Chapter 13 The Eclipse

# Chapter 13: The Eclipse A lunar eclipse provided the opportunity Thomas needed. He gathered the ingredients, following the journal's instructions with meticulous care. Moonflower petals glowed faintly in the darkness. White orchid roots smelled of earth and decay. And tears — he wept freely, thinking of everything he had lost. He mixed the ingredients in a clay bowl, watching as the mixture turned from clear to silver to black. "It's ready," he whispered. But using it would mean confronting the garden directly — facing whatever lay beneath the soil and risking everything. "If I fail," he told Mrs. Halloway, "the garden will consume me completely." "If you succeed," she replied, "the garden will die. And with it, everything it has sustained." Thomas weighed the options. Death or destruction. Both were acceptable. He took the bowl and walked to the garden's center, where the organism's tendrils pulsed most strongly.