This night is the darkest yet, which I suppose is saying something considering it's been only three nights. But boy has it felt longer than that.

This garden isn't like anything I've every seen before. Its expansive plots span miles, making it all too easy to get lost. And I have gotten lost. Just like the other poor souls who enter this secret garden.

Even though the moon is hidden on this night, the lack of light doesn't matter. It doesn't need to, the flowers glow on their own like millions of stars spread upon the earth. Bright pinks, purples, oranges, and yellows illuminate the twisting paths as I stumble through the overgrown foliage. Each bloom seems to hum with a soft, ethereal light, casting eerie shadows that dance along the edges of my vision. The air is thick with the scent of night-blooming flowers, sweet and heady, wrapping around me like a blanket.

I push my way through a thicket of thorns, their sharp points snagging at my clothes and skin. The garden seems to shift around me, the very earth under my feet moving as if alive. I hear whispers on the wind, soft and sibilant, urging me to turn back.

But I can't turn back. Not when I'm so close.

As I emerge from the thicket, I find myself in a clearing unlike any other. In the center stands a tree, its branches twisted and gnarled, leaves shimmering with a silvery light. At its base lies a pool of inky blackness, reflecting the dark sky above.

I approach the tree cautiously, my heart pounding in my chest. The whispers grow louder, more urgent, as if pleading with me to leave this place of magic and mystery. But I am drawn to the pool, its surface like a mirror reflecting back the twisted branches above.

As I kneel by the edge of the pool, I see movement in the depths below. Shadows shift and swirl, forming strange and ethereal shapes that seem to beckon me closer. Without thinking, I dip my hand into the water, expecting it to be cold and forbidding.

To my surprise, the water is warm, almost inviting. It clings to my skin like a caress, sending shivers down my spine. And then, as if in a dream, I see a face staring back at me from the depths.

It is a face unlike any other, with eyes that seem to hold the secrets of the universe within their depths. The figure in the water raises a hand towards me, and pulls me in.