Root of the Problem

Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.

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It was a bright and cloudless day. Katy wanted to reach up and close the blinds, to shield her eyes from the overwhelming light but she couldn't manage the effort for it. Instead she rolled over in bed, burying her face against her pillow. Since returning home she had done little but lay in bed and wander around her house. She knew that she should get up and get out of the house, or even start going to class, she had missed the first week but she could still catch up.

Brandon had done as she had asked at least and he hadn't made another attempt to visit her. Katy was thankful for that, it wasn't like he'd be able to get her to go out either. Several of her friends had stopped by to see if everything was alright. They had texted and called and she hadn't been responding, was everything alright? She had given the same talk over and over, yes, everything was fine, she had lost her phone and she'd get a new one soon, she felt a bit under the weather and just needed a few days. Every one of them reluctantly walked away, telling her to call them if she needed anything at all.

Even with her words saying otherwise they could tell something was different with her, had something happened between her and Brandon? No, everything was great, she just needed some time alone. None of them seemed to believe that, and why should they? Katy herself didn't believe it. She hadn't be alright since the camping trip, not since she had fallen into that cave. It had been two weeks since the trip, but she had only been home the last seven days, the rest of that she had been lost in the cave.

The longer she had been down there in the darkness the more her mind had been playing tricks on her and the less she remembered. None of it seemed real or even possible. Everything had blended together into a blur and she couldn't believe any of it had actually happened, it couldn't have. Those sorts of plants didn't exist, and they certainly didn't attack people. That was what she was telling herself now.

A week after she had disappeared, she emerged from the cave back into the forest, finally finding a way out of the cave. The sun had been blinding to her and she was left stumbling through the forest, completely naked, expect for what seemed to be sticky layer of something. She was finally able to see herself in the light and had tried wiping the multi-colored substance off of her body, but she was nearly coated head to toe in it.

For the first time she caught a break, coming across a park ranger who was out looking for her. Brandon had reported her missing, and the ranger was amazed to find her still alive. She was wrapped in a single blanket until she as driven back to the ranger station. From there he had provided her with a ill fitting t-shirt and jeans that were more rags than anything, but it was better than being naked. Brandon had arrived minutes after her, he hadn't left after she had gone missing. The park ranger wanted to file all sorts of reports and paperwork, and for her to go to the local hospital, but between her pathetic look and her begging to just go home he had relented, and Brandon had be allowed to drive her back.

He had dozens of questions for her, but Katy couldn't or didn't want to answer them. Some of the answers she thought she knew, but it didn't seem like they would be possible. She answered the first few simply enough, she had fallen into a cave and it had taken this long for her to find a way out. No, she wasn't hurt. Yes, she wanted to go home. No, he didn't need to stay with her. He eventually stopped asking questions, understanding that she didn't want to talk about what had happened. One of his questions did stick with her, what had she eaten while she was in the cave? She wasn't sure. She must have eaten something, even as they drove home she hadn't been hungry, and she didn't feel weak or malnourished. It was just another question she didn't have an answer to.

Brandon walked her inside and seemed ready to stay there with her. With a hug and a soft shove to the door she told him she was alright and that she loved him. She would call him when she was ready. He reluctantly left, holding onto her tightly until she told him to go. After that Katy took the longest shower she ever had in her life, scrubbing every inch of her body for what felt like a dozen times. Finally clear of a week's worth of mud and whatever had been coating her, she felt better. The next thing she did was to take the dirty blanket and old clothes she had been given and walked them through the garden in the backyard and toss them in the trash.

Since then, Katy had been lounging around the house, idly browsing the internet and watching videos. The week in the cave was an impossible blur in her mind, she could recall certain hints of what had happened, but never clearly. Other than a few short conversations with Brandon and her other friends she was left totally alone and that's what she wanted right now. Most nights had left her tossing and turning, only for the sun to rise with her still being exhausted from a poor night's sleep. She kept a lamp on every evening, the one thing she remembered in its entirety from the cave was the darkness. The total and complete lack of light had left its mark on her, and she didn't go into a room at night without first turning on a light.

The mystery of what had happened to her continued to endlessly bother her, to the point that she had avoided her friends and had barely been out of the house. Katy knew something had happened, but what it was continued to elude her. Her dreams had been the only hint, and she couldn't discern whether it was her fear of the dark effecting her or an actual glimpse at what had happened to her. All evidence pointed to the former as the only possible answer. The writhing, coiling, being dragged down onto the cave floor. One of the strangest things was despite how territory these dreams seemed to her in the moment, she alway woke up from them aroused, and every time she hadn't been able to return to sleep before she acted on it.

When she could finally not justify being in bed any longer, Katy reluctantly pushed herself up, shielding her eyes from the light with one hand as she rose from the bed. Her morning routine began as usual, a simple bowl of cereal for breakfast before wondering over to her computer and browsing the internet, but even that didn't last long. It turned out there was a limit to new content if all you did was browse it. After watching the same car crash video for the third time she finally had to admit that she needed to get out of the house.

Even knowing that fact she wasn't eager to contact any of her friends or even Brandon. They had been understanding so far, but she knew at some point they would demand answers. She still didn't have her new phone yet either, so she would have to walk over to where they were staying, and she didn't even know if they had class or anything right now. No, seeing her friends was off the table. She peaked out of the blinds behind her computer, the day was almost oppressively bright. If she was feeling more normal she would have called it a great day, it would be perfect to visit a beach or just walk around the local outdoor mall. Neither of those options was currently appealing in the least at the moment though.

Her eyes fell onto her backyard, it was surrounded by tall fences, and at the moment fairly unkept considering she hadn't been mowing the yard. Far worse than the grass though was the small garden she had been maintaining. It had been fine a week ago, but now it seemed like everything in it had died. Her parents were rich to put it simple, rich enough that letting her have a house a mile from campus was of no consequence. Of course they demanded high grades from her and that she maintain it. The extra housework had actually been a pain in the ass when combined with her coursework, but it beat living in a dorm or joining a sorority. Katy had intended to get roommates last semester but had never gotten around to it. So far her parents didn't know that anything had happened, or that she wasn't going to class. She'd be able to hide those facts from them, but if they stopped by and saw the condition of the yard and garden there was no hiding that.

It looked like she had no choice. Katy rose up from the computer and went and changed out of her pajamas, into a pair of old jean shorts and a t-shirt that had a rip in it. No reason to get any of her nice clothes dirty. One step outside had her running back indoors, grabbing a pair of sunglasses and one of Brandon's baseball caps. She walked to the back of the yard, going into the garage and coming out a few moments later with gloves on and a bucket of gardening tools in one hand, a shovel in the other. She headed over to the garden and began pulling weeds and digging out the dead plants from the garden. Katy had no idea what had happened to them, it was a simple selection of plants, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, carrots, some berry bushes, nothing challenging. It had been a small project she had going, when she wasn't busy with schoolwork it was actually enjoyable. Now it was all dead, dried out like they hadn't been watered in a month. It had been fine when she had returned home.

Plant after plant was pulled from the dirt and tossed to the side for her to throw into the compost pile. The garden wasn't large but under the heat from the sun, Katy was quickly sweating and had barely gotten through a third of it so far. She moved onto the tomato plants, taking the shovel and pushing the blade into the dirt she pushed it down with her shoe and began to dig them out one by one. The pile of compost was getting larger and larger and with just the berry bushes left to do she wiped the sweat off of her brow with the back of her arm. It was actually kind of nice being out of the house and doing something, it got her mind off things.

Katy moved over to the pile of dead plants, scooping them up by the armful and carrying them over to the compost pile in the corner of the yard. She had maybe twenty minutes more of work to clean out the garden, then she had to decide whether she was going to plant anything new. She was finally busy enough that he mind was occupied with something. She continued steadily doing the work when she glanced down and saw something move in one of the holes she had dug to remove the tomato plants. Katy leapt back, dropping the wilted carrots she was carrying.

Her first thought was that it was a snake. That had her apphersive as she slowly took a step closer, peaking into the shallow hole. She didn't see anything for a few moments, and then she spotted it again. It wasn't a snake it was... Katy's eyes were wide as she watched the vine poke out of the soil, slowly moving through the overturned dirt, before withdrawing into the dirt. It was real, the vines, the plants, it had been in the back of her mind and haunting her dreams. Katy couldn't believe it. Confronted by the truth, some of the memories of what had happened to her began to return, wandering through the pitch black cave, the vines suddenly attacking her and then...

She stepped further away from the hole. How had it gotten here? Even if it was real, how had it gotten from the cave to her garden? Her eyes finally landed on the garbage can, still holding the old clothes and the blanket she had been given before coming home, the clothes covered in the seed of the vines. It must have dripped down onto the dirt and started to grow. Had the vines had killed the garden? If one was already this big it must have been using the resources of the others plants and starved them.

On some level, she felt relieved. She wasn't going crazy, something had actually happened to her in those caves. She didn't remember it all yet, but she knew that these plants had done something to her and now she had a pretty good idea of what it was. Katy wanted to call Brandon, someone, to show this to, but she had to be certain. She scooted closer to the hole again, the vine was nowhere to be seen. She brought the shovel forward, poking against the dirt, turning more of it over from a distance, digging down slightly further. Her nerves were on edge, any moment she expected something to leap out at her, but nothing did. Finally she flipped another clump of dirt over and she saw the vine for an instant before it began withdrawing again, further into the dirt. That hadn't been what she had expected, and she still didn't have a good look at it.

This wasn't how Katy remembered them behaving. They had been beyond aggressive, even to her trying to pull them off of her and now it was pulling away and hiding. She squinted up at the sun through her sunglasses, maybe that was it? The cave had been completely dark, maybe they couldn't handle the light? She headed back into the garage, rummaging around and coming out with a beach umbrella and sticking it in the center of the garden and opening it up, covering most of it in shade. Again she started poking against the dirt, pushing further into where it had disappeared. This time it didn't take nearly as long, after moving two scoops of dirt the vine poked out again. Even uncovered from the dirt it didn't pull away this time. It did the opposite in fact, at being disturbed again it pushed forward, tapping around the blade of the shovel before moving higher up to the handle.

Katy pulled her sunglasses off, dropping them to the dirt, finally getting a good look at it. It was a thick blue vine, in bright of day she couldn't tell whether it was glowing or not, but she certainly remembered it from the cave. The memory of it slithering along her body and underneath her clothes was fresh in her mind, especially how it... Katy swallowed, stepping back as the vine continued to emerge from the soil, poking further along the shovel. She knew that there was more she couldn't remember, things that had happened after her first encounter with the plants. A week had passed with her in that cave, she couldn't imagine what had happened to her during that time. After that encounter she didn't know why but she wasn't as scared of the plant as she thought she should be.

With the truth revealed she still didn't know what she should do. She had proof of what had happened to her, or at least some evidence to help her case. Should she call the cops or something? And tell them what another part of her asked? That you were raped by plants? What were the police going to do? That was true enough. Maybe she could show Brandon, explain to him what had finally happened. He had been so understanding so far, she didn't want to keep him in the dark, especially if she now had an idea of what happened to her. Katy had a friend, Alice, who was a botany major, talking to her could be a good idea. If anyone Katy was friends with would know anything about this it was her. She would have to text Alice, telling she wanted to talk, but even with that idea left her not knowing what to do at this moment.

The vine was here, feet away from her. Katy continued to watch it slowly branch out further, exploring the surface of the shade covered dirt. Her eyes followed along its almost graceful movements, her entire focus on it. More and more thoughts drifted across her mind, about the cave and what the plant had done to her and what she had done to the plants. None of it was clear, but she suddenly had a flash of a memory of what had happened to her. It wasn't like her dreams though, where everything was a blurred feeling of what had happened to her, this was her remembering actually what had happened to her.

She was in the cave, completely naked and down on her knees on the hard rock. The stone was rough against her, painful from how long she had been in the position. She had been in the cave for days and her entire body was sore, her muscles nearly exhausted and her throat was dry, but her mind wasn't on that now. The cave wasn't entirely dark anymore, she was finally able to see some details of the cave, but it wasn't because of any sunlight though. Katy glanced down at her body for a moment before looking up. Aside from where it had scrapped off of her and where she had scooped it off, her front was dripping in plant seed.

Some of the sticky glowing substance had mixed together, but most of it was still separated and clinging to her body. A half dozen different colors were painted of her body, coating her skin as it dripped down into a multi-colored puddle between her legs. Her hair was a damp mess, clumped together and streaked green and red and clinging to her back. A small amount of the seed wouldn't be enough to provide enough illumination to see anything but with how much of it was on her, dripping slowly down her naked body, she was positively glowing in the darkness.

Katy was facing one of the walls with both of her hands up in front of her, each hand was tightly wrapped around one of the thick blue glowing vines. Both were emerging from the rock face in front of her. She wasn't trying to fight them off though, previously she remembered trying to get them off of her, but now she was pumping her hands up and down the ends of the vines. They seemed mostly satisfied with that, they weren't wrapping around her body, but they were pushing insistinly against her grip. Her breathing was heavy, excited as she continued to work her palm along the plants. The vines began moving against her, thrusting forward faster and faster to meet her.

To her shook, she leaned in closer to the vine in her left hand, opening her mouth. The plant quivered against her fingers as her lips neared it, parting and slipping over the tip of it. They brushed along the vine traveling down a few inches of it and wrapping closely around it. The eager thrusts from the plant only increased as she took it into her mouth. It began doing quick shallow thrusts against her, filling her mouth. Katy didn't just sit there though, she began to bob her head up and down pushing down it and taking more of the plant into her mouth.

The short thrusts from the vine didn't last much longer, as it quivered even further and began spasm between her lips, pumping its maple syrup tasting seed down her throat. She eagerly drank it down, her tongue pressing along the vine as she continued to move against it, seemingly trying to get as much of it as she could. She could feel the sticky load dripping down her throat, easing the slight hunger she felt. Finally the vine pulled back from her, spent it withdrew from her mouth and disappeared back into the cave wall. With some of its blue seed dripping down her lips she wasn't done yet though.

Katy turned to the vine in her right hand, it was still working against her as eager as ever and she slightly adjusted her position, ducking her head down to take it into her mouth as well. This vine worked against her much deeper, its thrusts more wild and relentless against her throat. That didn't stop Katy from moving her head along it, her tongue continuing to work the plant. When this plant 'climaxed' it wasn't content to just pump its seed down her throat, the first shots of it did splash against her tongue, but then it quickly withdrew from her mouth. Brightly glowing blue seed splashed across her face, glazing over the previous red coat.

Katy kept her mouth open, trying to catch and swallow as much of it as she could. More of the seed landed on her, slowly dripping down from her face and onto her bare breasts. Finally the plant withdrew, leaving Katy alone and panting and less thirsty than when she had began. She slowly stood up, running a hand up her left breast, scooping the seed from it and licking it off of her fingers with flicks of her tongue as she began to venture further into the cave.