⚠️ Content Warning:
This chapter contains themes of abduction and implied violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Annie returned home in silence, the world outside a blur beyond the window of the taxi.
She still couldn't shake Lena's voice from her head—hoarse, broken, filled with something more than fear.
"Not her. Worse."
"They have weapons now."
"They kept talking about... pruning."
The words looped over and over in her mind.
As soon as she stepped through her front door, Annie didn't even bother removing her shoes. She grabbed her phone and called Kayla with trembling hands.
Kayla picked up immediately. "Annie?"
Annie's voice was tight. "You need to hear this. I just left the hospital. Lena's alive, but it's bad."
"What did she say?"
Annie sat down, her knees finally giving out beneath her. "It's not Rose. Someone else is behind this. And they're not just copying the Garden. They're evolving it. Turning it into something far more dangerous."
Kayla was silent for a beat. Then: "Then we're not dealing with schoolyard cruelty anymore."
"No," Annie said softly. "We're dealing with something that wants to erase people."
"We have to be careful, Kayla. This isn't about getting hurt by Rose anymore."
She swallowed hard, the weight of Lena's condition still pressing against her chest.
"One wrong move…" she paused, "…and we're dead."
Kayla was quiet on the other end, but Annie could almost hear the tension crackling through the phone.
"I'll be there in twenty minutes," Kayla finally said. "We start tonight."
The doorbell rang.
Annie opened it to find Kayla standing on the porch, hoodie up, eyes sharp.
"I'm here," she said simply.
Annie stepped aside and let her in. The silence between them wasn't awkward—it was heavy. Purposeful.
They sat down in Annie's living room, the weight of the night pressing on their shoulders.
Annie broke the silence. "How do we deal with this? It's too dangerous… even for us."
Kayla looked at her, unblinking. "Are you getting scared now?"
Annie didn't answer.
Kayla leaned forward, her voice steady. "We didn't come this far to fall back. Not after everything. Not after Lena. We finish what we started."
Annie stared at her for a moment, then nodded—just once.
No turning back now.
Annie glanced at Kayla. "You work at the self-defense center, right?"
Kayla nodded slowly. "Yeah. Why?"
"We need to keep ourselves safe too," Annie said. "Can you… I don't know—borrow some tools? Something we can use if things go wrong?"
Kayla raised an eyebrow. "You mean like pepper spray, tasers…?"
Annie nodded. "Whatever you can get. I don't want to be caught unprepared."
Kayla leaned back, thoughtful. "I can ask around. I know where the trainers keep the extras. It's risky, but... yeah. I'll get us something."
Annie exhaled. "Good. Because whoever's doing this—'pruning' people—it's only a matter of time before they come for us."
Before long, it happened again.
The second victim of the new Garden.
This time, it was Marin Yu—a former classmate of Annie and Kayla. She had been one of the few who bravely spoke out on television when the original Rose Garden was exposed, her face etched into news footage and memory alike.
She had found her voice back then.
And now… she was gone.
That night, Marin was last seen leaving a café near her apartment. A security camera caught her walking alone down a dimly lit alleyway.
She never came out the other side.
The next morning, the only sign of her was a single shoe—left in the center of the alley like a symbol. No blood. No struggle. Just... gone.
The police opened an investigation but called it a missing persons case.
The media speculated. Friends shared posts.
But Annie and Kayla didn't need speculation.
They knew exactly what it meant.
The Garden was pruning again.
Just like with Lena, they found Marin.
Abandoned. Bound. Barely breathing.
She was discovered in an old maintenance shed behind an abandoned church—barely visible from the road. Thorned wire bound her wrists. A rose lay across her chest, delicate, almost peaceful.
Too much like the last time.
The paramedics said the same thing they'd said with Lena.
> "Another hour or two... and she wouldn't have made it."
The news spread like wildfire.
Another victim. Same calling card. Same message.
Suddenly, the former victims of the original Rose Garden began to panic. Some went into hiding. A few deleted all traces of their past online. Others packed their bags and left the country entirely, too afraid to wait for another warning.
What had once been a high school nightmare was now a networked fear—a shadow reaching across borders.
And Annie and Kayla knew…
They were running out of time.