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Four students walked through a deserted alley, littered with garbage and missing person posters.
“You know,” Kasper said, wiping blood from his nose, “I honestly forgot how we even started coming here.”
“What do you mean?” Poob asked, clutching books with indecipherable, elegant writing on the covers.
“I don’t remember enrolling in Greystone Ascendant High,” Kasper said, sneezing. “Or having parents who could’ve enrolled me…”
“Maybe it’s your knock-off cancer,” Pest chittered.
Poob yanked on the front of the beetle’s hat. “Be nice! Not even that weird nurse lady can tell what he has!”
Melanie stayed silent, pausing mid-step. “Isn’t this place too far from the greenhouses for flowers to be growing here?” she murmured.
“Huh? Yeah… what are you-” Poob started, before a crunch stopped him. He lifted his boot. A vibrant red flower lay crushed on the concrete, sprouting from a small crack. A sweet scent filled the alley. Melanie instinctively covered the vents of her TV.
The others froze. Slowly, a purple haze thickened around them. A red vine wrapped around Poob’s leg, yanking him back. He flung his books at it.
“What the hell is-?” Poob whispered, voice dropping.
“There was no need to crush that one,” a feminine voice said, calm but firm.
Before Poob could react, Pest jerked him down as a red hammer swung above them.
“There’s no need for that either!” Kasper yelled.
A tall woman stood before them, her face unreadable, her suit an eyecatching purple, red eyes fixed on them. “They destroyed something of mine,” she said. “Something I hold dear. Why should I let them live?”
Kasper blinked. “It’s a flower… an ugly one at that! Why risk two lives over a plant?”
The woman considered him. “It’s useless to argue with me. These flowers are impossible to find where I come from.”
Kasper raised an eyebrow. “…are you a druggie?”
“I’m sorry?” she asked.
“This looks like a Gloriosa lily,” he said. “Some weird green cat told me if you smoke them, you can enter a dream world. Why risk it?”
He reached to pick up the flower, but a tendril wrapped around his fist, forcing it back. “These are mine,” she said flatly.
“Well, ma’am-” Kasper started, but Pest interrupted.
“I know where a whole field of them is,” the beetle said, mandibles chittering. “In exchange for something else.”
Mach’s eyebrows rose. “What would you like?” Her tone was rapid… or maybe desperate.