Shades of Petals

The Girl Who Spit Flowers

Francis awoke in the middle of the night. Despite having tinted the windows so that the light of the moonlight wouldn't keep the both of them up, he could still tell it was nighttime through the shaded view of his windows and the darkness of his office.

What had woken him up?

The girl next to him, who had actually snuggled into him (willingly at that), had suddenly begun to squirm restlessly, until she moved away from him and shot up on the futon. Hearing her gasping, he blearily opened his eyes, only to become fully awake as he heard choking sounds come from her. She stumbled onto her feet and dashed towards the direction of his office's bathroom, and now wide awake, he moved up quickly and chased after her.

The door was closed. Alarmed and upset, he worriedly knocked on the door. The sounds of vomiting made him too anxious and ready to break down his door.

"Atsushi?"

"I'm —I'm fine!" she gasped out, only to sound like she was vomiting again.

Like hell he'd believed that, after her repeatedly saying that before and looking less and less decidedly not fine. Clenching his jaw, he reached for the doorknob and twisted, finding it locked. He broke it without blinking at the action and pushed the door open.

"I'm coming in —!"

He stood shocked frozen, utterly horrified at the scene. All speech had left him and he couldn't have finished what he'd said, even if he'd wanted to.

It was like he'd stepped into a horror film.

Flower petals was all over the place, all over the floor around her, all over the toilet, all over Atsushi...as red as the blood that had accompanied it and painted the area around Atsushi gruesomely. It could've been a murder scene, complete with the serial killer's aesthetic touch of beauty with the flowers laying about.

"ATSUSHI!"

Deathly still and laying plastered against the toilet seat, she could've been mistaken dead with her eyes closed and her not responding to him.

"Hey, hey, come on!" he said urgently, gathering her into his arms and shaking her slightly. "Wake up!"

What the fuck was this? What was wrong with her?

Panicking, he picked her up and held her close as he ran out of the bathroom and to his office's phone, ringing up Louisa May immediately.

"Louisa! There's an emergency! I need your help —call the doctors or something! There's something seriously wrong with Atsushi!"

No, no, no...not someone else he cared about.

First his daughter and then his wife...why was the universe cruel to him? What did God have against him?

He couldn't lose Atsushi too.

༻❁༺

This was something out of a nightmare.

Doctors bustled about, baffled and rapidly consulting each other, but he just stood in front of the board that had the x-rays displayed.

Flowers.

It was pretty in a morbid way, the flowers blooming inside of Atsushi's body. A macabre blooming garden inside a human body, her heart and lungs wrapped in flower vines and flowers blooming prettily as petals fell from them and scattered inside of Atsushi.

To think —he'd laughed and even called the petals coming out of her mouth cute, not even knowing the real danger in them to her.

"What is this?" he whispered, staring and unable to tear his eyes away.