Branch

Chapter 5

"You cannot see or touch me but I'm standing next to you. Your tears can hurt me, your sadness makes me blue. Be brave and show a smiling face, let not your grief show through. I love you from a different place, yet I'm standing next to you."

"...and you're never coming around. Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit tired," Branch continued on with the song, his sweet voice filling the area he and his grandma stood in. The little blue Troll held the rose in his hands closer to his face as if it were a microphone. And in his mind, it was. He let the music absorb him, completely drowning out any worries he had and making him forget about everything except the lyrics. "...of listening to the sound of my tears. Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit nervous. That the best of all the years have gone by. Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit terrified. And then I look in your eyes. Turnaround bright eyes, but every now and then I fall apart. Turnaround bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart."

He took a deep breath as he paused for a brief moment, lifting the sweetish flower closer to his face. "And I need you now tonight! And I need you more than ever! And if you only hold me tight, we'll be holding on forever. And we'll only be making it right, 'cause we'll never be wrong..." As he was singing, he thought he heard a shouting noise but he wasn't sure and ignored it. Until, his peripheral picked up the fast movements of another Troll close by. The young boy suddenly remembered where he was, that his grandma was right next to him packing up their clean clothes.

"Watch out, Branch!" came the clear, panicked shout of his grandmother as she came running at him with all her might. Before he could have much of a reaction, the old purple Troll's hands extended forward, slamming into his flank and pushing him off his standing place. The rose slipped from his hand, tumbling towards the ground just as he did.

That's when he saw it, the glowing, scary yellow eyes, the crooked teeth, the jagged, skinny hands, the ugly, dull skin. It was a Bergen. But not just any Bergen...it was Chef. She was "The Keeper of the Trolls" as she titled herself. Her bony, bumpy hand grasped around his grandma's much smaller body, blocking her completely from Branch's view.

"Ahh!" the little boy screamed out as he fell towards the ground, shock and grief filling him as he watched the scene. There was nothing he could do. His grandma had been taken...

Suddenly bumped into a plant, breaking his fall and then soon tumbling towards the ground. He landed with a thump on his back, staring towards the tree limb he had just been on, reaching out with his hand as he screamed, "GRANDMA!"

No! No! No! This isn't real! He shut his eyes, hoping he'd wake up from some terrible nightmare. But when he opened his bright blue optics once again, he was still laying there on the grassy ground, plants surrounding him, and the view of the tree branch looming over him. Chef had disappeared now. His grandma was gone...all gone. She had been taken to be eaten.

You stupid idiot! You killed her! You killed her! You should've been paying better attention! a voice growled angrily in Branch's brain. The little blue boy propped himself up, tucking his legs underneath him as he slouched towards the earth. His ears became droopy. He felt as if his heart were cracking into millions of tiny pieces, like it were some glass structure that had just taken a hard blow from a hammer.

The sadness weighed down at his body, his heart pattering wildly in his rib cage, and tears welling up in his eyes along with a painful lump in his throat. He curled his hands into his legs, sighing weakly. That's when he noticed a sudden change in himself. The usual, soft bright blue color that had coated his skin was draining away, looking like it was being sucked out of his body from a vacuum or something. That color he was so used to seeing on himself completely vanished, being replaced by a dull pale gray color that reminded him of a cold rainy day. He was not a fan of those.

He gasped slightly, rising up to his feet and letting his eyes flicker over his new skin color. A nearby puddle gave him the perfect opportunity to examine his features even better. Staring into the muddy liquid, he saw he had become gray all over. The only color that stayed were his azure-blue eyes but even they seemed to be a little dull and sad just like the rest of him. His face, his legs, his arms, his hands, his feet, everything was gray. Except his nose was still purple, just not as purple as it had been. It had darkened down to a creepy, evil, Halloweenish shade. He didn't like it. His hair had become pitch-black, looking like a pile of fluffy coal. He looked scary. He looked nothing like the Troll he had once been.

I'm never going to smile again. Screw all that. How could I be happy in a world like this? Everything I've ever loved has been torn away from me! Singing, dancing, and hugging bring nothing but trouble! My singing attracted a Bergen! We cannot live like this anymore. From now on, I am going to devote my life to survival. I will not be a complete failure. Let this be my apology to you, Grandma. I killed you. And I am sorry.