In The Garden

Introduction and Chapter 1

"A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt to be dangerous."

Alfred Adler

"And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity."

Jeremiah 9:5

Author's note words in italic are flashbacks and take place in the past.

Introduction

The Legend of George and Georgette

George Walker and Georgette Aston met in the hallways of Raytown High School some forty years ago. It was love at first sight but their love like so many loves was a forbidden love. He came from nothing and she came from old money. Georgette's family disapproved of just about everything George Walker was. He was young, poor, and in their minds going nowhere. Though he did play football and played it well. As these types of stories go Georgette of course was the head cheer leader, her and her three best friends ruled the school. Georgette was a very bright young woman full of potential she had her choice of colleges she just had to pick which one she wanted to go to. She had chosen Yale because George had received a sports scholarship there but after a tragic injury left him unable to play football he lost all his hopes of getting out of Raytown. Georgette not wanting to be a part from him instead went to UMKC though a respectable school it wasn't the ivy league school her parents had in mind for her.

Soon after Georgette's family was hit with tragedy when her grandmother she was murdered in the family's backyard pool. More tragedy followed when her parents died in a car accident just months later. Georgette was rocked to her core but inherited the family's money and home. George and Georgette ran away to get married in a no name chapel in Las Vegas without any family members and without any blessing. George and Georgette Walker moved into Aston Manor, Georgette's family home, where they lived for many years. During this time the surrounding cities were plagued with child abductions. Georgette and her three friends from high school formed a neighborhood coalition to raise awareness and support for the families who lost children. But then on the night of their fifth anniversary tragedy would strike Georgette once again. She would discover that it was George who was in fact taking and presumably murdering the children though no bodies were ever found.

Georgette and her three friends confronted George one night in Aston Manor. Georgette begged him to turn himself in but alas he would not instead he murdered Georgette and her three friends with an axe. The only witness to this gruesome act was a young girl who Georgette had been mentoring by the name of Alison Cooper. She alone survived and escaped. It is said that George consumed by grief burnt down Aston Manor with himself inside though but again no body was ever found.

Chapter 1

"I remember it was an unusually warm fall evening the kind we're sometimes used to here in Missouri. I can hear the familiar sound of cicadas all around me. I scream breaking the calm and even the cicadas seem to take notice. It was the eve of my tenth birthday and I am alone, barefoot, scared, and running for my life. I know am in a garden but not entirely sure how I ended up there. The garden is completely surrounded by six foot high cobble stone walls, I run around seemingly in circles desperately trying to find an exit. I hear his voice behind me. He's not far away. I don't stop running. I don't even turn around to see where he is at. Tears begin streaming down my face making it hard to see where I am going.

I'm wearing my favorite yellow cotton pajamas. I remember the feel of them used to give me comfort when I was sick, but tonight I find no comfort in them. For they are the ones I was wearing when he took me. I am also wearing a light robe, which I can hear behind me the sound of it like a whip driving me to run faster. I frantically look around me I don't see him but I know he is out there in the darkness, in the garden, somewhere. All I see are the carved marble statues of goddesses and vague dark outlines of the plants that inhabit the garden. I remember how eerily calm the night was and how the air was filled with the sweet scent of roses. A smell that used to bring soothing thoughts of love for me only brings back memories of terror. I remember roses were her favorite.