𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐀 ━ wybie x reader.

Twenty-Three: Gathering the Four Ghost Eyes.

[Ashland, Oregon. Wednesday,
November 22, 2015.]

Outside, Y/n (after retrieving her hefty bag from inside the Pink Palace) walks through the gates belonging to the Other Garden. The bright magic of the garden is darker now, with areas of black against areas of glowing flowers. She passes the pitcher plants, and the one with the frog suddenly swallows the animal.

She goes up the steps past the bleeding hearts, which now leak sticky red juice that runs down the wall. At the top, a few snapdragons, feeble now, snap at her. Y/n kicks them down. Behind her, a brick tree ring opens as a monster's mouth and five huge, pale snapdragons sneak towards her. They attack, and knock her to the ground, spilling her bag.

"No!" Y/n tries to get up but to no avail — the plants grab at her ankles, knees, hips, waist, and shoulder, and start to roll her up toward the stone mouth. Luckily, the teenager is just able to grab her garden shears which she uses to cut off one mutant snapdragon's head, then another, until she is free.

The now headless stems retreat into the rock mouth.

Y/n, winded, goes to gather her spilt things when a trio of hummingbird/wasp hybrids swoop in. They don't attack her; instead, they poke their long beaks into the triangle candy and lift off. She don't know why but she instinctively yelled, "Stop!"

She scrambled to her feet and chases after them but they were getting away.

As she crosses the little bridge, she takes off her cap and flings it like a frisbee at them. Bullseye — they fall to the ground, near the eyebrow shrubs, sawdust spilling out. She picks up the Adder Stone and lets out a sigh of relief. Not a scratch.

"I wonder..." Y/e holds it up to her eye and gasps. "Wow..."

Everything is a blurry grey like a pencil drawing, all colour gone. She scans the garden, turning slowly. As she turns back to where she started, she sees something, right in front of her: a burning red ember — it must be an eye belonging to one of the ghost children. She lowers the stone from her eye and heads in the general direction of the presumed eye.

Upon reaching her destination, Y/n sees that the ghost's eye is the faded stick shift knob from the praying mantis tractor, which stands in front of her with the Other Father, a squat pumpkin man, at its controls, his own hands imprisoned in the mechanical piano hands.

Headlights glare and the tractor roars to life. The mechanical hands force the Other David to shift gears, and the tractor lurches at Y/n, its arms slashing. She yells and backs away. The Other Father calls in a garbled voice: "Sorry, so sorry! Mother is... making me..."

Y/n backs onto the little bridge that spans the fountains as the tractor moves in.

"Don't want to hurt you—"

The Other Father tries to steer the tractor away, but the mechanical hands are stronger. It moves onto the bridge — stupidly smashing through the planks in front of it. Halfway over, it lurches, and then starts to fall through the hole it has created. The tractor hangs precariously for a moment.

Y/n partially feels sorry for the creature as she watches the Other David kicks away one mechanical hand, and with one hand free, manage to pull off the shift knob. "Take it!" He pleaded.

Y/n dives forward and just gets the knob before the tractor and the Other David fall away and sink under the water.

Rippling out from Y/n like a grey wave, the entire garden becomes ashen and dead. The teenager catches her breath, shaken. The ghost eye/gear knob glows red, no magic candy is necessary. "Bless you, miss, you found me! But there are three eyes still lost." The little boy reminded the h/c-haired girl.