Saving Eden

Chapter One - The Monster in the Garden(Part 2)

Earlier that day, before Angela had dared to climb out of her window, her father had penalized her for looking at a picture she found in her father's room. The picture showed a woman with warm brown skin and dark, curly hair sitting on golden sand. Behind the woman, Angela saw waves reaching towards the clouds. The water held reflections of the sky above, brilliant and bright. It mirrored the sky's endless blue eternity. She figured this must be the ocean, though she only knew of the ocean from stories her father told about the world beyond the garden.

Angela was hit with the sudden realization of how beautiful the world must have been when it was populated with people. The fact that she would never get the chance to dip her toes in the ocean or to speak with any other humans caused her to feel distressed.

That was when Nathan barged into the room. Confusion filled his face at the sight of Angela rummaging through his things. Anger flashed in his eyes as he realized what exactly she was looking at, but the anger was mixed with some other emotion that Angela could not identify.

"Angela!" he boomed. Hearing her father raise his voice was unsettling as his demeanor was typically serene.

"Is this woman my mother?" Angela asked. She had never been shown a picture of her mother before, but the slim build, wild hair, and brown skin of the woman in the photograph matched her own reflection. She didn't inherit many of her father's features, save for his hazel eyes and stubborn nature.

Nathan didn't answer her question. Instead, he scolded her for going through his things. Angela responded by marching upstairs to her room, where she slammed her door for dramatic effect and stayed put as the remainder of the day slipped into night. Angela had been feeling like a bird in a cage, where her every action was being inspected.

That was when she had heard it, for the third night in a row: a rustling in the bushes outside and a whistling that mirrored the notes of her favorite song.

There was someone in the garden.

She realized nighttime was the only time she could escape from her father's watchful gaze. That's why, under the cover of darkness, she decided to sneak out and discover the source of the sound. Now that she was back in the safety of her bed, she mentally scolded herself for screaming like a child at the sight of the stranger. Her father would have an increasingly watchful eye now that he knew she had snuck out once. She tried to envision new methods of investigation as she drifted off to sleep.

***

The next morning, Angela sought her favorite form of therapy: music. She made her way outside to the grand piano that sat in the center of the vast garden surrounding their home.

She gently pressed a pencil that was half the size of her index finger onto a yellow-paged notebook to record a few notes. Angela knew that after things were gone they could never be replaced. No matter how light her inscriptions were, the pencil would not last forever. Where would she store her music after her only way of recording it was gone?

She sighed as she looked toward the hand-built two-story cabin. Every inch of their home had been carefully constructed, revealing how clever and capable her father was. His potential caused her to question why they lived the way they did, using only leftovers from long ago instead of venturing out and restocking their repository. Their way of existence didn't add up in Angela's mind.

As she scanned their home with her eyes, four fingers gripping the blue curtain of a downstairs cabin window caught her attention. She saw one of Nathan's eyes pop into the crack he had created to spy on her.

Angela quickly removed her gaze from the window to stare at the bright sky. When she was sure he hadn't seen her watching him, she spun around on the wooden bench back towards the piano. She grinned as her fingers danced over the keys, the wind carrying the sound of her favorite song; the same tune she had been hearing the voice whistle at night.