Chapter 10 - The footsteps were slow.One.
Two.
Three.
Silly grabbed my arm.
“Run.”
We rushed deeper into the chamber.
My twin followed.
Grandmother stayed behind.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To the heart.”
“What heart?”
“The original tree.”
We reached a tunnel.
Roots covered the ceiling.
The walls were covered in faces.
Not paintings.
Faces.
Human faces trapped beneath the stone.
Some were crying.
Some were screaming.
Some whispered.
One face opened its eyes.
It was Dad.
“Son.”
I stopped.
“Dad?”
Silly dragged me forward.
“Don't listen.”
Dad's face cried.
“Please.”
“Help me.”
“I'm still here.”
I wanted to stop.
But my twin grabbed my shoulder.
“That's not him.”
We kept running.
At the end of the tunnel was a giant chamber.
In the center stood a smaller tree.
Unlike the massive tree above, this one was pale.
Its trunk was white.
Its branches grew downward.
Roots hung in the air.
At its base sat a wooden box.
Silly opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Thousands.
She picked one.
It was me as a baby.
Another.
My twin.
Another.
Silly.
Another.
Mai.
On the final photograph, there was a family portrait.
My mother.
My father.
Silly.
Me.
And a fifth child.
Elias.
But in the photograph, Elias had been scratched out.
“Why did they erase him?”
“Because he was never supposed to be remembered.”
“Who erased him?”
“My grandmother.”
Silly pointed to the pale tree.
“She fed him to it.”
My twin stared at the tree.
His hands began trembling.
“I remember.”
“What?”
“She carried me here.”
He walked forward.
“She told me everything would be okay.”
Then his expression changed.
“She killed me.”
Silly shook her head.
“She didn't.”
My twin turned.
“You knew?”
“I discovered it later.”
“You knew my whole life was a lie.”
“Yes.”
He screamed.
The white tree shook.
Every face in the walls screamed with him.
A crack opened in the floor.
Something enormous moved beneath us.
Silly pulled me back.
“Don't let him touch the tree.”
“Why?”
“Because he's the key.”
My twin laughed.
“You're afraid.”
Silly nodded.
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“For the first time, you should be.”
He put his hand against the white trunk.
The tree turned black.
Roots shot toward him.
They wrapped around his wrist.
Then his chest.
Then his throat.
He screamed.
I grabbed him.
Silly shouted:
“Don't!”
I pulled harder.
The roots tightened.
My twin looked directly into my eyes.
“Brother.”
He was crying.
“Remember me.”
Then the tree swallowed him.
His scream echoed through the chamber.
The white tree cracked.
Black liquid began dripping from its branches.
Silly collapsed.
“It's begun.”
“What?”
“The tree is dying.”
“That sounds good.”
“No.”
She looked at the ceiling.
“If this tree dies…”
The entire underground chamber shook.
“…everything it has ever remembered dies with it.”
My father's face appeared in the wall.
Mai's face.
Grandmother's.
Then Silly's.
I stared at her.
“Your face is fading.”
She touched her cheek.
Her fingertips became transparent.
She smiled sadly.
“I know.”
The roots beneath us split apart.
The ground opened.
And from the darkness below came a voice older than any human voice.
“Give me my child.”
May you like
Silly whispered:
“It's asking for you.”
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