Horror Bites #12 The Special Offer

 

  The Special Offer

Fed up with wilting plants?

  Worry no more with our new 
Miracle Fertiliser.
  100% organic ingredients. As natural as nature intended.   

       

                Alfred read the leaflet with interest, looking out upon his withered flower beds. He’d tried everything without success. The new garden centre in town was just what he needed. And it was the grand opening tonight, promising special offers along with a glass of fizz.

            When Alfred arrived, it was packed but that didn’t stop him noticing the larger than usual potted plants, the champion winning sized vegetables and beautiful, aromatic flowers; brighter, bigger and taller than anything Alfred had ever seen.

          Excitement fuelled him as he hurried around the centre, searching for the fertiliser until a shrill scream stopped him in his tracks. Everyone rushed to the source of the scream and found a woman quivering in front of a bench where an arm hung at a distorted angle.

         Silence fell.

         Fear clenched around Alfred like a fist, wanting explanation but not prepared for the answer.     

        “I guess we’ll have to buy into this,  buy a bag of fertiliser,” a man said next to Alfred. “Ask no questions.” Alfred stared back, horror etched on his face at the acceptance of such an act. “It might be our only way out,” the man said.

       “Yeah, except,” Alfred began, “all I see are very large flowers and vegetables . . . but not one bag of fertiliser for sale . . .  not one . . . anywhere in this entire place . . . Don’t you think that’s odd?”

        “But . . . you can’t mean?” the man spluttered, his face devoid of all colour. Alfred never got a chance to reply as the ceiling opened up to slicing, grinding metal, descending down, cascading the plants in a wash of crimson.

287 excluding title but including advert.  

Written for Horror Bites over at Office Mango, hosted by Laura Jamez.