Tree of Life Book III

Part I - Chapter 09

TREE OF LIFE BOOK III – PART I

CHAPTER 09

From her position on the ground, Nicole straightened out her arm toward her daughter and it shook. "Wendy? Wendy…?"

Wendy gave no sign she had heard. Unblinking, perfectly still, she remained where she was, seated on the knees of the Queen, the stare from her blank eyes cast out over the space of the hall, where her mother laid sprawled out and lying on her stomach on the cold, hard, ebony floor of the stadium.

Wendy's orbs were white.

Bone white. No colour at all.

Nicole struggled to sit up. She cried out once more, with tears in her eyes. "Wendy!"

Wendy drew her head back just a tad, barely enough to notice.

But the Queen saw it.

She leaned forward into the baby's ear. "Don't be afraid, little one. Remember what we talked about."

Nicole shook and teetered, but she managed to get to her feet. "Wendy? Don't you know me?" She took a step forward. "It's Mama!"

A frown bent itself into shape upon the baby's forehead.

Another step. "Wendy!"

The Queen pouted her lips. "It's all right, Arwen. Don't fret. Be honest to me now. Don't you know her?" She bent closer. "You do, don't you?"

Wendy blinked. She swallowed once.

The Queen smiled. "Remember when I asked you and you told me that the one thing you desired most, the one thing you wanted most of all above all other things…?"

Wendy sat taller. "Daddy." She smiled. "Family."

"Yes! That's it!" The Queen flung out a finger toward Nicole. "She's the one I had told you about. She's the one who's been keeping it from you. She is the only reason why you never had a complete family." She wrapped an arm around Wendy's shoulder. "She was never good enough for your father. That's why he was never home. That's why he was never there for you. She drove him away!"

Wendy bent her head at Nicole. She furrowed her baby brows in anger.

"No, that's not true!" Nicole stumbled up to the edge of the flames, the outermost ring of fire that Dior had set up and was still burning and hot.

The Queen leaned back. "Don't listen to her…"

"No!" Nicole grit her teeth. She bent and got ready to throw herself into the flames to get past them.

Wendy lifted her hand.

Vines burst out of the ground.

Before Nicole could take another step, vines had sprouted from the ground, from the stone, to seize her by the legs and the ankles and tripped her up, so she fell. She tumbled forward, face first, and then splotched onto the ground upon her chest. She turned her head to the side and coughed up blood.

More vines appeared and wrapped themselves around her arms and legs and trunk, binding her up like a mummy.

The Queen cooed into Wendy's ear. "Oo…! That's good, my child. You are so talented. Not even I could do that…"

Nicole coughed some more. "Wendy!"

Wendy flicked her finger.

A single line of vine, a thinner one, wrapped itself around Nicole's face several times and gagged her into silence.