Grace wakes up one day and finds a tree growing behind his house. None of the plants in the biome are real, so where did it come from? It looks like a normal tree from Earth but no plants could grow here. He takes samples to study them but the syringe fills with a red liquid. He does a double take but quickly rationalises it. It could just be that the tree takes nutrients from water with a high level of iron. Even if he doesn't know where it would have found it, trees are known to always find water in the most incongruous places. It doesn't mean that it's blood, even if the consistency reminds him of it. It's a plant that's growing on an alien planet, after all. He doesn't know what it uses as nutrients yet.
After several tests, there's no mistaking. It's blood. Human blood. Grace even uses a sample of his own blood to be sure and it is true. He wishes it stopped there. If only it were the most disturbing. But he eventually discovers that the tree has a pulse. They do an X-ray and, to his horror, the tree is filled with human organs. It breathes but has no airways. The DNA samples he keeps taking can't agree on whether it's human, a tree or both. He doesn't understand. He doesn't know what to do.
He wakes up one morning and the tree is gone. There's nothing but a hole in the ground where it stood before. It looks like it was uprooted. There is now an unidentified creature that goes against nature on the loose in his biome. The huge tracks of blood on the ground aren't helping him calm down. He follows them because he might as well at this point, and it leads him to a cliff. On top of it is what appears to be a man. He's completely unclothed and covered in blood, like a newborn. He seems mesmerised by the scenery. Once Grace reaches him, the man turns his head to look at Grace. Their eyes meet and Grace finds them oddly appeasing.
"It's beautiful," the man says, voice like the hand of his mother running through his hair.
"Yeah," he answers, struck dumb by the whole situation.
"Is it yours?" the man asks, with the warmth of the sun.
"More or less," he answers, totally lost.
"You're lucky," the man says, each of his breaths is like sea wind.
Before Grace can answer, the man's eyes turn hazy and he tilts forward. He then passes out. Grace barely manages to catch him before he hits the ground.
