The scent of roses

It was mid-June when Katie Michaels and her parents arrived at Rosehill- the big, old house that belonged to Katie´s aunt Christina and uncle Clark. Katie had always loved going to Rosehill, because that meant she´d see her cousin Emily, and the two of them would go for walks in the large rose garden that had given the house its name, or go into town for ice cream and a movie.
This time, Katie didn´t want to be there at all. This time, Emily wasn´t there and she would never come back.
A couple of months ago, Emily had told her mother she was going for a walk by the cliffs behind the house, and that she´d be back before dinner time. When Emily didn´t return, Christina had gone out to get her, thinking that her daughter was deep in the book she´d brought with her, and just lost track of time. She never did find Emily. Instead she found Emily´s book by the edge of the cliffs, and one of her sandals lying next to it.

" I´d like you to stay in Emily´s room, like you used to", aunt Christina said to Katie as they walked up the stairs to the second floor.
"I know you girls liked staying up late talking, because we could hear you. Emily always loved having you here…"
Aunt Christina´s eyes welled up with tears, and Katie had to swallow hard not to cry herself. Then her aunt collected herself and opened the door to Emily´s bedroom.
The room looked the same as it always had- it actually looked as if Emily had just been there.
" I´ve left the room just as it was", said aunt Christina." Emily wouldn´t want me to go through her things. I don´t think she´ll mind you being here, though."
" Sure", Katie nodded.
"Well, make yourself at home. I´ll be downstairs."
Aunt Christina left, and Katie stood there unable to stop the tears running down her cheeks. She missed Emily so much, but she was afraid to cry in front of her aunt, because the older woman seemed so fragile.
"Oh, Emily…"she sobbed, and sank down on the bed.
The sweet smell of roses suddenly filled Katie´s nostrils, and she looked up. Where did it come from? There were no roses in the room. A chill on her neck, almost like a breath, made the hairs on Katie´s arms stand up. It felt as if she was not alone in the room. Katie flew off the bed and ran down the stairs, where she stayed for the rest of the evening.




The following day, Katie decided to go out in the rose garden and read one of Emily´s books. She sat down by the white roses that had been Emily´s favorites and opened her book. After a while Katie felt like she was being watched, so she looked up and saw a man standing on the other side of the fish pond, that separated the white roses from the red. He had a round, pale face with piercing eyes, and he wore a green worksuit.. The way the man just stood there staring at her made Katie uncomfortable, so she closed her book and walked away.
When she got up to the house, Katie asked her uncle who the man in the garden was.
"That´s Greg, our gardener. We hired him about six months ago, when our old gardener retired. He´s a nice guy."
" Yeah, I´m sure he is", Katie mumbled.
Nice or not, the gardener was still staring at Katie. She turned away from the window and walked upstairs instead. Whatever the man´s problem was, he wouldn´t be able to see her there.

When Katie opened the door to Emily´s bedroom, the smell of roses hit her. She froze in the doorway. The air in the room was thick and heavy with the sweet flower scent. Katie felt a chill run up her spine when she once again got the feeling that there was somebody in there with her.
" Leave me alone…"she whispered. "Please…"
Slowly the thick, sweet air disappeared, but Katie still felt a bit shook up. She had never felt anything like this before, and it seemed like it was directed at her. Nobody else seemed to notice the flower scent or the chill in the house, and nobody else seemed to feel the presence of something around them.
Katie continued into the room and sat down on the bed. If only Emily had been there they could have talked about it. Emily would have understood.
"Why aren´t you here?" Katie said to the empty room.


It was midnight. Katie didn´t know what had woken her up, but again the room was filled with the sweet smell of roses. This time she didn´t feel scared, she just felt an urgent need to go up to the window and look out.
Down by the white roses she could see a woman. The woman looked up at Katie before turning around and disappearing behind the trellises. Katie ran out of her bedroom and into her parents´ room.
" Dad! Wake up!"
Katie shook her Dad´s shoulder, and he finally woke up and peered at her through sleepy eyes.
" Katie? What´s the matter?"
"Dad, there´s someone in the garden! You have to come!"
Katie´s Dad sat up, his hair messy from sleep.
-"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"There is a woman in the garden, Dad! I saw her!"
Katie´s Mom woke up as well and wanted to know what was going on.
"Katie says she saw a woman in the garden", Katie´s Dad explained." I´ll handle this, Jean. You go back to sleep."
He turned to Katie again and gave her a stern look.
"Katie, you probably just had a dream. Will you please go back to bed?"
" But, Dad!"
" No buts! Just go back to bed, Katie. It´s very late, and I want to sleep."
Katie sighed. There was no use in arguing with her father.
" OK, I´ll go," she said." Goodnight."
Back in her room, Katie looked out the window, but the woman was gone. She crawled back into bed and pulled up the duvet. Who was the woman she´d seen in the garden? Tomorrow, Katie thought, she´d go down to the garden and see if she could find any footprints to show her Dad.


Disappointed, Katie sat down on the stone bench by the white roses. She had looked all around the area where she´d seen the woman last night, but there were no footprints anywhere. Great. Maybe her Dad was right after all. Maybe she had been dreaming.
Katie put her head in her hands and tried to think through what she had seen, when something caught her eye. There was something sticking out of the ground next to her foot,and it didn't look like a tree root. She bent down and was about to put her fingers around it,when she heard her Mom's voice.
" Katie! Come on, we´re going into town!"
Jean poked her head around the trellis behind Katie.
" Hurry up, Katie. Everyone else is in the car."
Katie looked down at the object in the dirt,and thought that she could come back later to dig it up. It probably wasn´t anything interesting anyway.



It wasn´t until two days later that Katie went back into the garden. She´d almost forgotten about the object under the stone bench, but as she walked by the white roses she remembered. Katie got down on her knees and looked around, but whatever had been there two days ago was gone now. The earth under the bench and the whole surrounding area had been raked and watered.
Hearing a sound behind her, Katie turned around. Greg the gardener was walking through the garden with his shearing tools, his piercing eyes on her. Katie smiled at him and stood up. Greg returned her smile and walked on. Feeling unsettled, but not knowing why, Katie walked swiftly up to the house.
As she stood inside the door, trying to calm her beating heart, Katie felt the smell of roses around her and the hairs on her arms stood up. The smell got stronger and stronger until Katie had to go and sit down because it was making her dizzy. She sat down in the living room, facing the window, and her eyes went to the garden outside. Greg was nowhere to be seen, which was a relief. The scent of roses that surrounded her was still strong, and the air was thick and hard to breathe.
"What do you want?" Katie said." Please, I don´t know what you want…."
The thick air seemed to press Katie towards the door, as if it wanted her to go outside again.
" No, I am not going out. Leave me alone!"
Katie started to walk the opposite way, when all of a sudden a photograph of Emily, Clark and Christina, that stood on a small table in the hall, flew down and landed on the floor. The air around Katie got colder and the smell intensified, so she walked over and opened the door. Almost like somebody was pressing against her back, Katie was pushed forward and into the garden. She was now standing next to the white roses, just by the stone bench. It was very quiet around her now, as if the whole garden was holding its breath waiting for her to do something. Katie looked at the ground where she'd found the mysterious object the other day, and felt her knees bending, as if some force was pushing them from behind. She complied, and began to dig in the soft, moist earth.




Three days later, a policeman came to the house to deliver the news that they had arrested Greg for the murder of Emily, and that he had confessed to killing her. Apparently, Greg had been in love with Emily, and when she didn´t want him he had gotten furious. He had followed her out to the cliffs one afternoon and he had strangled her there. Leaving her book and one of her sandals on the ground, Greg had tried to make it look as if Emily had fallen off the cliffs and into the ocean. He had then buried her under her beloved white roses where she used to sit and read while he worked in the garden.

" He´ll go away for a long time", the police officer said and nodded a goodbye to them before he walked back to his car and drove off.
" Poor Emily…"aunt Christina said with tears in her eyes.
" At least now we know what really happened to her", said uncle Clark.
The two of them disappeared into the kitchen with Katie´s parents, and Katie walked up to Emily´s bedroom.
When she entered the room, she was met by the sweet smell of roses, and on the bed lay a single white rose….