Nightmare Stare Chapter Nine

I watch as the trees sway back and forth in that cold breeze. Its the same one that chills me to the core. It chills me so deep I can feel tears forming inside of my heart, I feel an uncomfortable lump in my throat and bite my lip.

If I stay here, I could die.

I could be as dead as those girls in my daughter's room.
I could be as dead as the life I used to have.

If I run, into that abyss, void of life, into that Forest of Lost Souls, I could die.

I take a small step out of my pseudo-room and onto the tall weedy grass. As my foot presses against the ground the grass screams like a dying mouse. I pull my foot back with a jump. My heart leaps and nearly breaks one of my ribs.
I look down at the grass, its wilted and shriveled. I look back at the trees, they're still swaying in the cold breeze. I decide to try walking again.
I place my foot in the same spot as before, no sound this time. I take another step, and as I press it down, the grass shrieks in agony, and dies. I'm frozen until the sound has stopped. My fists are clenched and pointed outward as my whole body shakes.
My breathing is unsteady. Its that same shaky breathing one gets from being out in the blistering cold. I don't see my breath and so it must just be fear.

I move my left leg and kill more grass as my foot touches the ground again. I almost begin walking at a steady pace when I take a look behind myself and can't see the doorway.

I see only The Forest of Lost Souls.

I look forward again, and there standing in front of me, is the giant Oak Tree.
"Where are you off to, my love?" It asks me. I stumble over my words, my tongue has forgotten how to work.
"I...I was just...gagah...gonna go...buh, buh..."
"I understand, you want to be back home." The Tree says. "I thought maybe the room I made you would suffice, but alas, I was proven wrong. Now you must see me as an enemy."
"Nuh, nuh, no...I...was..."
"There're no need for lies, darling. I know what I look like." It says. Its voice is transforming, it slides between sounding like an old dying man, and a young girl.
"I just...want...ted...to..."
"Come here, darling." The Tree says and picks me up, my bones feel like they're going to shatter like glass. "This is the world I made, in my image. Everything here was once made of concrete and stone, but I reformed it made it all beautiful."
I understood what The Tree was saying but was too afraid to respond. Too afraid to say,
"Yeah, I'm doing something similar back home!" The Tree continued.
"My world is beautiful. As beautiful as I wanted it to be, but then I saw you, I saw your world and knew I needed some of it here. The colors were all so vivid and the light was so blinding. They were things I had never thought of or had seen before. This is the reason I brought you here, I want you to help me rebuild my world. I want to form a union with you."
"I just...just need some..."
"You request time?" The Tree asked. It paused for a while, but kept walking. Eventually it set me down, as it looked down at me it said.
"I will give you time, darling. Now go back home and get some rest." Then, a massive avalanche of maggots caved down on me, and all went black.


-Sir Jestro