And Then the Trees Came Knocking

Chapter 13

Agony hit me from all sides. I writhed and screamed from the overwhelming pain. Every corner of my mind was clogged by it. 

The barb was taking over. The more Leon shocked me, the more time I got as myself. But it wasn't enough. 

"It's been hours," Freddy yelled at him. The others were at the door, pressed against it to keep the bloodwood out. 

They all looked tired. Tired of the banging. Tired of my screams.

"And she hasn't turned yet," Emmett said. "It took my dad less than three hours. But it's already been four... Something is wrong."

"The electricity is working somehow," Tatiana said. 

Eat, a voice said. My eyes darted around. 

Die and eat.

Die and EAT!

I slammed my hands over my ears.

DIE AND EAT!

The voice was coming from inside me. I could feel the greasy reach of the infection under the skin in my face. Burning. Crawling. Growing.

"More," Freddy said. His eyes found mine. An apology was written on his face. "More."

"We can't hold the door for much longer!" Jane shouted.

"Just fucking kill her already," Emmett shrieked. 

I wanted to slap that kid. But I knew he was right. I killed Ernestine out of mercy. I needed to die before whatever what spreading inside my body took over.

But I could barely move. Sickness quaked my limbs. Such uselessness overtook me. I could barely even manage to breathe at that point.

Freddy disappeared with Tatiana. 

Die and eat.

A moment later, Freddy was there with me again. He picked me up and carried me to another room. The bathroom. Leon was close behind him, now yelling. Words now eluded me. They sounded foreign, alien.

Water splashed over my face as Freddy dumped me in a tub. I splashed around. My arms felt stiff, like wood. But the water tasted delicious. All the pain blocked how dehydrated I was.

Tatiana appeared beside Freddy. She was holding something. A microwave oven. Plugged into the wall.

Before I could even think, Tatiana dumped the appliance into the water with me.

White-hot fire exploded across my entire body. The tormenting pain came sharp and fast and unrelenting. My screams were sizzled away into the back of my throat.

Wave after wave of misery shattered into my bones, rattling me to my core. My body moved on its own, bucking and thrashing like a beast.

Die and eat! DIE AND... LIVE! LIVE! My inner voice took over, swallowing up whatever invading noises existed in my head or in my blood. I managed to grab the rim of the tub. Live and eat. 

Strange parts of my insides moved, like newborn muscles. I pushed at them, hard. The growth of the barb strained against me when I pushed, when I focused on controlling them. It was an impossible feeling, of having extensions of my body activating.

I pushed again through the pain. The infection was fighting me, but I was winning. The electricity at this blaring height let the infection retract just enough for me to take control. I growled and sat up in the tub. 

Hardness thickened under my skin. My tongue slithered against my teeth, thinner and longer than before. Instead of the bloodwood bursting from beneath my skin, it absorbed into me. My skin looked the same but felt different.

Everything was suddenly different. 

Freddy and Tatiana gazed at me with wide eyes. They stood frozen in the doorway of the bathroom. And they smelled delicious. Tatiana was on her period. I could smell the old leaking tampon.

But whatever it was that was outside in the hall smelled like roast beef on a Christmas morning. 

I found myself looking down at Freddy and Tatiana. Standing, I was taller. My limbs felt light and weightless.

I stepped out of the tub and over to the sink. Oddly enough, the physical changes did not shock me after I looked into the mirror. One eye was that oily-black color of the bloodwood. I was bald now. Pale white veins contrasted against my dark brown skin.

My legs and arms were longer than before, giving me an extra foot or so in height. I was still lean, but my muscles were much thicker, visible and hard under my skin. 

I grabbed the sink then. For some reason, I pulled at it. And it came right off the wall with no problem. 

Just then, the door burst open. Jane and the others flew back from the impact. A bloodwood came inside the apartment.

I threw the sink at it, bashing it into the wall. The next second, I was on top of the creature, tearing its branches from its crown. This bloodwood was small and surprisingly weak in comparison to me. Were they always like this?

Black oil gushed from its wounds. My full hand stabbed into the eye, shoving deep until I found a pulsating organ. With one yank, I tore the organ from the eyeball. It was a heart. 

The scent was intoxicating. My tongue unfurled from my mouth and licked the heart. The black blood oil tingled over my  taste buds like an active battery. I yearned for more.

A hard smack sent me flying across the apartment. My body smashed through the window and crashed into the concrete of the parking lot outside. 

That's when I saw it, the big fucking bloodwood from earlier. It had grown even bigger, easily three stories tall. Rivers of veins ran along its white bark-like outside. I wonder how many it had eaten to get this large. I could feel the ground tremble from its movements. 

I scrambled back to my feet and leaped back into the apartment through the same window I flew out of. 

This is when I noticed how fast and strong I had become. How inhuman. I just killed a small bloodwood with no problem. And I liked it.

Freddy's face spoke of horrors. My human companions cowered in the corner of the apartment, their eyes wide yet hopeful. 

The bloodwood that struck me, came at me again. This one was larger, faster. I narrowly avoided being stabbed by its branches, which it now used as spears. These things were equipped to fight even each other. I managed to land a firm kick against its trunk, knocking it back into the hallway.

"Let's go!" I roared at the group. They jumped. Speaking proved difficult with my slithery tongue and sharp teeth. The muscles in my jaw were three times as strong as before, and I had to quickly get used to controlling them. 

"Are you still... you?" Tatiana asked.

"I don't know," I said, my eyes finding the heart I dropped earlier. I wanted nothing more than to pick it up and take a hearty bite. My longing for it was beyond even sexual urges. 

"Will you eat us?" Freddy asked.

I shook my head immediately. "Hell no."

"Good enough for me," Leon said, walking up to me. He waved at the others to follow, and they did.

Finally, we were getting the hell out of this apartment building. We just had to get past that gigantic bloodwood outside.