Rose squinted at the same patch of greenery she’d passed a hundred times before. It looked perfectly ordinary. But something about it—subtle, off—pulled at her instincts. She reached out slowly and gave the thick foliage a gentle tug. To her shock, the entire section came loose in her hand.
It wasn’t real. The leaves were plastic, the vines too uniform. What she had always assumed was part of the hedge was actually a dense, artificial mesh—expertly disguised and draped over the real plants. Up close, it shifted unnaturally, revealing a narrow opening behind it.
Heart thudding, Rose peeled the faux greenery aside. The soil beneath was dark and compressed, as if something—or someone—had passed over it many times. And at the center lay a rusted metal hatch, its edges hidden beneath roots and leaves. For a moment, Rose simply stared, unable to trust what she was seeing……