A Dark Descent

The Tree

He quickly looked over all the notes he had.

6 with three children.

5 with five children.

9 with one child.

3 with two children.

4 with six children.

10 with four children.

2 with nine children.

8 with seven children.

7 with ten children.

And 1 with eight children.

He went up the left stairs and into the round room again, except the door with the number 9 was gone. When Alex saw this he looked at the note with the number nine, it had only one child. Then next number to that logic was the number three, at least it made sense to Alex that it would be three. He went into the door with the number 3 and he was back at the foyer.

He looked around and there were trees on both sides of the foyer. Alex ran up the stairs and into the round room. The third room was gone and the next room to go through was the sixth.

The trees weren't down the hall this time but at the top of the stairs. Alex walked around into the kitchen to lure the trees down but came across one of the trees on the way to the next room. He ran to the large bedroom and saw a glimpse of the trees in the middle of the stairway. The trees seemed to hide so perfectly in the shadows. He ran to the very back to get a view of every side of the room.

The trees from the stairway were now in the room with him. Alex ran around the rooms but came to the front to see that the trees didn't move at all, or they did move but they just came back. Alex took out his axe and performed the horrible idea again. But it worked since they were all clumped up together.

The process repeated until there was only the seventh door left.

Alex went inside and locked the door behind. He looked around, it was a very old attic. There were many things inside that looked like they hadn't been used for one hundred years. He pushed an old, dusty shelf in the way of the door to be safe. There was a narrow path with a mirror at the end. He walked to the mirror, it looked like it hadn't been touched for even longer than the room itself, but it didn't collect dust or cracks.

He looked back, the door was still shut, so Alex went through the mirror. He was in a long hallway, and when he entered, all the candles lit in the hall to reveal another mirror on the other side. Alex walked down the hall, he saw nothing out of the ordinary, even though this entire cabin was out of the ordinary. At the end, he could actually see through the mirror, and he saw a wooded forest and nothing beyond it's darkness.

He walked in, nothing seemed to be to the sides, just flat land and night sky for miles on both. He walked into the forest uninvited. The forest was thick until he made it to what appeared to be a graveyard. The graveyard was a hill, and at the top was a tree with a look of horror and sadness carved into it with hollow endlessness inside. He walked up the hill and saw something coming out of the mouth, almost like drool but very thin and solid. He looked at the drool all the way down to where it was going until he stepped right into it's trap. He stepped into a circle, the drool wasn't drool, it was rope, and it latched onto ankle tightly.

The rope pulled towards the tree as it pulled itself out of the ground. The roots formed into legs, the very few branches crawled to each other and formed arms. Alex made it up and the tree walked towards him, it's hands out as if it was expecting to receive a hug. Alex tried to escape but nearly tripped every time he tried to run. Alex then tried to keep the same pace as the tree, but still managed to go faster. They both made it into the wood, it seemed to be less thick, perfect for a big tree to make it through. Alex ran around as many trees as he could in a straight line. The tree tripped and bumped into trees as it tried to catch Alex.

Alex kept running through every nook and cranny to get the tree stuck while moving forward to get back. The run was very long, much longer than the way to the tree, and yet Alex was getting nowhere. The chase began to tire Alex as the tree played harder to catch him. It made horrible noises and screeches. It knocked trees over with one swing from it's thick arms. It used vines from its mouth and crevices to hold Alex down but he also used the cutting pliers to escape.

He ran far, the tree seemed to be getting tired as well. They made it back to the mirror and Alex leaped out to make it back to the mirror but was grabbed again by the vines, only this time the thing that held him to move as well. The thing ran up and tried to grab Alex but failed as Alex rolled under him. The tree turned back to grab Alex but Alex climbed on top of him and jumped off into the mirror.

As he passed through the mirror he felt the rope loosen until he felt it no more. When he hit the floor, he held his ankle in pain, feeling the blood flow back into his foot. He comforted himself because he knew no one else could, but he wasn't away from danger just yet. He got up and carried himself away to the other side of the hall, but there was a thud, and there was him in the middle of the hall. He looked back, and saw the tree, struggling to make it through the mirror, but it wasn't going to stop. Alex ran, or at least he tried, his foot still felt numb. He nearly made it when the tree got through the mirror, and was now coming for Alex.

Alex picked up his pace, pushed through the pain, and made it out of the mirror before he could be touched by the tree. He was back in the room with the old junk and dusty cobwebs. He went back to the door he came through but was not met with the round room, instead a narrow stairway leading to another room identical to the room he just came from. He heard the tree make it through and it was coming for him, almost as if it always knew where he was.

He ran to the middle of the room, the tree came fast and charged at him. Alex waited till the last moment to get out of the way. Alex looked back, the tree was stuck in the wall. The tree looked back at Alex and didn't charge, this time he stomped on the ground as cracks crawled to him.

The cracks broke the floor under him and he fell to another identical room. The tree loomed over him jumped down to give Alex the final blow, to put him with the others, but Alex wasn't going to let it happen. He rolled out of the way and the tree broke through the floor into an abyss.

Alex felt safe, now that danger was defeated, just waiting for something to happen, a blue glowing from the hole the tree fell in.

He waited, but got nothing, so he moved in slowly, inch by inch. He got closer and closer and then it happened. The head of the tree popped out and screeched as loud as possible, the face continued to deformed into rage and sadness and fear and lack of control over the power possessed. Vines shot out from the tree, many of them, and pulled Alex to the abyss, to fall with it. Alex reached the pliers again, but when he cut the vines, more grew back immediately to keep him down. He was pulled all the way, but when he nearly made it off the edge, he punted the tree's face as it went flying off.

But the tree flying also made Alex nearly fly off the edge too, but he grabbed onto the edge and held for dear life. It was so heavy, nearly insurmountable. He pulled so hard and his other arm broke loose. He could feel tugging on the vines, the tugging was from the tree climbing, still in pursuit of Alex. As the tree climbed, he barely was able to reach the axe from his waist and cut the vines to the tree.

The tree went out with a horrible screech that echoed forever in the terrible void. Alex climbed back up to recuperate again, get everything in order in his head.

Then he could start to feel a slight rumble, then hear a faint chime become louder and louder from the abyss, then a light flowing up and flying everywhere.

A bright orange light, in a thousand rooms of darkness.