Chapter 9 by Zeebop

What Do Lois and Rat See?

The Pleasure Garden

There was a greenhouse reek, a buffet of sharp green smells, spices and flowers and woodland verdure all rolled together, carried on a warm, humid wind. Overhead—too high for the ceiling of the room—hung a sullen red orb of red flame, that gave a scarlet cast to everything. Their feet sank into loamy soil, and all around them were plants...but such plants as Lois and her companion had never seen before.

Fleshy trunks rose up from a carpet of soft moss, and no two were alike—on one, dark leaves with prominent veins hung heavy from hanging branches, and clustered at the center of each limb a dozen perfect breasts hung like a batch of grapes, their tiny nipples soft and pink for all that they were round and full. Another split at waist-height like a flower, and on slender-shoots were orchid blossoms that unfolded toward the sun to display labia. Next to it, a similar plant was adorned with finger-sized penises. The two plants waggled at each other, half-animated, but never quite made the connection each so desperately desired.

A path wove through the strange plant, and Lois took it cautiously, a step at a time, Rat looking decidedly nonplussed but apparently unwilling to be left behind.

"What is this place?" He said, as a trunk covered with puffy pink orifices winked at him slowly. Around its base, a kind of bush with long waggling tongues slathered over the lowest puckered holes.

"A pervert's garden of Eden," Lois said. Next to her, a tulip bush with actual lips had latched onto a kinda of phallic zucchini. Too large for any single bulb to latch onto, three of them were laying kisses up and down its length. After far too long—space was playing its little tricks on them here, and the doorway they had come in was no longer in sight—they arrived at a clearing in what Lois judged to be the center of the garden. At least, based on the fact that the burning orb was straight ahead.

There was a tree there, deceptively normal to Lois' eyes, bearing fruit that looked like ripe pomegranates.

"And all Edens have their serpents." The reporter said. Then she looked around, and realized she was alone.