𝔢𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔩

three

Whispers of Nadine's name echoed in the trees, some sort of force pulling her to the core of the woods. She might have been going crazy, but she swore she saw the essence of a glow guiding her through the forest. Her bare feet crunched on the sticks, wincing as she stepped on a sharp rock.

She rolled the balls of her feet onto the ground to prevent injuring her feet. And she walked almost as if she was in a trance.

I'm going insane Nadine thought to herself. I'm losing it. I'll be locked up in an insane asylum.

But, despite her thoughts discouraging her, Nadine padded on through the moonlit woods. The glow from the waxing half moon shimmered down in beams through the branches and the withering leaves.

Averting her gaze from the ground to look at the sky for just a moment, she tripped on a branch and tumbled down a hill into mud, groaning in pain when she reached the bottom. Nadine suspected she had at least fifteen thorns in her side now.

"Nadine, Nadine wake up!" A sobbing voice shouted, shaking Nadine awake as she twisted in her bedsheets, groaning in argument. "No, Nadine, not now! Please wake up!" Nadine groggily opened her eyes to see her brother's ash covered face. Wait... ash covered face?

Then she felt it. The heat. She heard the cracking sound of flames.

Nadine shot up in bed, throwing the covers off of her and looking around in a panic. There was no fire in hers and her brother's bedroom, but she could hear the yelling of her parents and sister.

She grabbed Orion's hand and sprinted out of the bedroom, to find flames licking up the walls of her home.

Nadine's nightgown was covered in mud, her face dirty, and her hair filled with sticks. She shot awake and managed to push herself halfway off the ground, looking around in a daze.

Nadine had tumbled down a ten foot hill, which landed in front of an ivy covered stone wall, the skeleton metal framed gate letting her peer into the strange place she'd landed. She saw the shimmering of water, the waves lapping at the stone foundation of a gazebo that sat on the lake. By the architecture she could make out through the darkness, it looked similar to that of the mansion. Except this place... she felt like this was what was calling her into the woods.

Something about the energy of this place comforted Nadine like a hug from her sister, a kiss on the cheek from her mother, or a warm look from her father.

She managed to stumble to her feet, brushing her now-matted hair out of her face, wincing at a sharp pain in her side as Nadine decided to ignore it and limp to the gate, pushing it open.

The hinges were rusted, causing a squeaking sound that made Nadine cringe and bare her teeth. She crept into the garden cautiously. She wasn't sure why, but it felt wild and free; like a sanctuary that only a handful of people deserved to see. Like a gateway to peace laid within its moss and wisteria lined walls.

For once, ever since the night her home was engulfed in fire, which Nadine swore was sent by Satan himself, she felt calm. Her soul was no longer fighting itself.

It felt like she was back home.

Nadine could hear the birds sing and the crickets chirp, and as her eyes opened, she saw a murder of crows perched on the mossy stone gazebo. She counted eleven.

Nadine read enough to know the Edgar Allen Poe poem about crows. Eleven for hope.

Hope. That was all she needed. Hope for her to escape this pit of sorrow she's been trapped in.

Hope for freedom.

God, she needed freedom.

And she was sure she'd found it in this garden.

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short chapter but its better than nothing!!!

and um I somehow got myself a boyfriend?? no idea how lmao

anyways pls comment and vote bc I need to know someone is reading this

I love ya'll <3

- Avery Kate