Chapter 4: Conflict

it's all fun and games until a tree kills your sister.

"Are you out of your God damn mind Alexander?!" I winced at the sting of Jim's words. Out of everyone I knew I thought that he would understand why this had to be done.

"Do you want more people to die Jim? Or vanish completely like Molly?" Jim was a graying forty something the shape of a stick. His hands were around my shoulders before I could blink pinning me up against the wall.

"You go on this suicide mission if you want, and take your boy with you for all I care, but don't you dare bring Molly into this!" his eyes were dark blue with grief and anger as I stared at them before he released me.

"You know I can't leave Alex with you Jim, if the Tree knows I was here it will come for him. He's safer with me" Jim stood with his back to me. Leaning into the counter top in front of him.

"That’s what I thought about Molly, that she was safe as long as she was with me. I was five and she was three. She..." his shoulders are shaking I know Lucy would gently pull him into a comforting hug if she was here.

"She was the cutest thing you ever saw. Brown piggy tails and a pink dress. She loved pink. They never asked me what I saw that day. They would have thought I was crazy if they had" Jim takes a deep breath as if he's preparing to dive head first into his memory.

"We weren't supposed to wander into the forest, even though our backyard had no fence between it and the trees. One day we didn't listen. We went walking in, that's when it came" Jim sniffs and I feel so bad that I'm making him relive it.

"At first it was just the sound of giggling, and then the eerie red light started to shine. I was afraid, I remember holding Molly's hand as tight as I could as we stood and looked into the light" I can imagine how scared Jim would have been. Even if he didn't know what he was facing.

"Then the forest groaned and roots wrapped around her legs. I was trying to hold onto her hand and she was screaming. I just couldn't hold on... I let go and ran... I ran all the way home crying" Jim turns to me and his eyes are shining with tears. His cheeks wet with them.

"The police thought a man had taken her. They were so close to right; they didn't see what I saw. The man in the light made of wood" his hands are shaking and I guide him to the lounge so he can sit down.

"I know you've seen it, so why would you risk your own son by going after it again Alex?" Jim is looking at me with those piercing blue eyes and I feel almost guilty. Damn it Jim.

"I have to do this, I have to stop this from happening to anyone else" Jim and I have been affected but we aren't the only ones. The only ones who know exactly what happened maybe.

“That’s not what I think Alexander, I think you want revenge, for Lucy, for what happened to you that night. What you lost" I can't deny it so I stay silent. There is a part of me that wants the Tree to feel. Feel the pain I felt when I held my dead wife and when my arm was ripped from my body.

"I'm going to ask you to leave Alexander. I don't want the Tree to come looking here for you. I've seen it once and that is enough" Alex has been sitting on the carpet this entire time. Playing with a worn out toy bunny Jim had lying around.

I pick him up in my arm and look at Jim. Really look. At the shadows under his eyes and the tears still running down his face. I think I've been overly harsh.

"We'll leave first thing in the morning. Thank you for risking yourself by letting us stay tonight" Jim grunts and wipes his tears with one hand as I go to put Alex to bed. Tomorrow we will start a new journey.

Author's Note

Do you think Alexander has the right motives for putting himself and his son in danger?