The Garden: Part Four (rough draft)

I used to joke my job wasn’t so much gardening as it was bored housewives. It was a cruel joke, but it was the truth of the matter. I lie and say it was a rumor, but I know it wasn’t. I got caught one day in the bed of one of my employers’ wives and, from there, people gossiped. Even the other women I slept with. They did it to cover their tracks, but I ended up with the dirt kicked back on me. 

It was wrong. I know it was, but the way they ignored it, the way they buried it, that was what hurt most of all. They turned their back on their guilt just to kick me. But what else could they do? It was the same to them as waking up in the morning.

That morning, I made my coffee for breakfast and the body sagged in the vines. It looked decomposed, but it was still bleeding. The vines kept it held up, but I could see the weight of it boring down upon the limbs. The mouth hung open and splatters of drool hit upon the cobblestone. Was it...no, there is no possible way it was still alive. But it was bleeding. It was drooling. Could the corpse, somehow, still be living?

“Mr. Brone?” The voice is a cold snap to my bones. I lose my breath once he speaks and I move slow to see Mr. Barkridge standing in the door of the solarium. 

“I was-” I’m not sure what I’m saying or why I am even attempting to say it. I look into his cold eyes, his pompous posture. I remain still like the body as I wait for his reaction. 

“My wife is very particular about how she keeps her garden.” Mr. Barkridge says as he walks towards me. “And I’m afraid I’ve had to do things to keep her pleased.”

I shake my head. All the while, I keep wondering if we’re alone here. He talks about his wife in the present tense, but the only things I have seen here are him, the face, and those strange creatures in the forest. At least, I think I have seen all those things.

Mr. Barkridge comes to a stop just before me. “Have you really been taking those vitamins, Mr. Brone?”

I swallow hard as I look to the body then back up at him. “No.” I sprint, running away from Mr. Barkridge at a breakneck speed. I race for the iron gate. Once I get there, for some reason, I think I will be safe from him. As I run through that gate, the world is covered in blood red roses. I step on their thorns, but it is better than what is behind me. I didn’t trust Mr. Barkridge when I came here, now I know he is no one I should be running to for help.

I run to her, my rose, but the further I go, the more of those creatures I begin to see. They stand in shadows, crouched down and watching me. They hang their heads at odd angles and thrust their bound arms at their backs. They start laughing, making strange guffawing noises as my gate slows to a walk. 

The scent of roses is strong around me, almost overpowering. Ever since I came here, I’ve been breathing in that smell, the pollen. My tongue feels like velvet in my mouth, thick and spongy. I lick my lips as the creatures laugh and giggle around me, bouncing up and down where they stand. 

I walk again, finding my rose surrounded by even more roses. She looks at me and smiles, lifting her head so that I may kiss her. Her long tongue slithers down my throat and she moans erotically, her eyes roll into the back of her head. All the while, the creatures laugh.

“I need help,” I whisper to her. “Please, I think he’s going to kill me.”

Her lips pout as drool dribbles down the corners of her mouth. “My mother can help you,” she replies. 

I furrow my brow. “Your mother?”

The face smiles. “You’re in her garden, don’t you know?” Her mouth is completely yellow, both wet and powdery at the same time. 

I stare at her in disbelief. “But Mr. Barkridge said-”

“My father,” she tuts. “He’s been trying to use you. But my mother only wants to help. She only wants to make the garden grow and flourish. My father keeps it contained.”

The corpse in the wall, I wonder if that had something to do with it. I close my eyes, trying to breathe, but every breath is full of pollen. 

“You should come see mother,” the face whispers. “She will take care of you. She will love you.”

I raise my eyes to her. “Where is she?”

The creatures start whooping and crowing all over again. Their ghastly sounds fill my senses like the pollen does. 

The face rises up and, behind her, the roses follow as well. I blink a few times, not sure what I am taking in. All this time, I thought that the face had been trapped here and couldn’t move. I thought she was a prisoner. Yet vines twist and slither, gathering to form a long pillar on the ground, one that moves from side to side as it forms a coil around the face. She smiles at me, rising up to my height then taller. She looks down at me where I had been looking down at her. 

I stare at her strangely, tilting my head to the side and she mimics the movement. I should be scared, but there is a numbness that melts through me, making me feel oddly calm and delighted by what I see. I giggle and her grin grows wider.

“Follow me,” she beckons. Her long body seems endless as she moves. She creeps along the earth, her face raised just above the ground. Her tendril body writhes and lurches, weaving itself through the forest. I just giggle where I should be mortified.

The forest grows dense, overgrown with kudzu and honeysuckle. It pours down from the treetops like walls, creating a long, narrow hallway in the middle of the woods. The vivid green of it all plays tricks with my eyes. It seems to stain my vision, giving everything its earthy hue. I rub my eyes, but there is a grit there that burns and makes them water. My vision is blurred and the pollen feels like it is clogging my throat.

“Mother is just right ahead,” the face says to me. “Keep going. It’s not much longer now.” She moves ahead of me, slithering down that dark green corridor.

I stop to catch my breath. Coughing into my hand, there is a bright spray of orange. It looks like the lily on the roof of the solarium. Its petals spread out wide, speckled at the tips as they curl upwards towards the sun. The one in my hand is wet and melts, dribbling down my wrist as I stare at it.

Vines curl around my ankles and pull me forward. I fall on my back, hitting my head against the earth. The vines pull me, dragging me along the ground so that I keep going forward. I look up at the canopy of the trees, seeing the skeleton of birds ensnared within the vines. They’re crushed and mangled, held captive from their last flight. No wonder it is always so quiet. There are no birds. No animals. Only the garden.

I am dragged through the hallway to a building. It’s covered in vines, but there is a sign peeking through the leaves. It was once a fish rendering plant, the main source of income for the entire island. The sky above me goes away as the vines take me through the doorway. 

The face hovers above mine and she smiles at me. “You best get up.”

“I feel sick,” I whisper. “I can’t breathe.”

Her smile fades away and she dips down. Her tongue caresses over my lips then pushes down into my mouth. It forces its way into my throat and her eyes roll into the back of her head. She moans again, slurping and drooling over top of me. As she pulls her tongue back, I feel like I can breathe again.

I gasp and wheeze, coughing up more orange lilies. The face smiles at me while I gather myself. I wipe my mouth, taking in more deep breaths, filtering the air through my clenched teeth. 

“It is okay if you must go slow.” The face nudges me with her body, helping me to stand. “Mother is paitent.”

I still feel sick, but at least I can breathe. Looking forward, I see what looks like a pillar of fungus and moss before me. It spreads out as it goes upward, looking fleshy and bulbous in appearance. The mushrooms are brilliant red with wide fat caps. The moss looks more bushy than usual, almost hairlike. It pulsates, moving as if breathing. In the center, it looks like legs are rooted into the ground, the legs stretch sideways and the toes grow long, burrowing down into the ground. 

The closer I get, I see that the mushrooms move. They stretch out and curl as if calling me forward. Then there is the face, stretched and distorted like it is pulled on a canvas. Green eyes peer down at me and the warped, stretched mouth pulls into a smile.

The face comes very close to my ear to whisper to me. “This is mother.”

My body grows frigid as I look up at her. Her body has been stretched and contorted as it takes on the semblance of a tree covered in fungus and rot. The things I took as mushrooms are her fingertips and marks on what had once been skin. Her hair grows out as vines, no, like veins. The kudzu and honeysuckle that has taken over the island, it is her veins. 

Her smile pulls at the corners and she wheezes as she breathes. The ground pulses with her excitement as she leans down to look even closer at me. 

“You’re finally here,” drool pours from her open lips. “That’s very good. You are not safe at that mansion.” The mushrooms wiggle as she reaches out to touch me. I want to wrench away but the face keeps me close to her. 

“Such a fine young man.” She gulps down her drool. “I can see why you were brought here. I had a gardener like you a long time ago.”

“He says that Father is trying to kill him,” the face says, almost tauntingly. “Will you help protect him?”

Mother nods. “I know you’re scared, boy. But you’re safe here. Safe with me. You’re part of my garden, after all,” she giggles. “And that is what is most important to me.”

I manage to step away and I look to the face then back at mother. “Can you get me home?”

A moment of silence passes between the two of them. Mother rises back up and the face comes towards me. Her body coils around mine, wrapping me up and constricting tight around me.

“You’re in my garden,” mother whispers, “Why would you want to go anywhere else? This is paradise. Outside, beyond this island, you will find nothing out there quite as perfect as this.”

“You’re safe here. If you leave us, then my father will try and kill you too.” The face’s body continues to constrict around me, thorns dig into my skin. “He’s nothing but a liar.” My body is warm and liquid all over. It seeps from the surface and all the way into my bones. “Relax and rest. We’ll make sure you have everything you need.”

“Stay with us and you’ll be safe.” Mother’s whisper fills my ears. “You will keep on growing.”

“Let him go, Esther.” I hear Mr. Barkridge as my eyes flutter closed.

“What are you doing here, Thurston?” She spits. “Do you know how angry you have made me?”

“I know, my love, but please, this once, let the young man go.” Mr. Barkridge pleads with her. “Let me find someone else. Will that make you happy?”

“Make me happy?” Esther laughs and sobs at the same time.“Why now have you had this change of heart?”

The creatures start chanting and screaming around us. All the while, the face keeps gripping me tighter and tighter, yet I feel nothing.

“Please, Esther, don’t you love me?” Mr. Barkridge begs. “Let this one go.”

Esther goes very still and her expression slacks. Her eyes are both empty and unamused. “Thurston,” she laughs in disbelief. “How very dare you?”

“Then, you leave me no choice.” Mr. Barkridge says calmly.

There is a horrible scream that pulls me from my stupor. I am thrown aside and trampled by the vine covered creatures who begin rushing and surging towards mother. Mr. Barkridge shoots those who come near him and, to my horror, I see they bleed red. 

Mr. Barkridge kneels down beside me and forces something down my throat. I cough and gag, turning and throwing up bright orange all over the ground. 

“Come on now, son, get up.” Mr. Barkridge helps me to my feet, but I am still a sagging heavy weight in his arms. I cannot fully take in everything that is happening, but it all feels like chaos swarming around me. Mother is screaming, the things I thought were beasts are in a frenzied panic. As Mr. Barkridge drags me towards the door, the face lunges out in front of us. She glares at us, hissing, spitting bright yellow.

“Don’t make me do this, Rose,” Mr. Barkridge weeps. “Please, don’t make me.”

“This is all your fault!” She screams and throws herself at us. As she charges, Mr. Barkridge shoots her in the center of her forehead. She drops down to the ground, her entire length of bottom spasming and flopping. Mr. Barkridge sighs in agony then continues to drag me outside. We come into the green hallway, which is writhing and wilting all around us. 

“Come on now, son, just a little further.” He drags me out of the vines and into fresh air. He takes me down to a creek where he splashes cold water on my face and lets me rest. I vomit several more times before my senses begin to return to me.

“What’s happening?” I wail. “Where am I?” I claw at my face but he grabs my hands and slaps me hard on the jaw.

“Snap out of it, son!” He snarls at me. “Get a grip. You’re a grown man, act like it. Stop crying.”

“I feel like I’m losing my mind!” I sob. I tear at my hair and rock back and forth. “What’s happening to me? I just want to go home!”

“Her,” he whispers. “My wife is what is happening to you.” He shakes his head and hangs it low. “I’ll get you out of this. I’m so sorry.”

“Why?” I glare at him. “You brought me here. Why are you helping me now?”

“I have nothing left,” he murmurs. “I can’t apologize for what I’ve done, but perhaps you can end it.” He stands and offers me his hand. “That woman you saw, that thing-” His brow creases and tears come to his eyes. “That was my wife, Esther.”

“The tree thing? That grotesque-” I squint my eyes shut tight and dunk my head back down into the ice cold water.

“I used to perform splicing experiments in hopes of creating crops that not only could produce more food, but could survive much longer. My team and I focused on plants like kudzu, Japanese honeysuckle, wisteria, and creeping thistle.”

“Those are-” I wipe off my face and sniffle, managing to catch an actual clear breath. “Those are all invasive species. Why would you be using them?”

“Because they know how to thrive and conquer, Mr. Brone.” Mr. Barkridge sighs heavily. “The experiments were a success, unfortunately, but my wife had taken them for her own uses. She turned her garden into something that could not be contained. She used it on herself to connect herself to it, I don’t-” His large shoulders sag heavily with the weight of it. “All this time I just let her get away with it all.”

“Then the bodies?” I whisper.

Mr. Barkridge looks me dead in the eye. “I give them to her to keep her placated. She’s been using this method for longer than I knew. The whole garden is a cemetery. It’s why your father left, it’s how he got you away from here before.”

This feels like a kick in the teeth. “My dad?” I laugh. “How do you know-” I shake my head and start to cackle. “No, no, no. You don’t know my dad.”

“And your mother, and you.” Mr. Barkridge continues to look me straight in the eye. “Your father was my first gardener. The fact you may be my last is kind of a funny joke from the universe, isn’t it?”

I remember the boat and all the legs before me. I had been so young, I didn’t remember anything. I was traveling with my family, with the refugees from the island. I had been here before? No, I had been born here.

“Hurry, we need to move.” Mr. Barkridge stands up. “That will only keep them busy for so long.” He offers his hand out to me. “You need to get somewhere safe.”

There is such a weight of overwhelming knowledge upon me. I’m not sure what I am doing or how I am supposed to act. I take Mr. Barkridge’s hand as I stand. “Where would that be?” Everything inside me is overreacting, yet I can think clearly, I know I have to survive this.

“The lighthouse, I know the woman who operates it.”

We stumble through the forest, coming into the village where the streets and buildings are covered by vines. Everything is silent, there’s not even a breath to be had. Everything is suspended in time from the moment Mr. Barkridge’s wife took over.

“What happened?” I say breathlessly.

“After I was told my daughter had died, I fell into grief and then immediately into depression. I focused on my work, and came to depend on my lab assistant. Esther grew jealous and she turned to her garden for comfort. I never looked up to notice what she was really doing.” He stood before a house, moving aside the vines as he peered in through the dusty, cracked window. 

“She knew what she wanted. She wanted to be out of the control of her father. She wanted to let that wild animal inside her free. She always thought life would be better with a little more green in it. You know?” Mr. Barkridge shakes his head. “All she wanted to do was show people they didn’t need so many things, but just more green. I just wanted a beautiful wife, a happy family. I wanted to be successful and looked up to. I wanted perfection, but she didn’t.”

I shake my head, trying to stay focused. “So those creatures she has, they are humans.”

“Or were when they had control over themselves.” Mr. Barkridge murmurs in defeat. “She keeps them to breed so that she always has them to take care of her. Her pollen controls them. Those vitamins you take were supposed to help you build up an immunity to them. Guess you never took those. I told you to!”

My mind wasn’t focused on that. It was lingering on something else. “There’s children here?” I say in horror.

“I suppose,” he scoffs dismissively.  We come to the edge of the road where no vines grow. I step onto the street and look back to see Mr. Barkridge is unmoving. He doesn’t step forward another step.

“Come on,” I urge. “Let’s go.”

He shakes his head. “I belong here.” He lays his hand over his chest. “Esther’s crimes are mine, and I do not deserve a life outside of this like you do. Go on. Get to the lighthouse. She’ll be able to protect you.”

“Who is there?” I ask.

“My old lab assistant, Akasuki. She’ll be able to get you help.” He shoos me to go. “I have to go back. I have work I need to do.”

From the forest, I hear screaming and chanting. There is a rush of motion as the trees sway and the vines appear to grow tense and rigid. 

“Hurry up,” Mr. Barkridge commands. “They’re coming.”

I race down the road, running as fast as I possibly can. I head down the hill and nearly slam into the door of the lighthouse. I grasp the handle, shaking it and jerking it while also beating on the metal door. 

“Calm down, calm down,” someone says from inside. “Let go! I can’t open it if you’re jerking it like that.” An older woman opens the door and pulls me inside. She keeps a firm hand on my arm and shoulder as she leads me to sit down. “Stay here.” She goes back to the door, placing locks and bolts back into the door all the way down.

“It’s been a while since someone came here, But I’m happy to see you,” she says.

She’s tall and thin, older than me but younger than Mr. Barkridge. She has long black hair tied back into a braid. “Akasuki?”

“Dr. Akasuki. I used to work for Dr. Barkridge,” she says sternly. “And Esther.” She pulls out an emergency kit and sits down across from me. She takes out a case from inside the kit and, inside, there is a syringe and a couple of bottles. She stabs the syringe into one of the bottles then, before I can react, jabs it into me.

“Fuck!” I curse out loud.

“Big needles often do.” She wipes an alcohol wipe over the puncture. “This is just to assure you’re immune.”

“Immune? To what? To the pollen?”

“To Esther.” Akasuki replies. “Those who stay infected too long eventually can no longer take the antidote. So you came just in time.”

I hold my arm where she injected me. “Why are you here?”

“Loyalty, maybe? Fear?” She closes up the emergency kit then places it back on the wall. “Maybe if I can warn people, this thing won’t spread.” She pulls back the blinds on the window to look out. “I helped create this mess.”

“So you and Mr. Barkridge were both on the same project?”

Akasuki steps away from the window. “He was a brilliant man, but horribly troubled.” She grimaces as she comes to sit back down. “The least I could do was stay behind and continue to work so that maybe, one day, I could end this once and for all.”

I start to grow angry. She’s been here all this time and hasn’t warned or told anybody about it? “Why haven't you said anything? Why haven’t you contacted anyone to tell them what was going on here?”

“And what? Risk people coming here and giving her exactly what she wants?” Akasuki snaps. “It’s bad enough that Thurston keeps bringing those gardeners here. But imagine if a whole swarm of people came here to see it? To research it? They wouldn’t stand a chance. They would be in over their heads.”

I furrow my brow. “You’re the one on the radio.”

“Oh,” she chuckles sadly. “You heard that? My way of venting to someone, somewhere,” she sighs heavily. 

“Then why don’t you just leave?” I gasp in disbelief.

“Because I’m just like Thurston,” she scoffs. “I can’t leave because I love someone who cannot be saved.”

“You and-” A loud bang comes from the door and a soft, tittering laugh follows.

“My love,” the face, the rose sighs, “come out now.” She slams against the door again. “Come out.” Another hard strike against the metal door. “Kiss me!”

Akasuki gives me a withering look. “You kissed the rose?”

I stare straight back at her when the windows shatter. Vines start creeping in through the window and the face presses against the curtains. “I can smell you, my love. Come kiss me.” The long yellow tongue pushes through the curtains and writhes in the air, dripping and splattering against the floor.

“Don’t worry,” Akasuki whispers as she kneels down on the floor. “Remain still and quiet. Without the pollen, the only harm she can inflict upon you is physical.”

The curtains fall away from the face, revealing a face I don’t know. The shot that Mr. Barkridge had taken to it had caused the face to shatter and split, causing bulbous masses and fleshy tumors to appear. Blisters form along the edges of the cracks, causing them to split open further. The long yellow tongue lashes out as she turns to come and face us. Her once beautiful eyes are now wide apart and nearly to the side of her head. Her lips are swollen and misshapen so that her yellow mouth is always open and oozing.

Akasuki stands with a shotgun clutched tight in her hands. Cocking it, she takes little time to aim and blasts a cavernous hole into the side of the face’s head. She drops down from the window, sagging along the broken glass. She twitches and flops, gurgling and spasming while vines grow over the gunshot. 

“Come on. Let’s go.” Akasuki motions for me to head towards the back. There’s a pummeling at the door as we race into the next room. She then takes me down a flight of stairs that goes into a basement room that is as sterile and white as a hospital. She slams a button on the wall which starts up an emergency alarm that blares and flashes. 

“They won’t find us down here, not for a while, at least.” Akasuki sits down at one of the lab tables and holds her head in her hands. “I’ll get you out of here, don’t worry.”

“What about you? Come with me!” I insist. “The face got in, it’s not safe for you here anymore.”

“I can take care of myself, that’s not the issue at hand here.” She looks around her lab with a heavy heart. “I’m so close to finding a way to stop her.”

“Shooting the face seemed to work,” I offer weakly.

Akasuki scoffs. “The face will come back. She’ll regrow. I have to find a weed killer, something that will take care of the roots.” She sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose. “They become inactive at night anyways. You should rest now.” Akasuki motions to a cot at the far corner of the room. She stands up, going over towards a glass case. She looks inside it and shakes her head. “We’ll get you home by dawn.”

I walk towards Akasuki who is looking down at the tabletop. “How am I supposed to go on knowing this place exists? I’m always going to be looking over my shoulder. Is she there? Is she trying to find me?” 

“It doesn’t exist. As soon as you leave here, it’s gone.” She gives me a warning glare. “You can’t think about it.”

“I don’t know if I can do that. Not after what I’ve seen here and-” I stop myself and take a breath.

Akasuki takes a bottle from the table. She takes from inside two yellow pills. “It will be hard. But it is better this way.” She offers the familair pills to me. “Here, take these, they’ll help you rest.”

It’s the vitamins that Mr. Barkridge had been trying to make me take. “What are these?” I ask in caution.

“Very mild sedatives,” Akasuki replies. “They can work as relaxants when taken in small doses.”

I furrow my brow. “What if you took them everyday?”

“I wouldn’t recommend that. It builds up in the body and can put people into a sort of “walking dead’ trance.” She puts the bottle away. “I use it maybe twice a year when things are at their worst. Thurston and I developed these during our research here.”

I can’t help but laugh. “Why? I thought you researched kudzu?”

“That was in the beginning. Thurston wanted us to move on to medications after his daughter passed away. Nothing panned out.” She says with a shrug.

Apparently not.

That evening when it is dark, Akasuki sneaks me out from the basement of the lighthouse and takes me back down onto the dock. Already the boat is waiting for us. The gnarled, old captain from before is there as well.

“Get him out of here.” Akasuki says, giving money to the captain. “Don’t come back this time. Just forget about the grocery deliveries, and never, ever bring another soul to this place.”

“What about you?” The captain asks. “Are you still staying?”

Akasuki looks at me. “Good luck, and please, forget about this place.”

The captain grumbles and mutters as he shuffles himself back into the boat. I look back at Akasuki before I step onto the deck. “Are you really sure you want to stay here? Why not just leave and forget too?”

Akasuki shakes her head. “I came here hoping to make the world a better place. I’m not leaving until I do.” 

I’m waving goodbye to her as the boat departs. She has a soft, sad smile on her face. Then suddenly, it changes to shock and terror. She races towards the end of the dock with a scream. “Get off the boat! Get off the boat!”

“What?” Why?” I put my hand down on the edge and feel something leafy. I then see the vine growing up the side of the boat from under the water.

“She’s gone under the island!” Akasuki screams.

The boat lurches to a stop and then everything is still. Everything is quiet. No one breathes, and no wind blows. The engine grinds and squeals as the captain tries to make the boat go. He doesn’t know. 

The vine pulls, surging the boat forward. I stumble and fall, hitting my head against the edge as I do. The boat goes back again, pulled towards shore as the bow tips towards the sky. The more Esther pulls, the boat fights going under and sticks straight up into the air. The boat is entirely above me as the water pools underneath me. The captain is trapped inside.

I swim away, moving into the water as I try to reach Akasuki at the dock. She leans down, reaching her hands out as far as she can to grab me. It’s too late, Esther has me in her clutches. Akasuki holds onto my hands, struggling to keep me above water. 

I let go, not wanting to risk Akasuki falling into the ocean. She tries to keep me, but I sink down into the abyss. The moonlight that shines through the water, reveals the many moving vines that are rising up from the bottom of the ocean. Who knows how long Esther has been surrounding the island in her own reef? 

I’m pulled down deeper, deeper. 

I wake up with the taste of dirt in my mouth. The earth is rich and dark against my tongue. I stretch my arms out, breaking through so I could see sunlight. I spit out the dirt and breathe in the fresh air, clawing myself from the fresh grave that was dug for me. 

I see the solarium ahead of me, I’m back in the garden again. The vines hold my legs, keeping me in place. I use a rock to sever them and free myself. I then race, naked, into the mansion, seeing first the painting of Esther above the fireplace. 

“Mr. Barkridge?” I call out. “Mr. Barkridge?” I run, naked, through the halls, going into every room to try and find him. He’s nowhere to be found. That is, until I find the basement. I go downstairs where his lab is set up. It is barebones compared to what Akasuki had set up in her lab. 

I take a lab coat from the wall and put it on to cover myself. As I step further into the lab, I see Mr. Barkridge’s desk at the back. I see pictures of him and Esther when they were younger. There is a baby picture of Rose. I pick up one of the pictures and I can see how happy Esther looks, but while Mr. Barkridge is smiling, his eyes seem empty. His gun is sitting there on the desktop. I take it into my hands and feel it’s still warm.

“Still here?”

I turn around and see Mr. Barkridge standing there. He takes in a deep breath. “I was told your boat sank.”

“It did,” I murmur, hiding the gun behind my back. “Mr. Barkridge, why were you making me take those vitamins?”

He frowns. “You never took them. Why not?”

I shake my head. “I don’t like vitamins.”

Mr. Barkridge takes a step towards me. “Come now, Mr. Brone. We need to keep you away from her.”

I shake my head. “No. I think you’re the one I need to stay away from.” I lift up the gun and Mr. Barkridge laughs.

“I’ve been trying to save you,” he says.

“You tried to drug me so you could kill me. As far as I can tell, everyone on this island is no good.” I cock the gun to get ready to shoot it. “I’ll either die here to become plant food, or I’ll become one of those bound things out there.”

“Put the gun down, Mr. Brone,” Mr. Barkridge snarls forcefully. “There’s no reason to get upset anymore.”

“Why?” I shout. “Why did you bring me here?”

“Give me the gun!” He screams.

I shake my head and aim the gun. “Rose was right. This was all your fault.”

Mr. Barkridge laughs. “There are no bullets in that gun.” He takes a step forward and extends his hand out. “Give it back to me. I’m no threat to you anymore.”

I pull the trigger and it goes off. Mr. Barkridge stands there in shock, slowly crumbling to his knees. I drop the gun, horrified that I actually shot him. I quickly step over him, leaving him there in the basement. 

I go back outside and I begin gathering wood and sticks. I take books from inside the house, using the paper as kindling. As I am building the bonfire, I see vines dragging Mr. Barkridge’s corpse into the woods. I stare after it, wondering what Esther would want with him now. It doesn’t matter. All of this is going to burn anyways.

I start the fire in the center of the garden and then I start letting it feed off into the rest of the garden. I use alcohol from inside to help it spread, leading it towards the iron gate. I make my way inside with a torch, following the path I had gone to meet Esther before. Behind me, I could hear the fire raging. It is spreading from the house and through the woods. I leave splashes of alcohol as fuel behind me and touch my torch to trees and bushes as I make my way towards the green hallway. 

I hear screaming already. I could hear Esther’s agony as the green hallway withers and retreats from the flames. Once I reach her, she is doubled over on the ground with all her minions gathered about her. She is weeping and screaming, blowing smoke from her mouth. Hanging behind her on the wall is Mr. Barkridge with Rose’s corpse wrapped around him.

As I step inside, the bound people turn and start coming towards me, but they stop as Esther begins to wail again.

“What have you done?” She cries. “Why would you do this? I wanted to give you a home! A new life! Why are you burning me?”

“You’ve killed people!” I roar. “You tried to kill me!”

“I wanted to help!” Esther sits up, her twisted and contorted face pulls then shrinks as her eyes focus on me. “I have nothing left! This garden was all I had! It’s my home. My family,” she weeps. “And you’re killing it!”

“This isn’t life! Off this island is life.” I scream back at her. “Look what you have done to these people and the ones you have killed. You destroyed your husband’s life, you’ve ruined Akasuki’s.”

Esther wretches and snarls. She lifts herself off the ground. “She ruined mine first,”
Esther begins to sob. “When my child died, while I was in mourning, she took my husband from me!”

A cold shock goes down my spine.

“My husband only placated me,” Esther wheezes. “He never loved me after that, he never looked my way. He pretended he did, but he never did again.” She weeps horribly. “Once Rose was buried, he didn’t care! He gave me anything I asked for except-” She hangs her head down.

“No,” I whisper shaking my head. “That can’t-”

“I brought her back! I saved her!” Esther gasps. “But then she-” She wails in absolute misery. “My baby! I lost her twice because of that miserable woman!”

I’m starting to shake. “No. No, that’s not...that can’t be true!”

Esther rises up again, supported by her minions. “They didn’t want their secret getting out. They didn’t want the world to know they were making a plant capable of producing mind altering drugs. They used the entire island as test subjects!” She spit at me.

“I tried to warn them-” she shivers. “I tried. But he called me a traitor. He said no one would believe a crazy bitch.”

I feel nauseous down to my core. I fall to my knees and breathe in smoke. 

“I was so angry and he made me believe my anger was wrong. All those years-” Esther whispers in pain. “He tried to kill me. He buried me in my own garden.”

I look up at Mr. Barkridge’s corpse. I felt strangely conflicted about shooting him, because now it felt good.

“My garden saved me,” Esther whimpers. “My garden loved me and saved my life.” Tears stream down her face like sap. “They kept trying to hide me and keep me away. My husband just kept trying to placate me. No one loved me.” She trembles as she reaches out towards me. “Only my garden loved me. It protected me. And you killed it! You monster!”

I shake my head. “I didn’t know! I thought-”

Esther finally reaches me, grabbing my face with her misshapen hands and glaring down at me. “You wretched, horrible monster! You human!” She weeps, falling to the ground and all her followers surround her.

Everything I had been told was a lie. The garden. Mr. Barkridge. Even Akasuki. They had all lied to me. I walk outside the factory while Esther wails from within. The fire has grown monstrous and is taking over the forest. It would move down into the village before long, maybe it would stop before the lighthouse. I don’t know. 

What had been the truth? In all of this, what was real? 

I find myself at the lighthouse, somehow. I had escaped the forest and had come into town. I sit there at the door, not wanting to knock or go inside. I don’t want to see Akasuki or hear any more lies. 

The door opens as the fire rages and Akasuki stands beside me. “What have you done?” She whispers.

“I feel awful,” I weep.

“There's nothing to be done now,” she resigns herself. “Come inside. I’ll make coffee.”

I remain seated there as she goes inside.

After a long moment of silence, Akasuki comes out and sits beside me on the stoop. “If it makes you feel any better, if the roots are deep, it will grow back.” She hands me a cup of coffee.

“She said you tried to kill her,” I murmur.

Akasuki remains quiet as she watches the fire rage. “I hate myself every day. That’s why I stay here,” she murmurs. “Thurston and I did things I am not proud of. I can’t leave this place because as soon as I do, I make the world worse by being in it.”

“Why did you do it?”

“I loved him,” she whispers. “And I thought she was the evil one in all this. But they both were, just in different ways.”

“Did she really kill people?” I ask hesitantly.

Akasuki sips her coffee. “Who here hasn’t?”

I close my eyes and hang my head down low. “I’m sorry, I killed him.”

She chuckles and hangs her head down to sob. “It’s about time,” she whimpers. “I let him hold me for too long.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“Yeah,” she huffs. “I know. Me too.” She looks back up towards the fire and shakes her head. “I don’t know what to do now.”

“Be patient,” I murmur. “Because now, this is it.”

A storm arrives that evening. It douses out the fire, for the most part. It never reaches the village, but it burns down the mansion. Akasuki and I go to see what damage is caused. She goes through the remains of the mansion. I wander the ruins, going through the charred remains of the forest until I reach Esther and her keep. 

The ceiling is burnt open but the stone walls remain. Sunlight pours down through the open roof, illuminating the black, charred floor. I kneel down on the ground where Esther had stood and, as I dust away the ash and char, there is a bit of green. While there is green here, I will remain. I will atone for what I’ve done and I will give the island a second chance.