I am about to tell you about the scariest night of my life...
This is no mean feat, as fear has been a part of my life for the past 5 years. I am under the employ of a woman (Let's call her Madame X) I serve this woman in her every need; she owns me, and I am her slave. She is a wealthy, highly influential woman. She also has no soul. It's almost as if she is not human, and perhaps that is true. As well as being her property, Madame X's slaves are a network of workers for her. I am categorized as courier for Madame, and when I leave her home and go about her various messenger jobs, I am allowed the name Prescilla.
Tonight's job is the acquisition of a package and the only information I have been given is it is over six feet tall, and it is alive. The way Madame gave this information to me sent a chill down my spine, but it was nothing compared to the actual circumstances of this pick up.
As I approached the sprawling edifice in the darkness of night (the only time exchanges are allowed from this location apparently), my heart did a backflip. The array of low-lying buildings did nothing but exude terror. A sickly orange light coming from the multitude of windows, suggested some unholy experiment going on inside, little did I know I was not far off the mark. The constant rain did not help.
I pulled in, the darkness so full I could barely even see any lines etched in the gravelly pavement for parking. I ended up just pulling up at an angle close to the double doors. Closer than was, probably, allowable.
The doors were of the type that you find in hospitals, free swinging both ways with no suggestion of a locking mechanism. The whole place looked so shady that the proprietor probably just shoved heavy chain through the handles and padlocked it, but then again since their business is held at night, perhaps the building is never empty.
I pushed open the doors and abruptly stopped. The building was obviously an enormous one room area. But the main area was ringed by a line of heavy glistening black tarp hanging from the ceiling almost to the floor. The other immediately noticeable thing about the building was the temperature and the smell.
The place was stifling, unbearably hot, I started to sweat almost immediately upon entry. Also, the smell assaulting me was a rich heady earthy smell, laden with loam and a powerful fertilizer stench that almost made me dizzy. Yet again I wished I didn't have to go into this place.
Apprehensively I pushed aside the closest piece of tarp, its wet waxy feel slipping in my fingers. I walked through into a seeming jungle of life. The tarp swayed heavily back into place behind me closing off the sound of the rain outside.
I looked up at the closest plant and nearly jumped out of my skin. It was a person! My heart pounding, I stepped back and felt branches stab my spine, I whirled around recovering from my stumble over another plant. A tree this time. Hand over my chest, I stood still to compose myself. The leaves of this tree were very droopy and thick. Reading the plaque before it, the tree was a weeping willow and for some reason it had a name. Next to the rather exorbitant price was the name "Calathea"
My first thought was, who names a plant? But then, as I narrowed my eyes, I saw behind this thick sweeping leaves another outline of a body, not a tree trunk, and remembered the plant behind me that had first startled me. The body of the other plant was plain to see because it was not concealed by heavy swaying "weeping" branches.
I turned to scrutinize the first plant. I was terrified and yet captured by its beauty. I didn't even understand what it was I was seeing, but it seemed to be a full-grown naked woman stuck into a round pot. There was even one of those yardsticks used to keep plants straight, to grow high. It was attached to her with lengths of thin sharp twine all up one leg. Her skin had a sickly green pallor to it. But her head, her head was.....was a rose blossom. It was astounding, the skull and head were even divided like the petals of a flower. It was a rich deep red color. Her hands were folded over her chest like she was sleeping. The eyes were closed. But all along the body of this.... creature, green veins stood out against pale green skin. Leaves grew out of various places. I followed the curve of her body down and then gasped in even more shock. The woman had a penis. A substantially thick long growth jutting out and up out of her pelvis. I stepped closer awestruck by this oddity. The phallus was also pulsing with green veins, and it was studded with rose thorns.
My throat dried up and my heart continued to hammer. I wanted to get out of here. I lifted my gaze and saw row upon endless row of plants. Every single one of them was the silhouette of a person, NOT a plant. My body seemed to start to walk down the row, even as every fiber of my being screamed RUN! GET OUT! But apparently fascination had won its hold over me.