The Devil's Garden

4 - The Devil's Garden

I stood there dumbfounded as I gazed into the garden.

There was no other words to use other than...breathtakingly beautiful.

It was the interior of a giant greenhouse. The air was humid and smelled of every single flower scent you could imagine. (And I was also getting small whiffs of Micheal cologne plus the everlasting smell of death which was a really good combination surprisingly.)

We were standing at the beginning of a long stone path and winded in all kinds of directions. There were flowers in pots, on shelves, planted in the ground, hanging from the ceiling, even trees grew as tall as 100 feet. The sounds of birds chirping and crickets making their daily sounds filled my ears. I could even hear a small river or creek rushing some ways away.

Some plants extended to at least 6 feet tall. Every single variety of plant that you could imagine was in this room or whatever you wanted to call this place.

How could a place like this have something so beautiful in its midst's?

I looked over at Micheal. "Am I supposed to take care of all of this?" I asked dumbfounded.

He laughed and gestured to his garden. "Yes, of course. This right here is my pride and joy and only a select few get to come in here. Azalea hasn't even entered in the decades that she has been here. I select a mortal to come take care of my garden and they stay here as long as they can last. But this garden is very special and delicate and I expect you and trust you to take care of it."

"What exactly do I need to do? Just water the plants, make sure they don't die?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Not exactly. See these aren't exactly normal flowers. But I can't exactly tell you the secret just yet. I need you to figure it out as you tend to the garden. Along with making sure that they are watered, fed properly, and that they do not wilt away...you need to also make sure that they remain lively and talking. Then you--"

I interrupted him. "Whoa whoa, hold up. Did you say talking?"

He walked forward and approached a 5 foot tall rose bush and brought his ear close to one of the blossoming buds and listened. He smiled and nodded his head after a couple of seconds.

"This flower is doing just perfect. They had so much to tell me today."

I gazed at Micheal suspiciously. I couldn't tell whether this man was being serious...or if he was completely off his rocker.

Oblivious to my expression he continued. "You need to listen and talk to the plants. They're all...well I can't spoil that either." He stared off. "Anyway, even though I don't enter here often I have a special relationship with all of these beauties. And what I want you to do is to get them to trust you. You need to talk to them and listen to them until they are fully blossomed. That is when the process is complete and it is just a regular flower ready to be cut."

"How will I know that they are ready?" I questioned.

"Oh you will know Paige. Trust me on that." He walked up to another plant, a calla-lily this time and he bent over to listen to its bud. He frowned and nodded his head sadly.

"This one isn't doing too well. Make sure you take note of this plant. Tsk tsk such a sad story." He patted one of the leaves. "I'm sure everything will be better."

OK...my mind was thinking...this man really must have lost it. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to escape, or have Azalea torture me enough so that I actually had a motive. But then again why would I want to leave? I didn't really have anything going for me up in the real world. I was alone...and here I have company and people to talk to....other than the flowers.