The Asphodels

Journey back to the Gothic Garden to a quaint 1870s town called Spencerton, VA, a mere train stop, luring visitors to disembark into a world of Victorian tradition. Touring through town, visitors must go by Willoughby Cemetery and glide down its path, passing the dark roses and thorns, where each step is lit by flowers Persephone herself planted to use for guiding the dead on their way to the underworld. The flowers dazzlingly donning the cemetery in question-the asphodels.

For this tale, not only does the flower bloom with brilliance, but it becomes the centerpiece in the arrangement of the story for one character, Asphodel Willoughby, named by her father after this gothic flower. Asphodel must find her place in life in this little town where spirits roam and family members dwell. Her greatest force to reckon with is her twin sister, Astra, who is her mirror image in body and soul. Total opposites always opposing each other at every turn, leaving Asphodel working side by side with her father, Thomas, in his funerary business, Willoughby Undertakers, while Astra thrives as the radiant flower in society who wants a life outside the sorrow and death Asphodel embraces.