A Plagued Winter

Chapter 2

The great trees of the forest; Spruce, Sequoia, Norway, Cedar, Hemlock, and other variations and mixes of those species. Dancing Bahia grass and thorny cousins of Mulberry bushes each and every one mocked me as I found myself standing at the forest treeline again. They hide their secrets and whisper to one another; their haunting words being lost in the overtaking wind.  Where are you?

Today is November 21st, 2016.
Today is Trey's Birthday. Right now he would be eighteen years old. Right now, we'd be celebrating with an Oreo ice cream cookie cake and running around in the field chasing each other in a pointless game of tag. He was always the fastest. Not just within our little group, but out of all the kids in the neighborhood he ranked #1. During middle school, he was the fastest in his grade too. I never got the chance to beat him in a race but I doubt that if he were still here right now I would've won against him.

I release the hold of the forest's gaze and reach for the candle and match in my satchel. No, I wasn't going to set the damn forest on fire, that's ridiculous. This candle was for Trey. Every year on his birthday I sneak out of my house and light a candle for him by the tree where he.. was killed. I sit by the candle until it dies out and then I leave. I can never go back into the forest for anything outside of this reason. It's ruined for me, the memory haunts me forever. The sounds of my own screaming as I ran to my friend's dead body. Mikey seeing us and picking me up and running me out of the woods. The way his mother looked at us as if we were playing some joke and Mikey's father calling the police shortly after realizing that we weren't. The police showing up only to find that Trey was gone... They had told us Trey must've ran away because there was no sign of foul play (after we had been ruled out as suspects). They told us that we shouldn't have been out so late and that we needed to get inside. They told us he'd be back soon... That darkness can play tricks on the mind... That I didn't see him die. Adults can be so painfully blind sometimes.

I complete the satisfying action of lighting the match and I watch as the flames make their way towards the wick of the candle with longing. What I would give to feel that warmth again. To feel the love of an endless summer thawing out my frozen heart. I hover my pointer finger over the flame and smile at the pain that comes along with its beauty.

It's hard to feel happy like I used to. I know Trey wasn't the only friend I had but he was the best one. And if I had to pick any favorites at all, it would automatically be him. He was there for me whenever I needed him, he was kind and caring, and he always had this warmth that radiated from him and you just couldn't help but smile when he was around. After Trey died, so did the neighborhood. Me and Mikey, we fell apart. Trey was our glue and without him we were hopeless. Mikey didn't come to Trey's Birthday Candle last year, he said he wanted to just forget about the whole thing. We had a big fight about it. Mikey said that I needed to let him go. He said maybe the cops were right about Trey. Maybe he had just run away for some reason. I had screamed at the top of my lungs telling him that he was just like everyone else and that if he was too scared to acknowledge the truth, he should just go. That was last summer, the last time I had talked to him was on his front porch that night.  It always gets me thinking about our birthdays in March. Our parents liked to celebrate our birthdays on the same day because we had the same month even though he was older by 20 days. I guess we were old enough now to not care about birthday rituals as a whole.

I patted my back pocket to assure myself that my hunting dagger was where it needed to be, took a deep shaky breath, and headed into the forest to begin.

Once again, like every time I've ever gone into the woods after Trey's death, the air felt strange. It was harder to breathe and my eyesight grew slightly fuzzy at the edges. It was like I entered an entirely different world. One that was hazy and dangerous.  The sounds around me became muffled in a sense and the birds and critters ceased.      Why did it have to be him?

I find the tree with ease. That night when the cops asked for us to take them to where we saw his body, I knew exactly which tree it was even in the dark.      Its image haunts my memories and lurks in my nightmares to remind me of what I lost. I place the candle on the dirt ground at the base of the tree and sit crisscross in front of it. Then, I close my eyes and allow myself to relive that night once more.

Trey.. his eyes locked with mine.. holding my gaze in a piercing stare. A look of fear in his eyes but a reassuring smile he offers me when I call out to him.
He was always so gentle.    Why him?    Why did you take him away from me?
My hands shake and I clench my fists tightly and wrap my arms around myself. I will go through this torture over and over even if it means losing everyone. Justice, remembrance, and truth for my friend. I won't ever forget what happened here. That is what I owe him.
Trey's existence drains from within his eyes as something rips his life away in a split second. The moment his mouth stopped smiling and went slack. His neck as it gives way and bends backward at an unnatural angle before his body slipped from the tree branch and tumbled to the floor in a heap of limbs and leaking blood. I can only pray that he was gone before he felt any pain. That he was already dead before his body hit the ground with the echo of a collapse. That he had met his end before I came out of that frozen horror and began to scream and howl in pain and fear.

"Carlee~" 

Trey's voice calls to me from outside my memories. My eyes shoot open and I stand up immediately doing a 360°.   Did I just hear-

"Who's there?" 

I finger my pocket for my hunting knife and back myself up against the tree.

Images of reality and nightmares I've had since that night intermingle in my head, revealing the vision of a monster darker than obsidian with razor-sharp claws. Trey was killed by something in this forest. A monster lurked in the darkness carrying the corpse of my best friend.     It's here with you now...

"Carlee 'psst. Hey ... Are you okay?'" 

Overwhelming heaps of emotions beat at my temples and I feel surrounded. That was Trey's voice... but how?? Dread sinks deep within my veins as the realization hits me like the chuck of a rock to my dome. Those words ... that was the last thing I ever said to him. 

"Trey?" 

My voice quivers and I feel tears begin to prick at the corners of my eyes and the tip of my nose start to burn. There was no way he could be here right now, there was no way I should be able to hear his voice anywhere but inside my morphed memories. I sniffle and at that moment I catch wind of something foul in the air. The smell of death and decay. The same familiar smell that filled my nose that night.

No. This wasn't Trey. Whatever I was hearing was either in my head and I had completely lost it or... Or something was here trying to take me just like it took Trey.
I took one last look around and then darted for the exit leaving the candle behind.

Shit, if this place does burn down then maybe I'd be able to feel safe again.