Garden of glass

“Your job is so stupidly simple.”

I eye my guide warily debating if he meant for his words to carry sarcasm, or if the admiring tone was genuine.

“I mean, all you have to do is walk around a building. Make sure nothing is stolen, and bam, you get a paycheck. Your job is so much better than mine. All I do is clean.” Apparently he was serious. What could be here that was valuable enough to steal was beyond me. The barren halls were cool grey and impersonal, not the sort of place that looked like it would even consider holding anything of value.

“Vending machines and bathrooms are down the hall to your left after the main desk. If you have any questions just ask Marvin, the night shift supervisor, he’ll only show up when he feels like it but he should be here tonight to give you a run down of what you need to know.” The tile floors reflected the painful fluorescent lights into our eyes as we walked down yet another deserted corridor. This would do for now until I found another job that paid better. This was the only thing I could get on short notice, having moved to another city without any preparation. This genius plan was looking like less and less like a good idea. One I would still have to deal with.

“...and whatever you do never, and I mean never, go through those doors.” I hadn’t even realized that he was still talking.

“Why not?”

“Because A: I was told not to, and B: I heard that whoever goes in there gets fired. Don’t ask why. I think that’s why we needed a new night security guard.” I still couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. If he was messing with me, it wasn’t very funny. We walked through another set of grey doors emerging back into the lobby. It remained just as empty as the rest of the building barring the main desk, a set of chairs and a wilting houseplant, a pathetic attempt at bringing life into a dead environment.

He pulls out his phone the pale light illuminating his face as he clocks out.

“When do you actually start?”

“I’m scheduled to start in two days, they apparently already scheduled flex officers to cover before then and I’m still moving into my apartment.”

“Gotcha. See you around.” He waves and saunters out of the building just as an older version of himself walks in. Both men had shoulder length black hair and dark brown eyes, but the older man's hair was tied up in a slightly graying short braid whereas his twin kept his loose and messy.

“You’re here early.” His voice was as tired as his lined eyes. “Trevor said he gave you a tour already. He showed you the doors that you’re to stay out of?” I nodd. Apparently staying out of those doors is important. “Great. I’ll show you where to find the reports in case anything happens, which it won’t.” he gestured to the main desk with its pitiful plant. “Bottom drawer on the right. Just walk around and call me if you see anything. Number is on the folder. Congratulations, you now know everything you need to. Go home or whatever.”

“That’s everything?” surely that wasn’t it.

“Everything. Now if you don’t have anything else better to do you can either wait for the flex to get here or you can scram.”

I choose to leave.

Star purred digging her talons into my chest repeatedly. Why the hell did she have to wake me up like this? My attempt at sitting up was greeted with a fluffy tail in my face and an indignant meow as Star hopped off my torso. She sat by her empty food dish and stared at me expectantly. She already knew she was the queen of this new territory. I blinked repeatedly against the glare of my phone 2:42. Sighing I grabbed a small scoop of food from the container and poured it into her bowl. “You’re such a fucking tyrant you know that.” She rewarded me with a purr and a rub of her head before taking three bites and walking away. “Such a fucking tyrant.” I went back to sleep.

First night on the job and I was already bored out of my skull. I had my phone but forgot the charger at home so every minute of entertainment wasted the battery I still needed to find my way home. Should have brought a book. At least the paper would never run out of charge. Every hallway was as deserted as ever, the blandness of the environment challenging my ability to stay awake. I found myself outside the doors I was explicitly told to stay out of. What could possibly be in there that would get people fired just for looking? Maybe the owners of the building were developing top secret weapons and disturbing them violated national security. Maybe it was an underground trafficking organization that kept whatever they were moving there. Maybe it was just a joke to arouse curiosity and if you looked all you would find is some conference room with a banner saying “made you look dumbass”. I stood outside those doors at least three hours.

“I see you’ve survived the first night, curiosity didn’t kill you man?” sleep was attempting to form in the corners of my eyes and I wasn’t in the mood for banter. I was curious though.

“Have you ever looked?” Trevor shook his head and an earbud fell out of his mess of hair.

“I don’t care what’s in there. As far as I’m concerned it’s one less room I have to clean.” Fair enough.

Star purred next to me, lulling me to sleep despite the sun’s brilliant rays trying to penetrate the blanket I had duct taped over the window. Getting used to night shift was going to be a bitch. My phone buzzed and I saw another missed call from my sister. I went to voicemail and listened to her 48th message.

“Brian, WHAT THE FUCK, why aren’t you answering anyone? Two weeks and no texts, no calls, your old room mate said you just LEFT! YOU TOOK YOUR GOD DAMN CAT AND LEFT WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE! I don’t-” I deleted the message. I couldn’t deal with her right now. Or ever. As soon as I got a day off where I could get someplace during business hours I’d need to get a new phone. With a new number. And depending on if anyone came after me, possibly a new name.

Back at work, still bored as fuck. Back in front of those doors, still curious as ever. Casually I glanced at the ceiling. No security cameras. I scanned the entire hallway. No motion detectors, no alarms, no anything that could give me away if I looked inside. Damn it, not knowing is killing me. The doors start to give way and I freeze. My curiosity is what got me in this situation to begin with. Do I really want to jeopardize everything when I’ve worked so hard to escape? I hate myself. The doors swing open.

What the hell is this… The room was massive, reaching to what I presumed was the roof of the three story building. Not that you could really see that far. A twisting path of cracked concrete weaved among plants, massive colorful plants that almost obscured the skylights set into the ceiling. Vibrant greens, purples, blues, and pinks formed only a fraction of the kaleidoscope of colors that shone through the light of the moon. I reached down to stroke a leaf, and my hand was met with cold glass. Every flower, every leaf, every stalk of every plant; everything in this room had to be made of glass. Stepping closer to the plants I saw even the substrate they appeared to be planted in was made of glass. Fuck. I peered at the blood dripping from my fingers. Apparently the dirt was sharp. Shards of broken glass turning red from my attempt to touch it.

“Only two days on the job,and you’re already in here. At least the others had the sense to wait a few months before their curiosity overtook them.” Black hair was piled in a messy bun atop her head, the green leaf on a choker looking like something out of LOTR being the only color besides black on her body. She pulled a bandaid out of her jeans pocket and offered it to me.

“So I guess I’m fired?” Her laugh was as sharp as the glass on the ground.

“No, not fired. I don’t do that.”

“What then? And what is all this? And why are people not supposed to see it? Besides the obvious sharp object hazard?”

“So many questions.” She sniffed dismissively. “Follow me if you want to know.”

This seems like a trap. I pushed back on the doors. Locked. Just my luck. She pointed to the sign on the door in big red letters. Doors only open one way: see other door for exit.

“Curious AND illiterate, not the best combination.”

I sigh. “Mind showing me the way out? You might as well tell me then. Let me guess first though; secret art exhibit that’s been rejected?” Her head shook sending raven tendrils falling out of her bun.

“Don’t worry, I’ll show you.” That kinda made me worry. We walked along the path in silence until we reached a bench set in an alcove by a particularly large plant with gold flecking the tips of its yellow and green leaves.

“This doesn’t look like an exit sign.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like I said, I’ll show you.” She grabbed my hand and we weren’t there anymore.

I don’t know where I am, what time it is, or if I even still exist. Maybe the glass was poisoned and she was just waiting long enough for it to kick in before she could dispose of my body. The air most certainly had an ethereal feel to it. But the brightness of the sun and the garden of plants, LIVING plants, all felt too real. There was a woman sitting in the garden but she paid no mind to me or the woman who brought me here. She was pulling weeds, placing them in a basket by her side and humming to herself. Brown hair braided and clothing looking to be closer to 1800’s than 2000’s. Once the basket was full she threw it onto what I assumed was a compost pile and went inside a small building. It was a shack really. She came back outside with the basket, this time filled with shards of glass instead of weeds.Thick leather gloves shielded her hands as she buried the glass around her plants. I froze in shock when I saw her unearth a human skull in her digging. She continued humming and stuffed a few shards of glass into the eye cavity of the skull, before burying it back beneath a plant. I watch as she continues this process, digging up bones and burying glass beneath her plants. I look for the woman who brought me there, this wasn’t any answer, this didn’t explain the garden of glass plants back in the real world. She is laying in the grass one leg resting on her knee, fingers intertwined behind her head. “You ready for the verbal explanation?” I nodd, more confused than ever.

We’re back on the bench in the glass garden, the woman and living plants gone.

“Who was she, why was she burying glass with bones under the plants, what the fuck was that, and most importantly, how the fuck do I get out of here?”

“In answer to that, and in order: She was my great-great-grandmother. She was burying the glass with bones under the plants to create this garden you see here. That was sort of a magick window into the past I showed you. And you don’t.”

Her last statement turns my blood to ice. “What do you mean?”

“She wanted to create something beautiful, living, that would last long after she was gone. She found glass to be beautiful and her plants meant a lot to her. So she sought to combine the two, create a glass garden she could walk around as a spirit. As for the bones… surely you know that plants need nutrients to grow? And with the power needed to create a living, growing, glass garden blood magick was necessary to get it to work. It has been the responsibility of the women in my family to protect the garden, to keep it growing and flourishing. Magick isn’t appreciated like it used to be, and practitioners of true magick are few and far between.” My legs were numb along with the rest of my body. I looked down and saw glass tendrils wrapped around my body, blood seeping out between vines as their sharp glass edges made their way into my flesh. This had to have happened during the Magick blast from the past.

“The people that come in here don’t get fired.” Her voice was so nonchalant as she examined her obsidian nails. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were made of glass too. She looked at me seriously.

“They become compost. They die.”