Cherry Blossom Scaffold

The wedding arch sagged under the weight of lies. Ayla adjusted the veil's chokehold collar, its lace scratching the knife sheath strapped to her thigh. Fake orchids trembled as Erik tuned a violin with surgical tweezers, each note sharper than the scalpel hidden in his boutonniere.

"Remember," Lila whispered, straightening Ayla's train—a ten-foot monstrosity stitched with silver thread. "The key's in the bustle. Tear it if she grabs you."

Ayla snorted. "If she grabs me, I'm shoving this bouquet down her esophagus." She flicked a blood-red peony. Its pollen left burns on her gloves.

(Three miles east, Lucas knelt in the cherry grove. His claws hovered above his left palm. The trees whispered Selena's childhood rhyme: Cut deep, bleed true, bind the wicked, darling you.)

II. Processional of Knives

Selena arrived wearing Lila's face.

"Aren't you radiant?" She cupped Ayla's cheek, thumb pressing hard enough to bruise. "Pity the groom's late."

Lila stiffened. The "gift" box in Selena's free hand reeked of formaldehyde and baby powder.

"Open it," Selena crooned, shoving the box at Lila. "A family heirloom."

Inside lay a moth-eaten swaddling blanket. Lila's breath hitched—the embroidery wasn't flowers but ventilation ducts and cell numbers.

"Laboratory coordinates," Selena whispered. "Your crib was its heart."

Ayla stepped between them, bouquet bristling. "Save the psycho-babble for the vows."

The first cherry blossom fell, slicing Lila's wrist.

III. Hematological Bouquet

Lucas arrived as the storm broke. Rain turned his tuxedo ink-black, clinging to scar tissue and fresh claw marks. He took Ayla's hand without meeting her eyes.

"You look…" His thumb found the knife under her sleeve.

"Like a sacrificial lamb?" She dug her nails into his branded palm. "You're the one wearing her choke chain."

The ceremony was a pantomime of bites:

Vows exchanged through gritted teethRings forged from melted lab equipmentSelena humming the bridal march off-key

When the officiant (a brainwashed gardener) proclaimed them bonded, Lucas slashed his palm. Blood hit the petal-strewn ground.

The grove awoke.

IV. Arboreal Vivisection

Cherry roots erupted, snaring Selena's ankles. Blossoms drank Lucas' blood, glowing crimson as they formed a containment sigil.

"Cute parlor trick." Selena snapped a root. It bled sap smelling of Lila's infancy.

Ayla ripped her bustle open. The key glinted—a surgical probe etched with her mother's initials.

"Checkmate," she hissed, jabbing it toward Selena's throat.

Too slow.

Selena caught her wrist, peeling back the veil. "You think I didn't plan for your mother's betrayal?"

Lila screamed. The swaddling blanket writhed, stitching itself into a live map—Lila's veins overlaying the lab's blueprints.

V. Umbilical Unraveling

Chaos crystallized:

Erik's violin strings garroted a charging guardLucas' blood sigil melting under Selena's tears (acidic, smelling of nursery disinfectant)Ayla kneeing Selena's ribs only to feel the impact bruise Lila's flank

"S-stop!" Lila clawed at her own chest. "We're linked!"

The blanket map levitated, its threads unraveling to reveal two birth certificates beneath—Lila's name crossed out under Selena's.

Lucas seized Ayla's bleeding hand. "The grove! Now!"

They ran through petal-blades, the wedding arch collapsing into a helix of barbed wire and baby teeth.

Epilogue: Cradle's Last Breath

At grove's heart, Lucas plunged the key into his sternum.

"What the hell?!" Ayla grabbed his wrist.

"It's a lockpick." He twisted. Ribs cracked. "For her original cage."

The sigil reignited—no longer containment, but a beacon. Cherry blossoms swarmed Selena, sewing her lips with thorned thread.

Lila fell clutching the blanket. Its embroidered ducts now pulsed with her heartbeat.

As the grove died, Ayla spotted the final stitch: Property of Subject 7B. Handle with maternal care.

Somewhere, a nursery mobile spun on a phantom wind. Somewhere, a scalpel-sized key turned in a rusted lock.

Postscript: Postnatal Haunting

That night, Ayla dreamt of Selena's birth.

A midwife swaddling her in the embroidered blanket.

A scalpel carving 7A into her heel.

A baby's wail that shook the lab's foundations.

She woke with cherry blossoms under her nails and Lila's heartbeat in her ears.

Always in her ears.