"I don't believe this thing is real."

Rachel Carter, leading biologist of the Institute for Biology and Herbology, stood in a large basement room which was located in a warehouse district.

"Oh, it's as real as it can be."

Inspector Stevens stood next to her in front of the spotlights which pointed on something that had the uncomforting look of a tree made of flesh and bones.

"I mean... is it alive?"

Rachel made two steps towards the horrible thing, but Inspector Stevens held her back.

"Be careful, we don't know yet what this is all about. It might be harmful, so don't touch it."

"But... what is this?"

Rachel was disgusted by the stench of the dark red thing in front of her.

"Well, as I said, we still don't know."

Inspector Stevens turned to her.

"But to me, it looks like a tree."

"A tree? You're kidding me!"

"What else should it be instead?"

Inspector Stevens grabbed one of the spotlights and highlighted the red fleshy leaves which hang down from the dark red branches. They were almost as big as her hand and Rachel shivered as she looked at that horrible thing.

"Is it a plant, or what kind of horror is this?"

"That's for you to find out, that's why you're here."

Inspector Stevens sat down the spotlight on the dirty tiled floor again.

"We got some more information that might be important for you. Let's get upstairs again, this thing smells disgusting."

Rachel was glad to leave the basement and that gross meat tree behind.

"Three days ago this thing was discovered by two teenage boys who broke into the warehouse for graffiti spraying. Yesterday one of them finally went to the police because he got shit scared about it and had some really bad nightmares.

Their parents are already informed and the boys are both at the police station right now for questioning, but we'll see if they got any useful information."

Inspector Stevens walked through the dim light warehouse, Rachel closely following him, still feeling uneasy.

"But what's important for you now,"

he pulled away some heavy plastic curtains,

"are those tiny bastards."

In the low light it was hard to see, but behind the plastic curtains there were many small plants in a few dozent pots.

"They look the same but these ones are definitely plants."

Rachel dared to come closer, to take a better look at the small green trees.

"The leaves look the same, it's the same shape."

"Yes, we suspect there is some kind of relation to that tree in the basement."

"They don't seem to need a lot of light."

Rachel looked around. There were no windows in the warehouse and the only light came from some old electric lightbulbs.

Inspector Stevens slightly shook his head.

"I don't know much about plants, so I keep up to finding the guys who set this all up. Maybe it's just some kind of prank, so don't worry.

All you have to do is take some samples of these small plants and of the one in the basement and find out if there's some relation between them. If so, we'll take further investigations, otherwise the boys can be sure of some serious trouble for that kind of joke."

"Okay, I'll just get my bag out of the car for taking the samples."

"No hurry, Ms Carter, they won't walk away, won't they?"

Rachel looked at him slightly uncomfortable, then turned around and walked quickly towards the half open gate.