Free Tandem of Terror by Eric S. Brown

utter freak. Ah
well, who needed her. He had his friends and his plants. That was
enough.
    He headed back to bed himself to try to get
some sleep.
     
    Just as he drifted back to sleep a thump
pulled Cameron awake again. He listened attentively as he glanced
back at his alarm clock. An hour had passed unnoticed to him. More
thumping caught his attention and he left his bed to
investigate.
    Cameron was struck mute as he entered the
living room. All of his plants were brown and wilted. They had all
died in a matter of hours. Tear formed in his eyes as he noticed
the only plant still alive was the new one. Not only was it alive
it had grown even more, spreading around the room, covering the
walls and the floors, entangling the furniture with its
tentacle-like vines. Its roots broke the pot and burrowed into the
floor and under the house.
    He noticed that the vines of the prickle
laden, spotted plant invaded all of his other plants, smothering
and killing them, apparently sucking the life from them in order to
grow.
    " No, no, no!" Cameron
finally found his voice in a panic. "Not my babies, my babies..." His
head spun as he ran to his precious, dying children. Leaves
crumbled at his touch, petals fell to the floor and roots
disintegrated. Cameron eyeballed the massive spotted plant that
covered most of the room. Enjoy.
    He stumbled as he backed out of the room
nearly tripping on the plant's vines that coiled around the living
room floor. "Nikki, Adam..." he called. "Guys, I need your help." He
tripped into the hall, following the vines as they trailed into the
guest room.
    " Guys wake up! I---" His words
died in horror as he switched on the light. He watched the plant
coil into the bodies of his friends...while they were still
alive.
    Their bodies twitched and wriggled as the
vines burrowed into their chests and stomachs, entwined their arms
and legs, and coiled into their gagging mouths. Nikki stared at
Cameron, her face a mask of horror and draining of all color, her
eyes flooding with tears.
    He watched, grief-stricken, as their flesh
turned a shade of light green. The plant began changing from its
color to a pale pinkish color, resembling human flesh. A sound like
tearing paper filled the room as new stalks plunged out of Adam and
Nikki's bodies and spread across the ceiling. Drops of blood rained
from above.
    Cameron stumbled against the wall and cried.
"Filthy murdering plant! I'm gonna rip you leave by leave. Get the
hell off them!"
    He lunged but hit the ground in a crash as
the vines wrapped around his legs and sent him to the floor. The
vines slithered over him with their razor-sharp prickles, ready to
feed.
    Remembering his dream, Cameron sat up and bit
into the plant, ripping them from his legs with his teeth, a
mixture of blood and white pus splattering his face and pouring on
to the floor. He jumped to his feet and ran into the hall.
    The plant had grown to monstrous size, it
covered the living room, the ceiling, the floor, it writhed and
quivered like a nest of serpents, a gigantic spider. Vines and
stalks lashed at him like whips. The overgrowth blocked the front
door.
    All exits seemed to be blocked. He backed his
way towards his bedroom as the plant slowly stalked him. With a
twist and turn, he made a sprint for his bedroom. The plant charged
after him, its vines slithering down the hall. Cameron threw
himself into the room and slammed the door behind him. The door
cracked and buckled as the vines ripped the wood apart piece by
piece.
    Cameron eyed the window and headed for it, a
vine shot through the door at him, missed and shattered the window,
glass showered to the floor. Another vine speared Cameron through
the leg. He howled in pain and stumbled to the floor. It began
dragging him to the across the floor like a grappling hook. A piece
of broken glass found its way into his hand and he cut frantically,
hacking as hard as he could.
    He severed its grip, a piece of it still
wiggling in his leg and limped to the