Trap

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. A flickering light gleamed across the glass, briefly illuminating the reflection of a young slender woman rocking alone in her chair, trapped by own thoughts. A broken mason jar lay beside her, the tacky remnants muddying the interior glass.

Julie closed her eyes and before her played the beginning to the end of her innocence. She saw herself at the age of eight walking down an aisle of the local nursery. She was there to find garden flowers with her mother, but all Julie's eyes where caught by the strangest plant she had ever seen. Instead of petals, green fangs bordered the enticing pink lining. The stem twisted and as though in agony as it coiled across the soil. It did not bring the joy expected when looking at flowers, but more a curious enticement, accompanied by only a slight warning.

Always unrelenting, Julie begged her mother to let her have the plant. Her mother obliged, believing it would be dead in a matter of weeks. No eight-year-old had the attention span to keep such a peculiar plant alive. As they checked out, the botanist moonlighting as cashier told Julie all about Venus Flytraps- how to keep them alive and how they lured unsuspecting pests to their demise. Julie felt as though she had discovered some unknown magical pet.

Once home, Julie stalked a house fly. She would feed her new pet it’s prey. Upon seeing Julie smack down a fly with a rolled-up magazine, her mother was quick to scold her. How dare she take a life? It was cruel and unnecessary. Julie vowed to only feed the trap bugs that were already deceased from then on. A pledge the eight-year-old took very seriously. She could still hear the words coming from her own lips “I’m sorry, momma. I will never do it again.”

Julie opened her eyes to her new reality. She picked up the mason jar and ran her finger along the inside, collecting the last of its congealed substance. As she brought her finger to her mouth, her eyes once again shut, the rusty smell trapping her in her dark evocations.

Transported back to the recesses of her mind, Julie saw her dorm room before her as she moved her few belongings in. Sitting on the bed opposite of hers, was Julie’s new roommate. A typically cute blonde girl with big brown eyes and the kind of hopeful attitude only a big fish in a little pond can bring about. They exchanged pleasantries and Julie could feel the anxiety lifting. Her roommate’s name was Christine and she seemed genuinely eager to know Julie. As they unpacked, they made small talk. The conversation was normal, “where did you grow up?” “what is your major?”

Julie placed her Venus Trap on the window ledge. Aloe Vera being the most oddly shaped plant she was familiar with, Christine was easily intrigued by the new verdure. Noticing her eyeing the plant, Julie quickly offered an explanation out of fear of judgment. She told Christine the Venus Flytrap had been a gift and she couldn’t throw it away (she failed to mention that she had kept it alive for nearly ten years and it was her most prized possession). Christine acknowledged what an odd gift it was and moved on in conversation. Eager to advert attention away from her own peculiarity, Julie was quick to oblige a change in topic.

Never having a real friend, Julie hastily became attached to Christine. Christine tolerated the clinginess, almost as though Julie was the annoying little sister instead of a new roommate of the same age. Julie had a level of immaturity to her Christine found quite endearing. Christine saw her innocence and chose to believe it was out of purity and nothing more. The unassuming Julie must be harmless. So harmless she wouldn't even hurt a fly.

The new relationship carried on as the two navigated new lives away from the familiarity of home. All was harmonious until after a particularly long day of school work, Julie opened her dorm room door to see Christine swatting a fly from the air. Gleefully, she told Julie she had a special treat for the flytrap. Without processing what she had just witnessed, Julie flew into a rage, regurgitating the same verbal lashing her mother had done to her at the age of eight. You never kill to feed it!

Bewilder by her reaction, Christine refused to apologize. Instead, she began lecturing Julie about survival of the fittest. Her words were intended to shatter Julie’s perception of the fragility and question her upbringing. Instead, Julie felt something festering within her she had never experienced before. It wasn’t quite anger, it was more of an ache. An ache to end the reasoning by others that had tormented her for being different for so long. An ache to no longer bend to the whim of perceived normality.

Julie opened her eyes for a moment and heavily sighed, a slight smile creeping across her face. Though she wasn’t fond of these memories, they were the reason she became her true self, cut off from the world and isolated in this cabin with nothing but her own fiends to keep her company. This isolation was fleeting and she knew it. But for now, Julie knew peace.

Once again, Julie closed her eyes and allowed herself to be transported back to the campus. The leaves were changing as the middle mark of their first semester neared. Christine smuggled a bottle of cheap wine into their room to celebrate the end of midterms, knowing Julie would certainly decline any offer to go out. It wasn’t the first time Julie had drunk, but she still found herself hesitant. The idea of losing her control was not one she saw pleasure in, unlike many of her schoolmates. She never sought the release of stress in such a way. But wanting to please Christine, Julie agreed to partake. Julie slowly sipped from her glass, trying not to gag from the smell. Christine, uninhibited, quickly gulped her wine down. Feeling more than tipsy, Christine’s wine glass slipped out of her hand and shattered on the floor. As she bent to pick up the shards, an edge slit her palm open. Julie rushed to her side and tried dabbing off the blood with a Kleenex. Suddenly feeling intoxicated herself, The smell of the blood was much more appetizing to Julie than the wine ever was. She felt lightheaded and nearly incapacitated from the aroma and the crimson color seeping into the Kleenex Julie held in her hand. Any restraint was relented and overcome with urges she never knew she had, Julie leaned in to kiss Christine as she continued stroking the blood on Christine's palm. Christine jumped away from her, feeling ambushed. Profusely, Julie apologized and blamed her moment of weakness on the lightheadedness caused by the wine. Julie tried to convince herself as much as Christine that it was nothing more than an innocent mistake. But for days, all Julie could think about was the copper scent and her desire to taste Christine’s blood. She day dreamed about licking Christine’s palm, what she had really desired to do and had only masked her urge with a sudden kiss.

In the weeks that followed, Julie buried herself in schoolwork to distract from the incident. Intensifying thoughts kept creeping into her mind if she allowed herself to relax. She was plagued with the craving to see Christine's blood once more, to savor it and be filled with it.

One brisk afternoon as others attended a pep rally, Julie worked fervently on a paper for school. She lacerated her finger as she ripped away page two of her paper and a slow drip of blood emanated down her finger. As Julie reached for a tissue to clean herself, she no longer could deny her fascination. She walked over to her Venus Flytrap and watched as blood leaked into the plant. Julie was transfixed as she watched the trap shut its chromatic teeth tight as if to gulp down her blood. Brought out of her daze only by the sound of their door unlocking, Julie quickly grabbed a tissue and wrapped it around her still bleeding finger. Christine paid no attention to Julie’s off demeanor as their relationship had remained strained. Both girls went silently about their evenings, but Julie couldn’t help letting the idea cloud her mind that Christine knew exactly what she had walked in on. Fanatically, Julie convinced herself Christine would soon tell everyone what a freak she was and she would have no one. No one except her little carnivorous plant that seemed to love blood as much as her.

Tossing and unable to sleep that night, Julie decided her blood was not enough. She must give the plant what it really wanted. What Julie really wanted… Christine’s blood. Julie slid a plastic butter knife up the sleeve of her night shirt and crept over to Christine’s side of the room. Julie held her breath as she slowly crawled onto the bed and straddled her roommate. Julie gently lifted Christine's hand. One slice and she could have her blood. That’s it, nothing consequential. Christine awoke to Julie cradled atop her hip bones and immediately entered a panic. Christine shoved Julie off and threw herself out of the bed. Julie tried to assure her she awoke to Christine having a bad dream and had come to check on her. Still coming to from a dead sleep, Christine believed it to be another botched attempt to seduce her and rushed out of the room.

The next day, Julie returned from class to find Christine’s side of the room vacant, bare of all her belongings. Soon everyone would know how much Julie didn’t fit in here. The next few months would be wrought with the same torment she lived throughout her adolescence. Julie no longer cared. She cared only about feeding her Venus Flytrap, and her own dark desires. Completely consumed with her new thoughts, Julie’s school work suffered. Nothing else was important.

Julie’s eyes once again opened. Her slight smirk turned into a full cackle as her mind was about to relive her most treasured memory.

Eyes shut, Julie saw Christine at the end of a long dining hall table. Everyone around her whispered and sneered as she approached Christine. Their eyes seared into her soul, but Julie saw only Christine. Determined to end her own nocuous torture, Julie quietly asked Christine if they could talk. Julie pleaded her case stating she had never known a true friend and had confused her friendship for something it wasn’t. Julie hid the gnawing hatred that had begun the day she witnessed Christine kill a fly for nothing but fun. The day something calamitous awoke in her own being.

Christine looked into Julie’s sunken eyes. It was clear she was not well. For the sake of her own pity, Christine agreed to accompany Julie back to the dorm room to talk.

When they arrived at the room, Julie handed Christine a glass of wine she had already poured and had waiting on her desk. Christine, impressed by the gesture, took the wine and began sipping it. Julie watched as Christine drank her wine and began once again apologizing for frightening Christine- she understood if she no longer wanted to be friends, but wanted to at least atone for the feelings of violation.

Christine began feeling light headed, the wine must have been strong to already affect her this much. Julie’s smile began blurring over as Christine’s head nodded back and forth. She couldn’t hold herself up. Julie’s low laugh rang in her ears as her body crumpled to the ground. In cruelly casual steps, Julie walked over to Christine’s near lifeless body. It was all hers now. Every ounce of Christine now belonged to Julie.

Julie took her dull knife and ran it down the length of Christine’s arm. The blood was still warm. Julie was overwhelmed by the amount of it. Julie positioned Christine’s arm over the Venus Flytrap, but it gushed over the plant instead of dripping like hers had when she had first fed it. Agitated, she grabbed the jar sitting on her desk and collected as much blood as she could as it pooled under Christine. She would have to move fast. People saw them leave the dining hall together. Julie would have to get Christine’s body to the dumpster out back and make her escape. Julie struggled to move Christine. Petite though she was, there was no way to drag Christine inconspicuously down the hallway and outside. Julie shoved Christine under the bed like an old forgotten ragdoll. Blood was still escaping Christine’s body. It was everywhere. The smell was intoxicating but there was no time to enjoy it. Julie shoved her comforter under the bed to conceal Christine. Julie grabbed her bathroom towel and tried to soak up the blood but there was so much it only pushed it around. Julie carried the towels and her blood stained clothes to the dumpster. Tightly wrapped in her now trashed clothing was the Venus Flytrap. It would go in the dumpster along with Julie’s dark fetishes. It would be trash, just like what remained of Christine’s corpse.

Julie grabbed her book bag and filled it with only the necessities- a change of clothes, her tooth brush, and the jar of blood. The only remaining connection to her desires she would keep. It was nearly daylight and she had to flee. It was only a matter of time before someone realized Christine wasn’t in class.

Julie once again opened her eyes to the room illuminated only by the flickering candle. It was a matter of time before she was found. This abandoned cabin served as a temporary refuge from her undoubted fate.

Julie regretted nothing- Her mother always said flies were the sign of the devil. So wasn’t she doing a good thing?