you."
"When did you get here?" Jason asked as they began to head towards her house.
"Three days ago," Rose shrugged "To be honest, I don't like it here,"
"Oh, you'll get used to it in no time." Jason smiled reassuringly.
While walking, they exchanged addresses and phone numbers. After a few minutes of chat, the two appeared in front of Rose's house.
"Well, here we are," she stopped to hug him goodbye "It's really good to see you again, Jas, but I have to go. See ya!"
And she left him, making her way to the front door. She turned one last time to wave at him, and then disappeared into the house.
The mansion looked even more scary at night and Rose had to think over the reason why she'd come here. Of course, it was partially because she wanted to get out of the house, before her mother would tell her to tidy up the place. Then, she had to skip supper, because Rose absolutely hated broccoli, as opposed to the rest of the family. A stupid reason, Rose knew that, but she desperately needed to find more before entering the scary mansion. She was curious; and since she was no cat, she decided it'll be okay to check out the haunted building. And lastly, she wanted to prove herself that the people – she refused to call them 'neighbors' even in her own mind - who spread the frightening legend of a killer living here are completely and utterly dumb.
Taking a deep breath, Rose pushed the metal gate and walked in.
The first thing she noticed while being on the property, was the garden. Rose had seen many gardens in her 17-year-old life, but none of them was nearly as beautiful as the one she's been looking at at the moment. Large sculptures made from shrubbery were surrounding her, showing many different things, angels, dancing girls, animals, everything made of shrubs. And in the middle of all that was a large green hand, reaching out towards the sky. Rose felt her mouth going wide open. 'Who could have done such beautiful things?' she asked herself in amazement 'I thought the mansion's been abandoned!'
The breathtaking sight before her made her want to sit down and stare at the sculptures for the rest of the night. Deciding against that, Rose began to wander around, gazing at the green statues from every side, admiring the shapes with her mouth partially open.
Wondering if it was only a strange dream – and secretly hoping it's not – Rose breathed in as much air as possible and began slowly twirling around, feeling the slight wind whirl around her frame and pick up her hair.
Her eyes still wide open, she was taking in every sight around her, drinking in the shapes and moving around the fairytale-like garden, humming a slow tune under her breath. Rose was lost among the green statues.
Snip.
Snip.
Snip.
The fluid motion stopped abruptly as Rose bolted and tumbled backwards, her foot catching on a small rock which in turn caused her to fall down straight on her butt.
"Ow," she couldn't help but wince, then she remembered the strange interruption. It was an odd sound, and it was possible that it was nothing but the wind or something as harmless. But Rose was sure she'd heard something.
Snip.
Snip.
Snip.
The girl bolted again, her eyes trying to make out the source of the sound in the dark. All she could see were the shadows of the shrub sculptures. As beautiful as she'd thought they were the first time she'd seen them, now she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, frightened even, by the many shapes that were surrounding her.
Then it hit her – this place was supposed to be abandoned. Yet, all the sculptures she'd been admiring just a few moments before had to be made by someone! And that someone had just caught her on their property. All is good until you get caught, Trevor liked to say. And Rose liked that saying, too. But she just had been caught. And it was definitely not a good thing.
Making up her mind in less than a second, Rose stood up and ran towards the gate, looking out for the person that caught her red-handed. She couldn't see more than dark shadows circling around her, but she managed to surpass a panic attack and instead focused on getting the hell out of the garden. In a matter of a couple seconds, she reached the main gate and slipped through, taking course towards her house and not looking back.
If she would, she'd see a lone figure standing near one of the sculptures, long metallic fingers gleaming in the faint light of the moon, black eyes gazing at her retreating figure.
A: Boring, huh? xD Well, it's just the beginning, I had to introduce the characters and the situation. I dare think the next one will be more interesting, however I make no promises. This story came literally out of nowhere, so it will develop itself in its' own time.
Thank you for reading! Now, how about leaving a Review? :)