"We have to go back now. So I guess we'll see you two tomorrow. Bye!" Anna said as the two of us bid farewell.
Our walk to the school was noisy. Anna will never stop talking. Though most of the times I couldn't understand a word she says, as long as it makes her happy then I wouldn't mind her yapping endlessly her entire life.
When she had finished fangirling over Maria and Joseph, our topic returned to the death of this one girl named Cheryl. It was one of the few topics that would leave Anna silent for a minute or two. And it worried me.
Such a topic wouldn't have such an effect on her- on us!- if we didn't see it for ourselves.
Just think, Anna and I wanted to go to school early that day because she wanted to go to the rooftop before classes started. She only wanted to feel the fresh air to start off her day. But no-- we had to see the dead corpse with our own eyes. How the body's feet was severed. How it was almost cut into half. We saw the dried blood on the grassy floor. No words could describe the sight. Oh wait--it was simply brutal.
The guards arrived seconds after we did along with our principal. It was yet another death case. The school seemed to have been experiencing too much of it already. The death of three students who were known to be gangsters, the death of the teacher who was said to commit suicide, the death of our student council president alonf with the disappearance of a number of students who were said to be a gang. Now this.
Immediately, an autopsy crew came along with an ambulance and one police car; one mere police car. The principal had obvious uneasiness about the happening. Not because he was worried about the students' welfare, but because he didn't want to add more reputation-ruining news to the school's records. I know if this continues, the school will eventually shut down and he will lose his job.
He threatened us to stay silent about what we saw. He said he was going to expel us if we dare say a single word.
I wouldn't have minded, I could study anywhere. But Anna couldn't. She is under a scholarship in the school. She has no parents anymore, she works part time every night while balancing her grades all at the same time. Being expelled wasn't something that she could handle. She had no choice but to say quiet, and for her sake I would too.
Having said that, we still told Maria and Joseph, especially when we also heard that the girl who died there was the one who posted the video about them. We just couldn't help it. Our conscience was eating us alive! We had to tell someone and they were the only two that we trusted enough.
"The rumors in school have really taken its toll on Joseph and Maria. It's pretty obvious the Joseph is stressing over it." She remarked and I just nodded.
"To think that I'd hear that from Joseph, poor guy." I sympathized him. Just the mere idea of calling himself a monster means he has already had enough.
We were silent once again. We were both frustrated. I could feel it. Everything around us has been turning topsy turvy and we couldn't do a thing about it.
"I blame the tree," I heard her mutter to herself and I just couldn't help but ball my fists.
I know it sounds crazy, but yes, we hate the tree.
I bet you're wondering why? What did a harmless tree ever do to us except give us clean air and a better world? Well, the tree we're talking about is dfferent.
It eats humans.
I know it's hard to believe, but we saw it with our own two eyes! Back then, we were still kids. We were playing with out friends when a girl in a white dress approached us inviting us to play with her under the tree. I could remember that Anna and I didn't join because it was already late. My parents called us and we were about to go home, but Anna forgot that she lent her doll to one of our friends so we want back just to retrieve it, then the sight that greeted us was--
I shivered. It was not a memory that you'd want to return to.
It took me years of therapy to move on from the ordeal, but Anna had no help. She had to forget it herself, that's why until now she's still angry at it. No one could be angrier than her.
We wouldn't have known that the tree behind our school was the same as the one we saw years ago if it weren't for the death cases. It was like a warning, a brutal warning.
"Poor Maria and Joseph, why are they the one who are supposed to take care of that monster?! Now they're getting the blame!" Anna shouted in frustration. I just looked at her with understanding.
When we heard that the two of them were taking care of it, we were honestly worried for them. No one should get too close to that monstrosity. We wanted to warn them, but their aura made it impossible to approach them even! So we were left just worrying.
It was just recently when we decided to go to the rooftop. We wanted to stay away from the tree as far as possible. Plus the fresh air calmed our nerves. We never thought that we would be able to talk to the tree's guardians there.
We ran away for the first few days because they were just literally emitting this scary aura, but they talked to us and we somehow got along.
The next days after that were just plain weird and we were able to experience was Maria and Joseph were able to experience; the feeling of hate, the feeling of being outcasted. We felt sorry for them even more!
"The tree should just be burned or something," I commented lowly, "It's a pretty useless experiment anyway." Anna nodded in agreement.
"Maria and Joseph doesn't deserve anything that's happening to them right now. They deserve to be happy!" She held her chest and started to look sad, it was rubbing on me too.
"They couldn't be as long as the tree is there. The rumors are getting out of hand and for them to actually blame two innocent people, it's too much!" I stated frustrated.
"The two of them probably don't even know that the thing they are taking care of brings them misery."
"What if they did know?"
Anna and I were startled by a voice that came from nowhere. I immediately hid her behind me and had my guards up. I looked around to see who it was and I was shocked to see a man in a trench coat leaning on the shaded part of the tree.
Such an ominous get-up sent an ominous aura too. I just new we had to get away--
"Don't move," but the stranger had stop us by a simple order. His voice sounded so dangerous that it made me feel that even our slightest move would get us in danger.
"Ken, I'm scared," Anna whispered under her breath. I didn't knkw what to do.
"Don't be, Anna." Then the stranger uttered throwing us a a thick folder containing some paper work, "I'm here to warn you, I'll be taking me leave soon enough. Take that with you, read it and let's see about your beliefs."
I hesitantly reached for the documents and when I opened it, it wa s something I did not expect to see.
Clara Research Paper #666
My eyes widened at the papers' title. By the time I looked back at the stranger, he was already walking away from us. I wanted to shout at him, but it would catch attention and people might think we're doing shady business. I bit my lip to keep myself quiet.
"What is that?" Anna asked, reading the title as well. "Clara? Isn't that Maria's last name?"
We decided not to open it in public and just to read it the next day. Instead of attending class, we would read this files in the rooftop. We split the paper in two so we could read it all faster and just share everything we understood afterwards.
It contained information that I never thought I would know. It contained everything about the tree; its chemical tamperings, its eating schedules, its diet. It was also stated there that it has two objectives: One, to create a cleaner and greener world and, Two, to create a Medical miracle--?
"Oh my god-" I turned to Anna who had her mouth covered in disbelief.
"What?" I asked worried.
She gave me the papers and I was equally shocked. It was hospital records of Jian, Maria and Joseph. It stated that Jian died because of a car accident, Maria was an immature baby and that Joseph fell from the top of a ferris wheel and was lucky to have survived.
I gulped. What could it possibly mean?
We read on further and piece by piece I started to see a connection. It was something I refused to believe in. But every page I read supported the theory I had in my mind.
The last parts of the documents were the reports of accidents here at school and Cheryl's rumor page --which I didn't know existed.
Anna laughed forcibly, "What? Are these papers saying that Maria, Joseph and even Jian are controlling the tree to kill?" She expected a retort but I couldn't deny the facts. "Ken!" She shouted and held me by my shoulders, "I refuse to believe that those two are murderers!"
"They are Anna," I held both her hands, "But they don't have a choice-- they do it to survive." She was confused by my statement.
After a few minutes of explaining, discussing, debating even, we finally made a summary of the research paper.
Maria, Joseph and Jian are kept alive by their connection to the tree. Whatever happens to the tree happens to them as well but not vice versa. To keep the tree alive, they have to feed it its only diet, human flesh and sometimes blood. It also means that they were the killers of all the people who died behind our school. They were the one who left Cheryl's almost severed body.
"I can't believe it," Anna leaned on the railings as she wore an expression of shock and disbelief, "Maria and Joseph are murderers. I just can't believe it."
I held my forehead and sighed, "Me too, but you know, I don't hate them at all-- instead I feel sorry for them."
I saw Anna nodding in agreement as well.
We heard the bell ringing. Anna and I hurriedly fixed the research papers and hid it in my bag. It was breaktime, and it meant that they were going up here.
When we were able to finish fixing our things, we looked out the railings only to see a full top-view of that monstrosity. I growled.
"There must be a way to save Maria and Joseph," I muttered to myself. But I knew Anna heard me loud and clear.
"We have to help them Ken. We can't just leave them," Anna balled her fists trying to hold in tears.
The door suddenly opened and we were greeted by their voices.
"Rebels, aren't we? I never would have thought that you two would cut classes," remarked Maria oh so casually.
I couldn't pretend like we didn't just learn something big.
I couldn't hold it in.
"We never would have thought that you were murderers as well."