And Then the Trees Came Knocking

Chapter 1

"You be safe, baby," Birdie Spurling, my boss, told me as I put my earphones in. She stood in the doorway of her store Book Junkie with a yarn shawl wrapped over her shoulders. It was already a bit past midnight.

I put one foot on my skateboard and adjusted my backpack. I worked at the bookstore part-time as a handy-woman to pay for carpentry classes at my local community college. 

To subset my cheap wages, Birdie let me borrow any architecture book I wanted, and often cooked me dinner. This particular dinner-night ended later than anticipated, thanks to our Atlas Shrugged movie marathon. 

"I got my taser," I said, patting my back pocket. "And this skateboard doubles as a sledgehammer."

She rolled her eyes. "You sure you don't want to stay here tonight? You can sleep on my couch." She lived upstairs from her bookstore, in a cozy 1 bedroom that looked like a hobbit cave.

"I would but I gotta feed Cheeks," I said. Cheeks was my hamster. I got him as a gift from my ex-boyfriend last year. "I haven't been home all day. Poor guy is probably bored sick without me."

"Yeah, I'm sure he's worried sick," she scoffed.

I laughed and waved at her as I kicked off on my skateboard. Birdie watched me for a bit before going back inside. 

I strode down Lancaster Avenue, past my favorite doughnut shop and onto Pacific Street. It was not that bad of a trip on my skateboard.  I road in the middle of the street for a while until I hit a semi-busy street.

Halfway home, my wheel caught a steep dip in the sidewalk and I went tumbling off my board. I managed to catch myself before I fell all the way.

"Goddamn it!" I snapped, picking my board up. The wheel had snapped completely off. It was a really old board, but still... it sucked. I tucked my board under my arm and started walking.

Since I was now walking, I had to take my earphones out and turn my music off. I was in no mood to jam out on the way home anymore.

Sirens rang out in the distance, from the north side of the city, and then again in the west. Another siren blared, not too far from me. Something was starting to happen tonight, something bad. Maybe a gang war. Who knows.

I crossed the street towards my usual bus stop. I took this bus home often in the winter, when it was too slippery to take my skateboard. A few cars passed every several minutes, including one extreme speedster. It zoomed by with careless urgency before ducking into the distance.

Other than scarce traffic, I was alone with the sound of sirens. I took my phone out of my bag and started scrolling on Facebook.

The bus showed up after about ten minutes or so, a blue illuminated rolling haven in the dark damp night. I paid my fare to the short chubby driver and sat in the back near the rear doors. 

There were four other people on the bus with me: an old man with a can up front in the handicap spot, a mom and her small son, and a homeless-looking guy at the very back. 

I turn my music back on and tucked my earphones back in. I rested my head against the window. Beyond the houses, I could see the waving lights of police cars and firefighters in the night. I turned my music back off. The sirens were louder. A car zoomed past the bus, followed by two more. Soon we were alone again on the road, but a sense of urgency clung to the air.

The bus screeched to a stop. Everyone on board, including me, yelped. 

"What the fuck man?!" the homeless guy growled. 

"There's something in the middle of the street," the bus driver said. 

I got up and stood in the aisle, peering out the window with him. 

Standing in the middle of the street was some sort of strange looking tree. It was white with red vein-like markings over the bark. And it had no leaves.

The mother glanced up at me. My stomach sank. She felt something was off too. Her son was too busy playing games on an iPhone to notice the sudden eerie atmosphere.

"Looks like a tree," I said, not standing the silence.

"Just go around it," the homeless guy shouted.

"Stop fucking yelling!" the old man snapped.

"I got places to be!"

"Like where? Fighting the raccoons for scraps after the Piggly Wiggly closes?"

The homeless guy stood up and charged forward. I ducked into a booth. He stopped a few feet away from the old man. "The fuck you just say?"

"I said one of your roofer amigos probably dropped it off the back of their truck."

Before the homeless guy could accost him further, the bus driver snapped, "Shut up both of ya' or I will kick your asses off this bus!"

The bus driver opened the front door and got off the bus, clearly irritated. The mother was now holding her son's head to her bosom, visibly shaken. The old man and the homeless guy glared at each other, ready to fight at any moment. 

I watched as the bus driver walked up to the tree. It towered over him, probably by two or three feet. 

It happened fast. So fast that I am pretty sure I was the only one who saw it at first. So fast that the driver barely had a chance to scream. So fast that even my goosebumps turned to ice.

The tree snatched him up with its sharp jagged branches. Some coiled around him and some stabbed through his torso. Immediately, he was bent and folded, his limps crossing grotesquely around each other. The crunching sound was like a bag of wet chips being smashed under soft rubber boots. His guts spilled out. 

The tree opened up vertically. The fucking thing opened! Rows of teeth revealed themselves from inside the bark. 

And... it ate him. Gurgling for air and twitching, the bus driver was shoved inside the trunk's mouth by the branches. 

In an instant, another tree appeared at the side of the bus. Its branches burst through the window, grabbing the old man by the head and snatching him off into the darkness. Moments before he disappeared, I saw his head deflate. I swear it looked like a beer can being crushed.

I almost collapsed from shock. My mouth went dry. My vision blurred. My knees felt like jelly. Somehow I mustered up enough sanity to shove the back doors of the bus open and run.