The Beast's Curse

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except for when you get cursed by a tree demon.
That's exactly what Wirt was thinking as he coughed up blood, and leaves into the bathroom sink. It's been a good two weeks since Greg and him escape from The Unknown. A good two weeks since he blew out the lantern, and destroyed the Breast's soul forever... at least he thought so. He wasn't all too confident in that.
    But he can say that ever since that fateful moment he has been experiencing some interesting 'side effects'.
    It started out with vines growing underneath his bedroom window which, as his mom put it, was impossible since it was November and freezing outside, so nothing should be growing. Next was the random leaves that he started finding everywhere. On his clothes, his bed, his backpack, in his hair. It was Autumn, but apart from that one leaf pile he made with Greg a couple of days back he hasn't been playing around in the leaves lately. He asked Greg if he was playing some type of prank on him, but his brother swore on Jason Funderberker's singing voice that he had nothing to do with it.
The coughing up leaves, and blood started recently.
    He couldn't tell his parents because he knew that they would probably send him to a therapist, saying that the trauma of almost dying did something to his brain. He couldn't tell Greg either for obvious reasons. It was his burden to bare, except that it was getting harder to hide.
    The coughing fits were getting worse, and his mother was getting frustrated at finding piles of leaves in his room, but he did not know how to stop it.
    Wirt lurched as another cough rocked him, sweat slicked his forehead, and his pale, trembling hands clutched the sides of the sink. The sink was already filled with leaves, and dried, dark blood, at least he hope it was blood. It certainly didn't give the iron metallic taste of blood. Sorta sadistic, but he really didn't want to think about what else it could be.
He spat out the rest of the stuff that filled his mouth, and started cleaning the sink. Just as the last of it went down the drain he heard a knock on the door. He quickly started to wash his face, and patted his cheeks. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he asked with a shaky voice, "who is it?"
"It's me and Jason Funderberker! We really need to use the bathroom Wirt! We've been doing the monkey dance for hours!"
Sighing in relief that it was just his brother, Wirt opened the door to let in the squirmy child. Greg pushed Wirt out of the bathroom stating that Jason Funderberker needed some privacy, getting a snort out of Wirt. Leaving them to do their business, Wirt headed to his room, intent on getting some homework done.
    A good three hours later (high school is a nightmare) his stomach rumbled. It was time to eat. His mom was working late, so was his step-dad, so it was up to him to make dinner. Greg was currently playing on his bedroom floor, and perked up when he heard Wirt ask him what he wanted for dinner.
"Mac and Cheese with cheesy cheese, the cheesiest cheese mac and cheese in all the land!"
And with that he ran out of the bedroom door.
Wirt followed with a snort, chasing the kid down the hallway, and into the kitchen before Greg started banging pots, and pans together singing a song about Mac and cheese.
    Wirt prevented him from banging kitchen utensils together, but not from singing.
After he was done with making the Mac and Cheese, and serving them with grandeur like Greg requested, he sat down to eat, only to have another coughing fit take over him, and this one was worse than the others.
He could faintly hear Greg calling to him over his coughs, but he couldn't stop. The stabbing pain in his abdomen, and throat was horrible. It felt like he was coughing up a whole tree. Before he could stop it the black stuff came pouring out of his mouth, and ran down his chin, leaves fluttered onto the floor. He was hunched over in his chair, coughing it all up on the dining room carpet. He couldn't hear Greg's voice anymore. The violent coughing, including the roaring in his ears covered his brother's frantic voice, and didn't feel his tiny hands on his shoulders trying to comfort him.
After what felt like forever, the coughing stopped. Wirt took several deep breaths, and looked up at his brother to reassure him that he was okay. Only to see Greg's eyes widen in awe, and whisper, "You have beautiful eyes."