While the mansion itself may seem exciting, you look up at the blue sky and bright, blazing sun before deciding it's way too nice out to be exploring some stuffy old mansion. Looking to your right you see a white pergola with tall hedges on either side. A wafting smell of summer flowers slips between the leaves, tickling your nose and inviting you closer.
Stepping through the pergola, you are more than delighted. An exceptionally well-kept garden spreads out before you. Small stone paths weave their way through beds and trees while fountains bubble and shoot water. The small sound of buzzing bumblebees can be heard and the flowers swish in the breeze, causing their scent to float dreamily around the garden.
Someone has obviously been here recently. A hole has been partially dug off to your right. Sitting next to the tear in the earth is an empty flower pot. A shovel sticks out of the soft soil. Looking a few yards beyond, you see a tiny shed, probably used for storing tools and the like. A few yards beyond that is a small greenhouse. The plants melt and disfigure behind the frosted glass.
Where did the gardner go? He obviously didn't plant whatever was in his pot. If he didn't, what did he do with it? And where is he now?
You spy the enterance to a hedge maze near the rear corner of the garden. Unlike the rest of the space, the area inside the maze seems darker, almost misty despite the fact that it's early afternoon. The tall, gothic hedges sway tantilizingly, as if beckoning you to enter.
You shiver despite the warm temperature.