The Creature of the Woods (BxB)

Chapter 3: The Tree

"Officer Karait..."

"Call me Geddy when we're outside the station."

"Fine. Geddy, this soup has a lot of ginger." I scolded him. Sounds very grateful of me.

He just continued eating a different rice meal. "You need that, Hansel. Trust me. After that, you can eat a normal rice meal."

Weird. There's not much nutritional facts about a ginger. It's just a strong ingredient popular in the provinces. People usually put a lot of gingers in their basic soups like Tinola, Sinigang, Adobo, or even Steak. It could taste nice sometimes. But Geddy's soup is almost like a ginger tea.

"I know. I know. I suck at cooking. Stop glaring at me. But please finish that soup."

"Fine." I angrily mumbled.

Weird.

Geddy is being weird.

At 8:00 pm sharp, Geddy goes to his room to study some cases. But because of looking for me in the forest, we came back home at 9:00. It's now 10:00 but Geddy is still staying beside me, so I find it weird.

"Geddy." I called to him while he was reading a book. "I think you know what's going on. Dude, I'm a detective, I know how to read situations."

Geddy looked at me. Irritated. Damn, he really knows something. He shifted towards me and faced the book to me. It wasn't a book. It's a printed journal. I remember Uncle Jerry's laziness to write, so he types his journals. But he's also afraid of viruses deleting his files so he prints them and binds them in a book. Does that mean this journal belonged to Uncle Jerry?

He pointed a highlighted passage, saying: ....The trees have ears. The trees have eyes. The trees are their surveillance cameras. Their recorders. Their reporters. It can also serve as their base or apartment, as far as I know, but their main mansion is a Balete tree....

I was too curious, so I swiped the book from his hands and read passages that are not highlighted.

....When they started to think I was interfering too much, a random tree just grew out of nowhere beside the house I'm staying in. It grew up so fast and strong that people thought the tree was really there decades before. But actually, it just appeared a week ago.

"Geddy, what house was he talking about?" I whispered.

He whispered back. "This house."

I looked at the window and saw a dancing shadow of the Acacia Tree. It's a simple tree of its kind, but for some reasons, the shadows speak otherwise. The creature from the forest entered my mind, but this was different. I would not feel fear with the creature. Because of the spell, I am bound to feel in-love with everything he is, even his Balete tree, his owls, and his presence. Not this fear. Maybe, this scary thing that is controlling the trees against us is not that creature. Maybe.

"Hansel." Geddy whispered to me. "They are wicked creatures. They lure you into liking them, and then kill you."

"K-kill me?" For some reasons, I was angered by Geddy's conclusion. I don't know if this is the spell speaking, but I hate the fact that he thinks the creature will kill me. "What made you think that? Have you even met one of them?"

"...Hansel, don't shout. The trees are listening."

"He's not going to kill me!"

Unexpectedly, a tree branch whipped the glass window of the house. The branches tried to enter, but it just stayed outside, still wriggling. To my shock and fear, I fell back to the sofa. Geddy stayed in front of me after fetching his gun and begun shooting the branches. He took a pitcher of water beside the T.V. then poured it on the branches. The branches then writhed and went back to their original sizes.

Now that I reasoned about it, there are pitchers of water around the house. Beside the TV, at the Dinner table, at the sink, and every corners of our room. I looked at him, baffled.

"Holy water?" I asked.

"Salt water with ginger powder."

"It did not attack us."

"There are traces of salt and ginger powder on the window sill. They're scared of it."

He sat beside me as we look at the destroyed window. We breathed deep and deep until our hearts come back to their regular breathing intervals. Geddy was still clutching at his gun as he glares at the evil tree.

"So, he's not going to kill you?" He snickered.

My blood rose again at his statement. "What if it's not him?"

"They're all the same."

"You generalize too much."

"Oh yeah? Are you sure that he loves you back?" Geddy made me dead silent. Does he love me back? Such a simple question I cannot answer. Of course he doesn't. My love was just an accident. "Hansel, you were enchanted. I thought that amount of ginger soup would heal you, but..." He stood up and made his way towards the basement. "I'm just going to fix this window."

I sat silently at the sofa, thinking about the stuff that has been happening. It seems that Geddy is up to this for a long time, and I'm just here, started seeing this world just a while ago and I have the audacity to shout at Geddy like he's ignorant. What if it's true? What if the creature really tricked me to like him then kill me? But I don't understand, why not kill me back then? Why save me and Geddy? Just why?

A manly shout broke my thinking process. It was Geddy's voice. The window Sill of the basement probably doesn't have salt and ginger powders. I ran to the basement, getting my own gun. Geddy was being dragged by the tree outside. I was afraid to shoot it because I might hit Geddy, but based from the observation, a bullet doesn't do much. I took a random water vase that smelled like ginger. I poured it all over them and it wilted. Geddy ran to me and tried to lead me upstairs, but as we ascend, another branch wrapped itself around Geddy's foot and dragged him down.

I did not hesitate to use my gun, but it slithers, so I chose to throw it to Geddy. Thank God he caught it and begins to shoot the branch.

"Fuck, Hansel. Get me a magazine!"

Oops. I'm sorry, I don't reload that much.

I went to his room and found his magazine. I glanced at his window and realized that his window is nearer to the tree. I threw the magazine near the tree, hopeful that he could get it later on if ever the branch passes there.

The branch that surrounds Geddy passes at the place where I threw the magazine. I was looking intently at the tree as it changes its form to open a door-like portal. From the portal, a guy in dark brown robe slithers his way to the branch as the branch supports Geddy so they could be face-to-face.

I'm right. That guy is not the one I met from the forest.

But Geddy was not reacting. Scared maybe? But no, when Geddy gets scared, he shoots. Which means one thing, he was not able to grab the magazine.

He's screwed. I'm stupid. I will see my second-cousin die in front of me because of my miscalculation.

The guy in robes approached Geddy. He touches his cheeks with his long and grey fingers, just like the guy I met.

"Je---rr---y." It said in a throaty voice.

I was shocked. He thought Geddy was his own father. I managed to get Geddy's extra gun but I can't shoot. I have a feeling that the creature would not hurt him. But I'm ready whenever.

It continues. "I'm sorry..."

Geddy suddenly shouted, clicked the magazine inside the gun, and shoots without pause. "Fuck you!"

The guy retreated back to the tree and the branches begun to wilt into its natural form. Geddy was released from the branches. I went down using the fire escape pole beside his window (yes, Geddy has that) and went beside him.

Geddy looked... vulnerable. A view that is seldom seen. I kneeled in front of him as he began to cry at my chest.

"They killed my father, and they're just going to say sorry? Fuck them."

But if I'm not mistaken, I think I also saw the creature with a tear on his eye.