Venus in traps

'The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. A halo of faint brightness that cast its rays behind the sultry glass disrupted the haze. From a distance, indistinct voices were heard. Echoing closer and closer.

Ignorant of the dangers that lurk in the woods, two young lovers loitered around the dense and bushy pine trees, their footsteps on cracking twigs driving them closer into the heart of the secluded forest.

'Look. There's a cabin!' Alex said intrigued, as her mesmerising, blue eyes gleamed when a ray of sunlight stroke her face.

'A perfect spot...' Jim said in a witty tone, raising an eyebrow behind the ginger curls that covered his forehead.

Alex rolled her eyes. 'I hope you don't mean to...'

'Sneak in?' Jim finished her thought.

'Honey, there's a candle in the window. Someone must be in.'

Jim cast an unconvinced glance at her and approached the cabin with the curiosity of a cat. He leaned towards the window and put his face between extended palms that he stuck to the surface of the glass to aid his view into the interior. After a few seconds of close inspection, he turned to Alex. 'It looks completely empty.' he said with certainty.

'I'm not sure it's a good idea.' Alex resisted.

'Come.' he said and wrapped his fingers between hers.

Knock, knock, knock.

'Hello? Is anyone here? Hello?' he asked repeatedly.

After a few minutes and since his calls remaining unanswered, he wrapped his palm on the doorknob and twisted it. The door spread open with no resistance nor hesitation.

The cabin was neatly arranged. A stone-built fireplace was surrounded by elegant, wood-carved furniture, 19th-century paintings and artistry decorated the wooden walls, bohemian china, and hand-painted tea pots and cups embellished the glass-framed cupboards. The velvety blankets and throws on the chesterfield-style leather couch added to the cosiness.

Alex and Jim hesitantly roamed around, exploring the space. The dancing flame of the candle by the window, sitting among a stack of old books, was inviting their senses. The red candle was emanating a sweet scent of the most exotic blend of flowers. Jasmine, lily, azalea, and a hint of sandalwood. As if bottled perfume sprinkled on a Victorian lady's neck, the scent spread in the room like a light mist. The young lovebirds were floating in a state of euphoria. Dizzy, dazzled and ecstatic, they succumbed in a dreamy state of frantic laughter and sensational delight.

They were intoxicated.

Jim approached Alex, placed his hand on her waist and with small seductive steps led her closer to the wall next to the burning candle. Alex was flashed, her heart racing impatient. As he leaned to kiss her, Alex shook her hand in discomfort.

'Ouch!' she cried out.

'What happened, sweetie?'

'Look...' said Alex bewildered. 'My hand is bleeding.'

'But how?'

'I don't know. I touched the wall with the back of my hand and felt a burn.' said Alex with a frown.

'Weird...I can't see anything sharp on the wall that could have cut you.' Jim said inspecting the wall. 'Here, take this napkin and tie the wound.'

Although unsettled, the young couple didn't let the small incident destroy the mood. Their blood was pumping for more adventure, and so they went exploring around. Strangely, the cabin in the inside was bigger than what it looked like. Every few steps there was a new room opening up the path deeper and deeper inside.

A few more dizzy steps away, there lied the bedroom. More red, intoxicating candles in bronze candelabras dimly lit the way to a recliner of unique shape. It resembled a crib or a hammock attached to the wooden floor beneath. Two oval-shaped seats horizontally spread like wings and dressed in red, satin bedsheets resembled open petals.

Jim made himself comfortable lying down on one side and gestured Alex to join him on the empty side. As Alex bent her knees to sit, she released a scream and jumped off the bed again.

'Stupid spider!' she shouted when she realised what it was that had scared her off.

It took a split second for the terrors, that the young couple could never have foreseen, to unfold. For in that instant, the two sides of the obscure recliner, as if they were burlesque feather fans moving on stage with charm by the dancer's hand, rose in the air, enclosing Jim in their tight grip.

'Ahh! Help me! Alex, heeelp!' Jim shouted in anguish.

'Jim! Jim! Oh my god! What's happening?' was screaming Alex frozen in fear.

Jim's body was trapped inside the closed mouth of the recliner, the sides of which where now visibly green. On each edge line of the two sides resembling a peacocks tail, now started sprouting rows of teeth, sharp as blades and vicious as vampire fangs. The two rows intertwined, with their blades crossed, like a medieval spear fence, making their embrace an inescapable prison for Jim, who was now only visible from the neck up on the top end and from the knees down on the bottom end.

'I'll find something to cut this thing off. I'll take you out of there!' Alex tried comforting Jim and frantically started searching and digging in cupboards and drawers for a tool.

The minutes kept going by and Jim was struggling. He could feel his muscles being squeezed and his bones cracking. It was a matter of time before they started breaking him inside out.

Alex was losing hope. But she could never give up. She kept looking and looking. Her hands blistered and bleeding as if everything she touched peeled her skin away. Rummaging through a drawer, her fingers stumbled an old cassette player with two words engraved on the back. Play me.

Alex pushed the button. Among the static and the creaking noise of the reels, a man's voice was heard.

'This is a warning. Whoever finds this tape, listen carefully. First of all, don't touch anything. Everything in here is toxic. I can't find other words to describe it. This place is...' the voice was paused by heavy breathing '...alive.' the man said with deepened, breaking voice 'It seduces and intoxicates you. We are bugs to this place. Bugs to be poisoned, paralysed, stripped off our senses, only to...' the man sobbed '...be eaten alive.' he said with despair. 'This place is a carnivorous plant. You see everything in here to the very walls, is crafted from the venus fly trap. From the ceiling to the roots, deep down the cabin's earthly foundation, this place is bloodthirsty.' the man stopped to catch his breathe with difficulty. Alex was listening with her trembling hand covering her mouth, as tears flooded her face.

'Don't be fooled.' the voice continued firmly. 'This place is very cunning. Intelligent. It possesses some kind of other-wordly intelligence, almost telepathic. It could be vibrations that it's, somehow, reading or the body's temperature and heart rate change. The point is, it can read our thoughts. It senses our fear! ' he said with raised, panicky tone. 'The more scared you are, the more it's convinced you're the prey. From then on, its appetite is insatiable. There is no way you can escape in one piece but here's one way to survive. Sacrifice a part of your flesh.'

The recording stopped abruptly.

Alex, dreaded and shaken, walked slowly by Jim's side. He was almost unconscious now, barely fitting his last breaths through his crushed lungs. The trap had already started sucking his blood, drop by drop, slowly draining him dry in the fashion of an elaborate torture machine. Alex leaned and bestowed a kiss on his ice-cold and dry lips, before Jim fell into eternal oblivion, his eyelids stiff and empty of life.

'No, Nooo!' Alex screamed and sobbed.

Suddenly, the whole cabin started shaking. A blood-curdling, bone-chilling rumble starting creeping from the roots all the way to the the spine of the cabin. From the base of the recliner trap, a new spur of vine was now emerging, slithering like a serpent, growing longer and stronger. In a matter of seconds, from the tip of the blossom, was now fledging a new trap. A wide-open, ravenous mouth hunting its new victim down to decay. But it wasn't alone. Now, everything that decorated the ventral of the cabin had turned into traps, that shrieked and twined around Alex.

Alex knew there was only one way to survive...

She grabbed her backpack, unzipped the case, and slid a hunting knife she kept. Without too much thought, she stretched her leg, pushed the knife into her thigh and started slicing. The sharp blade sank in deep and started carving her flesh like warm cherry pie. The oozing blood gathered in ponds on the floor. The more Alex was screaming in agony the more the traps approached, hungry for more.

As the last edge of flesh was torn by the blade and landed on the floor like fresh fillet for avant-garde dining, one of the traps devoured it in an flashing attack, while the lake of blood had already started being absorbed by the thirsty wood.

Alex, sick and shaking, wrapped her shirt around the bleeding wound. She had completed the gory task in exchange for her life. As she tried to stand up, the floor started shaking again. The planks were now twisting and turning, taking life anew, forming branches and new stems. It wasn't over. The cabin knew she was still an intruder, a foreigner, an edible guest.

She knew what she had to do. And she knew she would never forgive herself.

She gathered all her courage, and grabbed Jim's exposed leg. She took a deep breath and with mania she sank her teeth into his dead flesh.

The traps started retreating convinced they were left alone. Fed and satisfied. Alex had become one of their own. Ravaging, beastly, predatory.

The door now opened once again without resistance. Alex was free. She turned her head and cast a glance behind as a last goodbye to her beloved Jim. Through the window, a line of smoke was coming out of the candle wick. She knew now, it will burn again when the cabin senses the new prey approaching. Her eyes searched for Jim but in vain. The trap had completely devoured him. There was now no sign of flesh or blood. The recliner was open again waiting for the next guest. No strings attached.