I removed myself behind Brother Amo when Brother Millian turned his back from us. I pouted while watching him slip away. I too didn’t liked what I did but…
I sighed.
Brother Amo abruptly turned his head on my way that made me jolt in surprise. .
“What was that Maxine?” he asked with his brows slightly furrowed but his smile was still there on his lips.
“It’s just like what you saw.” I replied back.
“No, I mean Why are you like that to our oldest Brother?” he put his hand on his waist, ready to reprimand me any moment. Oh… Was he talking about my attitude towards brother?
I fidgeted infront of him, trying to act cute so he won’t nag at me too much. I also pouted and adjusted the look in my eyes and made it pitiful.
“I think Brother Millian hates me. He’s acting more strange than me tho.” I muttered and looked down to my green shoes as I played my feet. He scratched his cheek, trying to find an excuse to give.
“Millian doesn’t hate you.. He’s just… He’s just… How should I put it?” he can’t put it into words and even looked up to think carefully as if the answer he was seeking was there.
“Hmm… He’s… He’s just shy? All I know is he doesn’t hate you, Princess.” I know that. It’s just… I sighed inside my mind before we went back to the dining hall together.
STUDY again. I got whipped, spanked and pinched again on my class times but I made sure to apply medicines this time. Old wounds were being covered by fresh wounds and bruise. It hurts but I managed not to wince, I just didn’t know what to do because it itches sometimes but I always ignored it I didn’t want it to be more severe.
It’s after lunch and as usual, I’m sitting under the tree. The Knights were taking rests before continuing with their practice.
Whenever I look at Brother Millian from afar, I always caught him also looking at me and if he meet my gaze, he was moving away farther more from me. I bet, he got traumatized when almost beheaded me last time.
Maxwell and Maxillary immediately vanished from my sight after lunch, I almost really thought that they were twins because they’re always together, sometimes, with Lein and oftenly with me.
Kath was nowhere to be found again. Maybe doing some afternoon chores?
“Did you saw Hushker?” I heard the Knight asked his comrade.
“Huh? Nope. Why? Is he missing again?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t find him anywhere, he was just here not long ago.”
I didn’t intend to eavesdrop their conversation but they were standing near my place so I can’t help but to hear them.
I saw the twins -I mean, my older brothers Maxwell and Maxillary running towards me. When they got near me, they grabbed my hands and pulled me up from the ground.
“Wait, wait! What are you doing brothers?!” I stopped them. They looked back to me and smiled widely in unison that made me doubt them. What are they planning this time?
“Secret! This will be exciting!” Brother Maxwell said, enthusiasm was visible in his tone and they continued dragging me somewhere.
I realized, we’re taking the path to Holarosa’s Garden which was an abandoned garden that gave me an eerie feeling when I was still young in the past, contrary now that it only gives me a calm feeling.
In the past, it was renovated to be the third most beatiful garden in our Estate, 10 years later. Before it was renovated, there was a story of a ghost circling around Zachrono House and said it was a haunted garden because someone was buried in the vicinity and it’s soul became the ghost which was a hoax and only intended to scare off the children and women.
They proved that there was no ghost only when they already fixed the garden.
Before we could even enter the garden, we stopped under the rusty arch of the entrance, already eaten by crawling plants. They both faced me and I used that moment to fix my messy dress because of them, dragging me.
“We just want to warn you, don’t ever lose your grip on our hands.” Maxillary warned me. I nodded despite of confusion. I wonder who would lose the grip of who first.
“This graden is full of ghosts and you wouldn’t want to be alone here. They say, they always see a green ghost here around this time.” Maxwell said with a frightening voice, trying to scare us. Instead of being afraid, my expression turned blank. I should expect something like this, they’re still kids… And I am too. Huh.
But they know the story of the ghost since childhood in my past? I never expected them to believe such nonsense and concern themselves with it when we were young because I always only saw them as cold persons. But then, I realized that they were just like the other ordinary kids and I’m the only one who gave such impression about them.
They want to see the said ‘ghost’ that’s why they drag me here?
They even told me random things about the green ghost that suddenly turned into a monster while their story telling was prolonged.
“Stop!” I interrupted them, both of my hands were raised infront of them to stop them from talking. It was effective because they immediately shut their mouths and stared at me, blinking.
I didn’t understand a word of what they told me because they were both talking so fast at the same time, explaining that I couldn’t comprehend.
“Are we going in or not? You know, we might not see the green ghost you’re talking about if we stay too much time here.” I reasoned out. I almost wanted to run inside when they both agreed with me.
“Let’s see if the ghost is true.” Maxwell invited before they grabbed my hands again.
They walked slowly -I mean, we. We walked slowly not to cause any sound when we entered the garden. They looked like sneaky kittens, wary of the surrounding because they ought to steal a fish on the top of their Lord’s table. They were looking around while I’m just looking straight infront of us.
The garden was all green, there’s some colorful flowers and different tall and big trees. The bushes were tall and some of the crawling plants were already crawling in different ways. Just by looking at the plants, someone can tell that the garden was really abandoned and weren’t being taken care of for decades.
The tall grasses even reached my legs and that made my wound itchy. I suddenly want to go somewhere with a clean path and scratch my legs.
I never visited this garden in the past before and after it was renovated because it was a little far from the training ground. I never went in the training ground in the past so how could I even go here? And another thing, I don’t want to involve myself in such trivial things.
I also don’t know the reason why they suddenly renovated this abandoned garden, I only heard the news of Holarosa when the renovation of the garden was done. Was it to prove that there’s no ghost or buried body in Holarosa’s Garden just like they’ve said?
We walked around the garden for minutes and we even passed by a transparent room of flowers that were also abandoned because of the crawling grasses around them. The door was also locked by thick crawling plants and I don’t know if it could still be opened after using normal strength. Maybe, brute would do.
Maxwell sudenly stopped and followed by the latter so even me was also stopped. They are still holding both of my hands.
I looked at the reason why did we stopped just to find different tall plants that hadn’t been trimmed for years infront of us. There’s no available pathway to walk through. The plants infront was almost taller than me. Good thing, we’d be returning back now since there’s no path to walk through anymore and not a single ghost appeared.
We turned our heads at the left side in unison when we heard something rustled from the bushes. I felt my brothers stiffened while I was wondering what might it be.
It couldn’t be a beast nor monster since the Estate’s security was tight.
We heard rustles again on the same direction that made my two brothers took a step back and because they were holding my hands, I was also dragged back. Wait. Was there an animal living here? Bunnies or cats perhaps? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case given the abandoned garden and these tall bushes around the place.
“W-what’s that?” Maxwell asked nervously, his hand holding mine was sweating despite of the cold weather around us.
“I don’t know.” Maxillary replied in a low tone, almost whisper like that still reached our ears. His hands turned icy cold because of dread.
We heard rustles again and sound of broken twigs. Rustles were followed by rustles and the sound was approaching to where we stood.
I was wondering why were my brothers were not running away? I bet they were frozen in their spot, afraid to make any sounds because of something -someone that was approaching.
One more rustle and –