Voretober 2022 - STALK

“This is the greenhouse I told you about! Kind of a passion project of mine.”

Darla held the door open for her boyfriend, presenting a large room full of all sorts of plants. It was rather impressive, although Buck didn’t care too much. He walked in past her, immediately hitting a wall of heat and humidity. “Ugh,” he groaned, “Why is it so hot in here?”

Darla carefully closed the door behind her and said, “Oh, for the plants! I keep the temperature at about 27 celsius during the day... Uh, that’s like 80 degrees Fahrenheit. And the humidity level is about 80% also.” She felt a little shy subjecting someone to the climate, but she loved her plants. She loved Buck too, but they’d only just started dating, so it was important he knew about her plants.

Despite not caring too much, Buck was willing to endure for a little while. He was still enjoying Darla for the time being, even if she had her oddities about her. She was hot enough that it evened out, to him. To indulge her a little, he said, “I don’t really know anything about plants. Which one of these is your favorite?”

She laughed, “Oh, I couldn’t pick one, it’s like asking me what’s my favorite child!” There was an awkward pause before she realized how she should continue. “Um, well, to start off over here I have some carnivorous plants.” They walked over to an arrangement of pitcher plants, venus flytraps, and some other plants not as easily recognizable to Buck. “Some of these are hybrid species of my own making! Pretty cool, right? I’ve been giving them a special fertilizer too which is why they’re so big. They do a great job of keeping the greenhouse pest-free.”

Buck nodded. “Uh-huh. Do you have any like... flowers?”

The question left Darla a little deflated, but she tried to keep her mood up. “Uh... Yeah! Do you wanna see the petunias, or geraniums, or something else...?” She looked at Buck for a response, but he just stared back blankly. “Right. Um... Everyone likes chrysanthemums. They’re just over here...”

This loop went for a while, with Buck giving Darla the bare minimum to go off of while she tried her best to entertain him, to get him interested in something. Besides wiping off sweat occasionally he didn’t seem particularly bothered by the whole thing. But he didn’t care either. Darla may have been eccentric, but she wasn’t oblivious. She just wanted him to show a flicker of actual interest.

Eventually they circled back near where they started. Darla said, “Well uh... Is there anything else you’d like to see? I know it’s kind of boring, but...”

Buck shrugged. “Nah, it’s alright.” He stood near the edge of the walking path, back facing some plants and looking past Darla. He gestured towards something in the middle and said, “Why don’t you tell me all about that one? Looks pretty neat.”

She lit up. Turning around, she decided which one he must’ve been pointing at. She can’t believe she forgot to mention it during the tour. Darla walked over to the plant and started saying, “Oh my gosh thanks for pointing out! This one is strelitzia nicolai, sometimes also known as...” Buck tuned her out. He mostly just wanted to have her turn around so he could admire her figure from behind, but it was nice to see her so excited too. Hopefully she’d be that excited in bed later.

A vine suddenly wrapped around his mouth. He exclaimed muffled and went to tear it away, but some more vines roped around his arms to lock them behind his head. Trying to pull away by running resulted in him being swiftly pulled back and his legs bundled together too. He was suspended in the air and he couldn’t even see what monster plant must have grabbed him. But he could feel he was being pulled towards something.

He tried to cry out for help, but Darla was fully engrossed and he couldn’t make any loud noises with the thick vine gagging him. She was rattling off info such as, “this is one of the few plants that contain bilirubin, which is usually found in animals, but...” Information that wouldn’t help Buck get free.

The vines suddenly flipped him in the air, giving him a perfect view of what grabbed him. It looked like some horrible massive variant of a venus fly-trap, one that had a more closed ‘mouth’ with lips that seemed locked in a permanent grin. The sight renewed his struggles, but no matter what he did he couldn’t be heard. Its mouth peeled apart as it pulled him closer, revealing a very strong-smelling and visibly sticky interior.

The last thing he saw before being pulled inside it was that ass of Darla’s he was so interested in. The plant’s mouth sealed back shut as soon as he was wholly inside, but the vines didn’t seem interested in letting go. Instead, he found himself being taken down into a much tighter space. He felt plant flesh adhering tightly to his face and body as he slipped down it. As much as he could jerk around, even if he broke free at this point, there was nowhere else to go.

Had Darla turned around at any point during this process, she would’ve realized what happened. A distinctly humanoid bulge was visible in its stalk, quickly moving from ‘mouth’ to the soil it was planted in. Unfortunately for that bulge, she only turned around just as it disappeared beneath the earth. “Yeah, so that’s why-- Buck?” He was no longer standing where he was a minute ago. “Buck? Are you... Are you still here?”

She called out for him a few more times, but he couldn’t hear. Likewise, she couldn’t hear him, even though the vines had retracted away into the plant. Buck found himself in a tight sac, surrounded by dirt on all sides beyond the plant flesh. There was some sticky juice around him, and he feared the worst. His fears were confirmed when he discovered a patch of clothing stuck to the bottom. He tried to scream, to tear his way out, to do anything to escape, but it all seemed to be in vain.

After failing to find him, Darla mourned the loss of another boyfriend. She just couldn’t ever find one that loved her and her plants. They always seemed to disappear after being shown the greenhouse, and so suddenly too. She sighed sadly as she walked up to one of her big carnivorous hybrids and carefully petted it on its lobe. Little did she know this was the very same plant busy slowly digesting her boyfriend beneath it. “At least I’ll always have you guys,” she said.