Twisted Wonderland 2

You Won't Be Alone

Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. The glow of the moon casts the school in a ghostly light as a couple guests wander around the dark botanical garden. The candles inside the jack-o'-lanterns have been lit, giving little light as a fog rolls over the grounds.

"We finally made it to the botanical garden!" The girl bounces on her toes with excitement. "We've gotta get some pictures of those rare flowers that only grow here for Magicam."

The boy grins. "Yeah, for sure! Where are they, anyway?"

"Is that them over there? Those pretty blossoms way in the back?"

The guests come across a yellow sign that reads 'Please stay out of the flower beds'.

"It says not to go in there... But with all these other plants blocking the way, we can't get a good shot from here."

The boy notices something. "I see some people on the other side of the tree."

Riddle, Trey and Ace talk in hushed whispers by a large tree.

"Say, have you heard the rumors about the Night Raven College botanical garden?" Riddle asks.

"Why, no, I haven't!" Ace quietly exclaims. "Tell me more."

Interested, the guests creep closer to hear more. They lurk behind the tree as Riddle tells about the rumor.

"Centuries ago, the area this garden stands on used to be a burial ground for, well, problem-causers."

Ace quirks an eye. "I'm gonna need you to be more specific."

"Malicious mages. Terrible tyrants. Knavely knights." Riddle says. "Basically, villains that were too much for people to handle. Anyone so infamous they couldn't be buried in major cities got shipped out to Sage's Island, far removed from the rest of civilization. The islanders assigned a keeper to guard over the grounds. After all, what if those foul villains arose again as evil spirits? But one foggy night, the keeper vanished without a trace. So did the next one. And the one after that. And the one after that. Gravekeeper after gravekeeper all went missing, and always on a foggy night."

The guests share a glance and look back to the Heartslabyul students.

Riddle continues his spooky tale. "Did they all run away? Or did they get dragged down to join the villains buried underfoot? No one knows for certain. But I hear that even now, sometimes people spot skeletons with shovels roaming the botanical garden grounds on foggy nights. Some say those skeletons are the remains of the vanished gravekeepers. And they continue their work unabated, completely unaware that they're dead."

Ace's eyes widen. "Whoooa. I've never heard that before!"

"You know what I hear?" Trey adds. "That every year, someone goes missing at Night Raven College, and the school covers it up. Worse, these botanical gardens are the last place each of those people were seen. That's why all the 'do not enter' signs are posted. They can't afford to tarnish their image by publicly admitting it, but... The signs are there to keep students from having an unfortunate run-in with any skeletons."

Riddle glances around, making the guests duck behind the tree. "Speaking of rumors, it's getting a little foggy. Chilly, too. We'd better make ourselves scarce."

The three of them head out of the garden, leaving the guests to speculate over what they just heard.

"Wow. Did you catch that?"

The boy rolls his eyes. "C'mon, there's no way. All that stuff about burial grounds and skeletons? They're just your standard-issue schoolyard rumors."