Harper
I looked at my hand again.
The tiny cut on my thumb had already stopped bleeding, just a thin red line now, but the soil where the blood had fallen looked… wrong.
Not wrong like poisoned or dead but wrong like it was too alive.
The dirt was darker there, richer, like it had soaked something in. The leaves around it trembled slightly, even though the air was still.
“Nope,” I whispered again, backing up another step. “Absolutely not. I am not doing haunted gardening today.”
The mint plant closest to me leaned.. like actually leaned in like it was reaching.
I sucked in a sharp breath and stumbled back, heart pounding so hard it hurt. The world felt too quiet all of a sudden. No birds. No wind. Just this thick, humming stillness pressing in from all sides.
“Stop,” I muttered, v
