Chapter 15 - The people outside didn't move.They simply stood there.
Dozens.
Maybe hundreds.
Every one of them wearing my face.
Some were children.
Some were old.
Some looked exactly like me.
Others looked like me twenty years older.
Silly grabbed my hand.
“We have to leave.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.”
We ran out the back door.
The street was empty.
No cars.
No people.
No birds.
The entire town seemed frozen.
Then we heard footsteps behind us.
The copies had entered the house.
They were coming.
We ran toward the highway.
But the road changed.
Buildings stretched upward.
Streetlights twisted into branches.
The sky darkened.
And at the end of the road stood the tree.
Not the old tree.
A new one.
Bigger.
Wider.
Its roots spread beneath the entire town.
Silly stopped.
“No.”
The ground cracked.
Roots emerged from the asphalt.
Cars lifted into the air.
Houses shook.
People screamed from inside their homes.
The tree was everywhere.
Not in one place.
Everywhere.
I looked at Silly.
“What do we do?”
She took the mirror from her bag.
“There's one last ritual.”
“You knew there would be another one.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you wouldn't have believed me.”
She placed the mirror on the road.
Then she drew a circle around it.
Eight candles.
Just like before.
But this time, she placed something in the center.
The photograph of Elias.
Then she placed her own photograph beside it.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving the tree what it wants.”
“No.”
She smiled.
“It wants memories.”
“So give it mine.”
“No.”
She stepped into the circle.
“Give it mine.”
The candles turned blue.
The giant tree began whispering.
Silly closed her eyes.
“I remember.”
“I remember everything.”
The roots started moving toward her.
I grabbed her arm.
“Stop!”
She shook her head.
“Don't.”
“I can't lose you.”
“You won't.”
“That's what you said before.”
She smiled.
“I lied before.”
“I'm telling the truth now.”
The roots wrapped around her legs.
Then her waist.
Then her chest.
I pulled as hard as I could.
Nothing.
Silly looked at me.
“Remember the first night.”
I did.
“The tree.”
“The incense.”
“The mirror.”
“The doll.”
“The thing beside you.”
I remembered.
Then I realized.
There had never been two spirits beside me.
There had been one.
Silly had been standing on my right.
The thing on my left had been me.
A version of me the tree created.
My forgotten twin.
The creature wearing my face.
I looked at the photograph of Elias.
He smiled.
Then I saw another figure inside the mirror.
A little girl.
The same girl from the photograph.
She stepped closer.
Her face changed.
It became Silly's face.
Then Mom's.
Then mine.
Then Elias's.
The tree began shaking.
The girl whispered:
“I was the first memory.”
I stared.
“You?”
She nodded.
“Before Elias.”
“Before Mai.”
“Before your family.”
“Before the tree.”
“What are you?”
She smiled.
“Grief.”
The roots released Silly.
The entire town fell silent.
The giant tree began collapsing inward.
The little girl walked toward me.
“You finally understand.”
“What?”
“The tree was never hunting your family.”
“It was using your family to remember itself.”
She placed one hand against my chest.
The mark vanished.
Then the mirror shattered.
Everything went black.
When I opened my eyes, morning sunlight filled the room.
I was lying in my own bed.
Silly was asleep in the chair beside me.
For a moment, I thought everything had been a nightmare.
Then I noticed the photograph on my desk.
Our family.
Mom.
Dad.
Silly.
Me.
Elias.
And the little girl.
Her name had been written on the bottom.
But I had never seen the name before.
I picked up the photograph.
My phone vibrated.
One message.
No number.
Only words.
“Thank you for remembering us.”
I stared at the screen.
Another message appeared.
“Now we can remember you.”
The bedroom door slowly opened.
Silly woke up.
She looked toward the hallway.
“Did you hear that?”
I nodded.
Something was walking toward us.
Bare feet.
Slow footsteps.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then the sound stopped.
A little girl appeared in the doorway.
She smiled.
I stood.
“Who are you?”
She tilted her head.
“I think you already know.”
Silly began crying.
The girl walked closer.
She looked exactly like me.
But younger.
Six years old.
The same age I had been when the tree first marked me.
She reached for my hand.
Then whispered:
“I've been waiting for you to remember who you really are.”
I looked at Silly.
She didn't speak.
The girl smiled.
Outside, somewhere far away, a dog began howling.
Then another.
Then another.
Three dogs.
The same three.
The same sound.
The same night.
The same tree.
Only this time, there was no tree.
Because the tree had moved.
Into me.
And when I looked down at my hand, a tiny black root was growing beneath my skin.
It curled around my finger.
Then another appeared.
And somewhere deep inside my chest, something whispered my name.
Not from outside.
May you like
From within.
“Welcome home.”
