"Tyler, Tyler, no..." Josh begged shakily, Tyler worming around in his arms. He was trying to escape his strong clutches, sobbing his heart out.
"Tyler, please stop. You're safe now, you're..."
When Tyler didn't stop struggling, it meant something was wrong. He kept passing his clawed hand over Tyler's head, trying to erase the memory he had just witnessed.
"You're not changing. Why can't I alter your memories?"
Tyler wasn't paying attention. He was scrambling from his arms as he sat there in shock. He left Josh behind as he ran inside, screaming for his siblings and mother to run out of the back door.
Josh could only sit there on the porch, still in his beast form. He had finally done it. He had reached the limit of his powers, he had created a memory so horrible that he couldn't change it.
Tyler would remember it forever.
The body of his father had been dragged into the woods by creatures, the blood trail following in its wake. The woodland creatures celebrated as they saw that they were free from the hunter.
There was no rejoicing for Josh. He had freed Tyler, but at what cost? He scared him so much that he ran away. His prince ran away from him.
The flower that had bloomed remained on the ground. Josh hadn't the heart to look back at it. His chest was a sunken black hole of emptiness now, and even a flower couldn't console him.
With the terrified screams of the Joseph family escaping in the background, the chirps of crickets filled Josh's ears. The sounds of the forest had never seen so unappealing to him.
"You did what you had to." A voice broke the silence. It was the flower, the one who had taken her place in society as a nurse at the hospital.
She stood behind Josh. Seeing the black painted back of her prince shake with oncoming sobs, she sighed.
"It was either let him be taken away from you by the hunter or free him."
"But now he's terrified of me. I'm just a fucking monster." Josh replied. He wiped away a tear, momentarily forgetting about his talons and slicing open his cheek. He winced.
"Not with him you're not. Once you marry him, you no longer will be. This form, it's temporary. With Tyler, you'll be-"
"BUT HE ISN'T COMING BACK!" Josh roared, standing up and facing her. He got right up against her, nostrils flaring. "I MURDERED HIS FATHER IN COLD BLOOD AND LOST ANY CHANCE TO GET HIM BACK!"
The flower remained calm. She drew in a breath and placed a hand on his chest. Immediately, small flowers bloomed from under her fingertips and spread across his body.
"This is the real you, my prince." She whispered.
His form morphed back into a human, but this time, he was adorned in a spiked crown of flowers and a suit of pressed plants. His skin was aglow with light, the pure perfection of it shimmering in the flower's eyes.
"This is the you that's going to marry Tyler and bring order back to the forest. Back to your life."
This time, as tears sprang from his eyes, he nodded. She was right. He wasn't that monster Tyler had seen. He was a pure forest prince, with nothing but good in his heart.
He had to make it up to Tyler, somehow. He just needed him back, he needed him to listen.
Without so much as a word to the flower, he ran off, chasing after the car that the Josephs had piled into.
The car ended up at the edge of the forest, on the other side of town. They would take the road out and to the next town over, twenty miles away.
Tyler's mother was still very confused as she attempted to calm the kids, who were crying in the back of the car.
Gritting his teeth through tears, Tyler didn't answer as he kept driving. He white-knuckled the steering wheel, choking it as if it had done ill will towards him.
"Tyler!" His mother cried, getting his attention. "Pull this car over and tell me right now! Where is your father?"
"I can't pull over, mom, not until we're safe!" He replied, breath shaky.
"Safe from what?"
"Safe from-"
Tyler slammed the brake and the car came to an abrupt halt. The engine idled as they sat there, staring at the exit out of town.
Except it wasn't an exit anymore. There was nothing. It had become overtaken by trees, the metal sign that once read, "Come Again!" warped by the strong plants.
"What is going on?" His mother sobbed, holding her children close to her.
"Josh..." Tyler whispered to himself. "He did this. He trapped us."
As if on cue, Josh came from the forest, directly in front of them. Tyler screamed in horror at the otherwise bright and beautiful boy, putting the car in reverse and backing up.
He didn't get far. The bumper crashed into a stump that had grown from the ground, and vines sprouted up on all sides.
They were trapped in the car, which grew darker as the vines consumed them.
Tyler got in the back seat and held his family for what he thought would be the last time. He apologized over and over for bringing them into it.
Except nothing happened. There wasn't a crunch of metal or a shatter of glass. All that happened was the door opened, and Josh stood before them, his ethereal self looking extremely out of place.
"Get away!" Tyler shrieked as he pushed his family to the other side of the car.
Josh saw what he did to him. Tear tracks running down his slightly dirty face, a panicked, horrified expression, and the inability to breathe properly.
"Josh!" Madison cried at the sight of him, trying to get closer to him. She clambered over Tyler and flung herself into his arms as he knelt down and hugged her.
"No!" Tyler protested. He tore her away, and Josh frowned. "Leave us alone!"
"Tyler, I'm so sorry. Your father was a bad man, and he-"
"You killed him!"
"Daddy's dead?" Zack whimpered, looking at his mother, who could only look at Tyler, confused as well.
"Is he...is he dead?"
Tyler swallowed hard. He nodded sorrowfully, avoiding Josh's eyes. The pain was too much, even if he hated his father.
"You killed him?" She looked to Josh now, unable to believe that a boy like him could do it. Or why he did it.
"Why?"
Josh sighed, hanging his head. His crown, magnificent and bright with flowers, seemed to droop with him.
"My name isn't really Josh. And I'm not human."
Tyler almost didn't even bother listening; it sounded utterly wrong.
"I'm a dryad, a...a tree spirit. I was born in the forest, from an oak tree. My parents were the king and queen of the forest, until their trees were cut down by that-that awful logging company."
At the mention of it, he clenched his fists. He had to dispel the anger, and one way to do that was to look at Tyler. Look upon his beauty, his innocence.
His mouths going dry, he continued.
"They were killed when I was two, barely able to remember. My tree was somehow spared, and I lived. I was lost in the forest for maybe a couple months when my human parents found me on the edge of town. They rescued me and raised me."
"Did you kill them too?" Tyler spat.
The disdain in Tyler's voice hurt Josh more than anything else.
"No. When I was 15, my powers were growing, but in the wrong way. In the way that you saw. I didn't know what was happening to me. They got scared and...and they were going to call the police. For the first time, I used my full power and...and turned them into trees. Into the two that held the hammock. I did it so they couldn't run away."
To everyone, even Tyler, all of this was just too out of reach. There was no way that this was real. This was a bad dream. It had to be.
"My name is Johannes Träd, and I'm the prince of the forest." Josh spoke with a bit more confidence.
"And your town is the last town on Earth. My forest has taken over everywhere, every continent, every island. You're the last remaining humans."