Kirchel's house was about a mile outside of town, built toward the back of a small, winding canyon. This entire canyon was Kirchel's property, inherited from her father. The house was the same one they had lived in when she was a child. At the mouth of the canyon, just off the main road, were a floral shop and large greenhouse—also Kirchel's.
“If you happen to like playing in dirt, feel free,” Kirchel said as they drove past the entrance to the store's parking lot and up a narrow gravel road leading into the forest behind it. “There’s always plenty to do. You don’t have to, of course, but you might find that you enjoy it.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
Erin wasn’t sure that she did like playing in dirt. But as Kirchel went on to say, there were other—cleaner—things she could help with, too. Like tidying sales displays or making flower arrangements. It would be nice to have something to do to help keep her mind off not being at ballet camp…among other things….
They came around the last bend in the road, and the house came into view. Erin frowned when she saw it. Not at the house itself, which was a lovely two-story building made of white brick and riverstone. It was where it was located. There was a point where the sides of the canyon bent in to form two vertical walls that were only seventy or eighty feet apart. The house was wedged in between these walls, its sides right up against the stone. It was a rather impressive feat of construction, but Erin couldn't imagine any other reason someone would want to build a house like that.
The rain had let up by the time they pulled into the driveway, but there were still wisps of fog floating around the little canyon like lost sheep trying to find their way back to the rest of the valley. Although from there it was hard to tell there even was a rest of the valley, Erin thought as she stepped outside the garage to look around and smell the cool, wet air. The house was surrounded by tall, dark pines that blocked the world out completely. Even the shop and greenhouse were no longer visible.
“What do you think?” asked Kirchel, who was opening the trunk of the car to get Erin’s bags.
“I like it. All this fog makes it look kind of mysterious. Magical, even.”
Kirchel looked amused. “A very apt description,” she said with an odd smile.
Erin raised an eyebrow. She didn’t see anything funny about what she had said. Was this Kirchel’s eccentricity showing through? Deciding it was better to just let it slide, she said nothing and went back to the car. She lifted her backpack out of the trunk, slung it over one shoulder, and was starting to pull out one of the suitcases when she felt a hand on her arm.
“Here.” Kirchel was holding out a ring of keys. “Why don't you go unlock the door? I'll get these.” She gestured to the suitcases.
Erin scowled. “I can handle it.” She heaved the bag out and started past Kirchel toward the door.
“Erin,” Kirchel said quietly behind her. “There is a difference between being brave and being foolish, as there is between an insult and an offer of help. It’s a long climb upstairs.”
Erin stood very still for a moment. Then she slowly lowered the suitcase and, without turning around, held out her hand. She felt pieces of cold metal being pressed into it.
“It’s the round, gold one.”
Biting hard on her lower lip, Erin took the keyring and walked over to the inside door. She flipped through the keys, found the one Kirchel had described, and used it to unlock the door. Then she pushed it open and stepped inside.
The door led into a large utility room that held a washer and dryer and a row of cupboards. Through another doorway opposite her, Erin could see what looked like a kitchen. She went on through, leaving the door to the garage open for Kirchel. The kitchen was spacious, well-lit by a large window over the sink. A small wooden table and chairs stood against one wall, and a row of cheerful yellow begonias sat in the windowsill.
“Straight ahead, and the stairs are to the left.” Kirchel had come in behind Erin, carrying the suitcases. She nodded in the right direction, and they started walking that way. “I’m sorry to have to give you an upstairs bedroom, but there just aren’t any down here. You’d have to sleep on the dining room table, which might be good for your spine but not very comfortable.”
Erin bristled a little at the further reminder of her handicap, but she didn't reply. When they reached the stairs, they paused, and Erin looked up. The staircase was narrow and steep, and she had to grudgingly admit she was grateful that Kirchel hadn’t let her carry the suitcase.
“Why don’t you go first?” she said. “I’m…uh…kind of slow on stairs.”
Kirchel simply nodded and moved past her to start up the stairs. Erin waited until she was partway up before she started climbing too. She took hold of the end of the banister and leaned on it as she put her right foot on the bottom step. Then she brought up her left foot. She had to repeat this for every step, which was a slow and aggravating process. She was glad to see, when she glanced above her halfway up, that Kirchel had gone to put the suitcases in the bedroom and wasn't watching her. Going up and down stairs this way made her feel like an overgrown toddler. When she reached the top of the stairs, Kirchel was there again, waiting for her on the landing.
“This one is my room,” Kirchel said, indicating a half-open door on the left. There was another door in front of the stairs. It was closed. “Yours is just down here.”
She led Erin down a short hallway to the right. It opened up into an oddly shaped area which contained four more doors. Two of them were open.
“That’s the bathroom.” Kirchel pointed to one of the open doors. “And this is your bedroom.”
It was a very pretty room, done in cream and light green. There was an old-fashioned canopied bed and a small bay window with a cushioned window seat. Erin’s suitcases were on the floor in front of the closet, and she slid her backpack off and put it down next to them.
“I hope it’s all right,” Kirchel said. “It’s the nicest one I had that wasn’t full of plants.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“It looks great. It’s a lot fancier than my room at home.” Erin paused, frowning a little. “Did you say ‘full of plants’? Isn’t that what you have a greenhouse for?”
Kirchel laughed. “Not that kind of plants. Herbs, mostly. I dry them in some of the bedrooms. They're out of the way there, and it gives the house a nice smell.”
Erin had noticed the light perfume about the house, but she had just assumed it was air freshener. “Do you really need that much space? For herbs? What, are you a witch or something?”
Kirchel looked highly amused. “Would it bother you if I were?”
“I guess not,” Erin said, shrugging. “Just don’t turn me into a frog or anything, okay? Mom would kill you. She hates all green, cold-blooded things.”
“How about a nice red or yellow frog? Would that count?” Kirchel asked with a mischievous smile. “Of course, the red and yellow ones are usually poisonous, so maybe that's not much of an improvement.” Her expression suddenly grew serious. “But that reminds me. There's a very important rule you'll need to follow while you're staying here.”
“Which is?”
“I dry plants in two of the bedrooms on this floor, and I store and work with them in a couple of rooms in the basement. Most of them aren’t dangerous, and it wouldn’t hurt you to touch or even eat them. But there are a few that can be harmful if they’re not handled properly. It would take weeks for me to teach you which ones are which, so I think it’s best for you to just stay out of those rooms altogether when I’m not with you. The same goes for the garden behind the house. I can lock you out of all of them if I have to, but I would rather just trust you—it’s for your own safety, after all. Okay?”
Erin nodded. “Okay.”
“Good girl. Now, let's see.” Kirchel glanced at her watch. “You really should call your parents to let them know you got here all right. Then I can show you the rest of the house if you like. Or maybe you'd rather rest and settle in first?”
Erin decided to see the rest of the house, so after she had borrowed the phone in Kirchel's bedroom to call and reassure her mother that she was still in one piece and hadn't forgotten to pack anything important, she followed Kirchel back downstairs. Going down stairs was almost as slow and difficult as going up. But Kirchel had obviously gotten the message that Erin didn't want to be fussed over, so she just waited quietly at the bottom of the stairs.
In addition to the kitchen and utility room, there was also a formal dining room. They only looked at this room briefly since Kirchel rarely used it, and most of the furniture was hidden under large white dust sheets. Then there was a spacious living room with large windows looking out into the front yard. On the other side of the living room was a short hallway that led to a large study lined with bookcases.
“English books are on that side,” Kirchel said, pointing to the far wall where the longest row of shelves was. “Feel free to read any you like.” She gestured toward a smaller section to the right of the door they had come in. “Foreign languages are over there. Again, you're welcome to use them, but I'm not sure if you'll want to.”
“Can you read all these languages?” Erin asked. She had stepped over to the closest shelf and was looking at the book titles. She recognized French, German, and Spanish ones in the mix as well as a few that she thought might be Latin and even one that looked like it was in Chinese.
Kirchel shook her head. “Not all of them. Most of those books came along with the house. I just kept them because I like how they look.”
Erin's perusal of the books was interrupted by a sudden gust of wind that blew a loud spattering of raindrops against the window.
“I guess we won't be able to have much of a tour of the backyard today,” Kirchel said, looking out at the rain, which was starting to fall heavily again. “But you can take a look from the porch.”
She walked to the end of the room, where there was a sturdy-looking wooden door. She pulled the door open, which brought a rush of wind and the smell of wet earth into the room. Erin followed her out onto a narrow wooden porch that ran the length of the house. There was a roof over it, which kept them from getting soaked. Beyond the porch there was a short stretch of grass. And past that was Kirchel's herb garden.
Erin stared in amazement. “How on earth do you keep all that weeded?”
After seeing the bundles of herbs hanging in the upstairs bedrooms, she had expected a decent-sized garden, but this was enormous. It was a little hard to see through the rain and mist, but it looked like it was at least fifty or sixty feet square. It was divided neatly into five long sections, with each section further divided into rows of different kinds of plants. A small wooden shed, which presumably held gardening tools, stood off to one side.
“I’m careful with planting and cultivation,” Kirchel replied. “And actually the weeds aren’t very bad.”
“No wonder you had enough to fill two bedrooms.... Do you really use that much?”
Kirchel shook her head. “I don’t. But I sometimes have friends or relatives who need them. Like you.”
Erin thought of the packet of pills Kirchel had sent for her to take instead of her pain medications. And the herbal tea to help her sleep without nightmares…. Those must have come from here.
“Though the majority I sell in the shop after I’ve dried them and made them into teas or pills,” Kirchel went on. “They're actually quite popular.”
“You sound like a doctor. Or a pharmacist?”
Kirchel shook her head. “Neither. I couldn’t pass a medical exam if my life depended on it. I've studied plants—not the human body. And even with those, I just know about their characteristics and uses—not what specific chemicals are in them. No, I’m not a doctor or a pharmacist. I’m more like….” She hesitated and then smiled mischievously. “More like a witch, I guess.”
Erin raised an eyebrow at her. Then she shivered as a wet gust of wind blew over them.
“Let's go back in,” Kirchel said, holding the door open. “I'll show you more of the garden in a few days when things are drier.”
Erin started back toward the door but then paused and looked down the length of the porch. "Is this the only door into the backyard? I don't see any others."
Nevermind doors, there didn't even seem to be any windows on this side of the house....
"No, this is the only one."
Erin frowned. That was...strange. "Isn't that really inconvenient? You can't get around the sides of the house, can you? It must be a pain to get gardening equipment back here."
"Well, sometimes it is, but...." Kirchel hesitated, as though she was choosing her words. "There's a reason why the house was built this way." She pointed to the other side of the herb garden, where a patch of dark forest occupied the very end of the canyon. "There's an entrance to a cave system back there, on the other side of the trees. It's a very, very dangerous place. The caves are like a maze, and they're full of loose rocks and sudden drop-offs. Plenty of people have gone in there and never come back out. The house was built to block off that cave entrance, so people wouldn't go wandering in there by mistake."
Erin couldn't help feeling a little skeptical. The whole house was built to block off a cave? Really? Couldn't they just put up a sign or something...?
But Kirchel's expression was serious. "I mean it, Erin. It's dangerous. Don't ever go back there, not even for a quick look. Do you understand?"
"Yes. I understand."
Privately, Erin thought the whole thing sounded a little melodramatic. But there was no reason not to agree to Kirchel's request. Considering the current state of her left knee, she really wasn't interested in exploring caves, anyway.