Chapter 3 - The Secret Garden
Months bled into years. Leo was fifteen now, lean, quiet, and hardened by the concrete. He had discovered a hidden pocket of the city—an overgrown, walled-off courtyard behind a demolished cathedral. It was shielded from the wind and the prying eyes of the street gangs.
He began to plant things. He found discarded seeds in the dumpsters behind groceries, bulbs that had been tossed aside because they weren't "perfect." He spent his nights hauling water from a leaking pipe in the alleyway.
It became his secret obsession. A vibrant, green explosion of life in the middle of a gray, dead city. It was the only thing that felt real.
One afternoon, while tending to his sunflowers, he heard a sound. A footfall. He spun around, his hand instinctively gripping the iron bar he carried for protection.
A girl stood there, peering through a crack in the wall. She was his age, dressed in the crisp, clean uniform of the prestigious academy on the hill. She didn't look like a threat; she looked like a girl who had never seen an alleyway, let alone lived in one.
"Are those... real?" she asked, her voice hushed.
May you like
Leo stared at her, frozen. "Get out."
"I just wanted to see," she said, undeterred. "I’ve been watching you from my balcony. Everyone thinks this place is cursed, but you... you made it bloom."
