by Amy Cross
The trunk is ridged and knotted, so I'm able to start clambering up toward the top of the twisted section. I still don't have a plan, but I figure I need to first figure out whether Chanciechaunie is here at all. Reaching to grab a branch, I knock several more of the rotten black orbs to the ground, where they shatter.
“Sorry,” I mutter, looking up as I climb higher and higher, until finally I stop to rest between two sections of the main trunk. Taking a deep breath, I glance back down toward the ground, several meters beneath where I'm taking this pause. “I just -”
And that's when I see them.
Three young boys are down at the base of the tree, staring up at me with dark, shadowy eyes.
I wait for one of them to say something, but a moment later they turn and run across the clearing, quickly disappearing beyond the tree-line and fading into the darkness.
“Wait!” I call out. “Hey, where -”
Almost falling from the tree, I grab one of the branches to steady myself, although in the process I knock two more of the black orbs free. They fall to the ground and smash, but I quickly turn and clamber back up the trunk.
A moment later, I hear a shuffling sound over my shoulder.
Turning, I look down and see two more figures staring up at me. This time one is a boy and one is a girl, and the girl is wearing clothes that look noticeably old, as if they're from several decades ago.
Again, before I can say anything, they turn and run away, racing into the darkness beyond the trees.
“Come back!” I yell. “Who are you? Where do you keep -”
Sighing, I realize it's already too late. I guess they must be a bunch of kids from the local town, although it's odd for them to be out alone so late at night.
“Great,” I mutter, taking a moment to catch my breath. I'm much higher up them I'd expected to get, and the forest floor is now six or seven meters down below. When I look toward the top of the trunk, I realize that there seems to be some kind of opening.
Figuring that I might as well keep going, I reach out and grab another branch. As I haul myself up, the branch shakes, and I turn just in time to see that several more of the black orbs are falling to the ground. Whatever these things are, they don't seem to be very firmly attached to the tree. I look down and see that these latest orbs have already broken, and a moment later I hear an almost imperceptible bump nearby.
Turning, I see four more children down on the ground, staring up at me with dark eyes.
“Don't run off!” I stammer. “I need to -”
I freeze as I suddenly realize that I recognize one of the boys. I stare at him for a moment, convinced that I must be wrong, but a moment later he and the others turn and run.
“Charlie?” I whisper, filled with a sense of panic. “Charlie, wait!”
I try to clamber down, but I quickly lose my footing and fall. Tumbling down the side of the tree's twisted trunk, I slam into the ground with enough force to send a jolt through my body, although I immediately scramble to my feet and see that the boys are almost at the tree-line.
“Charlie!” I scream, stumbling through the muddy ground as I try to catch them. “Charlie, it's me! Wait!”
The other boys quickly disappear into the darkness, but Charlie stops at the last moment and turns back to look at me.
“Don't go!” I gasp, as I reach firmer ground and hurry toward him. “Charlie, it's me! Charlie!”
Stopping as I reach him, I drop to my knees and put my hands on his shoulders. He's pale, and his eyes are shaded with so much darkness that I can barely see his pupils, but it's him. It's really him!
“Charlie,” I stammer, “what -”
“You shouldn't make it angry,” he says suddenly, interrupting me. “You shouldn't steal from it!”
“What?”
I wait for him to explain, but he's staring at me with a very calm, very determined expression.
“You're stealing from it,” he continues after a moment. “You can't do that, Mommy. It's already mad because of the man, and if you keep doing this, you're going to make it furious. Please, we have to run before it does something to us!”
“What are you talking about? Why are -”
“You don't understand!” he hisses.
He turns to pull away, but I grab his arm and to my relief I'm able to keep hold of him.
“Charlie, what's going on?” I ask, still too shocked to understand. Staring at him, I keep expecting to find that he's not really here, and to be suddenly left here all alone. This could still be part of some addled breakdown in my mind. “Charlie -”
“It gets angry!” he says firmly, with a hint of fear in his voice. “When it gets angry, it punishes us! And when it punishes us, there's pain!”
“What are you talking about?” I ask. “Charlie...”
I take a deep breath, trying to make sense of this. Charlie's dead, I know that, but I'm dead too and now I'm starting to think that maybe he's been trapped here all this time. Turning, I look at the hundreds of black orbs that are still hanging from the tree, and suddenly I realize that I might be seeing all the children who have been killed. I know the idea seems insane, but I guess I've slowly begun to realize that there's way more madness in the world that I'd ever suspected.
“Mommy, please,” Charlie whimpers, pulling harder on my arm. “It's angry. It was angry before you got here, but you've made it really mad!”
“Where is he?” I ask, still not seeing any sign of Chanciechaunie. “Charlie, where -”
“It took him inside! It's mad at him!”
I turn to Charlie and see that there are tears in his eyes.
“Mommy, you stole from it!” he hisses. “No-one's ever stolen from it before! It collects us, and it gets mad if it isn't able to feed! And now you've taken us away, and -”
Suddenly he turns and looks out into the forest, and a moment later he steps closer to me.
“Mommy, I think he's coming back...”
“Who is?” I ask, not seeing anyone in the darkness. “Charlie, what -”
Before I can finish, I spot a hunched figure moving through the darkness, limping heavily. I instinctively take a step forward, in front of Charlie, so that I can keep him safe. At the same time, I watch as the injured figure of Chanciechaunie emerges from the darkness and stops just a few feet away.
“I hope you're happy now,” he sneers. “You broke the deal. Now it's going to want revenge!”
Chapter Forty-Six
I keep Charlie behind me as Chanciechaunie limps past. Although he seems to be in no hurry, there's clear anger in the creature's eyes and he stops after a few paces, staring toward the tree.
“How many?” he asks.
“How many what?” I reply, still scarcely able to believe that he's really here.
“How many did you free?”
He turns to me.
“How many?” he barks angrily. “Tell me!”
“I don't know what you're -”
“I didn't bring them here for my own benefit!” he continues. “It was just part of the deal! I was so badly hurt when I arrived, I couldn't turn any of it down. Its hunger is insatiable. How many fell from the branches?”
“Seven or eight,” I stammer, “but -”
“That's already too many,” he replies, eyeing me with a hint of disgust. “He'll want them replaced!”
“Mommy, I'm scared,” Charlie whispers, tugging at my arm. “I want to go home!”
“Just wait a moment, sweetheart,” I tell him. “Mommy won't let anything happen to you.”
“You can't promise that,” he replies, with fear in his eyes. “Mommy, it's getting madder! It'll try to hurt you!”
“You should have listened to the boy,” the creature continues. “The tree needs to feed. It has to feed. Look around. Don't you see? The whole forest has been drained! The tree stole the fruit from all the other trees around it, then it killed them, and then it had to look elsewhere... Its appetite is voracious. This thing has roots tha
t reach almost as far as the town, but only almost. The one thing it couldn't do is spread further, which is why it tries to make deals with anyone who wanders into its trap. I'm not even the first. It saved my life, but in return I had to become its servant for the rest of time. Or at least until someone better came along. Someone like you.”
He limps toward us.
“I wasn't a bad man when I arrived,” he stammers. “I swear, I was a brave, honorable man. I just wanted to get back to my unit, but that stupid witch dragged me here. Once the tree got into my mind, I began to twist and my heart blackened. I see what I've become, and I despise it. At least it'll be over soon.”
He winces, as if he's in pain.
“Children were the easiest to steal,” he explains. “I found I was able to get into their minds and make them do whatever I wanted. Adults resisted and realized something was wrong, but children followed without any suspicion at all. And once they were dead, I brought what was left of them here, and they hung from the branches. New fruit for the tree. Everything worked perfectly, until you started trying to track me down. Others have tried, of course, but something was done to your brain, something that meant you were able to resist me.”
“The E.C.T. treatment,” I whisper.
Suddenly he lets out a cry of pain, dropping to his knees while clutching his head in his hands. He leans forward, as if he's about to collapse, and I realize he's trying to say something.
Keeping hold of Charlie's arm, I force him to step back with me.
“This isn't happening,” I whisper, convinced that I must be having some kind of relapse. “It's too absurd, there's no -”
“Chanciechaunie wants you!” the creature hisses.
Shaking my head, I grip Charlie's arm even tighter than before, getting ready to run.
“I heard your voice in my head,” I tell him. “Why did you try to make me do those awful things?”
“I had to!” He pauses. “Once I realized you were different to the others, I knew it wouldn't be enough just to kill you! I needed to test you for a while first, to see if you were really strong enough, and then I realized I had to lure you here!”
“Why?”
“To take my place, just as I once took Emma's. To be the new servant of Chanciechaunie! And believe me, when you hear his voice in your head, it's a thousand times worse than anything I ever did to you. I've been living with his voice in my thoughts for centuries now.”
“But you're Chanciechaunie, aren't you?” I ask. “You're the monster, you're the -”
“I'm not Chanciechaunie, you fool!” the creature hisses, as if he's battling through more pain. Slowly, he reaches back and points toward the tree. “I just had the one thing he always lacked. I had legs, which meant I could leave this miserable forest, and he could ride along in my head. I wasn't like Emma, I never found a way to control him, so instead I had to keep giving him what he wanted. He's tired of children, though. He wants larger, juicier souls. Richer fruit. Maybe he's even these manipulated events because he's sick of my paltry efforts. He's in my head, telling me that he wants you! After all this time, I can finally be free. Now I'll go and join...”
He pauses, before slowly getting to his feet again. His whole body is trembling, and he looks to be rotting right in front of my eyes. After a moment, however, he raises an arm and presses the side of his hand against his forehead, and I realize he seems to be offering some kind of salute.
“Private... Stephen Fleming,” he stammers, “of the... of the...”
He lets out another pained gasp.
“I'm not a coward!” he adds, as flakes of flesh start falling from his exposed ribs. “I thought that if I served him for long enough, eventually he'd let me go. But now... like Emma... I should never have interfered with -”
Suddenly he lunges at me, trying to take hold of my arm, but I manage to slip back. As he slumps down, I realize I can see something stirring in the ground between us and the tree, and a moment later I hear a faint cry from the creature as it tries but fails to get to its feet.
“I'm the last member of my family,” he groans. “When I was controlling that fool's body, I made him take you to the newspaper archive in my home town, back in Huntingdon, so I could try to find... There are no more now. I'm the last, I'm... Please, make sure my bones are buried with my family. And tell everyone I was never a coward! I just...”
Shocked, I realize that his face is starting to shrivel, with chunks of meet falling from the bone.
“Stop Chanciechaunie!” he gasps. “I never found a way, but you -”
Before he can finish, his lower jaw falls away, clattering to the ground. He reaches for me, still rasping as if he's trying to say something, but one by one the bones are falling from his body and finally he slumps down against the muddy ground. He's still moving, as if some part of his mind is desperately struggling to survive, but a moment later he falls forward and his skull crumbles, revealing what's left of his ruined, desiccated brain.
“Mommy, what happened to him?” Charlie whimpers, pulling on my arm again. “Mommy, I want to go home!”
“Me too,” I reply, taking a step back as I realize I can hear a faint rustling sound getting closer. “I just...”
My voice trails off as I look across the clearing and see the twisted tree. I swear there's a part of me that actually started to buy into the madness, but now in this calm silence I'm starting to realizing that it's really just a tree. There are no monsters here, no demons or fairy-tale creatures. Just a spooky part of the forest with a damaged old tree that looks like it's ready to come crashing down.
As for the Fleming guy who just collapsed at my feet, and who even now is dissolving and becoming nothing more than a pile of dust...
Well, I guess I'll figure that part out later.
“Okay,” I say finally, gripping Charlie's hand tighter as I keep my eyes fixed on the tree. “Here's what we're going to do. We're going to get out of here, and then -”
Before I can finish, I feel another rumbling sensation beneath my feet.
“We're going to go,” I continue, trying not to panic, “and -”
Suddenly something lunges up through the mud and slams into my legs, knocking me over and sending me crashing down. Before I can get my breath back, I feel a sharp pain around my right ankle, and I look down just in time to see a tree root taking hold of my body. I open my mouth to tell Charlie that he has to run, but the root pulls me across the ground, as if it's trying to drag me toward the trunk. Turning, I dig my hands into the soft ground and hold on as hard as I can manage, but I'm already getting dragged again as my fingers slip through the mud.
“Run!” I shout at Charlie, who looks to be frozen in place. “Charlie, get out of here!”
“Mommy, what -”
I let out a cry of pain as I'm pulled back. My hands are digging into the ground, but the soil is too soft and I can't anchor myself as the root continues to drag me toward the main trunk. One by one, my fingernails are getting ripped off as I try desperately to pull myself forward.
“Mommy!” Charlie screams, before stepping back as another root tries to grab his foot.
Thrusting my hands deeper into the soil, I finally manage to keep myself from getting dragged any further, although the root is still pulling on my ankle and I feel as if it might tear my entire leg away. I try to pull myself back toward Charlie, but it takes all my strength just to stay where I am, and I can already feel the ground shifting slightly beneath me, as if more roots are coming up from the depths, preparing to join the attack.
“Run!” I tell Charlie. “Don't look back! I'll be okay, I'll be right behind you, but I need you to run!”
That's a lie, but I need him to get out of here.
“Run!” I scream. “Charlie, run!”
He stares at me, but a moment later I feel another root wriggling up through the mud and wrapping itself around my waist. I let out a gasp as I'm pulled back a little further, but suddenly my hand brushes against somethi
ng half-buried in the ground. Grabbing hold, I realize that it's an old tree stump, and at least now I have something to hold onto as I try to keep from being dragged all the way to the trunk.
“Leave him alone,” I stammer, barely able to raise my voice above a pained gasp as the roots pull harder and harder. “Take me, but leave my son. Let him live again and -”
Suddenly I'm yanked back. I lose my grip on the stump, although I manage to grab hold again just in time, and inch by inch I pull myself forward.
“Mommy, come back!” Charlie shouts, sounding further away than ever. “Mommy, please -”
The roots tug on me again, this time with enough force to shake the ground. At the same time, scores of little black orbs are shaken free from the branches above me, and I watch in horror as they come crashing down to the ground all around me. As they shatter, I become aware of sounds over my shoulder, and I turn just in time to see ghostly children appear all around me in the clearing.
“This can't be real,” I stammer, as I feel the root around my waist starting to tighten. “Please...”
“Mommy!” Charlie yells.
“Run!” I tell him, as I try once again to drag myself away from the tree. My fingers almost slip against the stump, but I'm just about able to hold on as the roots pull on my legs. “Charlie, get away from here and don't look back! Leave the forest and don't ever come here again, not even to look for me! You have to promise!”
He stares at me for a moment, before turning and racing away through the trees, quickly disappearing into the darkness. At the same time, more roots wrap around my legs, strengthening their grip as if they're preparing to drag me closer to the tree.
“He's not yours!” I hiss, still clinging to the damaged stump as the tree's roots try to drag me across the clearing. “He'll never be yours, not now! I freed him!”
I try kicking the roots from around my ankles, but they're far too tight and I know it's only a matter of time before I'm dragged to the tree. Turning, I look over my shoulder and see the huge trunk towering above me, and I swear it looks even thicker and more twisted now.
“This can't be happening to -”