Suicide Tree || ✓

1. "Suicide Tree"

I was standing close to the forest of our town, waiting for Lily. Well I was standing across the street from it, but that was close enough for me. The weather had a little summer feel to it, with it being sunny and warm, but there was a chill in the air that gave me goosebumps and made me shiver. Winter was coming and with it the cold, a feeling I was never too fond of.

Abruptly, the wind changed direction and a horrible stench invaded my nostrils and made my eyes tear up. I turned my head to see if there was any rotting food on the streets or near the park as a source of the stench but as quickly as it came, it was gone.

The next day I was there again, same time, waiting for Lily to show up so we could walk to school. Again, a horrible smell clouded my senses, albeit much stronger this time around. There was a feeling of dread in my stomach that I couldn't quite explain. Could it be the garbage truck? But it didn't smell like any garbage I've ever known. It continued on like this for a while – the smell and dread getting stronger day by day – until finally I had enough of it. A week later I dragged a reluctant Lily towards the park.

Everything about that day fed the dread that was building up in my stomach – from the dark, thick clouds to the cold wind whistling a mournful song. With winter coming, the wind had been begun to pick up more, causing the leaves to fall at a faster pace. The trees were almost bare, their naked bodies swaying harshly.

Our forest wasn't like any other; it was dotted with old trees near the outskirts, making it almost seem like a friendly forest, but the deeper you wandered the denser and darker it became. At night, it had a gloomy and haunting feel to it. The only clearing was large and on the other side of the thickly wooded forest, where it stretched out into a small, but rocky cliff. During the summer, rock climbing would be a common sport as well as simply bathing in the sun and playing around in the grass. But when it grew cold and windy, everybody knew better than to come to that place. The cliff became a dangerous area and the oldest species to ever reside in this town was haunting without the sun and warmth.

Although we passed the forest every day on our way to school, we often tended to avoid it on the wintery days by crossing the street and walking as far away from it as possible. Today, we walked towards it.

The stench was weak from where we stood, but I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary so I dragged Lily deeper into the dark greenery. She grew less reluctant as she too became curious of what lay on the other side.

Finally we reached the other side of the park.

Usually during autumn there are leaves fluttering to the ground, landing on a pile of its kin and in winter there is snow falling gently from its dancing branches. Usually in spring you begin to see specks of green and bursts of color dotting its dark appearance and in summer the willow tree is greener than the grass and it sways calmly with the wind, the ruffling leaves creating nature's own music.

Usually the beautiful, age old weeping willow is never adorned with three hanging bodies, their feet not too far from the crystal clear pond.

I heard an ear-splitting scream from Lily. Then I realized my own mouth was open as well, an unrecognizable high pitched sound spilling out from it. I wanted to close my eyes, I tried to close my eyes, but I had no control over them. They scoured the tree, stopping too long on the colorless faces and tight nooses. All their necks were bent at an awkward angle, and their eyes were empty. Two adults, a male and a female, hung by their necks and between them another girl, albeit much younger. I gasped when I recognized their faces.

I suddenly realized that my legs were moving of their own accord, and I noticed as I grew closer that a single note on a black piece of paper was nailed to the tree with words written in elegant, white, cursive writing.

I ripped the note off and stuffed it in my back pocket for no apparent reason – perhaps it was the first words that made me want to hide it from the town. Surprisingly what happened next is a blur; I vaguely remember a sobbing Lily and me talking frantically to the police officer at the station and then us leading a group of them through the dreaded park to the willow tree. I had hoped with all my heart that this was just a terrible nightmare, a joke, but there they hung, as dead as before. I remember spewing out the remains of my breakfast at the foot of a thick trunk, and a warm, familiar hand rubbing my back and holding back my hair.

The weeping willow wept that day; droplets of water spilling from the tips of its branches and rotten leaves. It poured from it so fast, that it created a small waterfall distorting our view of its trunk. The pond grew larger and my dread stronger.

After a long time since the Suicide Horror, the Suicide Tree reaped lives once more.

That night I lay on my bed, tightly clutching on to Sam and shivering despite the warmth of the thick blanket we were currently under. He held on to me just as tight, slowly brushing his fingers through my hair, and placing small kisses on my face.

"Shh," he whispered. My foggy brain didn't quite grasp why he was saying so until my ears finally began picking up on the sounds of my harsh breathing and the feeling of fresh trails of liquid on my face.

"I saw three dead bodies," I said to Sam quietly after a while, drawing random patterns on his chest. Thankfully he remained silent. "Ms. Dinnetz, Mr. Crawford and Hailey Crawford," Sam sucked in a sharp breath. The names of the bodies hadn't been released to the press yet. "An entire family Sam. An entire, goddamned family – Hailey was 16, my age. I may not have liked her but I would never have wished death upon her, especially not suicide. The things she – they – must have gone through to do this!"

"Calm down," he said quietly as my breathing grew short once again. I felt a slight amount of irritation towards him. Thank you, I will definitely calm down now that you've told me to calm down. But I knew he only meant well. "How is Ms. Dinnetz related to Hailey?" I clenched my jaw as my mind flashed back to two weeks ago and then further back, to a year ago.

"I was about to have my parent/teacher meeting about two weeks ago. And I saw Hailey sobbing her eyes out, running out of the classroom. My mom was at the cafeteria but I heard enough to understand that somehow Ms. Dinnetz is Hailey's actual mother," Sam was silent for a while. I didn't exactly lie, but I didn't exactly tell the whole truth either. The length of the silence was enough for my mind to go back to when I was drenched in water, staring at the dead eyes of a family.

"The first time we see her since she ran away is her dead," Sam muttered under his breath. I don't think he was expecting me to catch that but dear God that was incredibly insensitive.

"Tell me what happened last summer?" he said abruptly, breaking my train of thought.

"You know what happened. You were there?" I said confused. Sam brushed his lips against mine before resting his head close to me.

"Tell me again," he said. A distraction. Something to take my mind away from tonight. I sighed with relief and began recounting the events of the summer when I first met Sam – it was quite embarrassing but funny now that I looked back on it. Every now and then he would join in, telling his part of the story. For that moment, everything seemed okay, but at the back of my mind, I had the nagging feeling that I had missed something, something very important.

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A/N: The first couple of chapters will be pretty short and introductory but I promise they will be longer later on. I was planning on making this a short story but we'll see :)

P.S The final product of the cover is mine so do not copy it, however, the picture itself was taken from weheartit and it does not belong to me.