Wisteria

Adventus

It had been a while since he had arrived. Oletus manor itself was extravagant,  stretching across acres of land. A large, unkempt garden sprawled on its grounds, the greenery threatening to take over. The manor itself was cold and lonely, only a shell of what remained of its former glory.

Aside from himself, there are only a handful of other people staying in the manor. Emma, a young,  sweet girl was the first to welcome him. The moment he arrived,  she ran up to the doors and handed him a bright, red flower. He found this curious, as if she was expecting his arrival.

"Hi, I'm Emma Woods. Welcome to the manor!" She greeted him with a bright smile. "Oh, and I grew these myself," she said gesturing for him to take the flower, chest puffed out with pride. He gingerly plucked the rose from her hands and shoved it in his pocket, giving the strange girl a non-commital hum in response.

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed down the stairs and a woman in a nurse's outfit arrived. "You're not supposed to be out here Emma! You might open your wounds again." She said in a strict tone, ushering the gardener out of the room.

"But Emily, " Emma whined. "I feel perfectly fine. Besides,  I want to make friends with mister right here. We'll be friends right?" She asked him, eyes shining with hope.

He scratched his head, not really knowing what to do. "Uh, sure." He grunted in a rough voice.

Emma gave out a large whoop and left the room, leaving Emily shaking her head after her. Only when she was out of sight did Emily felt it appropriate to speak. "She barely listens to me."

She spoke in a soft, firm voice. "My name is Emily Dyer. Well, uh welcome to the manor I suppose. We were expecting you."

He introduced himself in return, and Emily lead him to his rooms without a word. The silence was suffocating him. A thousand questions were forming in his mind, all needing answers.

"So, what's a nurse like you doing up here?" He said hesitantly, a weak attempt at conversation.

"Doctor. " She replied firmly, not bothering to look at him. "I'm a doctor. "

He muttered his apologies, and did not bother to speak again. Before he knew it, they were in front of his assigned quarters.

"Rest up, tomorrow I will tell you everything you need." She shuffled her feet and played with the hem of her shirt,  as if embarassed. "Apologies, you just missed dinner so I doubt there's anything left in the kitchen but I could find you some bread. We just had a match yesterday so you won't need to worry about that either. Goodnight. " She spoke in a hurry,  and before he could ask what she meant, she shut the door softly.

He laid in his bed, thinking of all the things that could go wrong with his decision to come here. He tried to make sense of the whole situation,  but no answers came to his mind. The bread didn't arrive either. So he chose to sleep on an empty stomach,  he doesn't have much of an appetite these days anyways.

The next day, all his questions were answered on breakfast. He sat himself beside Emma and Emily, the former chatting excitedly about how she was planning to reconstruct the gardens. He only gave polite nods, not really listening on what she had to say.

Across him sat a man engrossed with the book that he was reading, enclosed in his own world. He shoved spoonfuls of oats in his mouth,  eyes never leaving the pages of his book. Shiny gold letters on the back cover read "Property of Kurt Frank".

Two chairs down sat a jittery blonde guy who introduced himself as "Lucky". He smiled shyly and was about to say more when the dining room door opened with a bang.

The man walked in irritably, he was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, with a red tie looped around his neck. His left hand was tucked in his black pants while the other fixed the glasses on his face. He stomped towards the head of the table and sat down, bruised face scrunched in disgust.