Marina and the Rose Garden

Prologue

I was never a fan of mysteries but this one sure as hell changed my life, there is no doubt about it. I don't know if this made me more interested in mysteries or if it pushed me further away from them. Considering nothing really ever went down in this town what happened to me kind of scared me a bit. It was a lot scarier when it was happening, trust me.

From what I remember it was just another normal, sunny day in Lakewood, Texas. I was eleven years old. Me and some of my friends that lived on the same block were hanging out by the end of the street. We thought we were so cool, sitting with our slushes and our bikes. There was quite a few of us, six to be exact. It was me, Apollo, Jupiter, Nate, Alice and Lizzy.

All of us were best friends, we even had the friendship bracelets to prove it. If one of us was in trouble the other five would come to the rescue, even if it was just helping out with homework. Yeah we had arguments but we were best friends so we always forgave each other, eventually. We had been friends since kindergarten so we had known each other a long time.

That day was great. We had gotten up at eight and hung out the whole day. We went to the arcade, then to the park and played some ball games, after we biked to the nearest seven eleven and got slushes. Then we sat at the end of the street. We was nearest to Nate's house, we was sitting on his lawn. None of us were really talking, just drinking our slushes looking at the clouds. I was sitting against a tree when Jupiter started talking.

"Have you guys seen the Rose bushes growing around town lately?". He asked then drinking his slush.

"Actually, yeah, I have! They been growing everywhere!". Lizzy replied.

"They're all red roses too!". Nate added.

"Well it is the start of spring". I stood up. "Roses bloom in spring and then in fall".

Apollo got to his feet. "They say that they are linked to some massive root growing somewhere in town". He added before putting his empty slush cup in the bin.

Silence fell upon us and the only noises that were heard were the drinking of the slushes and the cars that passed. I thought about what the root of the roses would look like. Would it connect to a massive tree, like a rose tree, that would be weird.

Lizzy smirked. "You guys wanna go looking for the root?".

"Are you kidding?" Nate jolted up "Hell yeah!"

Lizzy and Nate finished their slushes and put them in the bin. Lizzy grabbed her bike and Nate stood in the middle of us.

"Are we going? 'cause if we are then I need to tell my mom" Nate gestured to his front door.

We all agreed it would be fun to try and look for the source. Even if we didn't end up finding it. I nodded and Nate ran to his front door to tell his mom while the rest of us grabbed our bags and bikes. He came back, slung his backpack over his shoulders and jumped on his bike. Instead of all going together we went in pairs to cover more ground. Lizzy and Jupiter, Nate and Apollo then Alice and me.

Alice and I decide to ride over to the arcade and check it out. We all planned to meet back at Nate's house and check the park and woods together. Being with Alice was fun, she was hilarious. The arcade did have roses growing there but it wasn't enough to be the source of anything. Not wanting to be the first ones to go back we hung out in the arcade and checked inside the building. After finding nothing we went back to Nate's house. Pretty much everyone else was already there.

Riding over to the park was weird. Lizzy was determined to find something after failure when searching the shops. When we arrived she sped right into the woods. Of course Jupiter went right after her, then we followed him. Apollo and Nate stayed with our bikes. I could hear Jupiter shouting to her. He yelled things like...

"Lizzy this isn't a good idea!"

"Our parents will kill us if they find out!"

"What are you expecting to find?!"

Then she stopped running and let him catch up. Which is when she grabbed his hand and started running again. He didn't protest and kept up her pace even though he had no idea where we were going.

After running she lead us into a clearing and let go of his hand. She looked around as if she was expecting something to jump out with a massive sign or something. I watched as her face switched from hope to disappointment. Lizzie looked down folded her arms. Jupiter put a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him.

"I really thought of all places it might be here"

We all jumped when we heard a twig snap. Lizzie whipped around. Instead of seeing a deer we saw a gardener stepping into the clearing.

"Who the hell are you?" Lizzie questioned.

The woman smiled and stepped further into the clearing. "Sorry for scaring you all but I heard something coming through the trees and I wanted to check everything was alright"

Jupiter spoke up "Yeah were fine, what are you doing out here anyway?"

"Oh I was gardening!"

"I've been past this clearing many times and I have never seen a garden here before" Lizzy barked.

"It's very hidden! I'm not surprised!"

Lizzy death glared this woman super intensely.

"Would you like to come see?"

"Even though you might be an axe murder and this might cost us our lives I wanna see this garden that I have missed many a times" Lizzy joked.

"OH!" The woman laughed "You're the funny one out of the group"

"I try" Lizzy relented walking to follow the woman.

Considering Lizzy was really the only one who knew these woods we had to stick with her. We followed this woman past the clearing and into the woods.