The Garden | Teen Ink

The Garden

May 11, 2017
By Yaboyaj, arvada, Colorado
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Yaboyaj, Arvada, Colorado
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Last thing I remember was getting knocked out by Eugene William who is known to all the kids as the “school badass”. And me being a tall scrawny black kid made everything worse. I live in barrow county Georgia and go to school at Apalachee high school. I sat in the principal's office across from her thinking about anything else but this school.
“Are you paying attention?” she asked worryingly “This can't keep happening Dwayne you have to tell us how you keep getting the bruises and black eyes”.
“I fell again you know like always miss” I explained obviously lying to her face.
“Ok fine Dwayne I'm never gonna be able to help you unless you tell me, just go home schools almost out anyway, and try not to fall again” she said sarcastically.
I left and decided to take a new way home. I liked to imagine all the different lives that go on inside the houses I walk by. Imagining families sitting at dining tables eating big stacks of food with piles of money all around them. Most of the houses looked the same but out of the corner of my eye down the street was a different house. As I reached it I saw a garden in the front yard, not an ordinary garden but one that looked old the fence was two feet of the ground and was painted white but the paint was fading away. Plants were scattered randomly looking dehydrated and faryal. The dirt was loose and there were garbage bags filled with some kind of material I couldn't tell what it was and there was trash everywhere half buried.
The strange thing was the house looked like all the others the only thing different was the garden. Continuing to pass by I look at one of the windows and the curtains were pushed back and a old man stood there staring back at me.
“Hey Dwayne! Whats up” a voice said behind me as I jumped around frightened.
“Bro whats wrong with you?” he said and i realised it was Trey my best friend since 2nd grade we were practically brothers.
“No man i just., there's this old man…” I said as I turned around pointed to the window realising the curtains have been shut, and the old man was gone.
“Man you're crazy there ain't no old man” he said laughing at me “you just embarrassed I scared you”
That night I couldn't sleep weather it was from my black eye or that creepy house with the disappearing old man, it wasn't good.

The next day I took the same route, I was curious, the old man seemed so out of it.
I couldn't look away from the window as I walked past reaching the lawn I kicked something and quickly glancing down I froze in horror as I made out the object of a hand sticking out from the dirt of the old man's lawn, severed and half decomposed.
SLAM!! The front door of the house bursts open and the old man fumbled across the lawn charging at me. I couldn't move I don't know what was wrong with my body, I was stuck, no matter how much I tried the hand was there in my sight.
“Umm.” I stuttered fumbling through solutions in my mind. The old mas was so close I needed to decide, I ran. 
“What the hell was that?!” I keep repeating to myself frantically stumbling trying to keep myself so I can keep running as far as possible. That was a hand, a human hand what the hell I don't know what to do.
I got home, panting and I felt dizzy, it all felt like a bad dream and my mind was racing. I kept looking out of the window hoping the old man didn't find me. I didn't see him anywhere I quickly pulled out my phone and dialed trey,
“Hello?” Trey answered
“Hey!, trey there was a hand?!” I blurted out still frightened.
“A Hand?” he said back
“Yes dude a hand i was walking by the old man's house and i looked down at his garden thing and there was the hand poking out of the ground! The old man has dead people under there trey!”
“Ok, ok let's just calm down, since you've been acting weird about that stupid old man these past few days I will meet up with you tomorrow after school and we will go check it out” he told me.

Me and try met outside of school and walked to the old man's house, i was hoping to see something again to get trey to listen to me. Reaching the house after a couple of minutes was dreadful it felt like hours. The old man was nowhere in sight and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
Trey started to say something when all of a sudden the door creaked open and then silence, no one was in sight no old man or anything.
“Ok i'm going to go in” trey said.
“Are you kidding me does that not look creepy to you the door just opened” i said
“Exactly what if he fell and needs help he's just a old man!”
“ i don't care just stay here i'll go help him by myself if you're so scared” he said and then headed towards the door. I was solid as cement and locked eyes on him as he walked through the garden and disappeared into the dark house.
A cold chill ran down my spine and stopped at my ankle and gripped it like handcuffs. I wanted to look down but the fear of seeing the hand stopped me dead, the grip was getting colder and colder and it felt like my foot could fall off at any time. I forced my eyes down and saw it a hand, this time it was different the skin tone was dark and it looked fresh. Following the hand to the arm and into the dirt and a couple inches away Trey's head.



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