Act 1: Groundskeeper: Chapter 3

“Okay, explain it to me one more time.”

Mem, Lo, and I were all sitting around a small table next to the kitchen while drinking coffee. Lo stirred his coffee around nervously, letting the metal spoon clink against the ceramic cup. Lo sighed.

“Fine, but this is the last time. I’m not gonna explain it for a fourth time.” He looked up from his coffee at me and let go of his spoon, letting the swirl of the cup carry it around. “I was originally born on a planet called Hortophe. I was born during a time loop; my birth wasn’t something that had happened in previous interactions, and I wasn't affected by the time loop at all, immediately signaling all the red flags of how unstable and dangerous I could make my branch. So the Groundskeepers did the only ‘logical and reasonable’ thing that they could think of. They put me on probation and kept constant surveillance on me, warning me that if I ever left my branch, I would be hunted down and killed. But one day, after many cycles of the time loop, it was broken by an unlikely trio. A human named Kenneth Breastbales, a dragonborn named Arka Stonefire, and the dragonborn god of legends, Kava Legend Noxivus. In the aftermath of breaking the loop, the god of legends had vanished, and the dragonborn and human decided to restore the world to what it was before the loop. Fearing being wiped out of existence, I broke the rule and left my home branch. Ever since then, I’ve become the Groundskeeper’s most wanted and have been on the run. But along the way, I met Mem.” He turned to Mem, giving her a warm smile before continuing. “Recently, though, we’ve decided to settle down on this little obscure planet that we’re on right now. It’s called Earth, and we are currently on an island called Puerto Rico. When I ran into you, I was actually taking one final important journey to visit and entrust some items to some old friends of mine. I imagine that my presence set off some alarms, and a Gardener quickly scrambled for a reason to send a squad to my area. Am I correct?”

I shook my head no, confused about how he had come to that conclusion. I was part of a pruning team, and he seemed to know a lot about the inner workings of the Groundskeepers, so he must have realized that I was a pruner based on my outfit alone, no matter how ruined it was.

All he gave me in return was a worn smile and nod.

“Anyway, that leads us to where we are right now. Do you have any questions?” (By the way, Mio is staring at me, mouth agape like a fish right now. I- I’ve heard that story before. Girl, you’re crazy; you just need to sleep more. The bags under your eyes are crazy! You’re getting off track, Twin. Oops, sorry.)

I looked at Lo and then to Mem, and then back to Lo. “I have all of the questions, but I can’t think of a single one. I am so fucking confused.”

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“And that’s okay,” said Mem as she clasped her hands around mine. “If you weren’t extremely confused, I’d be very concerned.” She looked at me with the softest and kindest smile. I just wanted to melt into them.

“I mean,” I said, stumbling and grasping, trying to find the right words. “I’ve been a Groundskeeper since… I can remember, and to find out that they’ve been lying to me about The An- Lo, forever, it’s made me think about what else the Gardeners could’ve lied to me about. And to be very clear, I don’t trust you guys yet. For all I know, you could be lying to me to try to get me to help you.”

Right as I said that, I saw what might have been a flash of sadness on Mem and Lo’s faces before they returned to their normal comforting smiles. After a long, awkward couple of seconds, Mem stood up.

“I’m going to go check on Rem,” She said, walking over to the door that said ‘Rem’s Room’. “Lo, why don’t you tell her about you-know-what. Not that thing, but the other thing.” Lo nodded at her, seemingly understanding what she meant perfectly. Mem then walked into Rem’s room and shut the door behind her.

I immediately looked down and began to nervously fidget with the skirt of my dress.

“Just get it over with,” I said, sighing. “It’s nothing I can’t handle, and nor am I probably going to believe you.”

“Girlboss-”

“Call me Twin.” I said firmly. He smiled at me and nodded.

“Twin, there's something I'd like to tell you. It relates to the Gardeners and what they all really are-”

He was interrupted by a giant boom and a flash of searing white light that blinded us and made our ears ring. As our vision cleared and the ringing stopped, I looked over at the stool counter by the kitchen and gasped. Sitting on the counter with her legs dangling was what appeared to be a small girl of middle school age. He had long blood-red hair, horns, and a barbed tail of a color only a shade lighter than her hair. She also had large leathery bat wings . But the weirdest part was that she was wearing a frilly pink dress, the exact opposite of what you’d expect someone of that appearance to wear.

I got down on one knee and lowered my head respectfully.

“Gardener Lucy!” I stuttered, dumbfounded.

I looked over at Lo to see panic and anger strewn across his face. “Lucifer.” He said with enough malice in his voice to raise a castle into the sky.

“That’s me!” She said, giggling, as if she had said the funniest thing ever. “The one and only!”