Word Limit: 1400-3200 or 4 Wattpad pages max.
Synopses: Deep in the jungle is the plant Elliott has been searching for his entire life. He's not the only one. Many before him have found it but now it's Elliott's turn to be face to face with it.

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Elliott's plane landed on a dusty runway and came to an abrupt halt that had the other passengers gasping with fright. First the flight attendant welcomed the passengers in English and then repeated her words in Spanish. A small cheer erupted from passengers who were most likely returning home from spending time in America. Elliott was too eager to dilly dally so he squeezed out into the aisle and reached up to grab his duffel bag from the compartment. He then made his way passed other passengers, muttering apologies in the best possible Spanish he could muster. He even pronounced his S's with a lisp the way he learned from Spanish classmates while studying abroad in Spain. Of course that was many years ago and his accent was now pitiful.

Elliott exited the plain down a flight of metal stairs and was welcomed by the heat like a heavy slap to the face. Things didn't get any better once everyone climbed into the shuttle van that would take them to the arrivals gate. The air conditioning was broken, making it feel like a furnace and right before Elliott felt on the verge of passing out, they reached their destination. From there he made a beeline for the gate, through the airport and right back outside again where his ride was waiting.

"Yo soy Elliot" He pointed to the cardboard sign the man was holding. "Quiero ir a la... la... jungle."

"Si, la jungla. Yo te llevo. Me llamo Ronaldo."

"Umm... uhh... mi Español no es muy bueno." Elliot replied sheepishly.

"Do you espeak e English, Sir?" Ronaldo asked with a smile.

"Yes. Yes I do!" Elliott smiled back.

"Ok. I am Ronaldo." He pointed into his chest. "I take you where you want. Welcome to my country."

Ronaldo motioned over to his Jeep Wrangler and opened the passenger side door for Elliott. He climbed in and anxiously waited for Ronaldo to begin driving. All of his years of studying exotic plants and he was now going to finally see the plant of his dreams. It was a rare pod that took ten years to bloom and once it did it was twice the size of a human. Its nectar was stored in a bowl-like container of pedals which attracted prey to drink it. Except its nectar was poison. Carnivorous plants always fascinated Elliott ever since he was a kid and watched Little Shop of Horrors for the first time. Which only encouraged him to stay focused during science classes and read everything he could get his hands on about caniverous plants. He knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up.

"So why you want to go to jungle?" Ronaldo asked, breaking Elliott from his thoughts.

"I'm a botanist." He smiled while drumming his fingers on his knees. "There's a rare plant I would like to study once I get there."

"Oh yeah? So where you come from?"

"Well I got my Masters degree at Berkeley in California. So that's where I live but originally I'm from London."

"My son live in California. San Diego. I visit him next summer." Ronaldo swiftly reached behind his seat and into a container, all while maintaining his eyes on the road. He pulled out folded foil and handed it to Elliott. Then he reached inside a cooler and pulled out a Toña beer and offered it as well. "Part of tour was promise a lunch." Ronaldo smiled. "My wife make tacos."

"Thank you. It looks delicious." Elliott replied after unfolding the foil.

He began sinking his teeth into the soft tortilla and tender barbacoa meat that had a nice balance of lime juice, cilantro and onions. He didn't realize how hungry he was until he devoured all three tacos and really wanted more. He cracked open the beer and let the fluid trickle down his throat and for the first time since landing, he felt a cool relief.

"You have kid?" Ronald asked as he shifted gears and maneuvered over the bumpy terrain.

Elliot gripped onto the rollcage and could feel his bottom bouncing off of the seat with every bump. "No. Unfortunately my work hasn't allowed me to settle down."

"So no girlfriend."

"No. No girlfriend." Elliott chuckled.

"Oh... boyfriend?"

Elliott laughed even harder. "No. No boyfriend either."

"I have daughter. She want to be doctor and live in California like my son. She like American man." Ronaldo bounced his eyebrows at Elliott as if giving him a hint.

"I'm afraid I'd make your daughter miserable."

Elliott sipped the last of the beer and thought about how true his statement was. His last girlfriend just couldn't understand the countless hours he spent in the lab, studying the rare plant. She didn't understand how important it was to know the intricacies of its cell formation and how depending on the soil, its pedals take on different hues. Or the fact that the nutrients from the soil changes the way the nectar tastes. A study which was quite taboo since they used test subjects who were terminally ill to taste test the nectar. Which to scientists surprise, if given in careful doses, numbed the pain for severe migraine sufferers and those with brain tumors. A study which was not yet approved by the FDA.

However none of that mattered. All of his toiling in the lab took time away from his girlfriend. In fact, it took his time away from every girlfriend but it wasn't as if he really cared for them anyway. They never understood him. They eventually thought he was strange. Elliott began to realize then that he couldn't belong to anyone. He could only belong to his work. So day after day he studied pictures of the plant and checked out every piece of material on the plant he could. He tracked the timeline for when it would bloom again by tracking the last four documented times that it bloomed. He even wrote to, and eventually visited Dr. Krig who was also a botanist and studied the rare plant during his career. It was the first time that Elliot found someone as passionate about the rare plant as he was. And thanks to his documentation, Elliott was able to figure out that the pod bloomed every ten years, and on a night when there wasn't a moon present.

Which was today. Exactly ten years from Dr. Krig's last documentation.

According to his records, the pod had purplish pedals that faded into blue at the edges. Dr. Krig concluded that it was due to the record amount of rainfall that year which diluted the soil. Unlike the time prior when the pod had purplish pedals that faded into a scarlet red. Which was do to the drier soil from lack of rainfall during that year. The weather and elements during the year durin of the bloom was most crucial. If that wasn't fascinating enough, Elliott also combed over studies of the insects and animals that were found in the pod after it wilted. Many of them remained preserved in the saplike nectar. Dissections revealed that the poison from the nectar traveled into their blood stream, and to their brain, paralyzing them completely and deteriorating their organs. Although it was hard to determine if they suffered.

Deep down Elliott always believed that they didn't suffer at all. Based on the medical studies, patients in the control group described feeling bliss or giddiness after consuming the small capsules of nectar. Elliott could only imagine the euphoria those insects and animals must have felt. Something deep within him wondered what it would be like to experience that, minus his insides being sucked dry.

"So what plant in the jungle you want to see?" Ronaldo asked.

"I want to see a rare plant bloom. It only happens every ten years. It has a bowl-shape where nectar is stored."

Ronaldo slowed the jeep down to a stop and pulled the emergency brake but he kept the jeep idling. "You mean the Serpiente."

"Is that what the locals call it?"

"You don't want to go there my friend."

"Yes I do." Elliott insisted. From the incline of the hill, Elliott could see the town the plane landed in and it looked so small now, just as Dr. Krig described to him. "I've been waiting my entire career to see it."

"That plant is cursada. You know what mean?"

"Cursed? That's ridiculous." Elliott shook his head. "Now come on, I can't waste anymore time, I need to make it there before it blooms."

Ronaldo stared at Elliott dead on. "Everyone here know that whoever get close to plant, can never get away again. It make people crazy. One man say he could hear plant talk to him. Call him by name. The plant told him to drink nectar. So he have some. Man's wife say he return home acting strange, saying weird thing. A few days later, man no wake up. Dead!"

"What are you saying?" Elliott looked puzzled.

"I saying that plant is like the devil who seduce Eve in the garden of Eden! People hear it talk to them. Tell them to drink nectar. Then they go crazy or die. So please, let's go somewhere else. I show you waterfall. I take you to lake to swim and we can catch fish and have barbacoa on beach... is better idea." Ronaldo shifted the gear and began turning the wheel to make a u-turn.

"NO!" Elliott barked. "I've waited ten years to see this plant and either you take me there or I will find someone else to!"

"Please, my friend. It's danger!" Ronaldo said as he continued to make the turn.

"Fine! You don't want to take me." Elliott quickly unbuckled his seat belt and began to climb out of the jeep. "I'll find someone else! "

"Wait! " Ronaldo pulled the emergency brake and jumped out of the jeep to go after Elliott. " Ok I take you!

"Look it's alright. You can keep my money but I'll find someone else."

"No one else will take you. Not if you tell them where you going...." Ronaldo sighed, wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked to the sky, muttering some sort of prayer in Spanish. "I take you quarter mile from where is but I no go further my friend. Ok?"

"Ok." Elliott nodded and returned to the jeep.

Ronaldo turned the jeep around and resumed the trek up the hill and through the jungle. It was quiet most of the way, aside from the frustration Elliott could hear in Ronaldo's grunts as he shifted gears over the rough terrain. Elliott thought about Dr. Krig and remembered him saying how the only thing he regretted from his career, was not devoting himself completely to his work the way a true scientist would, and if he had the chance he would return to see the rare pod. It resonated deeply with Elliott. He always felt drawn to botany, especially the rare pod and he would not take this opportunity for granted.

Ronaldo slowed the jeep down and gave off a sigh. "This is where I stop my friend, but I wait for you return. Ok?"

"Oh I won't be returning."

"What??" Ronaldo exclaimed. "How you return to town without me?"

"I'm not." Elliot replied and hopped out of the jeep. "I made a promise to a friend and I plan to keep it."

"I don't understand."

"Good bye Ronaldo."

Elliott crossed through the jungle, leaving Ronald behind him. He didnt have time to explain and frankly, Ronaldo wouldn't understand even if he tried. Not many people would. Except Dr. Krig.

Looking up, Elliott could see the stars illuminating the pink sky as the sun disappeared for the day. Little by little the pink faded into purple and then a deep blue. The jungle filled with chirping from insects and Elliott knew that he was ready for this. He was ready to devote himself completely.

As soon as the pod bloomed with its petals being purplish and fading into white, Elliott climbed inside. The nectar coated his body whole but it was not as Elliott imagined. He felt his body convulse and the blood pulsated in his brain like countless needles. His limbs went stiff, yet his insides twisted.

And Ronaldo was too far away to hear his cries of panic. His cries for help.

His cries of regret.