Whispers in the Dark

The Hanging Tree: Part 3

Emma was playing out in the yard, the grass tickling at her feet as she ran about. She had recently moved from the city to the country, not that she'd been given much choice in the matter. Being only seven her parents made all the decisions for her, she was just along for the ride. Though she didn't mind too much as there were more places for her to explore and play. Besides the part of her father banning her from playing in the piles of rubble that had once been barns, she was free to roam wherever she wanted.

Emma...

She looked up from the frog she was just jumping after, trying to find who had spoken to her.

"Hello?" she asked, staring into the woods she thought was  the direction of the voice had come from.

Come play with us, Emma.

She took a step closer, careful of where she placed her feet on the ground covered with twigs and weeds. With one hand against a tree, she tried to peer into the darkness.

"I can't see you... Why don't you come out?"

We can't leave the tree. Please come dance with us- we're over by the empty sea.

She took another step further into the woods.

"Emma!" her mother shouted out from the back door. "Emmy, where are you? It's time to come in and get cleaned up for lunch!"

Emma heard her mother's voice and started to turn back towards home when she had spotted a bird a few feet away from her. Fascinated, she forgot about her mother calling her. The bird didn't shriek away when she moved closer. It looked up at her, meeting her eyes.

Emma...

She had seen flocks of black birds before, playing in the fields. But this one was different. Its feathers were sleek, shiny, and black as death- draining the world around it of color. The beak of it was just as dark, sharp, and lethal.

Come dance in the breeze with me.

She was swept in; like a light chasing after darkness. Only inches away, Emma knelt down and looked the bird in the eye, staring past her own reflection- deep into the wells of darkness. The bird let out a piercing, "caw- ah- aw."

Startled, Emma fell hard on her bottom and found herself lost in the black of the bird's eye. She was swirling, drifting into the chasm of nothingness and drowning in a soulless soul.

It was an avoidance of life, pools of icy bleakness; a gateway to an endless space of emptiness. And she was being drawn, sucked in like a black hole; captured, her light fading away. A touch upon death, a whispered caress, a lure of madness; the darkness called with empty promises. As light seeks out darkness, she allows herself to be given over. The world around her ceased to exist.

The raven broke the trance, flying from the ground and alighting on a nearby branch. Disappointed and feeling begrudged, Emma took chase. She wanted to know the secrets - the secrets that were held in the depths of the raven's eye. Her pink sundress danced with the grass as she ran, and her golden-brown hair flew behind her, carefree.

However, every time she closed in on the raven it would fly away. Hopping from branch to branch, it led her deeper into the woods. The low hanging branches clawed at her bare arms, but she ignored the scrapes while jutting rocks poked and pricked at her feet. She was focused on the bird, nothing else mattered. Emma couldn't let him out of her sight. Her feet took on a mind of their own, a hidden knowledge of the land, as they flew gracefully over the wooded ground. She sucked in air as fast as she was able as her heart raced; she would get what she was after; her father had taught her to never give up.

The raven finally came to a rest, landing on a tree in a clearing. A circle surrounded it of dead fallen trees and shrubs; a sort of graveyard with the single tree standing tall and proud as its gravestone. A marker for all that had died.

Time seemed to be irrelevant as if it didn't pass at all. Everything looked grey, colorless. The gloomy sky held no warmth, no light.

"Are you done running from me?" Emma asked softly, her voice carried in the stillness.

She approached slowly, not wanting to frighten him away. The dead lifeless twigs beneath snapped under her feet; like bones cracking. It had sounded as loud as thunder, but the raven stood still. She saw two ropes hanging from the tree it rested upon. They were sturdy, old ropes. Grabbing one, she used it to help herself climb up the limbs.

Emma caught the raven's eye again, becoming trapped. And in its darkness she had found light. Entranced, she fell into oblivion. Her body was left, swinging in the tree as her soul was set free. She would forever be able to dance in death's breeze. Her pink sundress flapped in the wind- the only beacon of color in the land of the dead.

"Caw-ah-aw," the raven called out before taking to the sky.

~~~
We are all here at the hanging tree,
our bodies dangling in the breeze,
our spirits have been set free,
our sins fill the empty sea,
madness on the winds- we call thee!
In the darkness, you hear our pleas:
Come meet me on down at the hanging tree,
we can play - dancing in the breeze.
Nowhere to flee, down at the hanging tree.
I'll meet thee over by the empty sea.
Let's play, I'll be there to set you free!
We are all here at the hanging tree,
swinging - dancing in death's breeze.
Come and see me at the hanging tree!