Annabelle goes too far

Marcy’s restful silence was shattered in an instant as the door to the small greenhouse swung open and in walked Annabelle and her cohort. The woman tensed, readying herself for another nightmare.

“Well, well, well,” Annabelle said. “So this is where you disappear to when you should be working.”

“Hi Annabelle, can I help you?” Marcy said, throwing on a fake smile.

Annabelle prowled into the greenhouse and eyed Marcy’s work coldly. Marcy tried to hide the packet of seeds, but she moved too slow.

“Wow. Even after I told you not to, you still went and tried to steal my father’s property. Not a good look.”

“From the looks of it,” Kendall said. “She’s been stealing a lot of your dad’s stuff.”

“Have you just been growing your own plants here? Using our property and our materials?”

Marcy felt tired and flustered. She had to remember that she was nearly fifteen years older than the girl threatening her right now.

“Your father knows about this building and he’s fine with it. I’ve been using scraps and extra seeds to practice cultivation. If anything, it helps the nursery because I get to test things out without ruining stuff we’re trying to sell. It’s really fine.”

“We’ll see about that. Either way, you took those seeds without permission. That’s a punishable offense.”

Marcy sighed. This little routine was getting old fast.

“You’re not my boss, Annabelle.”

Annabelle chuckled.

“Hold her down,” she said.

“What?” Marcy cried.

Before she knew it, Kendall had her by one arm and Amy had her by another. She tried to pull away, the girls had strong grips, especially Kendall.

“Let go of me, now! I’m going to tell your father about this.”

“Shut up!”

Annabelle slapped Marcy hard across the face several times. Marcy’s head throbbed in pain and a trickle of blood ran from her split bottom lip.

“Why are you doing this? Why do you hate me so much? I’ve only ever been nice to you!” Marcy cried. The tears were flowing again.

Annabelle shrugged.

“I don’t need a reason. Anyways, this is what I’m going to do. Because you stole my father’s seeds and tried to sell them off to one of our competitors.”

“I didn’t! I never did that! Why are you saying that?”

“Whatever. Because you pissed me off. There, better? I’m going to smash every pot and plant in this little dump and you’re going to spend the night cleaning them up. Got it? Do that and you can keep your job.”

“You’re not my boss! You can’t do this.”

“But I can!”

To prove her point, Annabelle grabbed a broom leaning against a wall and used it to send an entire shelf of potted plants flying. They smashed on the ground in a dismal clatter.

“Please stop. I’ll put away the seeds. I won’t grow them,” Marcy wailed.

“Too late,” Annabelle said.

She began smashing every pot she could. She brought the broom down hard on stems and branches, killing and breaking and tearing.

Marcy watched as months of work died right in front of her.

When the awful work was done, Annabelle returned to face Marcy.

“Now clean it up. You can use this broom.”

She jabbed the head of the broom hard into Marcy’s gut twice.

“What a belly you have. You’re right Kendall. Oink is a better name for her. Oink oink.”

Marcy couldn’t face any of them. Never in her life had she felt so humiliated. All her hard work lay in a heap on the ground as she was demeaned by these teenage demons from hell.

“One more thing,” Annabelle said.

She grabbed the pots containing the fleshly planted mystery seeds and tossed them into the mess one-by-one.

Marcy listened as each ceramic pot shattered.

Then Annabelle delivered a final blow to Marcy’s guy and the girls left the poor woman to grope around in the darkening greenhouse.