David always hated Mr. Wightstrum. He was the meanest old man on the block, with his perpetual scowl and his lawn that seemed to suck the joy out of the world. But it was his flowers that truly caught David’s eye. They were unlike anything he'd ever seen - vibrant, exotic, and strangely alluring. David’s girlfriend, Sabrina, loved flowers, and he knew that if he could get her one of Mr. Wightstrum's, it would make the perfect gift.

A few nights before David & Sabrina’s prom, He decided to take a chance. He snuck over the fence and into Mr. Wightstrum's yard. His heart pounded in his chest as if it were trying to escape. The moon was full overhead, casting long, ominous shadows across the lawn. David moved as quietly as he could, as Wightstrum was known for being lretty aggressive with trespassers.

David’s eyes scanning the yard until he found the most beautiful flower of all. It was a deep, blood red, with petals that seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. He reached out a trembling hand, careful to avoid making any sound at all. As he plucked the flower, he felt a sharp pain in his finger. He got caught by a few thorns on the stem. David cursed under his breath, sticking his bleeding finger into his mouth. This flower was riddled with thorns and David figured he'd better cut his losses and get out of there before the cranky old man came outside.

As he turned to leave, he felt a strange sensation. It started in his hand, a tingling feeling that spread up his arm. He looked down to see that his veins seemed a little more prominent and darker than usual. Over the next few days, the sensation spread. He tried to hide it from Sabrina, but she noticed the change in him. David was tired all the time, and his skin had taken on a sickly greenish hue. He could feel himself changing; transforming into something else. He was terrified but didn't know what to do. Sabrina asked if she should tell her parents or call for a doctor but David said no. He wanted this to just be behind him. He made a mistake.

The day of prom, David woke up to find that his legs had fused together, forming a thick, thorny stem. His arms had turned into small branches, sprouting leaves and flowers. He was becoming a plant. He attempted a scream, but all that came out was a strange, rustling noise. David fell to the floor and then couldn't move. Hours passed and then his mom came knocking at the door. No answer. David had no way of responding. No way of moving. When David’s mom entered the room, she had spotted the plant, not knowing it was her very own son. She looked around the room and called out his name. She shrugged and thought to herself that he may have left early for some reason. She made her way downstairs and found an old flower pot and came back to the room. She picked up her son and placed him in the pot and placed him on his own desk in front of the window. She then left and turned off the light.

David looked around, panicked, and that's when he saw him. A clone of David, made entirely of plant matter.

He was standing in Mr. Wightstrum's yard, staring back at him with empty, leafy eyes. The flower David had attempted to pluck, it seemed, had grown a clone of him. Mr. Wightstrum came out to water his garden and saw the clone of David, there, rooted to his garden. He examined and admired it. Then glanced up at David's window with a smile on his face. The old man pulled the plant from the garden, and it started walking around. It looked just like David. At least how he used to look. His neighbor opened the gate and David watched as the plant clone walked out and towards his house.

He heard the front door open, and David's mother greeted it. “I was wondering where you were, come have lunch before your big day” She said.

David was trapped, transformed into a plant. And as he sat there, he realized that he would have to spend the rest of his life staring at Mr. Wightstrum’s yard, a strange and terrifying house plant now. Whatever the old man had been doing with that garden, David had fallen victim, and his neighbor wasn't going to tell a soul. As the days turned into weeks, David felt himself becoming less and less human. His mind grew foggy, his thoughts slow and disjointed. He could feel his consciousness fading, being replaced by the dull, instinctual awareness of a plant.

He was no longer human. He was a flower.

He couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, he had deserved it. As the seasons passed, David watched as the world moved on without him. He saw Sabrina move on, with her new boyfriend: His clone. The years turned into decades. David felt himself slowly fading away. His petals dropped off, his leaves withered and died. But even as he decayed, he could feel roots growing, a new stem sprouting from his base. He was replaced, again and again, each generation a clone of the last. David was trapped in a never-ending cycle, doomed to repeat the same transformation for all eternity.

As he stood there, a withered, dead plant, he couldn't help but think that this was hell. This was his punishment, his fate. David's mother comes into the room daily and waters her boy. Her baby boy that she doesn't realize has been replaced… how many others had been replaced.