“Here.”
I screamed and fell back. It had come out of nowhere. Whatthefuck?...formed from the wood of the tree itself! It had been invisible, or camouflaged, then in an instant it was hanging from the branches like a primate. Its head and body was formed from a big, twisting knot of wood with an oval opening in front, a gash like a blow from an axe...and the splinters within were formed into pointing fangs. There were no eyes I could make out, no ears, but a single vine rose from the top of the knot, brown leaves hanging lethargically from its length and gathered in a cluster near the tip. It had four arm/leg-type limbs—one of which I’d seen destroy my neighbor—and these, along with the rest of the body, were covered in a coat comprised of compressed, dead leaves.
It was hanging from one of the higher branches, and its tentacle-type vine swayed back and forth on the air in front of it. It was “looking” at me. I felt a hysterical giggle rising inside me because there was something hanging around its head. Al Mange’s tie, still knotted as though it had been tugged hurriedly off his head.
(Or his head had been ripped off and the tie had been simply slipped from the shoulders...and now this thing was having a joke with it.)
There was a gentle creaking sound...the sound of the creature shifting...clenching a muscle, stretching a limb. When it spoke, the whole face twisted in grotesque patterns, and that deep growl rolled from the head. “Meat.”
How could this be (my mind insisted, still refusing to accept)?
“Brian. Feed me.”
“Fuck you.” The words came out on a breath before I even realized I was speaking, but the creature just laughed softly...the wood cracking and splintering against its natural state to comply with the chuckle.
“From another, or yours, Brian. I will have your pretty wife, and the tender meat she grows within.”
“You can’t. Please.”
“Cats and puppies. Snatching birds from flight. Digging insects from the ground. These do not sate me. I must feed.”
The tree closed up and I stood there for a moment, then staggered back inside the house, into the dark nursery.
How long had it been out there, gestating in the tree, watching Carol and I going in and out? Where had it come from? Were we still alive only because it needed me to supply “meat,” just as I had unwittingly served up my neighbor?
Get Carol out of the house...get her away from here.
Of course, in her condition she wasn’t about to scale the eight-foot fence that surrounded our back garden, and certainly not the wall beyond. And how would I explain...she wouldn’t take me seriously...any more seriously than the police would.
Police? Yes, I’d like to report a monster living in my Cedar.
Well, I could say we saw someone lurking around out there.
What then, though? They might come and look...and what then?
But maybe that would be enough...
I got to my feet. It was the best idea I had...but still a long way from good.
The creature was out there...waiting. It didn’t know I’d called the police, and it didn’t know Carol was awake and sitting quietly—albeit confounded—in the dark kitchen (I’d told her nothing, begging her to simply put her trust in me), and it didn’t know about the bucket in the hallway. Unless, of course, that horrible tentacle was super-sensitive.
Christ, for all I knew it could read my fucking mind!
The glare of headlights momentarily filled the front garden and illuminated the Cedar as the police car came to a stop. It was 3:15 a.m.
“Carol,” I said softly. “This is it. Please just do as I said...but wait till their backs are turned.” I went to the front door before she could hit me with another barrage of questions. Two officers approached from the car, a man and a woman. “Thanks for coming,” I told them. “I haven’t seen any movement for a few minutes.”
Their radios were silent on their hips. “Where did you last notice the intruder?” the woman asked. Her young eyes had been hardened by her job. The man was older but his face softer, more experienced.
I gestured to the Cedar. “He was hanging around over there.”
“Let’s take a look, then.” They went to the Cedar. Behind me, Carol stepped around the pungent bucket in the hallway and out of the house.
Then all hell broke loose!
Whether it was because of the police, or Carol, the tree...whooshed! as though a huge fart had been let loose inside...that long green coat billowed out like Marilyn Monroe’s dress when she stood on that subway grate. And the night filled with screams.
The male officer drew his gun, then dropped it to the ground with the rest of his arm. Blood sprayed from the shoulder-stump and a big brown fist grabbed his head and dragged him into the tree, his kicking feet tearing up divots in the lawn.
Carol was screaming and I shouted at her over my shoulder to run!
The female officer had managed to draw both her gun and her radio. She was shrieking incoherently (to my ears) into the radio, and when she started firing her hand was shaking so badly her first shots shattered the nursery window and knocked a chunk of siding out of the wall. Then the creature burst out of the tree—not entirely...it held on to something inside with one limb—and grabbed the officer by the face. Her screams became muffled and smothered in the hairy, wooden grip. She managed to raise her arm and fire her gun once more, then she was flung to the ground, leaving most of her bloody face in the fist of the creature.
I spun around and saw Carol lying on the front lawn, legs spread-eagled and clutching her heaving belly.
Oh Christ...not now...please...!
I grabbed the bucket of gasoline from the doorway, clutched the Zippo in my hand, and turned to see the mangled remains of the female officer being hurled through the air in a red and black mess. A warm spattering suddenly moistened my face, and the sharp taste on my lips wasn’t rain. She flew high into the night above, and came down with a metallic crash onto a car parked across the street.
Then the creature turned, and although there was some distance between them...I had no doubt it could reach Carol.
I stepped in front of my wife and the creature lunged forward. Some kind of trailing, ropy cord unfurled from its rear, running back into the tree. I hurled the bucket’s contents right at it, soaking it with gasoline. It hit me hard. I flew backwards, slamming into the ground with the creature on top of me. The stench of gas was overpowering. I could barely breathe and then something poked into my belly, gouging the flesh, burrowing and rummaging inside as though looking for loose change in a pocket.
I tried to ignore the pain...(in fact, it was more a numbing sensation than an agonizing one)...and I flicked open the Zippo in my hand.
I would go up with this creature, but Carol and the baby...
I flicked the flame into life, hoping I’d be able to—
White light exploded in the night...followed an instant later by a deep, powerful phoof! sound. Flames engulfed us. I shoved, kicked, and punched. The fire spat out sparks and crackled like crumpling plastic. The creature’s fangs had become little flames in its mouth. I rolled sideways in panic and something was yanked out of my stomach with a sucking pop!
I could smell burning wood, grass, and flesh. Red and yellow flames danced from my body. I threw myself to the ground, rolling around the way I’d seen done in movies; miraculously, the technique worked. Black smoke billowed from my charred clothes and skin. Numbing shock was slowly giving way to pain. A few feet away the creature was throwing itself around in a panic, still burning...it obviously hadn’t seen the same movies I had. Flames were running down the length of its tail-cord like a lit fuse, and when it reached the tree the lush Cedar didn’t waste any time in going up.