* This is a short story called "Secret Wood."
1.
They sat in a booth in a greasy little diner off the highway. Bobby picked at his plate of cheese fries with a fork. He glanced up at his mother who was sitting across from him. Laura was swirling her cup of bitter coffee to create a tiny brown whirlwind. She looked up and gave Bobby a small smile. There were dark spots under her eyes that showed through the layer of cover up she'd put on earlier that morning. Other than to hide the dark circles, though, Laura didn't wear any make-up. She was a naturally pretty woman with hazel eyes, a straight nose with light freckles, a dancer's body and a smile that usually lit up the room.
"I thought you liked French fries," she said, trying to make conversation.
"I do. I just--I'm thinking of going on a diet." Bobby spoke to his plate. He looked at it with longing and disgust.
"I think you're fine, Bobby," Laura said softly.
Bobby nodded at her attempt to be nice, but he knew the truth. He had never shed his baby fat before elementary school and the years after that, he continued to put on weight from all the comfort eating he did. Bobby didn't have any friends to lift his low self-esteem because Laura's job required them both to be constantly on the road. She worked as a paranormal journalist for a magazine called Supernatural. Every three months, the magazine printed a new issue detailing the latest ghostly hot spots, the newest conspiracies, and personal encounters with "creatures" from all across the country. Laura's job was to go out and find these supernatural encounters and write articles about them.
Bobby only came with her on these trips because there weren't any relatives to take him in. His father had tapped out of a fifteen-year relationship to run off with a wanna-be movie star. Apparently he'd only stayed so long because of Bobby. The rest of Laura's family had cut her out of their lives the minute she'd said "I do," and Richard's family were deadbeats too.
Bobby didn't like to float around the country, but he didn't have the heart to tell his mother that he didn't respect her job. He didn't believe in ghosts or bigfoot or any of the things that she was sure existed. He couldn't understand the appeal of spending one's life chasing after shadows.
So two weeks ago, he was quietly relieved when he heard that Supernatural was being discontinued. Laura was devastated, but not exactly surprised. Over the past two years, fewer and fewer people were willing to renew their subscription to the magazine. Between the ghost hunting shows on television and the exorcism movies released every other week, people could get their fill of the supernatural without having to read. Laura's job quickly became obsolete.
The other journalists who worked for the magazine had accepted the news well enough, but Laura couldn't let it go. She had gone to her boss and begged him to let her find just one more story. She promised to find the biggest thing since the Roswell, New Mexico conspiracy. After convincing her boss, she then had to convince Bobby. She knew he didn’t like being on the road for so long. But she coaxed him into going on this one last trip, explaining that if she could find a white hot paranormal spot, she could save the magazine, get a promotion and finally buy a house.
Bobby didn't have any confidence in the plan. They had gone to what seemed like hundreds of spots and he had never experienced anything supernatural. Laura had been convinced on several occasions that a ghost had played with her hair or kissed her cheek or tried to tell her a secret. Bobby didn't argue with her. He obediently videotaped at every place they went to while Laura muttered into a voice recorder.
Laura's promise to her boss happened two weeks ago and the two had been driving aimlessly ever since, asking people in each town and city they came to if they'd heard stories of anything unusual. Most of the city people laughed her out of their houses or bars. But the townspeople had all sorts of colorful tales that, on further research, turned out to be superstition, not supernatural.
Now here they sat in yet another dingy diner, Laura sipping another cup of old coffee and thinking of where to go next while Bobby fought against morbid obesity. They were both quickly losing hope.
A waitress sidled up to their table and flashed them a wide smile.
“Would you folks like some pie? We make a really good pie here."
Bobby groaned and threw his fork down. Just what he needed, a piece of fattening pie. Laura grimaced slightly and said, "No thanks. We're full."
The waitress looked disappointed but dropped the check on the table and left them alone.
"Where to next?" Bobby asked as Laura fished out her credit card and a few dollar bills to tip the waitress.
"I don't know," Laura sighed. She looked more tired than ever. It made Bobby sad to see her that way. She had lost her enthusiasm, which was the only thing that kept him going too. "I'll be right back. Going to pay the check."
Bobby nodded and leaned back in his seat. The plate of cheese fries looked enticing, but he was determined for his diet to succeed this time.
A few moments later, Laura came back to the table. She looked more disappointed than ever. Bobby sat up.
"What happened?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.
"Nothing. I just asked the waitress if she'd seen or heard anything. No such luck," she sighed.
"I'm sure we'll find something, Mamma. Don't worry," Bobby said, pushing his plate away and squeezing himself out of the booth. “Just to keep on driving. Something will happen eventually. And if not...." he stopped abruptly. He didn't want to hurt her by finishing the sentence. If she didn't find a big story soon, she would lose her job. Even though he hadn’t said it, Laura wore an expression that said she already knew the consequences.
"Let's go," she said, leading the way out of the diner.
2.
After three hours of driving down roads leading through progressively smaller and quieter towns, Laura pulled over into a gas station. Bobby listened to the thumping of her filling the tank and then he watched her walk inside a lopsided hut where she could pay for the gas she’d pumped.
He tried to ignore his rumbling stomach. In hindsight, he should have eaten something back at the diner. All he had now was a glove compartment full of candy bars. They weren't any healthier than the fries, but the fries would have been more filling.
Hating himself, Bobby leaned forward and opened the compartment. The little light inside came on and showed a mess of candy bars, a couple of juice pouches, a paperback book, and a few CD cases. Bobby grabbed a piece of candy and closed the compartment in one quick motion before everything inside had a chance to fall out. He ate the bar in two bites, licked his fingers, hesitated, then opened the compartment for another one.
“A person has to eat,” he told himself, justifying his actions.
Laura came back to the car wearing a confused expression.
"What's up?" Bobby asked her through a mouthful of candy.
"No one was in there,” she said. “I left some money on the counter, though." She looked troubled.
Bobby shrugged. "They're probably just using the bathroom."
Laura put the car in drive and pulled back onto the road. "That place was covered with dust, Bobby. There was a refrigerator, but the power was out. The food had gone bad. It reeked in there." She swallowed as if trying to keep her lunch down.
Bobby raised his eyebrows.
"Do you think something was there? Like a...haunted gas station maybe. We should go back and check it out.”
Laura shook her head. "I have my EMF detector on me at all times. There were no signs of activity in there. Just...inactivity I guess you'd say. Nobody's been in that store for a while."
They drove on in silence, pondering the mystery of the empty gas station. Neither one of them could come up with anything more interesting than that it was probably just abandoned. Bobby couldn't blame the owner for doing that. This whole town was inactive, not just the gas station. They'd only passed a few run-down houses and even they looked abandoned. The only life were the dense woods on either side of the road.
This place gave Bobby more goosebumps than any actual ghost spot they'd been to. He twisted sideways in his seat and laid his head on the window, closing his eyes to block out the eerie town. Before he knew it, Bobby was sleeping. Laura kept on driving.
3.
Bobby awoke to find Laura hunched over the steering wheel with her eyebrows furrowed and her hair in a sloppy ponytail to keep it out of her face. He looked out the window and saw that it was getting dark. He also saw what seemed like the same trees they had passed two hours ago. They still weren't out of the woods.
"Are we lost?" Bobby asked. He sat up and rubbed the crust from his eyes.
"I don't see how. There's only one road to be on." Laura's voice was tight.
"How long can a road be?" Bobby snapped back. He didn't want to whine, but he was getting hungry. The candy bars could only do so much.
Laura didn't respond. Her body was tense with frustration. Bobby sighed and reached into the compartment for another candy bar.
"Recalculating," said a pleasant female voice. It came from the GPS on the dashboard. Bobby squinted at it suspiciously.
"Did you put a destination into the machine when I was sleeping?" he asked.
Laura stared at the GPS with wide surprised eyes. "N-no. I've just been driving around like I've been for the past two weeks!"
"Turn right," the voice said clearly.
Laura slowed the car to a stop and squinted out Bobby's window for a road. It was hard to tell if there was one or not because the sun had gone down below the trees.
"Turn right. Now," the voice said firmly.
"Look, there’s a sign." Bobby pointed a finger against the glass. He hadn't noticed it until the GPS had spoken for the second time. It was as if it had popped up suddenly from the ground. The pole that the sign was attached to certainly looked like a root that had sprung up. It was crooked and brown and dirt was falling off of it. Bobby looked over at his mother who shrugged.
“Can you see what it says?” she asked quietly.
By the glare of the headlights Bobby could just barely read the sign. It was made of wood too and was chipped and faded. Most of the letters in the first word were rubbed off supposedly by weather and time. The sign read "--yad Road."
Laura swiveled the steering wheel all the way to the right and then eased the car over to point down the new road. The headlights showed brown dirt instead of black pavement. It blended well into the wooded scenery. The road meandered off into the woods. They couldn't see where it led to.
"Are we really gonna do this?" Bobby asked.
"A good journalist follows a lead to the very end. I just know there's something good back there."
She pressed the gas and entered the woods. Bobby leaned back in his seat and kept his eyes peeled for bears.
4.
They drove down the dirt road for another hour. Bobby's bottom was sore from all the sitting he'd done. This day had been as long as this road was turning out to be. There were occasional gentle twists to change up the otherwise arrow straightness, but the scenery never changed. Laura's EMF detector remained silent.
"Nothing's happening, Mom. Maybe we should go back. This place is giving me the chills."
Laura looked over and smiled. She had a glint in her eye that Bobby recognized, one of excitement and anticipation.
"Those goosebumps could be my payday, Bobby. I'm not stopping this car."
Bobby realized there was nothing he could do short of opening the door and tumbling out of the moving car to stop his mother from her ghost hunting.
"Maybe this is a mystery spot, a never-ending road that travelers unknowingly turn onto and they drive around and around in circles forever," she said, excited.
"That's reasurring," Bobby muttered.
"Oh come on, Bobby," Laura cajoled. "I'll just check it out. If it's nothing, I promise to turn around and we can continue wandering the country."
Bobby sighed and pulled out another candy bar. He didn't like either plan, but seeing civilization beat being lost in the woods. He hoped they would reach a dead end soon.
*******
"I can't believe how long this friggin' road is," Bobby moaned. His stomach was growling now. Laura hit the breaks. Bobby's seatbelt cut into the front of his neck as he was thrown forward. Then his head bounced hard off the headrest, making his brain bounce in his skull.
"Jesus, Mom!" He figured that she would scold him for swearing, but this was an over-reaction.
Laura threw off her seatbelt, twisted around, and grabbed her shoulder bag from the back seat.
"What's going on? What is it?" Bobby asked. He was looking left and right out the front windshield for a deer or a ghost, anything to explain his mother's frantic behavior because she wasn’t about to say anything. Laura yanked open her bag and pulled out a small notepad and a pen which was part of her paranormal journalist gear. She flipped to a clean page and started scribbling fast, but about what, Bobby still didn't know.
"For God's sake, Mom, you nearly killed me. I think I have whiplash now!" Bobby massaged his neck dramatically to try and get his mother’s attention.
"I saw something in the woods just now," she said, "I think it was a naked man."
"I didn't see anything."
Laura's face was set in a determined look. She wasn't about to give up on what she'd seen.
Bobby became annoyed. "We're looking for ghosts, not backwards hick people who like to hunt in the nude."
"There haven't been any other cars or even animals for hours. Something is going on here," Laura said. She stamped on the gas pedal and the car leapt forward further down the road. Bobby tried not to blink as he looked out the window. He wanted to witness this naked man for himself, otherwise he wouldn't believe it. Laura kept her eyes on the road too. She groped blindly for her bag again and pulled out a small, silver voice recorder. She pushed a button at the top and a red light came on. She spoke into the recorder.
"'The Man of the Back Woods' by Laura Green. My son and I had been driving for hours, looking for a juicy find.”
Bobby rolled his eyes. Laura didn’t see the look. She continued dictating her article.
"We drove for miles through busy cities and towns, when suddenly we came across a beat up old sign that pointed down '--yad Road.' Without hesitation I turned onto it and little did I know that I was on my way to the mother of supernatural finds."
She pressed another button and the red light turned off. She put the recorder back in her bag and gripped the steering wheel. She smiled quickly at Bobby.
“You’re counting you chickens, Mom,” Bobby said irritably.
"There's going to be something good at the end of this road, Bobby, I just know--"
"MOM! Look out!"
Bobby held his hands up like a traffic cop, as if the gesture alone would stop his mother from hitting the man who had staggered out into the road. In the split second before the impact Bobby saw that the man was very old. His hair and eyes were both white. His skin fell in wrinkled folds over his emaciated body.
Then the car struck, hitting the man's body at the waist and he folded forward with the momentum of the car. His chin hit the hood and blood spurted out of his nose. Laura let out a prolonged scream and stomped on the break. The old man flew backwards ten feet and then landed in the road, his limbs bent at horrible angles.
Laura's screaming had lost most of its volume. She was producing a long stream of squeaky air while she held on to the steering wheel. Her eyes were glued to the broken man in the road.
Bobby opened the car door and got out on quivering legs. The car's headlights shone on the man, making every gruesome detail leap out in bas-relief. Bobby clapped a hand to his mouth and turned away.
"Oh, Jesus," he moaned.
He stumbled and almost fell over. There was a large swell of dirt in the road. He caught himself with the help of the side mirror, then went to the back of the car, opened the trunk and found a patchy blanket under a suitcase. As he walked back toward the body, he held the blanket up high so it blocked the details from view. The blanket was thin enough, though, that Bobby could see through it and not trip over the dark lump that was the body. He looked back at the car and saw that Laura was still paralyzed behind the wheel.
Bobby knelt down and gently placed the blanket over the disfigured form. He made sure that no part of the man was showing before returning back to the car. There were still problems even though the body was out of sight because it was still blocking the way further down the road. Also, his mother was hyperventilating in the driver’s seat. Bobby didn’t want to move her in case she had another screaming attack. He was stuck in the middle of the woods.
There was a noise of cracking branches and leaves off to the left. Bobby reached over and locked the car. He held his breath and waited.
A tiny old woman tottered out of the woods. She wore an outfit that looked like it was made of bark. Her skin seemed to rough too, but the lighting was not good so Bobby wasn’t too sure. The woman carried a candle in her hand and held it high as she walked toward the blanket-covered body. Bobby jumped out of the car and hurried over before the old woman could take the blanket off and see the mangled mess underneath.
"Um, you might not want to touch that, ma'am. There's been a terrible accident."
"Greatest Gaia, what has happened?" Her voice was deep and steady, an odd sound coming from such a tiny woman. The surprise of her voice made Bobby a little dizzy, but he pushed it away. The woman was clearly distressed.
Laura stepped out of the car and approached the woman, twisting her hands in anguish.
"I hit this man with my c-car. I didn't mean it, he jumped out!" Laura sobbed.
The woman bowed her head. "May he descend into the earth and become what he began," she said mournfully.
"Did you know him?" Bobby asked respectfully, though her choice of words in her condolence was very odd.
"He was a great help to me this past year. My daughters will be saddened to hear of his passing." She directed her candle in Bobby's direction. "What is your age, young man?"
Bobby blinked. "My name is Bobby," he answered.
"No. I asked how many years you have."
He still wasn't used to her way of speaking.
"I'm fourteen," he said, blushing.
She nodded. "That is fine." She looked at Bobby closely before saying, "Will you stay for our feast down in the village?"
"We're not planning on staying here. We took a wrong turn," Laura gushed. "We're going to go back now." She turned toward the car, saw the large bloody dent in the hood and quickly turned back to the group. Laura put a shaking hand over her mouth and shook her head, but said no more.
"Maybe we should stay, just until you feel a little better," Bobby said to his mother. At that moment, Bobby's stomach growled. He winced. He had only partially lost his appetite after the accident. He really hadn't eaten in several hours.
Laura nodded her agreement to Bobby’s suggestion, though she didn't seem to be paying attention.
“I am pleased," the woman said. Then she turned and called into the trees. "Marlene, come and escort the guests."
There was more snapping and crunching of branches and leaves, then a girl around Bobby's age came forward. Her long hair hung in twisting dreadlocks. Her big eyes looked black in the poor lighting. Marlene approached gracefully and took Bobby and Laura's hands.
"Should we wait for you?" Bobby asked the woman.
"I must stay and help this man return home." The old woman lowered herself onto her knees with many cracks of protest from her bones and began to murmur over the body.
Marlene turned and led them further down the road, leaving the old woman to her prayers.
5.
Bobby made a mental note of everything they passed along the way. His mother was too distracted to realize that these people and their village in the woods could make an interesting article. It wasn't exactly supernatural, but maybe she could sell the story to another magazine.
"It's lucky you guys were out for a walk when we had our accident," Bobby said, speaking into the uncomfortable silence. He tried to remember what his mother had taught him about how to do a successful interview, but he was very aware of Marlene's delicate fingers wrapped around his thick hand. No girl had ever voluntarily touched him before. He wished this moment had happened on a less stressful day so he could be on his best game.
Marlene didn’t respond to the comment. Bobby racked his brains for something to say that would require an actual answer from her.
"So you guys....live in the woods, or...?"
"Yes. It is our home. We and the trees are one and the same. We respect them and in return they nourish and clothe us. It is all we ask of them and ourselves." Marlene's voice was soft and breathy, like a summer breeze blowing through a meadow.
Progress. Keep her talking, keep her happy, Bobby thought.
"Are you guys some sort of hippie commune?" he blurted out. He grimaced at his callousness. He wanted to find an explanation for their unconventional way of speaking and their clothing, but not in that stupid way.
She didn’t get mad. She gave him a quizzical look.
"What is 'hippie'?"
"Never mind," Bobby said quickly and changed the subject. "What is this feast that you guys are having?"
Marlene stopped and turned to Bobby. Now her blissful expression had disappeared in exchange for slight annoyance.
"We are not men. Do not call us so."
Bobby swallowed and nodded. Bobby put this particular mental not in bold that this was a group of women who lived in the woods and worshipped trees. He waited a few more minutes to allow Marlene to calm down. He looked around and noted that the trees were becoming thicker, their trunks twice as big around as he himself was. The trees were taller as well and their branches and leaves thicker, so that he could no longer see the night sky.
He looked back at Marlene and needled her for more information.
"Do you women have a name? What do you call yourselves?"
"We are the Ladies of the Wood,” she answered in a calmer manner.
Bobby was glad for the change. "Is this wood in danger of being chopped down? Is this a demonstration?"
Marlene shook her head. "That is what the feast is for. Soon you will see. Up ahead."
They took a few steps more and Marlene, Bobby and Laura stepped off the dirt road, but they still seemed to be in the woods. The only change was that there were large blobs of light bobbing and floating in the air. Bobby squeezed his eyes shut to make them adjust to the night faster. When he opened them, he saw that Marlene was leading him and his mother into village carved into the trees. The fronts of the houses jutted out from the tree trunks, but Bobby could see that the front doors led inside the tree itself. Each house had its own trunk, so the village had no clear layout pattern. Each house was unique to its owner. Some were built close to the ground, some where located higher up the trunk with a ladder to use. Some houses were one story. Bobby could tell because the two- or multi-layered houses had windows carved higher and higher for each floor.
Laura snapped out of her grief for a moment as she took in the tree village all around them. In between the tree-houses, Bobby saw more of those odd dirt hills that he had tripped over back at the car. He wanted to ask about them, but Marlene spoke up.
"We have lived here for many years," she said proudly. "We do not leave the woods for we cannot leave our trees for long."
Bobby nodded silently. He was in awe at their dedication to nature.
"Come. The feast has already begun." Marlene led them through the village and further into the woods. Bobby didn't want to show it but he was getting dizzy from all this walking. He was more used to sitting in a car for hours, not standing on his feet for hours. The only thing propelling him forward was the promise of food.
After only five more minutes of walking the three stopped at the edge of a half circle of evenly spaced candles. Standing outside the candles was a half circle of women of different ages with their hands linked to form a chain. Like Marlene, they wore outfits made from leaves and bark, and their feet were bare. Their hair was the same shade of brown and was dreadlocked. They had their faces raised to the roof of the woods in an expression of blissful thought. They were swaying from side to side and murmuring so quietly that Bobby couldn't understand what they were saying.
Bobby realized that he could only see a half-circle because the chain wrapped around to the other side of something colossal. Bobby looked at Marlene. She had tears in her eyes, though she didn't seem sad. She too was blissfully happy. She swayed in rhythm with the other women even though she hadn't joined their circle.
"This is Mother Tree," Marlene said quietly. Her voice was choked up with emotion and reverence. "She will feed us."
Bobby strained his eyes to see the trunk of an enormous tree that was five times wider than the ones they had passed on the road to get to the village. He thought of the swells in the road and village and realized that they looked somewhat familiar. He had once seen a tree in a park whose roots grew up to the surface and writhed over the ground, making people trip if they weren't observant. This massive tree had done the same thing, though clearly its roots were more far-reaching.
Bobby shivered. He didn’t know if he wanted to eat berries and nuts from a tree like this.
The women suddenly stopped murmuring but continued to hold on to each other. They appeared to be waiting for something.
"What--" Bobby started to say, but Marlene cut him off by placing a finger to his lips.
"She is waking," she whispered and turned back to the tree.
There was a deep cracking and moaning, the sound of a very old woman getting up from a long sleep. Bobby heard the rustling of thousands of leaves and looked up. The branches of Mother Tree were waving. He glanced around the rest of the wood. The other trees were still.
Bobby yelled and tried to pull away when he saw the swells in the earth around the tree begin to undulate like a brown ocean. The thick roots underneath were moving. Marlene squeezed his hand and held him in place. She was stronger than she looked.
A deep voice spoke. It sounded impatient and also strangely familiar.
"Ga rrru ai." Feed me now.
Bobby heard the strange language with his ears and heard the translation in his mind simultaneously. The phenomenon made him light headed. He gasped when he realized he had felt the same sensation when talking to the old woman back near the car. Only now, the voice was being created from the movements of the tree's roots and leaves.
The circle of women turned to the group of three standing outside the circle. One of the women raised a fist to her lips and blew. On the other side of Marlene, Laura fell to her knees.
"Mom!" Bobby said. A small dart was sticking out of her neck.
"She will sleep now," Marlene said. A woman stepped out of the circle, bent down and folding Laura's hands over her chest. She looked like a corpse in a coffin.
"You killed her!" Bobby screamed.
"No. She will wake when Mother has been fed."
Bobby stared around at the rest of the women. These people were nuts. This was some kind of cult.
"This is the yearly ceremony to keep our wood hidden and safe," Marlene explained softly. "Mother protects us from the outside world."
"Please. What are you going to do?"
"We will feed you to Mother Tree," Marlene said simply.
Bobby tried again to pull his hand away, but again Marlene's grip was unbreakable.
"There's a guy back there by the car. Why don't you take him?" Bobby whimpered.
The circle of women became agitated. Their whispering sounded like a strong pre-storm wind. They took a few steps toward Bobby, their dark eyes glinting angrily in the candle light.
Marlene held a hand up to halt their approach. She spoke to Bobby calmly, though there was an undercurrent of anger in her voice too.
"You would not feed your mother dead flesh and so we do not feed ours," she said.
"I don't want to die!" Bobby screamed at Marlene.
"But you won't," she said, surprised, as if Bobby should have known this already.
Bobby's brain raced in confusion.
"You will become one with Mother. She will feed from your youth so that she will have strength to help us through the coming year."
Bobby crumpled. The stress of the day became too much. He was hungry and tired and scared for his life. He didn't have the strength to fight off the women who surged forward and lifted him as easily as if he were a baby.
"Do not be afraid," Marlene soothed. "When the year is done, Mother will release you. You can then go home."
Through the fog of exhaustion and fear, Bobby thought back to the old man his mother had hit. He remembered those eyes, milky with blindness, and the skin so wrinkled and thin it looked crumpled tissue paper, and his hair white and wispy, almost nonexistent.
"Oh my god," Bobby whispered. They were kidnapping him.
"Ga rrru ai!" The leaves of the surrounding trees shook from the booming voice's intensity.
"Y-yes, Mother," Marlene said hastily. She signaled for the women to carry Bobby over to the base of the Tree. They stepped away and reformed their circle outside of the candles. Marlene remained standing in front of Bobby's limp form and of the Tree. She tilted her head up and raised her arms in prayer.
"Mother, we give to you this offering of many years so that you may live forever and keep us safe within your loving embrace. Mother Tree, we thank you for the abundance of the coming year."
Marlene stepped back and joined the circle. The women began to murmur again. The tree squirmed more than ever. Then two dirty roots shot up from the earth. They were thick as boa constrictors and Bobby found that their grip was just as tight as a snake's as they wrapped around his arms and pulled him to the tree's trunk in a tight hug. The roots continued to squeeze until Bobby thought he was going to suffocate. . Then he felt an explosion of pain in his spine as something latched onto him. He screamed. The inside of his body felt like it was being stabbed by thousands of tiny sharp objects. His skin became dry and itchy. He looked down and tried to scream again, but he was running out of air. His skin had become jagged and brown like bark. He felt pain in his ankles. His belly prevented him from seeing his feet, but he knew something was wrong when he couldn’t move them. It was like they had been buried in sand. In this case, it was probably soil. His body sank part way into the tree's trunk and the roots let him go. He now felt like he was being squeezed from the left and ride side by his new prison. He couldn't move. He was part of the tree.
Marlene walked up to Bobby's petrified form. She caressed his rough cheek.
"One year," she promised, then walked away from him. The rest of the women picked up Laura’s body and carried her off to the village. Bobby was left alone. All around them, the wood was still.
1.
They sat in a booth in a greasy little diner off the highway. Bobby picked at his plate of cheese fries with a fork. He glanced up at his mother who was sitting across from him. Laura was swirling her cup of bitter coffee to create a tiny brown whirlwind. She looked up and gave Bobby a small smile. There were dark spots under her eyes that showed through the layer of cover up she'd put on earlier that morning. Other than to hide the dark circles, though, Laura didn't wear any make-up. She was a naturally pretty woman with hazel eyes, a straight nose with light freckles, a dancer's body and a smile that usually lit up the room.
"I thought you liked French fries," she said, trying to make conversation.
"I do. I just--I'm thinking of going on a diet." Bobby spoke to his plate. He looked at it with longing and disgust.
"I think you're fine, Bobby," Laura said softly.
Bobby nodded at her attempt to be nice, but he knew the truth. He had never shed his baby fat before elementary school and the years after that, he continued to put on weight from all the comfort eating he did. Bobby didn't have any friends to lift his low self-esteem because Laura's job required them both to be constantly on the road. She worked as a paranormal journalist for a magazine called Supernatural. Every three months, the magazine printed a new issue detailing the latest ghostly hot spots, the newest conspiracies, and personal encounters with "creatures" from all across the country. Laura's job was to go out and find these supernatural encounters and write articles about them.
Bobby only came with her on these trips because there weren't any relatives to take him in. His father had tapped out of a fifteen-year relationship to run off with a wanna-be movie star. Apparently he'd only stayed so long because of Bobby. The rest of Laura's family had cut her out of their lives the minute she'd said "I do," and Richard's family were deadbeats too.
Bobby didn't like to float around the country, but he didn't have the heart to tell his mother that he didn't respect her job. He didn't believe in ghosts or bigfoot or any of the things that she was sure existed. He couldn't understand the appeal of spending one's life chasing after shadows.
So two weeks ago, he was quietly relieved when he heard that Supernatural was being discontinued. Laura was devastated, but not exactly surprised. Over the past two years, fewer and fewer people were willing to renew their subscription to the magazine. Between the ghost hunting shows on television and the exorcism movies released every other week, people could get their fill of the supernatural without having to read. Laura's job quickly became obsolete.
The other journalists who worked for the magazine had accepted the news well enough, but Laura couldn't let it go. She had gone to her boss and begged him to let her find just one more story. She promised to find the biggest thing since the Roswell, New Mexico conspiracy. After convincing her boss, she then had to convince Bobby. She knew he didn’t like being on the road for so long. But she coaxed him into going on this one last trip, explaining that if she could find a white hot paranormal spot, she could save the magazine, get a promotion and finally buy a house.
Bobby didn't have any confidence in the plan. They had gone to what seemed like hundreds of spots and he had never experienced anything supernatural. Laura had been convinced on several occasions that a ghost had played with her hair or kissed her cheek or tried to tell her a secret. Bobby didn't argue with her. He obediently videotaped at every place they went to while Laura muttered into a voice recorder.
Laura's promise to her boss happened two weeks ago and the two had been driving aimlessly ever since, asking people in each town and city they came to if they'd heard stories of anything unusual. Most of the city people laughed her out of their houses or bars. But the townspeople had all sorts of colorful tales that, on further research, turned out to be superstition, not supernatural.
Now here they sat in yet another dingy diner, Laura sipping another cup of old coffee and thinking of where to go next while Bobby fought against morbid obesity. They were both quickly losing hope.
A waitress sidled up to their table and flashed them a wide smile.
“Would you folks like some pie? We make a really good pie here."
Bobby groaned and threw his fork down. Just what he needed, a piece of fattening pie. Laura grimaced slightly and said, "No thanks. We're full."
The waitress looked disappointed but dropped the check on the table and left them alone.
"Where to next?" Bobby asked as Laura fished out her credit card and a few dollar bills to tip the waitress.
"I don't know," Laura sighed. She looked more tired than ever. It made Bobby sad to see her that way. She had lost her enthusiasm, which was the only thing that kept him going too. "I'll be right back. Going to pay the check."
Bobby nodded and leaned back in his seat. The plate of cheese fries looked enticing, but he was determined for his diet to succeed this time.
A few moments later, Laura came back to the table. She looked more disappointed than ever. Bobby sat up.
"What happened?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.
"Nothing. I just asked the waitress if she'd seen or heard anything. No such luck," she sighed.
"I'm sure we'll find something, Mamma. Don't worry," Bobby said, pushing his plate away and squeezing himself out of the booth. “Just to keep on driving. Something will happen eventually. And if not...." he stopped abruptly. He didn't want to hurt her by finishing the sentence. If she didn't find a big story soon, she would lose her job. Even though he hadn’t said it, Laura wore an expression that said she already knew the consequences.
"Let's go," she said, leading the way out of the diner.
2.
After three hours of driving down roads leading through progressively smaller and quieter towns, Laura pulled over into a gas station. Bobby listened to the thumping of her filling the tank and then he watched her walk inside a lopsided hut where she could pay for the gas she’d pumped.
He tried to ignore his rumbling stomach. In hindsight, he should have eaten something back at the diner. All he had now was a glove compartment full of candy bars. They weren't any healthier than the fries, but the fries would have been more filling.
Hating himself, Bobby leaned forward and opened the compartment. The little light inside came on and showed a mess of candy bars, a couple of juice pouches, a paperback book, and a few CD cases. Bobby grabbed a piece of candy and closed the compartment in one quick motion before everything inside had a chance to fall out. He ate the bar in two bites, licked his fingers, hesitated, then opened the compartment for another one.
“A person has to eat,” he told himself, justifying his actions.
Laura came back to the car wearing a confused expression.
"What's up?" Bobby asked her through a mouthful of candy.
"No one was in there,” she said. “I left some money on the counter, though." She looked troubled.
Bobby shrugged. "They're probably just using the bathroom."
Laura put the car in drive and pulled back onto the road. "That place was covered with dust, Bobby. There was a refrigerator, but the power was out. The food had gone bad. It reeked in there." She swallowed as if trying to keep her lunch down.
Bobby raised his eyebrows.
"Do you think something was there? Like a...haunted gas station maybe. We should go back and check it out.”
Laura shook her head. "I have my EMF detector on me at all times. There were no signs of activity in there. Just...inactivity I guess you'd say. Nobody's been in that store for a while."
They drove on in silence, pondering the mystery of the empty gas station. Neither one of them could come up with anything more interesting than that it was probably just abandoned. Bobby couldn't blame the owner for doing that. This whole town was inactive, not just the gas station. They'd only passed a few run-down houses and even they looked abandoned. The only life were the dense woods on either side of the road.
This place gave Bobby more goosebumps than any actual ghost spot they'd been to. He twisted sideways in his seat and laid his head on the window, closing his eyes to block out the eerie town. Before he knew it, Bobby was sleeping. Laura kept on driving.
3.
Bobby awoke to find Laura hunched over the steering wheel with her eyebrows furrowed and her hair in a sloppy ponytail to keep it out of her face. He looked out the window and saw that it was getting dark. He also saw what seemed like the same trees they had passed two hours ago. They still weren't out of the woods.
"Are we lost?" Bobby asked. He sat up and rubbed the crust from his eyes.
"I don't see how. There's only one road to be on." Laura's voice was tight.
"How long can a road be?" Bobby snapped back. He didn't want to whine, but he was getting hungry. The candy bars could only do so much.
Laura didn't respond. Her body was tense with frustration. Bobby sighed and reached into the compartment for another candy bar.
"Recalculating," said a pleasant female voice. It came from the GPS on the dashboard. Bobby squinted at it suspiciously.
"Did you put a destination into the machine when I was sleeping?" he asked.
Laura stared at the GPS with wide surprised eyes. "N-no. I've just been driving around like I've been for the past two weeks!"
"Turn right," the voice said clearly.
Laura slowed the car to a stop and squinted out Bobby's window for a road. It was hard to tell if there was one or not because the sun had gone down below the trees.
"Turn right. Now," the voice said firmly.
"Look, there’s a sign." Bobby pointed a finger against the glass. He hadn't noticed it until the GPS had spoken for the second time. It was as if it had popped up suddenly from the ground. The pole that the sign was attached to certainly looked like a root that had sprung up. It was crooked and brown and dirt was falling off of it. Bobby looked over at his mother who shrugged.
“Can you see what it says?” she asked quietly.
By the glare of the headlights Bobby could just barely read the sign. It was made of wood too and was chipped and faded. Most of the letters in the first word were rubbed off supposedly by weather and time. The sign read "--yad Road."
Laura swiveled the steering wheel all the way to the right and then eased the car over to point down the new road. The headlights showed brown dirt instead of black pavement. It blended well into the wooded scenery. The road meandered off into the woods. They couldn't see where it led to.
"Are we really gonna do this?" Bobby asked.
"A good journalist follows a lead to the very end. I just know there's something good back there."
She pressed the gas and entered the woods. Bobby leaned back in his seat and kept his eyes peeled for bears.
4.
They drove down the dirt road for another hour. Bobby's bottom was sore from all the sitting he'd done. This day had been as long as this road was turning out to be. There were occasional gentle twists to change up the otherwise arrow straightness, but the scenery never changed. Laura's EMF detector remained silent.
"Nothing's happening, Mom. Maybe we should go back. This place is giving me the chills."
Laura looked over and smiled. She had a glint in her eye that Bobby recognized, one of excitement and anticipation.
"Those goosebumps could be my payday, Bobby. I'm not stopping this car."
Bobby realized there was nothing he could do short of opening the door and tumbling out of the moving car to stop his mother from her ghost hunting.
"Maybe this is a mystery spot, a never-ending road that travelers unknowingly turn onto and they drive around and around in circles forever," she said, excited.
"That's reasurring," Bobby muttered.
"Oh come on, Bobby," Laura cajoled. "I'll just check it out. If it's nothing, I promise to turn around and we can continue wandering the country."
Bobby sighed and pulled out another candy bar. He didn't like either plan, but seeing civilization beat being lost in the woods. He hoped they would reach a dead end soon.
*******
"I can't believe how long this friggin' road is," Bobby moaned. His stomach was growling now. Laura hit the breaks. Bobby's seatbelt cut into the front of his neck as he was thrown forward. Then his head bounced hard off the headrest, making his brain bounce in his skull.
"Jesus, Mom!" He figured that she would scold him for swearing, but this was an over-reaction.
Laura threw off her seatbelt, twisted around, and grabbed her shoulder bag from the back seat.
"What's going on? What is it?" Bobby asked. He was looking left and right out the front windshield for a deer or a ghost, anything to explain his mother's frantic behavior because she wasn’t about to say anything. Laura yanked open her bag and pulled out a small notepad and a pen which was part of her paranormal journalist gear. She flipped to a clean page and started scribbling fast, but about what, Bobby still didn't know.
"For God's sake, Mom, you nearly killed me. I think I have whiplash now!" Bobby massaged his neck dramatically to try and get his mother’s attention.
"I saw something in the woods just now," she said, "I think it was a naked man."
"I didn't see anything."
Laura's face was set in a determined look. She wasn't about to give up on what she'd seen.
Bobby became annoyed. "We're looking for ghosts, not backwards hick people who like to hunt in the nude."
"There haven't been any other cars or even animals for hours. Something is going on here," Laura said. She stamped on the gas pedal and the car leapt forward further down the road. Bobby tried not to blink as he looked out the window. He wanted to witness this naked man for himself, otherwise he wouldn't believe it. Laura kept her eyes on the road too. She groped blindly for her bag again and pulled out a small, silver voice recorder. She pushed a button at the top and a red light came on. She spoke into the recorder.
"'The Man of the Back Woods' by Laura Green. My son and I had been driving for hours, looking for a juicy find.”
Bobby rolled his eyes. Laura didn’t see the look. She continued dictating her article.
"We drove for miles through busy cities and towns, when suddenly we came across a beat up old sign that pointed down '--yad Road.' Without hesitation I turned onto it and little did I know that I was on my way to the mother of supernatural finds."
She pressed another button and the red light turned off. She put the recorder back in her bag and gripped the steering wheel. She smiled quickly at Bobby.
“You’re counting you chickens, Mom,” Bobby said irritably.
"There's going to be something good at the end of this road, Bobby, I just know--"
"MOM! Look out!"
Bobby held his hands up like a traffic cop, as if the gesture alone would stop his mother from hitting the man who had staggered out into the road. In the split second before the impact Bobby saw that the man was very old. His hair and eyes were both white. His skin fell in wrinkled folds over his emaciated body.
Then the car struck, hitting the man's body at the waist and he folded forward with the momentum of the car. His chin hit the hood and blood spurted out of his nose. Laura let out a prolonged scream and stomped on the break. The old man flew backwards ten feet and then landed in the road, his limbs bent at horrible angles.
Laura's screaming had lost most of its volume. She was producing a long stream of squeaky air while she held on to the steering wheel. Her eyes were glued to the broken man in the road.
Bobby opened the car door and got out on quivering legs. The car's headlights shone on the man, making every gruesome detail leap out in bas-relief. Bobby clapped a hand to his mouth and turned away.
"Oh, Jesus," he moaned.
He stumbled and almost fell over. There was a large swell of dirt in the road. He caught himself with the help of the side mirror, then went to the back of the car, opened the trunk and found a patchy blanket under a suitcase. As he walked back toward the body, he held the blanket up high so it blocked the details from view. The blanket was thin enough, though, that Bobby could see through it and not trip over the dark lump that was the body. He looked back at the car and saw that Laura was still paralyzed behind the wheel.
Bobby knelt down and gently placed the blanket over the disfigured form. He made sure that no part of the man was showing before returning back to the car. There were still problems even though the body was out of sight because it was still blocking the way further down the road. Also, his mother was hyperventilating in the driver’s seat. Bobby didn’t want to move her in case she had another screaming attack. He was stuck in the middle of the woods.
There was a noise of cracking branches and leaves off to the left. Bobby reached over and locked the car. He held his breath and waited.
A tiny old woman tottered out of the woods. She wore an outfit that looked like it was made of bark. Her skin seemed to rough too, but the lighting was not good so Bobby wasn’t too sure. The woman carried a candle in her hand and held it high as she walked toward the blanket-covered body. Bobby jumped out of the car and hurried over before the old woman could take the blanket off and see the mangled mess underneath.
"Um, you might not want to touch that, ma'am. There's been a terrible accident."
"Greatest Gaia, what has happened?" Her voice was deep and steady, an odd sound coming from such a tiny woman. The surprise of her voice made Bobby a little dizzy, but he pushed it away. The woman was clearly distressed.
Laura stepped out of the car and approached the woman, twisting her hands in anguish.
"I hit this man with my c-car. I didn't mean it, he jumped out!" Laura sobbed.
The woman bowed her head. "May he descend into the earth and become what he began," she said mournfully.
"Did you know him?" Bobby asked respectfully, though her choice of words in her condolence was very odd.
"He was a great help to me this past year. My daughters will be saddened to hear of his passing." She directed her candle in Bobby's direction. "What is your age, young man?"
Bobby blinked. "My name is Bobby," he answered.
"No. I asked how many years you have."
He still wasn't used to her way of speaking.
"I'm fourteen," he said, blushing.
She nodded. "That is fine." She looked at Bobby closely before saying, "Will you stay for our feast down in the village?"
"We're not planning on staying here. We took a wrong turn," Laura gushed. "We're going to go back now." She turned toward the car, saw the large bloody dent in the hood and quickly turned back to the group. Laura put a shaking hand over her mouth and shook her head, but said no more.
"Maybe we should stay, just until you feel a little better," Bobby said to his mother. At that moment, Bobby's stomach growled. He winced. He had only partially lost his appetite after the accident. He really hadn't eaten in several hours.
Laura nodded her agreement to Bobby’s suggestion, though she didn't seem to be paying attention.
“I am pleased," the woman said. Then she turned and called into the trees. "Marlene, come and escort the guests."
There was more snapping and crunching of branches and leaves, then a girl around Bobby's age came forward. Her long hair hung in twisting dreadlocks. Her big eyes looked black in the poor lighting. Marlene approached gracefully and took Bobby and Laura's hands.
"Should we wait for you?" Bobby asked the woman.
"I must stay and help this man return home." The old woman lowered herself onto her knees with many cracks of protest from her bones and began to murmur over the body.
Marlene turned and led them further down the road, leaving the old woman to her prayers.
5.
Bobby made a mental note of everything they passed along the way. His mother was too distracted to realize that these people and their village in the woods could make an interesting article. It wasn't exactly supernatural, but maybe she could sell the story to another magazine.
"It's lucky you guys were out for a walk when we had our accident," Bobby said, speaking into the uncomfortable silence. He tried to remember what his mother had taught him about how to do a successful interview, but he was very aware of Marlene's delicate fingers wrapped around his thick hand. No girl had ever voluntarily touched him before. He wished this moment had happened on a less stressful day so he could be on his best game.
Marlene didn’t respond to the comment. Bobby racked his brains for something to say that would require an actual answer from her.
"So you guys....live in the woods, or...?"
"Yes. It is our home. We and the trees are one and the same. We respect them and in return they nourish and clothe us. It is all we ask of them and ourselves." Marlene's voice was soft and breathy, like a summer breeze blowing through a meadow.
Progress. Keep her talking, keep her happy, Bobby thought.
"Are you guys some sort of hippie commune?" he blurted out. He grimaced at his callousness. He wanted to find an explanation for their unconventional way of speaking and their clothing, but not in that stupid way.
She didn’t get mad. She gave him a quizzical look.
"What is 'hippie'?"
"Never mind," Bobby said quickly and changed the subject. "What is this feast that you guys are having?"
Marlene stopped and turned to Bobby. Now her blissful expression had disappeared in exchange for slight annoyance.
"We are not men. Do not call us so."
Bobby swallowed and nodded. Bobby put this particular mental not in bold that this was a group of women who lived in the woods and worshipped trees. He waited a few more minutes to allow Marlene to calm down. He looked around and noted that the trees were becoming thicker, their trunks twice as big around as he himself was. The trees were taller as well and their branches and leaves thicker, so that he could no longer see the night sky.
He looked back at Marlene and needled her for more information.
"Do you women have a name? What do you call yourselves?"
"We are the Ladies of the Wood,” she answered in a calmer manner.
Bobby was glad for the change. "Is this wood in danger of being chopped down? Is this a demonstration?"
Marlene shook her head. "That is what the feast is for. Soon you will see. Up ahead."
They took a few steps more and Marlene, Bobby and Laura stepped off the dirt road, but they still seemed to be in the woods. The only change was that there were large blobs of light bobbing and floating in the air. Bobby squeezed his eyes shut to make them adjust to the night faster. When he opened them, he saw that Marlene was leading him and his mother into village carved into the trees. The fronts of the houses jutted out from the tree trunks, but Bobby could see that the front doors led inside the tree itself. Each house had its own trunk, so the village had no clear layout pattern. Each house was unique to its owner. Some were built close to the ground, some where located higher up the trunk with a ladder to use. Some houses were one story. Bobby could tell because the two- or multi-layered houses had windows carved higher and higher for each floor.
Laura snapped out of her grief for a moment as she took in the tree village all around them. In between the tree-houses, Bobby saw more of those odd dirt hills that he had tripped over back at the car. He wanted to ask about them, but Marlene spoke up.
"We have lived here for many years," she said proudly. "We do not leave the woods for we cannot leave our trees for long."
Bobby nodded silently. He was in awe at their dedication to nature.
"Come. The feast has already begun." Marlene led them through the village and further into the woods. Bobby didn't want to show it but he was getting dizzy from all this walking. He was more used to sitting in a car for hours, not standing on his feet for hours. The only thing propelling him forward was the promise of food.
After only five more minutes of walking the three stopped at the edge of a half circle of evenly spaced candles. Standing outside the candles was a half circle of women of different ages with their hands linked to form a chain. Like Marlene, they wore outfits made from leaves and bark, and their feet were bare. Their hair was the same shade of brown and was dreadlocked. They had their faces raised to the roof of the woods in an expression of blissful thought. They were swaying from side to side and murmuring so quietly that Bobby couldn't understand what they were saying.
Bobby realized that he could only see a half-circle because the chain wrapped around to the other side of something colossal. Bobby looked at Marlene. She had tears in her eyes, though she didn't seem sad. She too was blissfully happy. She swayed in rhythm with the other women even though she hadn't joined their circle.
"This is Mother Tree," Marlene said quietly. Her voice was choked up with emotion and reverence. "She will feed us."
Bobby strained his eyes to see the trunk of an enormous tree that was five times wider than the ones they had passed on the road to get to the village. He thought of the swells in the road and village and realized that they looked somewhat familiar. He had once seen a tree in a park whose roots grew up to the surface and writhed over the ground, making people trip if they weren't observant. This massive tree had done the same thing, though clearly its roots were more far-reaching.
Bobby shivered. He didn’t know if he wanted to eat berries and nuts from a tree like this.
The women suddenly stopped murmuring but continued to hold on to each other. They appeared to be waiting for something.
"What--" Bobby started to say, but Marlene cut him off by placing a finger to his lips.
"She is waking," she whispered and turned back to the tree.
There was a deep cracking and moaning, the sound of a very old woman getting up from a long sleep. Bobby heard the rustling of thousands of leaves and looked up. The branches of Mother Tree were waving. He glanced around the rest of the wood. The other trees were still.
Bobby yelled and tried to pull away when he saw the swells in the earth around the tree begin to undulate like a brown ocean. The thick roots underneath were moving. Marlene squeezed his hand and held him in place. She was stronger than she looked.
A deep voice spoke. It sounded impatient and also strangely familiar.
"Ga rrru ai." Feed me now.
Bobby heard the strange language with his ears and heard the translation in his mind simultaneously. The phenomenon made him light headed. He gasped when he realized he had felt the same sensation when talking to the old woman back near the car. Only now, the voice was being created from the movements of the tree's roots and leaves.
The circle of women turned to the group of three standing outside the circle. One of the women raised a fist to her lips and blew. On the other side of Marlene, Laura fell to her knees.
"Mom!" Bobby said. A small dart was sticking out of her neck.
"She will sleep now," Marlene said. A woman stepped out of the circle, bent down and folding Laura's hands over her chest. She looked like a corpse in a coffin.
"You killed her!" Bobby screamed.
"No. She will wake when Mother has been fed."
Bobby stared around at the rest of the women. These people were nuts. This was some kind of cult.
"This is the yearly ceremony to keep our wood hidden and safe," Marlene explained softly. "Mother protects us from the outside world."
"Please. What are you going to do?"
"We will feed you to Mother Tree," Marlene said simply.
Bobby tried again to pull his hand away, but again Marlene's grip was unbreakable.
"There's a guy back there by the car. Why don't you take him?" Bobby whimpered.
The circle of women became agitated. Their whispering sounded like a strong pre-storm wind. They took a few steps toward Bobby, their dark eyes glinting angrily in the candle light.
Marlene held a hand up to halt their approach. She spoke to Bobby calmly, though there was an undercurrent of anger in her voice too.
"You would not feed your mother dead flesh and so we do not feed ours," she said.
"I don't want to die!" Bobby screamed at Marlene.
"But you won't," she said, surprised, as if Bobby should have known this already.
Bobby's brain raced in confusion.
"You will become one with Mother. She will feed from your youth so that she will have strength to help us through the coming year."
Bobby crumpled. The stress of the day became too much. He was hungry and tired and scared for his life. He didn't have the strength to fight off the women who surged forward and lifted him as easily as if he were a baby.
"Do not be afraid," Marlene soothed. "When the year is done, Mother will release you. You can then go home."
Through the fog of exhaustion and fear, Bobby thought back to the old man his mother had hit. He remembered those eyes, milky with blindness, and the skin so wrinkled and thin it looked crumpled tissue paper, and his hair white and wispy, almost nonexistent.
"Oh my god," Bobby whispered. They were kidnapping him.
"Ga rrru ai!" The leaves of the surrounding trees shook from the booming voice's intensity.
"Y-yes, Mother," Marlene said hastily. She signaled for the women to carry Bobby over to the base of the Tree. They stepped away and reformed their circle outside of the candles. Marlene remained standing in front of Bobby's limp form and of the Tree. She tilted her head up and raised her arms in prayer.
"Mother, we give to you this offering of many years so that you may live forever and keep us safe within your loving embrace. Mother Tree, we thank you for the abundance of the coming year."
Marlene stepped back and joined the circle. The women began to murmur again. The tree squirmed more than ever. Then two dirty roots shot up from the earth. They were thick as boa constrictors and Bobby found that their grip was just as tight as a snake's as they wrapped around his arms and pulled him to the tree's trunk in a tight hug. The roots continued to squeeze until Bobby thought he was going to suffocate. . Then he felt an explosion of pain in his spine as something latched onto him. He screamed. The inside of his body felt like it was being stabbed by thousands of tiny sharp objects. His skin became dry and itchy. He looked down and tried to scream again, but he was running out of air. His skin had become jagged and brown like bark. He felt pain in his ankles. His belly prevented him from seeing his feet, but he knew something was wrong when he couldn’t move them. It was like they had been buried in sand. In this case, it was probably soil. His body sank part way into the tree's trunk and the roots let him go. He now felt like he was being squeezed from the left and ride side by his new prison. He couldn't move. He was part of the tree.
Marlene walked up to Bobby's petrified form. She caressed his rough cheek.
"One year," she promised, then walked away from him. The rest of the women picked up Laura’s body and carried her off to the village. Bobby was left alone. All around them, the wood was still.