Short Stories...

The Beautiful Garden

If there was one thing that Naomi Remington was known for, it was her obsession with her beautiful garden. She sat in her breakfast nook and looked out at her pride and joy while her husband Miles made breakfast consisting of an omelette  using fresh tomatoes, onions, and spinach from her garden, toast and an organic matcha latte. Miles fully supported Naomi's obsession with her garden. He owned a  small plant nursery where he specialized in exotic plants and fertilizer, many of which he provided Naomi for her Garden.   She admired her arrangement in her garden overflowing with her various fruits, veggies, herbs, and decorative plants. She had a corner in the back of her garden where she just went to reflect.  There was a large tree that she loved to sit under  and have a glass of wine. She was grateful for the beauty that surrounded her and even more grateful to her husband for providing her with the best fertilizer known to man. 

" Are you working late again?" Naomi inquired. "You know I have to sweetheart, I've got that quarterly fertilizer shipment coming in."  Miles replied. Naomi sighed. " Of course, how could i forget." She went back to gazing at her beautiful garden. She was admiring her roses when she saw what she believed to be a woman standing near her rosebushes . She squinted to try and get a better look to make sure that she wasn't losing her mind. The woman stood naked, with straggly blonde hair and sunken eyes. Naomi shut her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. when she opened them again, the woman was gone.  "Alright sweetheart i'm out of here. I'll see you tonight." Naomi barely acknowledged Miles's departure, she was still too shaken up.

Later that afternoon, Naomi was in her shed mixing her compost and fertilizer when she saw a woman in the corner just standing and glaring at her. it was a different woman this time, a redhead with a slumped figure. Naomi let out a blood curdling scream and almost fell backwards into a pair of shears she used for trimming hedges. She really felt like she was losing her mind.

Later after she had taken a shower, she walked through her bedroom wrapped in a towel. She sat on her bed and dried her hair when something caught her eye out of the window. Now she was certain that she was losing her mind. In various parts of her precious garden stood several women, over a dozen in all. They all seemed to be staring up into her window. Staring at HER. She was frozen in fear. Then suddenly, they all disappeared.  She sat on her bed trembling and crying. She looked at the clock. It was well after ten. He was "working late" as he usually did once a quarter, when his special fertilizer shipment came in. The only thing was, Naomi had learned a few years ago that her husband would choose his quarterly shipment date to set up rendevous with the "ladies of the night" who frequented the area near his business. After the first one she witnessed she was in a state of shock. She went home and cried until he eyes sunk in, but she never mentioned it to her husband. Instead she became obsessed with gardening. She came to the point where she looked forward to her husbands quarterly  liasons , because it meant more of the glorious fertilizer that her husband provided her with, which contribute to her pride and joy. Her beautiful glorious garden.  
The next morning Miles and Naomi had awaken to the pounding of police officers at their door.  Miles sleepily went downstairs to answer it. As soon as he opened the door, A detective spoke" Mr. Remington,  you are under arrest as a suspect in the disappearance of undercover detective Kelsey Panders missing since last night. And you are also a suspect in the disappearance of 14 other women in the Clarksville area near your business!"  They placed handcuffs on him while he was still in his pajamas and robe while Naomi came running down the stairs in disbelief. 

One hour later

They had Miles held up in an interrogation room. They had been onto him for a few  months.  There had been several prostitutes that had gone missing from the area near his shop. Witnesses had described Miles as the last John each of the girls had left with. And after leaving with him, they were never seen again. Although no bodies had ever turned up they were sure they would fimd out once they got a hold of Miles. They held Naomi in a separate room to question her about her husband's whereabouts on the dates the women went missing. She couldn't believe what was happening.  Her husband was being suspected of being a serial killer. " Mrs. Remington,  we have suspected your husband to be responsible for the disappearance of at least 14 prostitutes gone missing over the last 3 years.  So for the last 2 months we have had an undercover detective working on the case of these missing girls and she was seen last night leaving with your husband. She didnt report in for her shift this morning and that's when we knew we had him". Naomi was silent and her eyes swelled up with tears. They held her for questioning for another few hours and released her, but they kept Miles for further investigation.

It was about 8 pm and they still had Miles in custody. She was aggressively tilling an area where she had planned to place her newest batch of fertilizer in order to prepare for her next garden project. She began to think to herself....

A detective?! A fucking detective?! I wish I'd known that before I killed the bitch.  Why would someone even care that much about all those worthless whores?! They were nobody's! Just cheap whores that all deserved the deaths they got.  I dont regret drugging them, or killing them, or cutting them up limb from limb with my shears. The sounds my grinder made when I ground them up in my shed was beyond satisfaction. And their remains made a great addition to the special fertilizer my husband  provided me with. They are clearly  more valuable dead and in my garden than they were alive.

All of a sudden she felt like she was being watched.  She turned to look behind her to see all of the women, her victims watching her with cold stares. "What the fuck do you whores want from me?! He's MY husband and each one of you opened your legs to him! You're whores! You all deserved to die!"

The women remained silent and firm in their cold expressions. Suddenly the wind shifted and the surrounding trees and shrubbery shook violently. What was happening? Out of the corner of the eye she caught a glimpse of something moving and slithering across the yard and towards her. She tried to scream but before she could, a vine quickly wrapped around her neck shutting off her vocal chords
The women drew in closer to her, and more vines wrapped around her arms and legs and  soon she was covered in them. She couldn't believe what was happening, was her garden coming to life? She already knew the answer. Her Garden was being brought to life by the souls of her victims. Their bodies which had become the foundation of her beautiful garden had risen to claim hers as well. She felt herself being dragged into the earth. She kicked and squirmed violently but it was no use, she felt her body sinking and melting into the earth as though it was quicksand. This was how she was going to die. Killed by the garden she loved the most while being watched by the whores of her husbands past. She took her final breath as the dirt finally covered her face and she disappeared beneath the soil.