Knocked Up by the Cursed Prince: Sexy Stories from Steamydale

Evie - Lost in the Gardens

The Infinity Gardens are a huge tourist attraction for Steamydale. They're also impossible to navigate on your own. Seriously, it's like no one's ever heard of signposts or something! There used to be maps, but you had to borrow one from the library, and there were never enough copies, so...

Someone, at some point, not too long ago, created an app. Yes, Steamydale has its very own app just for the Infinity Gardens. Basically when you pull it up on your phone, it does something behind the scenes, GPS or whatever, and tells you which way to go to get out of the Gardens.

Getting in isn't a problem. It's easy to get lost within the beauty of the Infinity Gardens themselves. It's getting out that's the hard part. It's like there's some sort of magic or something, people lose their sense of direction, and...

Anyways, there's an app. I don't have to worry about it. I can get in, find the roses, use the app to get out, and, ta da!

If my dad finds an infinity rose or two on his bedside table tonight, well, he'll be none the wiser. Yes, that sort of means I'm planning on breaking Steamydale's third rule, but come on, why are the roses off limits in the first place?

The only thing I could ever come up with that's maybe a bit of a stretch is there might have been a huge amount of nerium oleander in the gardens way back when, which is incredibly poisonous. Makes sense why they wouldn't want anyone picking the flowers.

Supposedly some of the first settlers in Steamydale built their homes in the Gardens, or at least one home. Maybe not a great idea with poisonous flowers all around, but what do I know? If you go into the mountains and look into the gardens from there, you can still see the remains of the Castle family mansion smack dab in the middle.

Not that the Castle family lives there anymore. At least I don't think they do. No one's ever actually been able to get to the mansion, either. Another mystery of the Infinity Gardens. I bet it probably has something to do with some weird magnetic rock or something underneath the gardens, which probably screws with people's compasses, and...

I have no idea. It's obviously not magic, though. There're no witches or wizards here. If there were, I could just wave a magic wand around and create money out of thin air, which would be pretty nice, but nope.

Anyways:

I step through the ornate floral gates to the Infinity Gardens. The air grows a little colder as soon as I pass, but it's probably just because it's late. I still have a few hours of light before sunset, which is, um...

I don't actually know where the infinity roses are. I've never seen one. My dad and my sisters and I used to come here sometimes in the summer to have picnics like a lot of families in Steamydale, but we always went to the field instead of anywhere near the flowers. I'm positive some little kid must've picked a flower at some point, though. The off limits rule is stupid now. It's pointless. It's--

As I'm walking down the main path to the center of the gardens, I look to the side quick, convinced someone's watching me. It's not that I saw someone, but more that feeling of... being watched, you know? I...

I see him. Almost. The reflection of a man that vanishes as soon as I lay eyes on him. He's hidden within a copse of trees, looking at me with curious interest, confused as to why I'm there.

I start towards him without thinking. Logic? Reason? What are those?

I just know he's--

He's gone. No sooner than I step foot off the main path of the Infinity Gardens, my mystery man's disappeared. In his place is an impossibly large white stag. Which is impossible all on its own. A stag? Here? Um...

The white stag bounds into the woods of the Gardens. Not as if fleeing, but more like--

I run after it, completely forgetting myself and where I am.

I run and I run and I...

The stag is faster than I could ever hope to be. I manage to keep sight of it for awhile, but soon it vanishes into nothingness almost as easily as it appeared.

And...

I'm lost.

Completely and utterly.

Darn it, Evie!