UNDEAD BECOMES HER, wednesday addams

iv. turning into plants

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Then Wednesday shook her head. "I wasn't expecting that. I suppose you're right."

Ollie grinned. "I surprised the queen of darkness. Mark the day. Or don't, I don't care."

"Lay down, I want to get a closer look," Wednesday instructed. 

Ollie leaned back, propping herself up on her elbows until the nerves started falling asleep. "Impressed, penumbral overlord?"

"Not impressive, just intriguing."

"Whatever. Let me know if you want to touch."

An unfortunate side effect of being the Swamp Thing's cooler, sexier daughter was that sometimes she ripped her skin open to reveal the plants inside, and sometimes the skin just rotted off altogether. There was too much activity in her chest cavity to hold skin or muscles, so a dirty white rib cage gleamed under her shirt.

Plants grew between her ribs, wrapping her organs in a fatal hug, their roots woven so deep into her digestive tract that without them, she would no longer be able to function. Bees, pollinating the plants, living inside her nasal cavity, and fly larvae feeding off her fungus-riddled brain tissue.

Tiny tears along her back and spine as vines forced their way in and out, spiraling up and down. A visibly beating heart thudding inside her chest, dripping crimson red from tiny pinprick holes. All of the plants, feeding off her blood.

"I'm a living garden," she said proudly, and tapped a patch of balloon flowers and forget-me-nots situated right over where her liver used to be. "If you see a plant you like, just take it. You might have to water it with blood, though."

Wednesday pulled a singular forget-me-not out of the patch, causing a twinge of pain in Ollie's guts. "Fascinating. How do you move your limbs, exactly?"

"I still have my bones to give my body structure, and skin to give my body shape, but all my muscles were replaced with different stringy plant strands. Each individual strand grows into my spinal column, which is infected with fungus, thus connecting the two. The fungus in the brain sends orders to the nerves, which still mostly work, and to the plants, which definitely work, so that I can move."

"I'd like to take a sample of these plants," Wednesday said. She opened her backpack and pulled out several jars. Thing snapped his fingers, and she halted. "With your permission."

"Just be gentle with it. No pulling on anything while it's still wrapped around my organs," Ollie said cheerfully. "Where's Enid?"

"On a date with that useless Gorgon boy, Ajax," Wednesday said dismissively. "I've begun planning where to hide his body when I eventually need to murder him for breaking Enid's heart."

"That's very noble of you."

"Mm. Are there any other locations on your body where you can see the bone? Both of your forearms, obviously, and here, but anywhere else?" Wednesday pressed her fingers against Ollie's left upper arm, where a strip of skin had flaked away to reveal a clean white bone underneath. 

Sometimes she wiped the grime off of her bones with a cloth of some kind, but after sleeping in dirt, she elected to just dunk herself in the lake every morning. It woke her up and washed her off. Two birds with one wet stone.

"Yeah, my legs. You can see the part of the femur of my left leg and part of the fibula and tibia of my right leg. You know what's the most annoying part of having exposed bones?"

"I have a few guesses. What is it?"

"The plants have an escape route. They wind around and out of the tears and I have to go after them with gardening shears and a sewing needle every few days so they don't poke holes in my tights."

Wednesday raised her eyebrows slightly. "A sewing needle?"

"Yeah, I sew whatever gashes I can reach shut with thread, but it only holds the plants back for a little while. My back's probably a bit of a mess, since I can't really reach back there, but there's a vine that's jamming me in just the worst spot, so maybe if you wouldn't mind?" Ollie trailed off hopefully. She reached under her pillow and pulled out a pair of shears.

"Fine. In exchange for samples, I will help with this irritation of yours. Turn around."

Ollie turned around and lifted up her hair so that none of it would accidentally get cut. She could feel some type of flower blooming around her temples and resolved to check what it was later. Cold, slightly rough fingers pressed into the back of her neck, pushing her head down, and with a snip, the vine was gone. 

"Mind pulling it all the way out?" Ollie asked sheepishly.

"Fine. I'm keeping it, though."

Without so much as a warning, the vine was yanked out of the hole in the small of her back. Ollie yelped and jerked away. "Ow!"

"Hold still and let me stitch it up for you," Wednesday said, which was likely the closest thing to a 'sorry' she'd ever get. "Why do you sleep in a bed full of dirt? Don't misunderstand me, I'm not making fun, but rather curious. I've never met anyone who makes their bed like they're practicing making their grave. Outside of my family, anyway."

Ollie made a face as the needle pierced her skin. "My blood is excellent plant fertilizer, and the flora in my body sometimes pokes out and makes me bleed. There are also seeds in my blood, so if I bleed on a regular mattress, I've just planted and fed a bunch of seeds. If it's already in dirt, that makes it easier to take outside and replant."

"Ever try growing something purposefully in there?"

"No, but I should. I should ask Ms. Thornhill for a couple of venus flytraps. I have unhelpful insects in my sinuses that are not helping the ecosystem and I want them out. I have headaches all that time because of the buzzing."

She realized she was oversharing and quickly stopped talking. She reached up to pull one of the flowers out of her hair and rolled it between her fingers. 

"Here," she said, handing it to Wednesday. "A violet sample for you. Are you done stitching?"

"Yes. Now lie back down. I still want my samples, and I need to hide them under my bed before Enid gets back."

"Why, will she throw them out?"

"I'm not going to find out. I said lie down."

Ollie lay back down, crossing her arms behind her head, and let the mad little scientist pick through her leaves to her heart's content.