by Amy Cross
Suddenly the roots tug harder on my legs. I lose my grip on the stump, and I'm dragged several feet closer to the tree before I manage to once again dig my fingers into the dirt.
“Keep running,” I whisper, as the roots pull harder and I'm dragged even closer to the tree. In my mind's eye, I can see Charlie hurrying through the forest. “Never come back. Never -”
“Now!”
Opening my eyes, I'm shocked to see Charlie rushing back this way, with several other children right behind him. He must have fetched them from the forest, and they quickly run straight past me and start pushing against the tree's knotted trunk.
“Push it over!” Charlie tells the others. “Make it let go of her!”
“Stop!” I hiss. “You can't stop it! You have to run!”
Ignoring me, they continue to push the tree, but of course they're not having any effect at all. The only difference now is that the roots are no longer dragging me closer, as if the tree itself is distracted. It's clear that Charlie and the other children are fighting a losing battle, and in the back of my mind I can even hear the voice starting to laugh.
“This won't work!” I shout, as I try in vain to pull myself clear of the roots. “Charlie, you have to run!”
I hurry over to him, but he and the other children seem determined to push against the trunk.
“You don't have a chance!” I tell him. “Charlie, the -”
Suddenly a bright light flashes past us, and I turn just in time to see a car screeching to a halt next to the cottage. The headlights flicker off and a silhouetted figure hurries out from the driver's side, and a moment later another silhouette clambers out from another door. They start rushing toward us, and after a moment I'm shocked when I realize I recognize both the girl and her father.
“Alice?” I stammer. “Luke?”
“There!” Alice shouts, pointing at me. “I told you she needed our help! I was right, she was coming here!”
“I don't see anything,” Luke replies. “Alice, it's just a tree. We talked about Emily, I tried to explain that she's not -”
“I can see her!” Alice tells him, hurrying closer and stopping to look up into my face. “It's okay,” she continues, “I know you're dead. Daddy can't see you, but I can! I made him believe me! I told him that if there was even a chance we'd find you again, we had to come!”
“You have to get out of here,” I reply. “Alice -”
“Keep trying!” Charlie shouts, as he and the other children continue to push against the tree. “We have to kill it!”
“Alice, this is enough!” Luke says firmly, coming over to join her. “I indulged you when you said you wanted to come to Malmarbor, but there's nothing here! It's just an old cottage and a weird old tree.”
“Emily's here,” she replies, still staring at me. “She's dead, but I see her. There are other children, too!”
He sighs. “Alice -”
“We have to kill the tree!” she continues, turning to Luke. “You have chains in your car! Daddy, we have to help Alice and the children! The man wasn't Chanciechaunie! Chanciechaunie is the tree, it was just controlling the man! If we kill it now, it'll never be able to hurt anyone ever again!”
He opens his mouth to argue with her, but after a moment he looks at me. Or rather, almost at me. It's as if he senses I'm close, even if he can't quite see me.
“I'm here,” I tell him. “Luke, it's me! Alice is right, we have to kill Chanciechaunie. I know it sounds crazy, but Chanciechaunie is this tree!”
He pauses, before looking down at Alice.
“Please!” she hisses. “Daddy, Emily's ghost is right here! It's all true!”
“Luke,” I continue breathlessly, “she -”
Suddenly the roots tighten around my ankles, and I scream as I'm dragged across the ground.
“Do something!” Alice shouts, her eyes wide with horror as I slam into the base of the trunk. “It's hurting her!”
Turning, Luke runs back to the car, and Alice quickly goes to join him. A moment later, I see Luke taking a set of chains from the back of the car and attaching them to the tow-bar, and then he hurries back this way. With Alice's help, he starts wrapping the chains around the tree's trunk.
“We're going to pull it down!” Alice tells me. “It looks old and rotten, I think we can make it fall over!”
Before I can say anything, another root wraps around my neck and starts hauling me up toward a gap in the twisted trunk.
“I knew you'd be here,” Alice continues. “I had to persuade Daddy, but it's like I could sense where you'd be and when you'd need us. How did I do that?”
“I don't know,” I gasp, “but -”
“Who are you talking to?” Luke asks, cutting across me as he turns to Alice.
“Can't you see her?” she asks.
Grabbing her hand, he starts pulling her back toward the car. “Come on,” he tells her, “if we're going to do this thing, we need to stay clear!”
She tries to reach out to me, but Luke leads her away and I turn to see that Charlie and the other children are still pushing against the tree.
“Servant,” a voice whispers suddenly, deep in my thoughts.
Turning, I look up at the twisting branches as they rise high into the night sky.
“Servant!” the voice hisses again, and this time I'm dragged further up the trunk. There's an opening where two parts of the tree twist together, and the roots seem to be trying to push me into the gap.
“Stop!” I hiss, trying in vain to hold back.
I can feel the voice still trying to force its way into my head, but after a moment I realize that it seems to be moving away again, as if it's going after someone else. Realizing that it's probably trying to stop Luke, I quickly drop my defenses, allowing the voice to flood back into my mind while still making sure that it doesn't take control.
A moment later I feel the voice trying to break free, but again I manage to hold it back.
The car's headlights burst back to life and I hear the engine roaring, and the chains quickly tighten around the trunk.
“Push!” Charlie shouts, and a moment later there's a rumbling, loud creaking sound from the tree's trunk. I know the children probably aren't having any effect at all, but I can hear the car's wheels spinning as Luke tries to uproot the entire tree.
It's not enough.
They'll never be able to tear the damn thing from the ground.
The voice is roaring in my head, but I know I have to keep it contained. I try to pull away from the roots, but they tug me closer to the opening, and after a moment I spot something deep inside the tree. Shocked, I stare down at a gnarled, moonlit knot of thick branches, and I see that somehow this knot is pulsing and throbbing, almost like...
“A heart,” I whisper.
As the car's engine revs nearby, I realize that this might be my only chance. I reach into my pockets, trying to find something I can use as a weapon, but I have nothing. Figuring that I have to try to at least weaken the tree, I let the roots drag me further up the trunk until I'm able to reach into the opening and grab the heart-like knot. The surface is damp and cold, and splinters start breaking away as I dig my fingers as deep as I can manage.
Above, the creaking sound is getting louder. I look up and see that the chains are finally starting to topple the tree, although the car's engine is revving harder than ever and I think it's at its limit.
“Keep trying!” I yell, even though I know only Alice can hear me. “It's coming!”
I squeeze tighter and start trying to pull the wooden knot free, and I can feel the voice surging in my mind, almost as if it's starting to scream.
“This is for my son!” I shout. “This is for Charlie!”
The ground all around the tree is collapsing now, forming a crater around the roots. The tree has begun to tilt heavily, and the air is filled with the snapping sound of breaking wood. Squeezing tighter and tighter, I suddenly feel my hands break through the knot, tearing it in two
. At the same time, the roots let go of my body and I fall back, tumbling down to the ground. More roots have been torn from the soil now, and the crater below is getting larger as mud tumbles down into the growing hole beneath the tree. My hand slips and I start to fall, but I quickly catch another root and start hauling myself back up. High above, the tree is almost at a forty-five degree angle now, and when I look over my shoulder I see that the children have backed away as the roots are torn from the ground.
I flinch as I hear a scream in my head, along with a clawing sensation. It's as if the tree is panicking, desperately trying to find some way to survive.
Reaching forward, I drag myself free from the roots and start crawling across the ground. Behind me, a loud snapping sound is followed by a heavy thud that shakes the ground, and I turn just in time to see that the tree is now on its side, albeit with several of its large central roots still running deep into the ground.
“More!” I yell, looking toward the car and seeing that it's still reversing with the chains attached. “You need to break the main root!”
The ground is still collapsing beneath me, but I manage to pull myself clear. Finally I stop and look back, and I see that the tree has sunk now into a large crater. As it rests on its side, it has most of its roots rising up into the cold night air, although after a moment I realize that there seems to be one particularly large, very thick and juicy root that still refuses to come loose.
Until that root has been pulled clear, I don't think the tree will die. And its voice will never be silenced.
Clambering back down into the crater, I lose my footing after a moment and tumble to the bottom. I slam into the side of the tree but quickly get up again, and then I crawl through the mass of dangling roots until I reach the main arterial section that's still running into the ground. I start pulling soil and stones away, hoping that I'll be able to make it easier for the car to pull the last part of the root away, but already soil is raining down onto me from the torn roots above, threatening to bury me down here. Grabbing hold of the main part of the root, I find it's so thick that I can't even get my hands all the way around. Nevertheless, I hold on tight and pull as hard as I can manage, and after a moment I start to feel the first jolts of movement as the milky white flesh tears.
“Keep going!” I shout, hoping that Alice can still hear me. “Don't -”
Suddenly I lose my grip and fall back. More soil is tumbling down onto me, but I grab the root again and start pulling. I can hear a ripping sound now, and a moment later I feel the root starting to split beneath my fingers. I keep pulling as hard as I can manage, and finally I realize that the root is breaking. Holding on tight, I squeeze my eyes tight shut until I hear a loud tearing sound. I don't stop, though, not even as I feel the root coming loose.
“You're never going to hurt anyone again!” I hiss through gritted teeth. “No-one's son or daughter!”
Finally, just when I think I might never succeed, there's a loud ripping sound and I fall back.
Opening my eyes again, I see that the main root has finally broken, and the tree's trunk has been pulled all the way up to the edge of the crater. Losing my grip, I grab some of the other roots to steady myself as I look down and see the broken root slowly slipping down into the ground until it's barely visible.
In the distance, the car's engine has finally been switched off.
“We did it,” I stammer, realizing that the tree is now completely disconnected from the root system. “We actually -”
Before I can finish, I hear the voice screaming in my head, and I realize it's trying to take control. I push it back, forcing it from my thoughts with every last ounce of strength, until finally I'm able to push it from my mind. Rain has begun to fall, but I don't dare move as I concentrate on keeping my defenses up, and it takes a couple of minutes before I'm finally able to relax. The voice has fallen away into the void, and now at last the tree is dead.
I wait a moment longer, listening to the silence, but the voice is really gone.
Slumping back, I look up toward the top of the crater just as Alice and Luke step into view. Silhouetted against the car's headlights, they stare down at the broken root.
“Do you still see her?” Luke asks after a moment.
Alice has her eyes fixed on me, and after a moment she points. “She's right there. Can't you see her?”
He looks toward me, but not quite at me. “Can she hear us?”
“Yeah,” I stammer, getting to my feet. “I can hear you.”
“There are other people here too,” Alice continues, looking past me. “Lots of them.”
Turning, I see that Charlie and several of the other children are on the other side of the crater, watching us with apprehension in their eyes.
“Is this is?” Luke calls out. “Is it over?”
I turn to him. “It's over.”
“She says it's over,” Alice continues, looking up at her father. “We killed the monster.”
“That was a tree,” he replies breathlessly, turning and looking at the huge, twisted trunk that's now on its side. “That was no monster, honey. I mean, it can't have been. I read every version of the Chanciechaunie legend, and I'm telling you right now, not one of them mentioned any kind of demonic tree.”
Clambering up to join them, I turn and stare at the tree for a moment. After a few seconds, however, I realize that Alice is watching me.
“Are you really dead?” she asks.
I pause, before nodding.
“Is it...” She hesitates. “Can't you come back?”
“I don't think so.”
She looks past me. “Is that your son?”
I turn and see that Charlie and the other children are watching from a distance.
“It is,” I whisper, feeling a sudden rush of relief as I realize that I've got him back.
“What do we do now, Mommy?” Charlie asks. “Are we... Are we going to stay dead?”
I don't know what to tell him.
A moment later, as rain starts to fall much more heavily, I look down into the crater and see that a puddle of water is already collecting at the very bottom, almost covering the remains of the tree's broken root.
Epilogue
TOMMY JONES
MANY YEARS LATER
Chapter Forty-Seven
“Hey dumb-ass!” Chuck yells. “Are you getting your chicken-livered, cowardly, no-good butt out of bed and doing this, or what?”
Reaching down, he grabs a handful of gravel from the driveway and then throws the tiny stones at the window.
“Coward!” he adds. “We made a deal!”
“Maybe you shouldn't shout quite so loud,” I point out. “It's Sunday morning, and it's kinda early. People probably wanna sleep in.”
“I don't care if it's early!” he replies, watching the window for any sign of life. “A deal's a deal, Tommy, and Kevin ain't gonna back out of this one! He owes me!”
Before I can reply, I hear the window swinging open, and I look up just in time to see Kevin's tired face staring out at us. He's still wearing his Batman pajamas, and he looks barely awake.
“It's time!” Chuck announces ominously. “Get your bike, douche-bag! You're coming with us!”
“It's seven in the morning,” Kevin points out, rubbing his eyes.
“You made a deal!” Chuck reminds him. “Sunday morning, bright and early, you have to be ready!”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly,” Chuck replies, before reaching down and grabbing another handful of gravel. “I've got all day, butt-face, so don't even think about going back to bed. You, me and Tommy are going out to Devil's Root Lake, and then you're gonna show us whether you're a chicken or not. 'Cause that's the deal! Don't make me come up there and drag you down! Come on, what's it gonna be?”
Chapter Forty-Eight
It takes half an hour for us to cycle all the way out of town and through the forest, but finally we get to the edge of the lake and set our bikes down. This whole
situation still feels kind of ridiculous, but I guess Kevin and I should have known that Chuck would insist on going through with the dare.
That's just the kind of guy Chuck is. Sometimes I think he's the toughest S.O.B. in the entire eighth grade. Or the biggest idiot.
“Beware underwater reeds and roots,” I read out loud from the rusty sign nearby. “Do not swim in Devil's Root Lake. By order of the Malmarbor City Council. Trespassers will be prosecuted.”
“Fine my ass!” Chuck mutters.
“Maybe they have a point,” Kevin says cautiously. “I mean, they wouldn't warn against it unless -”
“Get your ass in that water,” Chuck shouts. “No chickening out!”
“But -”
“Or do you want me to tell everyone at school that you're a coward?”
Kevin hesitates. “Well, I mean -”
“Do you?”
“No, but -”
“I'll even tell Kelli Williams,” Chuck continues. “You care what she thinks of you, right? You wanna marry her and make her have your babies some day!”
I flinch. Chuck knows Kevin's weak spots too well.
“Isn't there some other dare I could do?” Kevin asks plaintively, with fear in his eyes. “Couldn't I just go kick a beehive, or steal candy from Mr. Wilkins' store, or -”
“We made a deal!” Chuck replies, stepping closer to him. “There was a bet, and you lost it. And because you lost it, now you have to swim to the middle of Devil's Root Lake, and then back to the shore. It really shouldn't be that difficult. You could've been halfway done by now if you'd got started when we arrived!”
All three of us turn and look at the lake's calm, peaceful surface. The place sure looks pretty safe right now, but at the same time I know full well that no-one's supposed to go swimming out here. My parents have warned me multiple times about the thick creepers and vines that are said to be just out of sight beneath the lake's surface, and it's rumored that four people have drowned in this lake in just the past fifty years. Some members of the council have suggested putting a fence around the place, or even filling it in, but so far the lake has been left untouched. Something to do with Mrs. Popple always attaching a rider about re-zoning the park.