The girl in the photo on the wall blinked.&nbsp; It's official I was starting to hallucinate. The pictures on the walls started to shift, morphing into botanical entities as I transformed into something similar.&nbsp; The scalpel carves around my upper chest, splitting my flesh into two sections as the entity inhabiting my body screams beneath my skin, revealing the vines and bark that grow around my organs. The roots pulse faintly beneath my chest cavity, thin, green and cord like, weaving through my body, threading into the soft tissue above my heart. Coiling like vines on a fence as tiny buds trembled beneath my throat. Cardan splits open my sternum as I can feel the vines blooming under my eyes in an attempt to resist the surgical exorcism. As he peels back my skin, petals unfurl from between my ribs releasing spores into the haunting atmosphere. The roots twitch in response to his touch. My ribcage was no longer bone, it was as if they had become white branches, twisting together like driftwood. He snaps them one by one to get to my heart which inhabits thick roots twisting in the chambers of my heart. As the organ pulses sticky sap drips from the edges. The girl in the picture stares at me.&nbsp; I shift my attention back to my surgeon whose brow is sweating as he digs his hands beneath my skin, searching for the source of the entity. I grit my teeth and try not to squirm beneath his touch but I cry in agony when he finds the root of the entity.&nbsp;Cardan used the forceps to tug at the largest root. "I can't get it out." He admits frantically, pulling on my organs as I flinch.&nbsp; I found Cardan through his research in botanical medicine. His theories were quite far fetched and solely experimental but he was the only one willing to risk his position in the name of theoretical science.&nbsp; Cardan curses as his fingers find their way out of my body.&nbsp; "What are you doing?"&nbsp; "The root is deep seeded in your heart, unless I have another heart to give you that plant entity is going nowhere." He exclaims.&nbsp; "Get it out!" I argue. "You'll die!" He retorts back with more force than the pair of pliers that's keeping me wide open.&nbsp; I scramble my brain for a solution but I can't find one. Unless I have a donor who's willing to pay the ultimate price I'm stuck inside the house with a darkness growing inside me.&nbsp; Cardan's hands shake as he digs into my chest, cutting through roots as they begin snapping like twigs. Sap splattered his face. The room reeked of chlorophyll and rot, like a garden drowning in decay. "Let me take a sample for further analysis." Cardan says, something clicking in his head.&nbsp; I watch as Cardan grips the scalpel in hand and takes a deep breath before plunging the blade into me, taking a piece of a seed from a branch that rests inside along my rib cage. Squirming uncomfortably I yelp when the knife makes contact with the branch. Cardan carefully places the seed in a metal container. During this he found something far worse in my lower abdomen.&nbsp; My stomach was no longer functioning due to my stomach being filled with soil. Black earth packed into my belly, warm and writhing with pale seed-like organs, twitching as if trying to root deeper into my organs. My intestines were twined with bark, looping in knots. When Cardan tried to remove them, the vines tightened, their thorns latching onto his gloves, biting into his skin through the latex drawing blood.&nbsp; Cardan curses under his breath as I watch him stitch me back up, the thread weaving in and out of me seals my fate.&nbsp; Sticky sap leeks from my eyes. New leaves sprout from the cracks of my fingernails, deepening the pain as it desires to control my limbs.&nbsp; "I need water." I croak, my throat burning from dehydration.&nbsp; Cardan refuses, reminding me that water only makes it grow faster and stronger, taking complete control over my vessel. I can't help the fact I feel so weak but Cardan is right. He then suggests a detox to prevent further infection. "Unless it is ripped from my insides it's not going anywhere." I sigh, feeling the veins and branches moving, itching towards my brain causing severe pain as I scream in agony. I run my fingers along my neck as I can hear the insects tick inside this abandoned house that I regret having bought in the first place when suddenly a maggot is chewing the flesh off my bones. I don't know why insects like the taste of my skin.&nbsp; Cardan watches as I peel the maggot from my exposed bones on my fingers, flicking the bug in the process while he grimaces. The maggot makes its way towards the corner of the house, nestling between a pile of dried leaves. I make no effort to clean the house because somehow the outside always finds a way inside.&nbsp; I choke back as my eyes bulge when my throat expands. My jaw cracks audibly, tendons stretching like wet vines, until my mouth gapes wider than it should've, splitting at the corners. Cardan stepped back trembling. A flood of black soil poured from my mouth instead of lunch. Something inside the soil was moving like maggots. Something inside the soil moved. They wormed back toward my body, clawing up my body towards my chin, trying to reenter my mouth. I scrambled backwards, coughing as my esophagus burns. My&nbsp;stomach convulsed, roots pushing against her skin from the inside, outlining themselves beneath her flesh like a fetal skeleton. "I can feel it." I choke. "It's under my skin."&nbsp; My eyes rolled back, my body seizing as my spine arches in an unlikely manner causing what's left of my bones to crack. Cardan watches helplessly as my vertebrae splits open, shedding skin morphing into a botanical garden.

Chapter One 

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Wallflower

SarahPincente

Sarah Pincente

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