Rogue and Riveting

Chapter 10 Poison and Blood

"Enoch!" Adelia called out to the man who was almost on the window, but he seemed to have not heard her. But Adelia was sure that it was her husband. She could tell by just the posture and the way he stood. He was looking outside the window, which Adelia remembered was the vast garden below where she had tea. It was weird that Enoch suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but now that he was just standing there looking at the view outside the window, a sudden dread enveloped Adelia's system.

What if this was a different person?

And then just when she was about to walk to the man who she was at least fifty percent sure that it was her husband, the man himself hopped into the stool of the said window. Now, this window was the elaborate, classy type of window with wood as frames, sill, and stool, but it has glass as its panes which were ornamented by colored paintings of what looked like two children running on grass. And this man perched on the window like he was some type of bird, and then he looked back at Adelia, who was now horrorstruck when he saw the face of the man.

She was right. It was her husband. It was no other than Enoch himself.

"E-Enoch! W-What are you d-doing there? Come back here!" Adelia could not even believe that she was finally talking to her husband because just one moment ago, her tongue and mouth seemed to have disappeared from her head. But when she saw that Enoch was about to jump, she screamed in fright because they were on the third floor of the palace! 

Enoch will die if he jumps!

"No! Enoch! You should not do that---!"

But she was too late. Enoch had already disappeared from her view, which meant that her husband had already jumped. Adelia could not contain her heightened emotions. As she dashed towards the window, she screamed at the top of her lungs, something that she realized at that moment that she had never done before. The horror of seeing her husband jump to his death was too much for her that she was gasping for air. She literally could not breathe properly as if her lungs had stopped working!

Adelia's whole body went numb when she heard something crashing outside. It must have been her husband. And when she looked down from the window, she saw that Enoch was indeed there on the ground. But it was too dark to make out what happened to him, so there was nothing that Adelia can do to check if her husband is still alive. She looked around the room for a lamp, or a flashlight, but she couldn't find one. Panicking and sweating, Adelia decided to just go down to where Enoch fell, and thank goodness when she opened the door of her room, the two security men on guard were there trying to open the room. 

They must have heard her scream a while ago, and she was grateful for them because she wanted to ask for help from anyone she would meet on the way down to the ground. The two men looked at her with utter shock as soon as she get out of the room. Maybe it was because she was still in her nightgown, but Adelia couldn't care less.

"Enoch jumped out of the window! Please come with me and let us help him!" She said that with enough authority and panic that the security personnel just went with her. They were all running to the stairs, and even on the staircase. She had also given them additional information on what happened while they were dashing Enoch's location.

And after a couple of minutes of running, they were finally able to get out of the main palace through the southern exit from the kitchens, straight to the mini-gazebo which was the entrance to the enormous garden of the royal family. Adelia ran towards the spot where she knew was the spot where Enoch would fall. BAsing from the palace building and looking out for their room window, she was able to get to the place where Enoch fell.

Except that he wasn't there. 

Adelia went blank for a couple of seconds and then decided to look around for her husband. But there was no one there on the ground and on her surroundings. "Enoch? Where are you?" Adelia began searching for him as soon she realized that Enoch must have survived and run off again, though she couldn't think of a reason why any of these things happening right now are even happening. 

Where is Enoch and what is he doing? Where did he come from? And why did he jump from their bedroom window? And the most important question for him right now is, why is he acting so weird?

"Your Highness, are you sure that you saw the King fall from your window to here?" one of the security personnel asked her. And it was at that moment that Adelia realized that she was already crying because the other personnel gave her a handkerchief. She took it and wiped her wet face, but she couldn't stop her tears from falling because she's now worried than ever.

"I'm sure..." she told the security personnel. "He fell here," she added, pointing at the spot where Enoch was supposed to have fallen into. The ground where she was pointing was covered in grass.

"But the King hasn't come back yet from his trip, Your Highness," said the personnel. "The person that you saw could be another person."

"It was him!" said Adelia indignantly. But the two men were already looking at her like they no longer believe her. "I swear, it was him! Enoch was here!"

"But Your Highness, if it was the King, then he should have entered your room through the main door, which we were guarding. And it was locked from the inside all night before you opened it."

"That's right, Your Highness," the other man seconded. "And besides, if it was really the King, we should have known that he was already back. We are your security team. We are the first one to know if one of you is gone or where you are at any given moment."

Adelia knew they were telling the truth, but she could not still believe that the man that went inside her room and jumped from the window was not Enoch. She knew his face and his body. She knew his eyes because he is the only one who have those pair of eyes... 

But Adelia also realized that unless she could give them any evidence that at least some man entered her room without them knowing, this circumstance will turn against her. She will turn out to be lying, which she did not want to become. So she looked again, this time trying to squint her eyes into the dark of the garden. And then she saw something on her right, which turned out to be a building's lamppost. 

"What's that place?" Adelia asked her security men.

"That's the old greenhouse of the King's mother, Queen Anastazia."

For some reason, Adelia felt compelled to this eerie-looking building so she walked towards it. It was a white building with transparent glasses as its walls but also was dome-like in shape. It was still a few yards away from where they were standing and huddling, so Adelia had to jog as she wanted to know if her hunch was right.

"Your Highness, no one is allowed to go there," said the personnel. "I can't let you get in there." He even held her arm to stop her. As much as it shocked Adelia that he touched her, she let it go because she badly wanted to go to the abandoned-looking greenhouse. 

"But why? It looks like it's abandoned already, so why can't I go there?"

"It still houses some plants that the former queen took care of. And one of them is the infamous red ivy plant. That place is tightly shut so that the plant's pollens could not get out of the greenhouse."

"Red ivy? Like the island, Red Ivy?"

The personnel nodded. "The very same, Your Highness. It's a rare, highly poisonous plant that releases pollens that when inhaled, can kill a person. No one has ever gone there since that greenhouse has been closed because you might inhale the pollen."

That made Adelia more suspicious. "Really? But why is it still there, if it's that dangerous? Shouldn't you have burned that building by now?"

The personnel shook his head. "That's impossible, Your Highness. The pollen is not only poisonous but is also explosive and highly flammable. Getting rid of that plant will only make things worse for the palace."

"What? That's... that's outrageous!" Adelia exclaimed because just hearing that from the personnel already made her worry. What if the greenhouse gets rusty or destroyed and the pollen gets out? Shouldn't the people here already have thought of a way to get rid of the dangerous plant?

"It is, Your Highness, that's why I'm begging you, let's get back inside the palace. The King will not go there if you really saw him because he knows what's there in his mother's old greenhouse."

Adelia had no more things to say to that because she knew that they were right. If Enoch had survived that fall and that he ran away, he surely would not run into this extremely dangerous place. So she finally decided to let the matter go, even though the greenhouse made her more suspicious of what happened. She felt like there is something happening here that she didn't know, and that she have to know about it as soon as possible.

***

Once the sun rose to the sky, ester went to her room to check on her. She looked pale when Adelia saw her stride inside her room in her usual gothic dress matched with a wide-brimmed black fedora that made her look older than she actually is. "I was worried when I hear!" she said and went to her to give her an embrace. Adelia was still on her bed so she was surprised when ester did that. "Are you alright?"

Adelia nodded. "But Enoch..."

"Enoch is fine," said Ester, which made Adelia's face light up.

"Really? How did you know?" 

"Because he called me to say that he's now on his way back here. And he is also worried about you. He thinks that you have been hallucinating from lack of meals. You shouldn't really starve yourself, Your Highness---"

"I was not hallucinating," Adelia said with the strength that she can muster right now. She was indeed feeling weak, but she was not yet feeling ill. "There was clearly a man in here who jumped to the window and fell to the garden below. And he looked like Enoch."

Ester's eyes bulged when she heard that from her. "Your Highness, you should not say that---"

"And why not? I am telling the truth. I even ordered ur security team to check the camera's installed here in the palace to see that I am not lying---"

"I am not saying that you are lying, Your Highness," interrupted Ester. "What I'm saying is that you shouldn't say things so bluntly."

She said that last part in a whisper so it only made Adelia angry.

"Ester, you know what, if you're just going to give me riddles, you might as well go because I am not feeling well. I need to sleep again."

Ester looked taken aback by what she said and how her tone just sounded irritated when she said that, but Adelia did not care anymore. She had decided that if the people in this palace is just going to play games with her, then she might as well play their game. 

"Alright. I will let you rest for a while, Your Highness," Ester said and Adelia couldn't help but notice how Ester's lips quivered when she said that to her. "But please, don't make the security team worry about you ever again. Your husband is coming home tomorrow, so you can now rest your mind from thinking too much."

And when Ester left, Adelia stood up and dressed because she lied. She was not going to sleep again. Instead, she went back to the garden and examined that old greenhouse again. At first, she was scared that someone might stop her again, but she had a plan. She 'accidentally' pressed the fire alarm button on the great hall while everyone was working, so they went into panic mode when they heard the buzz of the emergency alarm. 

The mayhem enabled Adelia to get to the greenhouse without anyone following her, so she was able to see it in broad daylight. It still looked abandoned and haunted even in daylight, so her theory that Enoch or the man she saw enter her room might have hidden here somewhere near was starting to look ridiculous even to her. And Adelia was about to go back to the palace when she saw something in one of the green topiary standing in front of her, those trimmed plants that she thinks were strategically planted there to hide the greenhouse from view.

This particular lion-shaped topiary looked normal, but there was something glinting on its leaves. Adelia gasped when she realized what it was. 

"Blood!" she muttered to herself as she take a closer look at the dried but still bright red blood splattered on the tall plant. "But whose blood is this? Is this Enoch's?"