Victor had missed the city. New Orleans had changed quite a bit since he left, but the smell of Cajun spice drifted to the streets from restaurants just the same and people still crowded the sidewalks with unabashed laughter. The shadows of familiarity filled Victor with a sense of satisfaction, but also, deep down, fear. This city had not been kind to him.

On Victor’s shoulder perched a small, green seedling. Its green shoots fluttered in the wind and swayed with the movement of his body. It was the seedling’s first time in a large human city and its two-inch tall body trembled from root to tip in excitement. Victor petted the seedling gently with a finger.

“What do you think, Nora? Do you like the city?”

The seedling trembled harder and spoke directly to Victor’s mind. 'Like.'

Victor grinned and slipped onto a side street to get away from the crush of people. Mardi Gras was fast approaching, and jubilation was tangible in the air. The stimulation might be too intense for a small grass spirit like Nora.

'Why did you leave such a fantastic place?' Nora asked.

Victor’s smile faded. Why, indeed.

Nora, annoyed at his silence, shook furiously on his shoulder, smacking the side of his face with her shoots. Victor patiently pushed the ticklish shoots away and clicked his tongue as if chiding a small child. “You may look like a seedling, but we both know you have two centuries of spiritual accumulation. Be a little more mature.”

'Not my fault you have such a smack-able face.'

“Alright, it’s my fault, then,” Victor sighed. He paused under a red and white striped awning and scrutinized the street he was on. Where was the bar again? It had been too long since he was in the city and his sense of direction was muddled.

As he was thinking, Nora suddenly stiffened, shoots freezing in a Y shape. 'Victor. He’s getting closer.'

“Fuck,” Victor swore, forgetting about the bar. He gathered his spiritual sense and formed a barrier around his body that would shield him from detection by others with spiritual accumulation. He quickly leaped through the crowds of people at such a high speed that he was invisible to the human eye.

Nora was flattened to Victor’s shoulder from the wind, hanging on desperately with her roots. 'Exactly how long do you plan on running?'

Victor gritted his teeth. “Until he dies from exhaustion.”

The determination in his voice didn’t convince Nora. 'He has thousands of years more spiritual accumulation than you. You will die long before he does.'

“How am I just now noticing how much of a pessimist you are?”

'That’s not pessimism, that’s the reality.'

Victor ignored her and kept running until he saw a familiar building surrounded by a dome of gentle green light. He had found the bar. He slowed and removed the spiritual sense cloaking his body.

The inside of the bar was heavily crowded with plants of all kinds, flowers in vibrant colors, thick green vines, even weeds and tree roots. They grew out of the walls, ceiling, and floor, wrapped around tables and chairs, and sometimes floated in mid-air, carrying beer and wine to customers. Victor had barely stepped a foot inside the establishment when several spirits surrounded him with a clamor. Chairs overturned as spirits darted out of them. Voices in languages familiar and alien rose up to catch his attention.

Victor calmly shifted sideways to avoid being tackled by an overzealous vine spirit. “One at a time please, one at a time.”

“Oh! Me, me, me!” cried a mushroom spirit. “A rose spirit keeps calling me ugly I need you to beat him up for me!”

“No, me! A bunny has been eyeing my leaves lately, I feel so scared."

“Sir Earth Spirit, me – pick me! Please! Someone’s cast a binding spell on my tree, please break it!”

This last plea made Victor raise an eyebrow. “A binding spell?” he mumbled.

“Yes!” squeaked the owner of the voice, pushing through the crowd to stand before him. It was a tree spirit, a dryad. She had the form of a young girl, seeming no older than sixteen or seventeen, but Victor could tell with one look that she had at least a hundred years of spiritual accumulation. “Sir Earth Spirit, someone set a binding spell on my tree. I can’t go back inside it at all.”

“Wait. They made the spell so you couldn’t go into your tree?” Victor frowned. Usually if someone did that type of spell, it was to keep the spirit inside its original vessel, not out.

“Yes.” The dryad didn’t elaborate any. Victor felt that this matter was somewhat suspicious, but still. He had never dealt with a binding spell before. It would be a good time to get some experience - and money. The more difficult the task the more money in his pocket.

“Alright. Take me to your tree.”

“Yay! Thank you so much!” The girl smiled widely and grabbed his wrist, ushering him out of the bar.

Nora griped in his head. 'Why were you so set on going to that bar if you were just going to leave it five minutes later?'

Victor snorted and replied mentally to avoid revealing anything to the little dryad next to him. 'I went there exactly for this purpose. If we’re lucky, I’ll be able to break this spell and she’ll spare a couple of coins for my service. Have you forgotten we’re broke?'

 '...Oh, right. Good plan.'

Victor shook his head, smiling. The little dryad led him a few blocks over to a spacious park that was mostly empty since the local children were all still in school. Her tree was a skinny birch by a small pond.

Victor set his hand against the bark and sent out a thread of spiritual sense, closing his eyes. The spell was like a snake. It curled in a purple thread around the trunk and resentment wafted from it strong enough that Victor could taste it. He smacked his lips with a grimace.

The dryad shifted nervously behind him, brushing long brown hair behind one ear. "Can it be broken?"

Victor watched her twisting fingers and shifty eyes blankly for a long moment, long enough that the dryad started to sweat. He suddenly smiled gently. "What's your name?"

Thrown off, the dryad stammered. "I - uh. My name is Kathryn."

"Ah. How many years of spiritual accumulation do you have?"

Kathryn looked at Victor's dark, glossy eyes and the shallow dimple that appeared alongside his smile. She suddenly had the thought that this person was much more dangerous than he seemed. "I have a hundred and fifty three years, Sir Earth Spirit."

"No need for that. Call me Victor." He removed his hand from Kathryn's tree and glanced around the park. Every plant within hearing distance was undoubtedly straining their ears right now. But eavesdroppers didn't bother Victor so much as the sour taste of resentment emanating from somewhere close by.

At that moment, Nora's voice broke his thread of spiritual sense, causing his head to pound. 'He followed you to the bar. He'll be here in thirty minutes or less.'

Victor's whole body went cold. He felt the urge to immediately flee, but remembering his promise to the dryad - and his desperate need for money - he pushed the impulse down.

"Um. . .so, the spell?"

Victor returned to the present situation. "This kind of spell. . .it requires the essence of the one who cast it. Do you have any idea who would want to lock you out of your tree?"

The dryad scuffed a foot against the ground, chewing her lip in contemplation. Victor was about to offer some incentives, perhaps bribes and maybe violence, but before he could the source of the resentment decided to enter the scene.

A spear made out of purple spiritual light suddenly shot out, faster than a gunshot - headed straight for Kathryn.

Victor grabbed the light spear with his bare hand right before it could pierce Kathryn's chest. She was so startled she fell backwards onto her butt, making a thudding noise against the ground.

Plant spirits were hard to kill. There were only two ways to do so - kill their plant form, or fatally wound them with spiritual power. Victor wondered exactly what had happened to make such a small, timid girl so hated.

Victor crushed the light spear into dust and with a twist of his hand, summoned the thrower forward. From behind the low stone wall bordering the pond a hunched figure emerged.

It was an old man, with a wrinkled, sour face and coal colored eyes. He sneered at the dryad on the ground.

He didn't say anything, just humphed quietly, and turned his head as if the sight of her disgusted him.

Nora lightly tapped the side of his face. 'Twenty-five minutes.'

Victor smiled at the old man - a rock spirit - but impatience made it brittle. "Did you cast the binding spell?"

The rock spirit snorted, but said nothing. Victor's teeth creaked as his jaw clenched. He didn't have time for this.

"Okay. It was obviously you that cast it. Could you kindly remove it for this young lady?"

"No."

Victor was a very patient person. But at that moment he felt like screaming and throttling the old rock spirit until he begged for mommy.

"Why not?"

Kathryn, still sitting on the ground, sniffled. "He's mad because I accidentally threw his rock into the pond."

Victor was bewildered. "How could you accidentally throw a rock?"

The rock spirit spit next to Kathryn's foot. "This idiot threw my rock at a human! My! Rock!"

Victor crouched next to Kathryn, speaking in a low, calming voice. "Why did you throw his rock at a human?"

Staring at him from such close range, Kathryn blushed heavily. Sir Earth Spirit was really much too handsome. His straight, pitch black eyebrows rested over soft dark eyes, his skin was smooth and white, his lips red.

"I. . .I was trying to get his attention."

"The human's?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Spirits generally avoided humans for the sake of keeping their existence secret. No one was sure what any particular human would do if they knew that every rock, tree, and flower had human shape and consciousness, but it probably wouldn't be anything good.

Kathryn blushed more, until her whole face looked sunburned. "I thought he was. . .cute. He comes to the park everyday and I thought, maybe, that we could get to know each other, but. . ."

"But what?"

"But I got nervous. So I panicked and threw the nearest thing I could find. The rock hit him, and he was right next to the pond, so he fell in. I-" she buried her face in her knees. "I'm sorry."

She didn't know how to flirt, so she resorted to violence? Victor's eye twitched, but he also thought it was kind of funny. "Okay. So the rock fell into the pond too? Why didn't you just go get it?"

"I tried!" Kathryn cried out all of a sudden. "I tried, but the pond spirit was mad that a human fell into it and kept the rock. She won't let me get it."

Victor could pretty much put everything together now. The pond spirit wouldn't give up the rock, which kept the rock spirit from going back inside it, so in revenge he locked Kathryn out of her tree. Victor wouldn't ask what happened with the human boy, but he could guess the flirting attempt was a bust.

'Eighteen minutes. Hurry up, Victor,' Nora said.

'I know already.'

"Alright. I understand." Victor got to his feet and Kathryn trembled, probably thinking that he would punish her. But he just walked over to the pond. Kathryn and the rock spirit watched him, Kathryb with pity, the rock spirit with disdain. The pond spirit had three hundred years of spiritual accumulation, and she didn't like to be disturbed.

Victor knelt at the side of the pond. "Hello, Ms. Pond spirit? Can we talk?"

Silence.

"I know you're angry at being disturbed, but I promise you, it won't happen again. Couldn't you please give me the rock that the dryad threw into you?"

Silence.

Victor sighed. He had no choice but to pull out the Earth Spirit card. "Listen, I'm an Earth Spirit, and that might not mean much to you, but I do have some power. Name your price and I'll pay it."

The center of the pond rippled slightly. She was listening.

"Is there anything you want? A job you want done, perhaps, or a boundary spell. . .?"

At this, the rippled spread rapidly outward, growing in size until a tall figure rose from the center of the pond. The pond spirit was dressed in algae, her hair silvery and bound neatly atop her head. Her green eyes pierced through Victor as if he was a mere ant.

"How powerful of a boundary spell can you cast?" Her voice was deep and smooth.

"How powerful do you want it?"

The pond spirit snorted. "Grade seven."

Victor's smiling lips twitched at the corner. "Unfortunately, ma'am, I'm not a Deity yet. I can cast a grade three boundary spell, though."

A grade three boundary spell was considered almost legendary among regular spirits as it was, grade seven practically didn't exist it was so rare. The pond spirit considered his offer, expression flat. It was at least three minutes before she responded, causing cold sweat to drip down Victor's back.

'Thirteen minutes.'

"Fine," the pond spirit said. "If you can cast me a grade three boundary spell, I'll return the rock."

Victor let out a breath and got to work right away. He didn't have a moment to spare.

Boundary spells were fairly easy to cast. Victor bit his finger to draw blood, let out a drop at each of the four cardinal directions around the pond, and poured spiritual power into the drops. This formed a connection between them, and for a moment, a net of gold was visible surrounding the pond that quickly faded, but the dazzling afterimage was still present when he closed his eyes.

"Done. Rock, please."

The spell softened the pond spirit's attitude towards Victor. She quickly produced the rock and tossed it to him, even smiling softly before she melted back into the water.

"You're not so bad, for a former human." Her whisper lingered in the air.

Usually this praise would gratify Victor, but with time becoming alarmingly precious, he couldn't properly appreciate it. He tossed the rock to the elderly rock spirit.

"Can you release the binding spell, now?"

The rock spirit was pleased to have his rock back, but the sight of Kathryn still sitting pitifully on the ground filled him with indescribable disgust.

"Not until she apologizes to me."

Victor, who had Nora whispering 'eight minutes' in his ear, was at the end of his rope. Kathryn sniffled harder.

"Then, Kathryn, please apologize." Victor struggled not to walk up and throttle the girl. Anything to make her talk faster. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

Kathryn's lip trembled. She felt aggrieved. She knew it was her fault that things had come to this point, but did the rock spirit and the pond spirit have to make it so difficult for her?

'Six minutes.'

"Kathryn. . ." Victor said, about to scold her so hard she wouldn't leave her tree for a decade.

"I'm sorry," she blurted, lips pursed into a pout. "It was my fault. I was being stupid."

That was good enough for Victor. He stared at the old man, willing him to give in with his eyes.

The old man squinted at Kathryn. Perhaps her resemblance to a kicked puppy wore him down, then, because he sighed, clicked his tongue, and waved his hand.

There was a shattering sound and then purple shards of light fell to the ground around Kathryn's tree, quickly dissolving into the earth. Kathryn blinked rapidly, eyes large and teary, astonished.

The old man hugged his rock. "I hope you'll be more prudent from now on." He walked away holding his rock, likely about to settle it somewhere far away to avoid such shenanigans again.

'Three minutes. We have to go.'

'I know, just hold on.' Victor's palms began to sweat.

Kathryn's spirits were immediately lifted. She ran up to Victor and hugged him hard, almost tackling him to the ground.

"Thank you so much! Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Victor smiled. "It's funny you should ask. . ."

Kathryn ended up giving him seven coins, which wasn't much, but Victor didn't mind. It would get them far enough.

Victor made sure Kathryn could safely enter her tree then cloaked himself once again and bounded away.

'That was really close. I could feel him at the entrance to the park just as we left,' Nora said.

Now that there was no one to overhear, Victor could speak freely. "Let's just get farther away for now. I'll leave some false trails once we're in a safe place."

Nora sighed, brushing his ear with her shoots. 'I don't know how you managed to piss off an Earth Deity so bad, but is he really so unreasonable that you can't apologize?'

Victor was silent for some time. Nora nervously wondered if she had hit a sore point.

"It's not what I've done to him," he said suddenly.

Nora perked up. Was she finally about to hear the story, the reason why Victor had been running nonstop for ninety years? She was stiff with excitement, but all she got was a lone statement that left things more ambiguous than before.

"It's what he's done to me."

'Uh, Victor? Where are we going?'

"Shhh." Victor gently stroked Nora's shoots. He had no idea where they were going.

They were currently winding their way through a residential area that Victor didn't recognize. Truthfully, he was only thinking of getting away, fast.

'Great. We're lost.'

"We're not lost. I just don't know where to go."

Nora smacked him a couple times to vent her anger. 'You used to live here, right? Just go to wherever you used to live. We can stay there for a few days.'

Victor shuddered at the thought. "I don't even know if that place is still standing after all these years."

'Then let's go check.'

"No."

'Why not?'

Victor pursed his lips and said nothing. He didn't want to elaborate on all the reasons he found that place, his former home, so unbearable now. When he kept silent, Nora ranted in his head.

Victor kept leaping through neighborhoods, light as air, ignoring her.

Suddenly, Nora's cursing stopped short. 'He's caught up. He's practically right behind us.'

Victor cursed, pushing himself to go faster. Unfortunately, even as an Earth Spirit, Victor wasn't inexhaustible. He couldn't keep up this pace forever, so they had to rest somewhere and lay low. But where?

'Come on, Victor. Stop being a baby. I want to see where you used to live and we have to go somewhere,' Nora said. This time, Victor listened. He had little choice and besides, the apartment complex he used to call home was nearby, only a few blocks away.

Victor changed course slightly and in minutes they came to a stop in front of a set of old, yet well maintained, apartment buildings. They were called Garden View Apts, and there were four buildings in total, set up in a square around a large central garden.

It was this garden that Victor snuck into, quietly snapping the lock on the gate between buildings and slipping in.

Victor hated this garden when he was alive and he hated it just as much after death. He scowled and settled down on a bench. Most of the flower arrangements were still the same.

'This is nice,' Nora said. 'I like it here.'

"At least one of us is having a good time," Victor said, pouting slightly.

Nora ignored him, basking in the sunlight.

Meanwhile, Victor made sure to tightly conceal himself with a spiritual shield. At the very least, Warren probably wouldn't look for him here. Warren knew how much Victor hated this place, so his coming back was fairly unlikely.

He and Nora remained in the garden for the next few days, quietly passing the time with riddles and guessing games. It was only on the evening of the second day that Victor became curious enough to try to talk to the plants in the garden.

Victor wondered if any of the spirits in this garden would remember him. He was the gardener for quite some time in his youth. It would be cool if some of the spirits still looked on him fondly.

Then again. . .what if they also remembered that incident? Though comparatively, that day wasn't the worst in his life, it wasn't really good either. The last thing he needed was a trip down memory lane. Victor decided to hold off on talking to the plants.

Though Earth Spirits didn't technically need to sleep, it was the fastest way to replenish spiritual power, so Victor settled down under a tree with Nora on his chest to sleep.

Maybe it was because he thought of the past before sleeping, or maybe it was the environment invading his consciousness, but Victor dreamed of the past.

Dark red blood turned silvery in the glow of the moon. It spread out from the body in streams, soaking the dirt, sidewalk, and Victor's shoes. Victor gasped heavily. He felt like a boulder was strapped to his chest. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe!

What was he going to do? He had made such a mess. . .would he go to jail? Should he hide the body, or - no. No he couldn't. He had to turn himself in. He had to. . .

The plants were. . .moving? No, it was just the wind. Just the wind.

But then. . .no. Plants didn't move like that!

He watched with horror as a begonia stretched on its stem, winding and flexible like a snake. The flower bent down to the sidewalk and. . .licked the blood?

Victor choked and blinked hard. It was all a dream. . .

But then slurping noises sounded from right below him and he couldn't pretend anymore. He opened his eyes wide, watching, frozen, as flower after flower stretched forward, lapping at the blood like dogs drinking water.

When Victor woke, there were dark circles around his eyes.

Looking back on that incident, knowing what he knew now. . .it was still too strange. Even the most perverse of plant spirits wouldn't usually be driven to drink human blood unless pollution made them insane. While that was a risk for just about any spirit, this area shouldn't be that heavily polluted.

'Victor? Are you okay? You don't look too good,' Nora said, fluttering around his face worriedly.

"I'm fine." He wasn't fine.

Victor walked, as if in a trance, to the back of the garden. There were still rows of begonias bordering the sidewalk, just like before.

He knelt among the begonias. Nora watched from the side and silently worried about the vacancy in Victor's gaze, as if he had been hollowed out. Her shoots fluttered anxiously.

Victor placed two fingers on the stem of one begonia, closing his eyes. He sent a pulse of spiritual sense through his fingertips into the stem, searching for the spirit within.

His eyebrows wrinkled. There . . .wasn't anything inside?

Even sprouts had spiritual consciousness. Even if it couldn't yet form words or a human shape, there should be a glow, a stream, a spark. Something. But this plant was just. . .empty.

He checked its roots, but this plant was clearly still alive. It was collecting water and nutrients from the soul just as it was supposed to. So what was wrong?

Victor withdrew his spiritual sense.

'What's wrong?'

"These begonias. They don't have consciousness."

Nora trembled nervously. 'Maybe they're too young?' She offered, but they both knew these plants were too mature to not have even a speck of spiritual energy.

Victor pursed his lips and started to get up. "I think we should -"

Before he could say the word 'go', his nightmare came to life once more.

The begonias shuddered violently then shot out of the ground!

Victor didn't even have time to take a breath before they were upon him, wrapping around him several times, more sturdy than the thickest rope. They slammed him against the ground and kept him there. Victor blinked away the stars in his eyes.

Nora hopped over to him, fluttering around his face in panic-mode, tugging at the stems with her shoots.

Victor struggled to take in a breath. His vision was going fuzzy around the edges as images from that night flooded his head. Victor choked, wondering if they were about to suck up his blood too.

But after the begonias tied him up, they went still. From the side there was movement, then suddenly a figure stepped out from behind a tree, taking slow, calm steps. Victor closed his eyes in defeat, letting his head fall back against the ground.

Nora hid in Victor's hair. 'It's. . .him.'

Warren Roche finally made his appearance.