And Then the Trees Came Knocking

Chapter 4

There was banging on the laundry room door, followed by screaming. A human. I hesitated. A monster could be behind her. Freddy jumped into action and opened the door. He pulled a woman inside and closed it behind her. Together they tried to push a washing machine in front of the door, but those were bolted to the floor. 

I pushed one of the free tables up to the door. It wasn't much, but it gave me peace of mind. We all moved back over to our hiding spot.

I just noticed now that the woman had splashes of blood on her clothing. Her eyes were lost, halfway gone.

"Hey, what's your name?" I asked. 

Freddy opened up the dryer machines. He found a shirt and handed it to the woman. She changed her pajama top, not even a bit hesitant to undress in front of strangers.

"Ernestine," she said. Freddy took her soiled shirt and put it in the trash bin. 

"How close were you?"

"A few feet from it. My husband, he... He..." She burst into tears. Holding her face in her hands, her wedding ring shimmered under drying blood. I wrapped my arms around her and held her for a while. 

The fire alarm's blaring quieted down, but only a bit. We were in the laundry room for a few hours before Ernestine arrived. The alarm must've had an end time.

"What are we gonna do next?" Freddy asked, gazing at me.

"We have to get the hell out of here," I said. I moved away from Ernestine. We sat in a close triangle, keeping our voices down.

"Where are we going to go?" Ernestine questioned.

"At this point, it doesn't matter," I told her. "All I know is that this building is a death trap."

"We can't just waltz out of here without a plan," Freddy snapped.

I glared at him. "I want to be clear about one thing," I hissed through my teeth. "I am looking out for myself. I am going to survive this, with or without anyone else. You can follow me if you want, but if you slow me down, you're getting left behind."

I hated to put it that way, but it was true. I didn't know these people. Freddy, Jane, and Junior may have followed me from the bus, but I wasn't their caretaker. 

"I get it," he said. His voice was bitter, like he hated the thought of being in this alone. "You're right. We have to look out for ourselves."

"What are those things?" Ernestine said.

"El mal-te-ve," Freddy murmured under his breath. "It's another term for madera de sangre."

"What does that mean?"

"Bloodwood."

"Are you talking about that folklore of man-eating trees?" Ernestine asked him.

Freddy nodded.

I glanced back and forth between them. "What folklore?"

Ernestine held her hands together. "In Madagascar, there was this explorer who found a tribe that fed a woman to a tree. He wrote a letter about it to his friend. All of Europe went crazy over it. In the end, it was just a hoax. They found out the letter was fake, even the explorer was made up. But people believed it was real for a long time. They looked all over for those trees. Never found one."

"In Peru, we had a similar story," Freddy added. "My mama would tell us that mal-te-ve would gobble us up if we ran around at night. I always thought she was just trying to keep us away from the gangs."

Bloodwood was such an ominous name. But it fit perfectly. 

"What if we are the monsters actually?" Ernestine said absently. "We chop down millions of trees a year. Maybe this is their retribution."

"Are you the fucking Lorax?" Freddy snapped. "These... these bloodwoods... they aren't normal trees. They have the shape, but nothing else."

Freddy was right. Whatever they were made of, it wasn't wood. Wood didn't have animal-like veins. And that black spot on them, it was probably an eye. I shivered thinking about it.

"Did it eat your husband?" I blurted.

Ernestine shrank back and put her hands over her ears. 

Freddy wrapped one arm around her and glared at me. "Jesus Dani..."

"I'm sorry. I was just thinking about this person we saw. The bloodwood didn't eat her. I just thought... that it was strange."

"Maybe it was full," Freddy said.

Ernestine vomited into her hands. She jumped up and ran over to the trash bin, heaving whatever scraps she still had in her. And she wailed, "Oh my god!" over and over again. She was loud. Too loud.

I popped up and rushed over to her. Grabbing her shoulders, I gave her a hard shake. "Be quiet. Please. Stop."

But she didn't stop. Ernestine continued, "Oh my god! Oh my god! Henry! Oh god!" Her sobs were thunderous. 

Freddy joined me, taking a hold of Ernestine and pleading with her to shut up. He covered one hand over her mouth, but that didn't do much to quell her cries. My heart thumped hard enough in my chest to hurt. 

Something banged against the door. Freddy and I froze. Ernestine dropped to the floor, now sobbing breathlessly. 

We waited. I exchanged glances with Freddy.

BANG! 

The entire door frame shook. 

We'd been heard.