The first thing I did was call the police so they could help find Chrissy. I told them that I was worried she would be in the woods outside the park. It was the same officer that had come out when I found the man in the field. She informed me that the man still wasn’t doing so well, but he started shouting “Chrissy” in the middle of the night. She was hoping that Chrissy would be able to come to the hospital to see if she knew him.
After I hung up, I got my coat, hat, and gloves and ran out to my car. I drove through her neighborhood and down the main street towards town and the park.
I looked down some of the other neighborhoods I drove by and noticed someone walking in one that I passed by. When I turned around and went down it, I saw that it was just someone walking their dog. I drove down a few more streets that she would have had to walk through, but didn’t find her.
Finally, I pulled into the parking lot for the park. There was a police car already parked there. I followed the footprints that were going towards the trail leading into the woods. It was eerily silent and the trail was beautiful with the snow covered branches.
After walking for a while, I noticed an area of broken branches just off the pathway that went deeper into the woods. There looked to be fresh footprints going down this makeshift path. I followed it for a while until it wasn’t clear anymore where the path was going.
My eyes gazed around the woods searching for which way I should go next. A faint glow in the distance caught my attention and I started heading towards it, creating a new path. As I got closer, I could see the brilliant red glowing leaves of the tree Chrissy had told me about and that I had seen in my dream. I suddenly realized that I had been staring at the tree, not looking where I was going and just feeling the scratches on my face from the pine tree I just walked through. I stopped at the edge of the woods, noticing the almost perfect circle around it where nothing was growing.
Chrissy and the officer were standing in that clearing looking up at the tree, their eyes fixed on the glowing leaves that seemed to move in the breeze even though there was no wind. Chrissy was barefoot and shivering in her thin pajamas.
“Chrissy! Officer!” I shouted.
When there was no response, I reached down and grabbed a handful of snow. It wasn’t good packing snow because it was so cold, but after squeezing it in my gloved hands for a while, it finally stayed together. I chucked the snowball at the officer since she at least had a jacket on. It connected in the middle of her back, but she didn’t turn around. I made another one and lobbed it a little gentler trying to hit her in the head without hurting her. I missed on the first two tries, but got her on the third. The snowball broke apart and covered her hair. That did the trick.
The officer slowly turned around, looking very confused until she spotted me. “What happened? I found Chrissy, but then she was gone,” she said.
“She’s right next to you,” I said. “But don’t look back at the tree. We need to get her out of here and to the hospital.”
I found myself staring again at the tree and wanting to get closer. It was like I was fighting with my mind to stay in this spot and not go up to it.
“Chrissy!” the officer called while shaking her arm. When Chrissy didn’t react, she grabbed onto her arm and dragged her over to me. Then when they were both out of the clearing, she radioed for an ambulance.
I picked Chrissy up and carried her back to the trail and eventually out of the woods. The ambulance was already there and the EMS workers were running to us to help. They wrapped her in a blanket and carried her to the ambulance. Chrissy wasn’t saying anything, but when she looked at me, I could tell she recognized me.
After they got her situated and secure in the back of the ambulance, they took off down the road with the sirens blaring.
“That tree was beautiful,” the officer said. “I should go back and take some pictures of it.”
“No, don’t go back,” I said. “Something is really wrong with that tree.”
“I can’t stop thinking about it,” she said. Then she closed her eyes and smiled. “I can see it clearly.”
“What were you telling me about the man in the hospital?” I asked, trying to get her to focus on something else. My mind kept going back to the tree as well, but I kept fighting it by thinking of
Chrissy and worrying if she was going to be okay. It didn’t seem to have the same hold on me as it did on them. Maybe because I didn’t get close enough to it.
The officer opened her eyes again and seemed to focus on me. “What was I saying?” she asked.
“You were telling me that you would meet me at the hospital,” I lied.
“Oh, that’s right,” she said, seeming to come out of her daze.
“We should go,” I said, and then waited for her to get in her car and start driving away. I entered my car and drove to the hospital.
There was something so strange about that tree. I knew I needed to find a way to stop whatever it was doing to people, but I also wanted to go back and see it, which scared me.
When I finally go to the hospital and found out what room Chrissy was in, I went in to visit her. She was hooked up to an IV and covered up with blankets. Her eyes were closed so I quietly sat down in the chair.
When a nurse came in to check on her, I stood up and followed her out the door to ask her about Chrissy. She told me that she had hypothermia and mild frostbite on her feet, and that she was lucky it wasn’t worse.
I saw the officer walking towards me while I was talking to the nurse. She waited until the nurse walked away and then came over.
“How’s she doing?” she asked.
“She’s asleep now. Luckily, it is just mild frostbite on her feet and hypothermia,” I said.
“We’re lucky you came when you did,” she said. “I don’t know what happened to me out there, but I feel more clear-headed now.”
I wanted to say something about destroying the tree, but then I thought about how beautiful it was and that I was just being crazy thinking a tree could cause all this.
“Is that man still here?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Do you want to go see him? Maybe you may recognize him if you see him closer up. Although, he probably doesn’t look very much like he used to right now. They had to remove part of his nose, and some of his fingers and toes. He’s lucky to be alive, but the doctor said he’s not out of the woods yet.”
“That’s like in my dream,” I said to myself.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“Nothing. I just…I had a dream last night about that tree and that man was there. He was missing his nose and some of his fingers…and one of his hands,” I said.
“When I saw him a couple days ago, he still had both hands,” she said. “That is strange though.”
I was glad that she at didn’t look like she thought I was crazy. After I agreed to go, we walked down the hall to another room on the sam floor.
The door was mostly open so we just went in. The officer had said that he still wasn’t speaking other than shouting Chrissy’s name.
His face was bandaged up and he turned to look at us as we entered, making eye contact with me. All of a sudden, the machine he was hooked up to began beeping faster and louder. Then he began screaming, his eyes wide with terror.
Some nurses rushed in and had us leave. Even after they closed the door, we could still hear him scream.
“Are you sure you don’t know him?” asked the officer. “That was a pretty strong reaction to seeing you.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “It was only that night when I saw him in the field and then in my dream.”
“What happened in your dream with him?” she asked.
“I, um…I chopped him up with an ax in front of that tree,” I said hesitantly.
She gave me a surprised look. “Well, I didn’t expect that to be your answer.”
While we were walking back to Chrissy’s room, I told her more about the tree and what Chrissy had told me about it. I also told her how strange it was finding her and Chrissy just standing there staring at the tree.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “I just remember seeing Chrissy and then the tree, and then you hitting me with the snowball.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, but you weren’t moving it responding to me and there was no way I was going closer to that tree,” I said. “We need to do something about it.” I again felt weird for thinking about destroying the tree. “Those leaves on that tree were so beautiful, though.”
“They certainly were,” she said, closing her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them up and said, “I should get back out on my patrol. Give me a call if there is anything else that comes up that I should know.”
“Will do,” I said. Then I went quietly into Chrissy’s room.
She turned her head towards me when I entered. “Hey, you’re awake,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“Groggy and tired,” she said. “What happened to me? The doctor told me I was in the park, but I don’t know how I got there.”
“You walked,” I said. “After I woke up from my nightmare, I saw that the front door was open and found your footprints in the snow. I found you in just your pajamas by the tree.”
“At least I wasn’t naked like that man,” she said.
“You also must not have been out there as long as him. He’s in pretty rough shape. The police officer said that he thinks he knows you because he was shouting your name…she’s hoping you can go visit him when you are able to move around,” I said.
She closed her eyes for a moment and then scrunched her eyebrows. “I think I remember seeing him in my dream last night…and I think you were there too,” she said.
“He was in my dream last night too, but I didn’t see you,” I said.
Her eyes were still closed, but then she suddenly opened them wide, looking horrified. “And you…you chopped him up with an ax. It was awful…the worst part was you were smiling and looked like you were enjoying it.”
“I think the worst part was the ax,” I said. “I didn’t want to do it, but I wasn’t in control in the dream.”
“You mean, you had the same dream as me?” she asked.
“Sounds like it,” I said. “But where were you in it?”
“I was in the tree…or maybe I was part of the tree,” she said.
“That’s strange,” I said.
“This whole thing is strange,” she said. “But I can’t stop thinking about the tree…I can’t help it, but I want to go back to it…I need to go back.”
She started grabbing at her hand and I realized she was trying to pull out the IV. “Chrissy, stop!” I shouted. “Help!” Then I ran over and grabbed her arm before she was able to take it out. “Calm down…you need to rest,” I said, holding her arm as she fought against me.
A nurse ran in. “What is going on?” he asked.
“She’s trying to take out her IV,” I said.
He ran over to help.
“No, I have to go!” Chrissy shouted.
Her shouts drew a couple more nurses in the room and then the doctor. The doctor had a syringe and connected it to the IV line. “This will help,” she said. “It is a sedative and will help you rest.”
Chrissy put up a fight for a little longer, but then finally relaxed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not sure what I’m doing.”
“It’s okay,” said the doctor. “You had extreme exposure out there. You just need to get some rest.”
“Thank you and I’m sorry,” said Chrissy.
I stayed with her until she fell asleep and then left to go back home. On the way, I had to pull over a couple times from police cars and an ambulance speeding by with their lights flashing and sirens blaring.
When I drove past town, I saw that they were all stopped in front of the drug store. I knew it had to have something to do with Mr. Roberts.
There were people standing out on the sidewalk watching. I drove past the emergency vehicles and parked in front of the diner.
After getting out, I saw Emily standing there. “Hey, do you know what’s going on?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. We just heard all the sirens and came out,” she said.
We stood there for a while and eventually two paramedics came out wheeling a stretcher. Someone was on there, but the sheet was covering their entire body.
A little while later, a police officer came out, leading Mr. Roberts towards the police car. His hands were cuffed behind his back and it looked like he was covered in blood.
“Oh my God,” said Emily.
I was stunned and didn’t know what to say. He had been acting strange, but I never would’ve thought he would attack someone.
Over the next couple days, word spread quickly about what had happened. Mr. Roberts had killed the cashier, Jenna, who I had spoken to the other day. A customer had seen him stabbing her with a pair of scissors and ran out to call the police. When they got there, they found him kneeling over her carving something into her back.
There was more too. When they went to his house, they found Mrs. Roberts and discovered that she had been dead for days. Her body was found in the basement. He had propped her up with a long pole, her arms stretching out to the side like branches, and surrounded by red leaves.
I had to fill in Chrissy when she was released from the hospital on the gruesome details of the murders. She couldn’t believe it, just like the rest of us in town. As I drove her to her house, I told her we need to do something about that tree. She nodded her head in agreement, but her eyes seemed somewhere far away.