◇Flower Diease ◇

(Warning: Hallucination and Slight Gore Warning)

Her body lay still on the wooden coffin, her flesh growing cold from the box's temperature. Yet she remained pristine in beauty, the scars on her body blended in with makeup as red flowers sat tight in her hands.

Her eyes were sealed shut, and her skin tone paled to her original color, but she seemed peaceful and unbothered in this condition.

"Gigi?", a voice called out, "Regina!" It yelled in a panic, rushing over to her and cradling the lifeless body. "Regina, can you hear me? I'm here now, wake up!" He shook the body once and then twice, "Wake up Regina! Please! Wake up for me, Gigi!" His eyes started to water and he felt a sudden pain hit his chest, his breath tight as clear liquid started to thrash down his face.

"D-did I do this to you? Did I-", his words got caught on his tongue as he put her hand to his chest, "No pulse, I really can't feel anything, I really can't feel...Maybe I should have stayed away from you. I ruined you, you were supposed to do good things but I took that from you. I killed everything you were supposed to be-", tears drip onto her body forming seeds that sink into her skin.

"I was selfish and I knew things wouldn't work out, I knew I was cursed. I was foolish to think you could heal me. That you could get this thing out of me, now he's got to you too and now I'm truly alone. I'm sorry, Regina, I'm truly sorry."

He embraces her body as an unknown, scarlet liquid starts to leak out of her. Buds begin to pop from the flesh, and her eyes spring open. They reveal a set of twin flowers that begin to ascend upward. Her fingernails burst stems, and tiny leaves sprout on the side.

The unknown liquid poured viciously from her mouth, causing him to lurch backward, perplexed and covered in it. "Regina?" he muttered, leaning closer, but her body tilted away from him.

"Regina, please, tell me what's-", he felt a sting in his veins, a sharp bite that got worse as he moved, pain starting to shoot through his back as his body fell to the floor.

He felt something move through his body, sweat beaming on his forehead as his nails clawed at his skin. 

Scratch Scratch,

he went, 

Scratch, Scratch

he went again.

Throbs pulsing throughout his body as those same buds start to poke through his skin too, making his vocal cords leap out of his body. A twitch jolts from within him as his nails start to dig into bone, blood spurting, and his eyes begging for release.

Still, a sense of yearning gazed at his unrecognizable friend, a cascade of bouquets decorating every inch of her and soon he would be just like her. Bound to the ground of the earth and becoming part of it as pain would soon be a memory. Maybe this was for the best, maybe this was supposed to happen all along.

After all, he couldn't protect her, he couldn't cure her loneliness even though he wanted to, and deep down inside he probably was just a monster. More than the curse could ever portray him to be no he turned out to be his worst nightmare and greatest enemy all in one. Hurting the person he loved the most and the only one who truly cared for him.

He could feel roots growing inside of his neck, and vines tugging on different organs, breaching his esophagus. They were crawling to his heart and lungs yet for some miracle he could still breathe feeling every part of what was happening.

He looks at himself one last time, roses and tulips pierced on his once almond-tone skin. Life drains from his body as soon he will be unrecognizable as well, and the flowers will take over their new home within him. 

...................................

"Leo, hey are you there?" 

He doesn't move an inch,

"Leo, I know you can hear me!" 

He stays quiet and the voice decides to puck something from his skin.

"Ouch, what the hell did you do that for?" He rubbed the sore on his arm, as the witch put a tiny flower petal in a glass. "Because you weren't answering me and it started to worry me."

"Regina?"

"Yes?

His chest rose when he saw her, a sudden burn hitting his eyes as he reached over and embraced her. Tears hit her back, "You're alive! You're alive!" "Well, yeah of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" She awkwardly patted his back with a half-smile, "Are you okay, Leonardo? I feel like I'm missing something." 

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm just glad I didn't kill you, there was this horrible dream I had where you were in a coffin and these flowers started to take over your body. It was like an infection of some sort and I started to feel regretful and then I got infected too but I didn't die at least not right away."

She blinked back, "Well, that certainly is a lot, I'm glad you didn't kill me either, I don't think that would have been very good for me plus the pain and all. Just not my deal."

She took the tweezers in her hand and plucked the last little buds off of Leo and he flinched at each one, "The good news, is you should heal in no time because I got that parasite out of you, the bad news is the trauma it probably left with you. I'm sorry if I seem nonchalant about this, but it's best if I try to remain as calm as possible. When you came back to me one day, you started murmuring some things and you became restless at night. You went on about some voices in your head and that's when I decided that you needed to be looked over, and examined. After a few tests, I found an infected plant sending poisoning throughout your body and it was affecting your mental state seeming to make you its new host or something."

She walked over to where she stored the buds and crushed them with a pestle, "I know this seems like a lot and it is, I was worried for you but you made it out okay. It just makes me feel bad that this keeps happening each time you come back to me, it makes me wonder if it's my fault for wanting you to stay."

"It's not your fault, I come on my own, you don't force you, and there's just dangerous stuff out there. Whether I was with you or I was bound to run into problems. It's not just the humans who want me dead, you know."

Her eyes faced the crushed-up petals as she took a deep breath, "I know, I just wish it wasn't that way, sometimes I wish I could fix everything. But I know I can't."

"That's okay, you don't have to fix everything, just do what you can, it's all we can ever do, Gigi, it's all we can do."