Because of the never ending – and still constantly growing – pile of homework, I am able to write on weekends only. So, it may take some time to get the chapters out, and I apologize, but there's really nothing I can do about it.

Thank you, Jen, Hiei's-Dark-Little-Phoenix, linalove and Animelover1002 for Reviewing! It was so very nice to hear from you all :) I hope you will enjoy the next part!


Chapter Two: The Garden's Keeper

Regret was the first thing Rose felt after waking up. Groaning, she rubbed her hand against her face and thought back to the day before. The garden was so beautiful and mesmerizing, with all the green sculptures around and an almost magical aura, was definitely one of the most amazing things Rose had ever seen. The atmosphere shattered like a soap bubble, and for what reason? A sound. A mere sound, that could easily be her imagination. Rose had let herself panic and flee like a scared cat, and it wasn't something she was proud of, now that she thought it over.

"Rose, honey! Breakfast is ready!"

A groan escaped her lips. Thank goodness she managed to slip into the house unnoticed by anyone. If she'd get caught sneaking in, the consequences would be painful, no matter who'd catch her; the parents would most likely ground her, Denis, being the loving brother that he is, would most likely tell their parents right away, and Trevor, being even more loving and understanding, would demand a fine pay for his silence. 'I have the most lovely family ever,' Rose thought to herself, rolling her eyes.

"Rose! Get up or you'll miss school!"

"Geez, now that's a temptation," sarcasm dripped off every word, yet the girl gathered the strength and got up from bed. After the whole morning routine, she came downstairs to discover her mother and younger brother in the kitchen. Mr. Wheeler was seated in the living room, scanning through the morning paper, and Trevor was ready to leave.

"My, aren't you eager to show up in school, huh, bro," Rose grinned at him and he smirked back.

"Some of us have to work hard to obtain a reputation, my dearest sister."

"I know very well what kind of reputation you have in mind, Trev," Rose took her seat next to Denis, who was busy finishing his cornflakes "Good luck obtaining anything with the nun-girls this little town is full of."

"Now Rose, this is just a stereotype," Mrs. Wheeler pointed out "Girls and boys are all the same, no matter whether they live in a big city or a little town." She paused for a moment "Wait, what kind of 'reputation' are you two speaking of?"

Trevor and Rose laughed at this. "Nothing you should worry about, mom," the young man made his way to the door and threw them a grin through his shoulder "Be back around dinner time!"

"Trevor, wait!"

The door closed behind him, though his laughter was clearly audible. Rose snickered into her bowl of cornflakes. Their mother could be so innocent and naïve at times.

"Trev's just a horn dog, nothing new here. Oh, that reminds me," she began before Mrs. Wheeler could push the subject further "I saw Jason yesterday."

"Jason?" Amanda's eyes sparkled with interest "Jason Carter?"

"Yeah, the very same." Rose shrugged "Didn't know he lived here, and it turned out he's been here for three years now."

"Oh dear, that's wonderful!" Amanda clasped her hands together "Next time you see him, be sure to invite him and his family over to dinner!"

"Uh-huh," Rose finished eating and played with the spoon absently.

"Mom?" Denis looked up suddenly.

"Yes, dear?"

"What's a 'horn dog'?"

The look on Mrs. Wheeler's face was priceless. Rose's laughter echoed in the kitchen, successfully overcoming Mr. Wheeler's silent chuckle.


School was as boring as ever and Rose couldn't wait for it to end. She was very happy that it was Friday already, and that meant that two full days of doing nothing await her. The final bell rang and Rose gathered her things, wanting to get out of the building as soon as possible. Not stopped by anyone, since she still hadn't made any friends, Rose exited the school and headed towards her house. She made a mental note to save one day and go exploring around the town, but she hadn't been feeling up to it lately.

Walking for over 15 minutes, Rose had time to think about everything that came to her mind. First, the new surroundings. She still hated the town, she couldn't stand the neighbors, everything seemed to bother her.

Everything except that garden…

Rose stopped walking and looked up, her gaze landing on the gloomy mansion on top of the hill. The haunted mansion. For a brief moment, Rose considered; that strange sound had to come from somewhere… But she quickly dismissed the thought – it was obvious that it had to be the owner of the mansion, the very same person who's responsible for the state of the beautiful garden. Not some crazy killer, and definitely not a ghost.

She surveyed the view for a few seconds, a frown making its way on her face. The feeling of superiority, ha! She'd ran away, not spending there more than five minutes tops! 'Just proves how easily fooled I am,' Rose thought bitterly 'People tell me there's a killer-ghost in there, and I subconsciously believe them.' She shook her head, as if to rid herself of the thought 'No way! I'm not afraid! I just got startled! It was probably the wind after all. Yes, the wind.'

Her gaze hardened as she decided – haunted or not, she will be having another trip to the mansion and its grounds…

-

Ignoring the strong feeling of déjà vu, Rose pushed the gate open just a bit, so that she could slip through without much difficulty. The metal made a soft screeching noise, and Rose tried to tell herself that it was the same sound from yesterday. 'The wind made the gate move and screech, oh so very scary, Rose,' she scolded herself mentally. She also made a note to ignore that sound if it'd reach her ears again.

The green sculptures mesmerized her once again. Rose couldn't believe that they were made by a person; whoever was the creator, they were no doubt talented as hell. 'As if scissors were a part of their hands,' Rose mused, her fingertips grazing over a giant bird's side.

Oh, the irony.

Making sure not to hum any kind of song in her head in order to keep it clear, Rose wandered around aimlessly, looking over the statues. The cold October air made her snuggle into her warm jacket. Rose was glad she'd put on some warm clothes before sneaking out of the house. Her turtleneck shirt was nearly enough to keep her body safe from the bitter wind, but the jacket was an extra shield, and worked perfectly.

Unlike last time, the wind was still and hadn't been making almost any noise since Rose appeared on the grounds. The girl didn't know if that was a good thing – sure, it wouldn't make the gate screech or anything like that, but that meant the eerie silence would surround her, along with the creepy shadows.

Rose knew perfectly that she had a fairly pleasant voice – until she used it to sing. Her singing skills were a little below average. Not that she could make glass shatter, it wasn't that bad; but still, she knew to stay out of any sort of singing, for her own good, as well as those within earshot. However, the horrible silence that engulfed the garden and everything that was around was enough of a scare for her, and Rose actually began to mutter a silly song under her breath, just for the sake of breaking the silence.

"I'm super, thanks for asking

All things considered I couldn't be better I must say!

I'm feeling super,

No, nothing bugs me.

Everything is super when you're --"

The song was cut short when Rose turned around suddenly. She could swear she'd heard something, and this time it wasn't the screeching of the gate. But she saw nothing behind her.

"I'm feeling super, bullshit," she muttered to herself while turning back and resuming her walk. She opened her mouth to continue the song, when it happened again.

Snip.

Snip.

Snip.

Doing a 180-spin, Rose half-suspected to see nothing different than two seconds ago. The shock that hit her like a truck after the suspicion wasn't confirmed made her take a blind step back and her back collided with one of the shrub statues.

Before her stood a boy, taller than her by a good few inches, dressed in black leather from head to toe. His pitch black hair looked like he'd been struck by lightning, he had a very pale complexion and eyes as black as his wild hair. Rose's brain could hardly comprehend what was going on when her eyes lowered down his arms and stopped upon the gleaming objects in his hands. Blades.

"Damn…" her voice was hoarse and barely above whisper "I mean, I'm sorry… For, uh… Violating your garden… With my presence…" she was painfully aware that she had a giant shrub sculpture right behind her, and the man was standing around four or five feet away from her. No escape from this one.

"Please…" Rose had no idea how to act. She focused her eyes on the blades in his hands when she noticed something odd. He wasn't holding the blades… They were his hands.

"Kim?"

Her eyes shot up to his face as he spoke. She made another discovery then; his pale face, contrasting greatly with his hair and eyes, was covered with scars. They seemed to be created by sharp blades. She focused on the scars, tracing them with her eyes before shifting her attention to his whole face and the expression he wore. It was so… Sad and sincere. Rose couldn't find a word that would match his expression.

"Huh…?" she breathed out.

"You're not Kim." The man stated, his voice losing the hopeful tone it had when he first spoke the name. Now, it was filled with sadness and sorrow so deep, it clenched her heart.

"No, I'm not." Rose admitted absent-mindedly, fiddling with her fingers while eyeing his hands. His voice was very soft and quiet and his expression so harmless, but everything else screamed 'dangerous'. Her body was so tense, it felt like a simple gust of wind could snap her in half.

The man stared at her with those sad eyes, the knives and scissors twitching at his side in a nervous manner. "I scared you." He stated.

"N-no… You just… startled me, that's all," Rose mumbled, the shock slowly wearing off, yet the fear was still there. Acting along, she tried to relax "I thought that I'm alone here. Sorry."

He didn't reply, just continued to stare at her with a heart-melting expression. Rose had no idea what to do, stand in her spot and wait for him to move or try to move away from him herself. Would he lash out at her with those hands of his?

"I scared you." He repeated "You ran away yesterday."

"Oh…" the girl managed to utter "Well, I was a bit, uh, caught up in looking at those beautiful works of art and well, you… Startled me." She repeated lamely "I ran away because… I hadn't been expecting anyone to be here, beside me."

"Oh." He said simply.

"Did you made those?" Rose decided to change the topic. With every passing second she continued to relax more, but her guard was still up, in case the man would turn out not to be as harmless as she was beginning to think.

"Yes."

"They're beautiful." She said, trying to smile at him and failing miserably "I've never seen anything like it."

"Thank you."

"Uh, do you live here?"

"Yes."

"Oh…" Rose gulped slightly "I heard this place is being haunted, or something. Well, I guess people here are as stup-" she bit her tongue just in time "silly, as I thought… Um, what's your name?"

"Edward."

Now that she knew her name, he seemed somewhat… more human. Despite the odd leather suit and, of course, scissors for hands. Rose tried to smile again, and this time it lasted for longer than a millisecond.

"Nice to meet you, Edward. I'm Rose." Out of pure impulse, her hand twitched as she wanted to raise it for him to shake. Catching herself when her arm was half-way extended, she grinned sheepishly and lowered her hand to hide it behind her back. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Rose?" Edward tilted his head to the side "Like a flower?"

"Yeah," her smile widened a bit "Many people point that out… Edward is a very nice name." she suddenly exclaimed.

"Thank you."

Silence fell upon them as Edward continued to stare at her without blinking, which in turn made Rose nervous; she tried to ignore it and pick up the conversation, not liking the silence one bit.

"So," she began, biting on her lip softly "You live all by yourself?"

His eyes turned sad again, and Rose blinked in surprise, discovering that he looked so much like a little child. Maybe it was the strange aura around him, that of innocence, honesty and everything else that resembled a kid.

"Yes." He replied simply, not going into any sort of detail.

"Uh, listen, Edward," Rose wasn't sure what she was doing, but she felt like she needed to get out of that place as fast as possible. Now that she was almost sure that the boy would not harm her, she decided to make a move towards the gate "It's awfully late, and I need to get back, or else I'll be in huge trouble." She sneaked a glance at her exit way before locking her eyes with Edward's black orbs "It was, ah, very nice to meet you."

"Don't go."

Rose froze in her spot. The voice was so quiet, she wasn't sure if this Edward had uttered it, or had she just imagined it. She looked at him and once again, those sad eyes of his made her heart clench in… What? Empathy? Compassion? Pity?

"But… But I have to," she managed to let out "It's really late and I shouldn't be here right now."

The look on his scarred face made her think that she's done something wrong.

"I could come visit you tomorrow… If you'd like."

The hopeful expression appeared slowly, gradually. "You could?"

"Yes, I promise I'll be back tomorrow, and earlier." Rose was glad the next day was Saturday. She could come visit Edward right after breakfast and spend some more time with him, getting to know this strange man.

…Wait a minute. Did she really think of coming back? Was she really over the initial shock and ready to encounter him in a more calm, civil manner? Had she already forgotten about the scissors and knives his hands were made of? Rose had every right to run away and never come back. Edward could be the killer the people have been going on about every time the mansion's been brought up in the conversation. And he most certainly looked like a killer!

'No, he doesn't,' she argued with herself while staring at him. Despite those deadly-looking blades and black leather, Edward looked like… Rose bit on her lower lip.

He looked like a very lonely person.

"I promise I'll come and visit you tomorrow after breakfast." Rose found herself saying "Is that okay with you?"

Edward was silent for a few seconds, before the corner of his lips twitched ever so slightly. "Thank you."

-

As Rose laid in her bed, safe and sound, with her arms crossed behind her head and serving as a pillow, she found herself unable to sleep. Her meeting with Edward, everything she said and everything he said back had been circling in her mind, keeping her wide awake.

She had promised him – a total stranger – that she'd come back and see him. Despite how afraid she'd been when she first saw him standing directly behind her, his blades gleaming in the moonlight, she had promised to come back.

Rose closed her eyes and saw his face again. His scarred, sad face. And right then and there, she knew she cannot, no matter what, break that promise.


A: I could NOT resist putting a little bit of South Park in this one xD It came out of nowhere, I swear! I'll try to restrain myself in the future; I cannot make any promises, though!

Thanks for reading! Now, I'd be forever grateful for some feedback. Review, please!