Swamp Bromeliad (story)

**Swamp Bromeliad** is an InCryptid short story. It is third in the Dominic and Verity Shorts.

## Synopsis

The next stop on Verity and Dominic's great road trip brings them back to where it all began: Buckley Township, Michigan, the town where two expatriates from the Covenant of Saint George once decided to settle down and rebuild their shattered family. It's a sleepy, rural community, long removed from the excitement of those early days...but the woods are still dark and deep, and the things that dwell there are still dangerous to the unwary.

When two little boys appear at the Old Parrish Place, claiming that a flower has devoured their friend, it's up to Verity and Dominic to go out into the woods and see whether or not there's something left to save. It's a journey into someone else's dark place, and it's hard to say who's more frightened by the idea: Verity, who knows how much she has to lose, or Dominic, who has no idea.

It's time to see where the past meets the future, and how the echoes of the one continue to inform the other. It's time to return to the woods of Buckley, and see what can be seen there. It's time to bring a child home.

## Plot

Verity and Dominic arrive in Buckley. Verity shows him the Healy familial home, now inhabited by renters, before taking him to the Parrish Place where Thomas Price lived. Mary greets them there.

Two young boys come to the door seeking help: their brother was eaten by a plant. Mary watches after the boys while Verity and Dominic go into the forest. Dominic gets high on the bromeliad pollen but Verity still gets him and the missing child home safely.

Once sober, Dominic asks her to marry him. Verity says yes.

## Characters

* Verity Price
* Dominic DeLuca
* Mary Dunlavy
* Joe, Andy, and Neil

**Mentioned**

* Alice Healy / Noisy Priestess / Pilgrim Priestess
* Thomas Price
* Jonathan Healy
* Frances Healy
* Alexander Healy
* Enid Healy
* Daniel Healy
* Antimony Price
* Jane Harrington-Price
* Abraham Parrish
* Laura Campbell

## Field Guide

* Aeslin Mice
* Crossroads Ghost
* Swamp Bromeliad

**Mentioned**

* The god of the Buckley swamp
* Tailypo
* Bogeyman

## Locations

* Buckley Township, Michigan
	+ Healy House
	+ Old Logger's Road
	+ Parrish Place

**Mentioned**

* Chicago, Illinois
	+ Carmichael Hotel
* Portland, Oregon

## Organizations

**Mentioned**

* Covenant of St. George
* Campbell Family Carnival

## Continuity

* Verity's grandparents had met in Buckley. Her great-grandparents died there.
* Enid and Alexander Healy raised their son in Buckley, and he brought home his wife. They buried their grandson in Buckley.
* Mary Dunlavy died in Buckley. So did Rose Marshall.
* Thomas was sent to Buckley to spy on the Healeys.
* Thomas and Alice attempted to clear (but not exterminate) the local swamp bromeliad population.
* Alice has a "patron snake god".
* Dominic knew what he was getting into when he kissed Verity outside the bakery.

## Quotes

* **Dominic DeLuca:** "Please let me be the first to inform you that bringing one's boyfriend to the family murder house to be lectured by one of an assortment of dead aunts is distinctly abnormal."

### Epigraph

* **Enid Healy:** "We got what we paid for. In the end, we didn't deserve any more than that. We didn't deserve any less, either. Let's hope someone remembers that, when we're all dead and gone."
	+ Echoes the Alice and Thomas short, What You Pay For, which also involves a jaunt into the Buckley woods...

### Pop Culture

* Verity references Technicolor, a hallmark of classic Hollywood.
* Reference to Euro Disney.