Bogleech.com's 2013 Horror Write-off:

"Garden"

Submitted by Luke Myrick

    My wife loves her plants. Every day she waters them and cares for them. Sometimes she event talks to them. She likes to joke that they're great listeners. Her garden is almost as big as our entire house. It has a variety of exotic flowers, ferns, and even a few trees.

Lots of birds land in our garden, eating the seeds of plants or bathing in the small ponds scattered throughout. She doesn't like them. In fact, she hates them. She chases them away in any means necessary, from banging pots and pans to shooting them. For someone who loves plants, she hates the animals.

Recently she introduced some vines for the trees. They seem to attract even more birds. But she doesn't remove the vines. She says it would harm them and the trees. I don't argue.

Now she stays up at night, shooting down nocturnal birds. She only sleeps a couple hours a day. She's obsessed with protecting her plants. She talks to them a lot more now, about everything and nothing. I've witnessed her talking about relativity to our relationship. She likes the plants better than me.

One night she didn't come back from the garden. This wasn't that unusual. She was probably shooting some owls, or planting seeds. She didn't come back the next day. I was understandably worried. I went to investigate, and took along some food as well.

I found her.

I wish I hadn't.

Her corpse laid on a bed of azaleas. I wept over her body, stiffening and darkening rapidly. My tears fell on her arm. They were absorbed, but I didn't notice at the time.

She always said she wanted to be buried in her garden and without a funeral,  a natural death and rotting. She wanted her body to feed the soil, so I left it there.

I avoided the garden for weeks. I recovered from my mourning in time, and went to water the plants. They didn't look harmed at all. In fact, they looked healthier than when she died.

I found her again. But it wasn't her.

It was a tree. The shape of a skeleton, covered in bark and leaves. In shock, I threw the watering can.

Water splashed over her.

The skeleton tree smiled.

Nowadays I visit her tree still. I water it, and chase away the birds she always hated.

She's a great listener.