Rosehead

Chapter 6. On The Scent

Lilith plodded to the bathroom. Loudly knocking before entering, she jumped into the shower, not so much to wash off the dirt, but to think. Running water calmed her mind, helping her map out the day. She needed to scrutinize the rose garden, to examine its every alley, spy on its every shadow, smell, and sound. She hoped to hear the woman-thing again, but this time she'd be prepared. Panther would sniff out potential locations of buried bodies, and she'd go look for Ed. There also remained the unknown of yesterday's announcement.

Lilith looked around to make sure nobody could hear her. "I wonder what my treacherous sleazebag of a grandfather might have announced that was so important?"

Without warning, the bathroom moved. Screeching, it sped up, then down, then stopped, shaking like a wet animal.

Lilith held on to the shower door. "Oh, you don't like him either?"

The bathroom didn't answer, only stretched a little, cracking its joints.

"I understand. If you don't want to talk about him, that's fine." Unperplexed, she turned off the water, wrapped herself in a towel, and opened the door.

"Excuse me if I interrupted your routine. But thank you, and good morning," she said politely to the mansion at large.

Lilith chose a proper detective outfit: black jeans, black Mary Janes, black cardigan, and black beret. She checked herself in the mirror and nodded.

"Panther." She shook the whippet.

He yawned. "What? Go away. I'm on vacation." He covered his nose with both paws.

"Panther Bloom—" Footsteps in the corridor startled Lilith. "My medicine!" She grabbed the vial, shook out a capsule and twisted it open. Inside resided the powdered drug that was supposed to make her pay attention in class. She despised it. It dulled her senses, made her feel stupid and sluggish, and turned life boring. Smells lost their intensity, houses stopped moving, and her heart slowed down. It also caused insomnia, requiring her to take sleeping pills. She slept but saw no dreams.

To sum it up, on pills Lilith didn't feel herself.

She ran to the bathroom, dumped the powder out of two capsules, closed them, flushed the toilet, and returned just in time for her mother to enter.

"You're awake!" Gabby said, astounded. "And dressed." She took a lock of Lilith's hair, feeling it like yarn. "And you took a shower without me reminding you."

"Good morning to you too, Mother," Lilith said nicely. "You will be pleased to know that I'm planning to socialize today. I want to get to know every guest, to make a good impression. To compensate for my atrocious behavior."

"Really?" Her mother looked surprised.

"Really. And I'm taking my pills like you asked me to."

She needed to get her mother out of the way today. Exaggerating every gesture, Lilith placed two empty capsules on her tongue, grabbed a bottle of water from the bedside table, took a swig, and swallowed.

"I can't believe my eyes. What changed overnight?"

"Um..." Lilith started, very tempted to say, Well, grandfather woke me up with chopping noises. He decapitated dead people with an axe. Then their heads appeared on the wall and wouldn't shut up, not letting me sleep. Then I discussed with Panther, who can talk by the way, how we're going to stop grandfather from murdering more innocents, because we think— well, I think—he feeds them to the garden. That's what makes his roses so bloody red. Naturally, we devised a plan to uncover his true intentions for the Bloom family reunion. Aside from this, and aside from the fact that the garden's stench makes me want to puke, nothing else significant happened.