Suicide Killed The Body, Not The Soul

When Trees Attack (7)

We had been walking for some time when suddenly something tripped me. At first I thought it was Jake and was about to yell at him when I noticed one of the roots of a tree moved. I slowly brought my head up to see that the trees brances were swinging around drastically. I saw that all of the other trees were doing the same. I looked at Jake fearfully and he gazed back at me.

"Look out!" Jake yelled and I moved to my side as a branch came swinging down.

Jake helped me up from the ground and soon we were dashing through the forest. Branches and tree roots swung around us and cut after cut appeared on my body. A tree tripped me, and was too quick for me to run away, and it launched me into the air with its branch. I screamed as I fell down but before I hit the ground I was launched back into the air.

"Jake!" I screamed.

"Clare!" He yelled back, "What do I do?" I watched as he was grasped by a branch. Instead of throwing him into the air like me it threw him into the trunk of another tree. I watched as he fell through the trunk to its center, making a big gaping hole in the wood. The branch picked him back up and did it again.

The trees continued to attack us, no matter how hard we screamed. I, then, heard a deep voice project something in a different language and then all was quiet. I fell to the Earth with a big thump on my back. All the wind was knocked out of me and I stayed like that, unable to move. I heard Jake crawl through a trees trunk and kick a hole at the bottom and come out. He kelt beside me on his knees.

"Is she okay?" He asked someone.

"Yeah. She'll be fine," The deep voice said.

I sat up and looked to my left, there was the ooze man.

"You did that!" I screamed at him.

"No, I stopped it," He said.

"Oh yeah?" I yelled getting up. I wobbled and Jake caught me before I fell.

"He did," Jake said, "I saw it."

"What was that?" I asked the ooze man.

"The force of Lucifer," He answered.

"He did that?" Jake said.

"It's Lucifer we're talking about... he does all kinds of shit," The ooze man said.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm a demon," He answered.

"Not what are you, who are you?" I clarified.

The demon sighed and held out his hand, "Dawson."

"Dawson?" I asked, looking at his hand with and expression I take as disgust.

"Yeah. Got a problem?" He asked putting his outstretched hand in his pocket.

"No," I said and started walking away. Jake followed but Dawson didn't. Dawson could do whatever the hell he wanted.

***

Again, Jake and I walked. It seemed that Hell was just one big treadmill... but instead of ignoring it and eating chips on the couch, you were forced to run it. There was another clearing in the path and Jake and I both dreaded what would happen next.

We saw a puddle of black ooze in the middle of the circle.

"Dawson?" I inquired

Jake squinted his eyes in disbelief, "I don't think so..."

I looked at his with wide eyes as the ooze began to bubble and form into a human. Jake was right, it wasn't Dawson. It was a woman with long, straight blond hair and bangs. Her eyes were dark, it was hard to tell their color.