CHAPTER 6: Midnight Stalker

I woke up, feeling considerably better. I leapt off of my bed and proceeded to wake Peater up, but strangely enough, he wasn't in his bed. Shrugging, I walked to the mirror, and was shocked at what I saw. My stem was thinner than normal, my ice crystals were broken and struggling to repair themselves, and my face was covered with cuts that looked as if they'd never heal. Simply put, it didn't take a Sunflower to know that I was in a life threatening, maybe incurable condition.

"Oh, my. What happened to me?" I gasped silently.

Putting my less-than-healthy body out of my mind, I went downstairs, but strangely enough, I didn't see the leader of this base in the canteen, but I found a Sunflower inside, looking as if she had spent the whole night crying her eyes out.

"Hi. Are you all right?" I asked the Sunflower, who looked like a pathetic slave from the book Tennyson. The Sunflower hugged me tightly.

"Oh, how glad I am that you came along!" she sobbed. "My name's Annika. Last night was horrible!"

"That sounds bad. What happened?" I asked.

"Ash was plain wicked! I saw him heading out at a late hour, and then I asked him what he was doing. He just told me to F off and shut the hell up! Ash even slapped me! I just wanna kill myself, 'cause I feel dirty, after such harsh treatment from the Flaming Pea in charge of all of these plants! Plus, I don't even have any friends! I'm all by myself in here!" Annika wept.

"I feel you, Annika. Ash gave me a dirty look yesterday after what I did on the front line. It's like he wishes that he didn't allow me to stay here. But don't feel that way. Maybe there's more to Ash than meets our eyes." I replied.

"Oh, thank you, kind stranger! What's your name?" Annika asked.

"It's Elyssia." I answered. And, as usual, whenever I told someone my name, Annika gasped and looked as if her birthday had come early.

"You sound like you need somebody with you. So, can we be friends?" I suggested.

Annika smiled as she nodded excitedly. "I'd give a leaf and a root to have a friend!" she replied.

We giggled and chatted about random things as we prepared our breakfast. Just as we were about to dig in, I could hear a voice yelling, "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE GIRL?!"

Then, silence, before a voice replied, "OH, SURE! ALWAYS WHAT SHE WANTS! ALWAYS WHAT SHE WANTS!"

"NOT WHAT SHE WANTS, YOU IDIOT! IT'S WHAT SHE NEEDS!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

Then, I could hear the sound of a stapler being tossed at somebody, who obviously dodged because I could hear the sound of metal making contact with a wall as the said staples spilled onto the floor. I always seem to have ears for these things.

"What's going on?" Annika asked in a whimpering voice.

"Don't be scared, Annika. Part of surviving is being courageous. C'mon. Let's see if we can find out what's not right." I reassured her.

I held her leaf as we followed the voices, until we arrived in front of an office with its door slightly open. Annika and I were shocked at what we saw. Peater and Ash were having an argument, seemingly about me being here.

"Listen. I don't care about what you think, Peater. I just want us to move along with life, and not give Elsa a second thought!" Ash growled.

"Her name is Elyssia, not Elsa!" Peater retorted.

"Listen. You don't dare go near that plant, whether you love her or not. By hook or by crook, you don't even glance at that girl, because if you do . . ."

Ash trailed off and pulled out a gun.
"You can see the light of heaven, for all that God cares about." he hissed.

"I don't have to if I don't want to!" Peater shot back. I gasped at what my friend was doing, endangering his own life.

"I'm the boss here, and I'll tell you what to do!" Ash snarled as he tossed his gun aside and slapped Peater so hard that he fell to the ground in shock.
I could stand no more. I had to act, and stand up for the boy-plant that had done so much for me.

"Ash! Being the leader of this base doesn't mean that you're the boss!" I cried as I burst in through the door and glared at Ash with my most powerful death glare.

"Ohh, little girl, damn nightmare of mine!" he growled as he made to grab what looked like a leather strap in order to beat me.

"Elyssia, no!" Annika gasped as she watched, just a few feet away from my roots.

Ash glared at me yet again, and I glared at him right back, but this time, I could feel my eyes flash a cold blue, and I could feel myself grow a few centimetres.

"Just give it a go, and we'll see who'll be screaming in agony." I threatened in a voice that didn't sound like my own, because it sounded as if I was some supernatural goddess or something.

Ash must have noticed this, for he dropped the strap and blushed wildly, his crown of flames burning low.

"S-sorry, Elsi. S-so . . . s-sorry . . . I b-beg y-y-your p-p-pa-pardon . . ." he mumbled as he went on to clean up his office and scuttle out the door as if I actually gave him a good thrashing.

"Shut up, and realize that my name is Elyssia, if you're so dim witted that you've got amnesia. Don't bother apologizing." I snapped coldly before I knelt down by Peater's side.

"Hey, friend. You fine?" I asked.
Peater rubbed his cheek, where I could see a visible discoloration.

"I'm fine . . . I guess . . ." he mumbled.

"He slapped you that hard, hmm?"

"Yeah. That darn piece of crap." Peater cussed.

"Hey, I can heal you. A teacher taught me. My performance might not be that of a Sunflower, but I'm positive that I can do this right." I whispered as my leaves went to work, slowly eliminating Peater's pain.
Finally, after the end of an almost ritualistic practice, Peater giggled as he sat up.

"You're good, Elyssia. First your performance on the lawn yesterday, and now this?" he asked.
I smiled a crooked smile as I helped him to stand. Annika watched in awe.

"Wow, Elsi. I didn't know you could heal like a Sunflower." she whispered.
Then, her face tensed up with fear.

"S-s-sorry, please d-don't s-slap me or anything. I-is it okay if I call y-you Elsi? It fits you n-n-ni-nicely . . ." Annika stammered.

"Of course, Annika. Why would you be so salty on that?" I asked.

"That's because at school, my teachers whipped me whenever I called them by those types of nicknames." Annika said, showing me whip marks on her stem and leaves.

"See here? Whipping ain't illegal in my Toronto." she explained.

"Hey, it's fine. You just gotta learn how to be strong, Annika." Peater murmured as he walked up to stand beside me.

Just then, I heard a yell of "Hasta la vista, dopes!" followed by the humming of a mechanical whirr.

"That voice sounds like Ash's. I wonder..." I muttered.

"Don't bother wondering or worrying. Here, it's basically every plant for themselves when the leader is absent. Maybe it was someone else that you heard out there, not Ash." Peater murmured.

"It'll be all right."

I can only pray that what he says is true, because I'm getting rather suspicious of Ash.

After a day of fighting the zombies, we decided to celebrate the fact that we were still alive by having a small party in the canteen. Ash had returned from his sojourn, and seemed to be in better spirits.

"Hi, Ash. Did you relax by the beach?" I asked. Ash gave me a big smile, and put his leaf around my stem.

"Yep! I'm so glad that we managed to recover Cherry Beach from the zombies, and that I was able to just sit there and chillax . . ." he sighed dreamily. I gently detached his leaf.

"Don't mean to be cheeky, but I'm not exactly that . . . comfortable when you do that . . ." I stammered.

Ash looked insulted for a second, but he regained his cool as he grabbed a glass of water. I noticed that he was looking for a particular glass. I mean, hello! Big, small, tall, short, fat skinny, I don't give a crap about which glass I get!

"Wanna have a drink of water?" Ash asked as he finally found what he thought was the right glass. Reaching down to sniff it, I smelled something toxic in it.

Feeling suspicious, I just coolly said, "No, thank you. I'll just turn and go outside."

I decided to step outside for some fresh air. Alone. I walked around, nodded politely at the two plants guarding the base for the night, and I decided to sit under a tree and relax. And before I knew it, I was out cold. Not long after, I could hear a scuffling noise through the bushes, and then I could see a masked plant making his-or her way to me. Before I could ask any questions, the stranger started to shoot burning peas at me. I wasn't able to dodge, and I ended up getting burns on my stem.

"Oy! What the hell are you doing?" I asked.

"Nothing that you need to know, girly." the plant growled.

I reacted by sending a storm of crystals hurtling towards the plant, causing him to scarper away like a coward.
"Hm." I muttered before I limped back into our base.

"Elyssia! You fool!" Peater yelled as I stepped into our room, which used to be a shop in the Eaton Center.

"Don't get mad at me! I wasn't prepared for the attack from the Flaming Pea!" I protested. "I have a feeling that it was Ash..."

"Ash?! My rear end! He's a good guy!" Peater fired back, before proceeding to come up with several unfounded excuses.

"Ugh, just shut up and let me sleep." I finally mumbled as I climbed into bed.