Trolls: The Story of Us

Branch, Chapter 3: The Berries. Poisonous Berries

One by one, Dad picked the berries off the bushes, the ground, even the dump. He ate them like there was no tomorrow. And before he knew it, there was no tomorrow.

But how did Mom die too, you ask? Well, after seeing her husband depressed, she became the same way, even though she was about to give birth to me soon. Eventually, they both gathered up berries together, and, like I told you, accidentally ate poisonous ones.

Grandma was worried about them since the beginning. Each and everyday for the past week, she would always try to sooth them by singing. But when she tried to find them so she could sing to them one day, they were nowhere to be seen. It took her like an hour to find my parents lying on the ground near some bushes.

"Help me, please!" cried Mom. "I think he's coming out!"

"Ok sweetheart," Grandma said. "It's ok! Just take a deep breath and relax."

Then, all of a sudden, with the help and support of my Grandma, Mom was giving birth to me naturally as she was lying there, waiting for her life to come to an end with Dad right beside her.

I was bloody, screaming off the top of my lungs, waiting for someone to help me. But Mom couldn't help me through it all.

It became an awful site for Grandma to watch. She told me my parents were too sick to take care of me, so they gave me to her. She grabbed me into her arms, ran home, and gently put me down on her bed, covering me with blankets as I was still sobbing.

I wasn't there to see my parents in the rest of the torturous pain they were going through, but when I got home, I got to meet Grandpa who was laying down beside me at that moment. Grandma told me that he was going to die soon when she ran out the door to meet my parents.

As she met my parents again, what she saw was torture. My parents were dead. And you know what, Grandma didn't want any of that to happen in the first place.

When she came home hysterical, she didn't know what to do anymore. She found Grandpa sleeping on her bed with me. But little did she realize that he was dead too.

Grandma kept trying to wake him up, but he didn't budge at all. And I remember her telling me I was still screaming and carrying on, and that didn't even wake him up. But at the end of the day, there was only one word to describe this moment.

Love.

Grandma realized she had to raise me well. She realized her husband and my parents were dead, and the only person left to love was me. She even realized she had to name me something, right?

But it wasn't Branch.