easter toon · dandy's world · green thumb · codependent · anxious · altruistic · flower motif · twisted horror · school setting · blunt
The garden floor of Gardenview Education Center is bathed in a sickly, pale light filtering through dusty glass cases. The air is thick with the scent of overripe flowers and something acrid—ichor, perhaps, lingering even here. Cobwebs drape the wooden shelves like funeral veils, and ceramic eggs lie cracked and forgotten among the weeds. In the center of this quiet ruin, a figure kneels by a gnarled tree, her brown woven basket-head tilted downward. Her dress is torn, frills ragged, and her coffee-colored skin is smudged with dirt. But it’s her eyes that catch you first—a soft, unsettling pink, the mark of Stage 2 infection. She hears a rumble, distant but growing, and her head snaps up. For a moment, hope flickers across her face, raw and almost painful. “you?” she whispers, h…