The Broken Tree

Mark had heard rumors of a supposed cursed tree located by his high school. His best friend Trey told him that whoever touched this tree would be granted any wish. Mark struggled to believe it at first, since he was currently attending high school, where a bunch of idiots could easily believe everything.

"Trey, come on, man. You don't seriously believe that this shit is real."

"Bro, I literally heard about this rumor from my brother a couple of days ago. He told me that he knew this kid that made a wish, and now he is a millionaire."

Mark rolled his eyes.

"And you believed your brother. The same dude that told you multiple white lies throughout your childhood. Like the time that you really believed that your mom was pregnant with a possible sibling, and you embarrassed yourself when you asked her about it, not knowing that she was actually getting fat."

Trey threw up his hands.

"This is different. And my brother did admit to me that he really thought our mom was pregnant too. Only he found out a couple of days before I did, and he didn't tell me about it."

"Right."

Trey grabbed Mark's arm, pulling him toward the direction of the tree.

"Come on, man!"

Mark tried not to show any sign of irritation as his friend led him to the tree. It was located in the middle of the school, where some kids liked to have lunch outside. The tree was coming apart, and it was a miracle that the huge tree branch at the top hadn't broken off yet.

Trey placed his hand against the tree. He shut his eyes and made his wish.

"I wish Samantha Sanchez would go out with me."

"Dude, no fucking way. Are you kidding me? That's your wish?"

"What? What's wrong with the wish?"

"You could have made any wish, and out of everything you chose something so stupid."

"What's wrong with going out with the hottest girl in school?"

"There are far more important wishes you could have made. Like, world peace or something."

"That's so gay. Why would I wish for something like that? Only pussies make wishes like that."

"Whatever dude."

Mark and Trey went home with their parents like they always did after the school day was over, and since it was Friday, they got to stay up late and play videogames during the weekend. Everything was normal, until Monday.

Mark was the one to witness it firsthand. Samantha Sanchez went up to Trey during lunch, twirling her hair with a finger. She had a bashful smile on her face.

"Do you want to like, go out with me?"

Trey eagerly agreed, and they started dating each other.

Things were going well for a couple of weeks, and Mark thought nothing of it. He assumed that it was all a coincidence, since Trey was kind of fit, so maybe Samantha finally noticed his looks.

Then things started to get weird.

Trey met up with Mark in the middle of the week during lunch, but this time around, they were sitting inside of the school, surrounded by the student body. The boys hated sitting inside of the cafeteria, because of the noise level, they always preferred sitting outside, but this time, Trey refused to even stick to their same routine.

"Bro, what's wrong? Why are we -''

"I fucked up."

"What?"

"Samantha has been stalking me, and I don't know what to do. She has been standing outside my bedroom window every single night, sometimes for hours."

"Trey...shit. It sounds like you need to either dump her or call the cops."

Trey shook his head back and forth.

"I tried to un - do the wish, but the tree won't let me. I don't know what to do, man."

"Trey, come on, man. It can't be because of the wish. It's not real. It was just a stupid urban legend that your brother -''

"My brother is in the hospital."

Mark let out a small gasp without realizing it.

"What?"

Trey looked at Mark. There were dark shadows under his eyes.

"He pissed off some bad people, and they gunned him down from his car. They think that he's never going to walk again."

Mark was speechless.

"Trey, I'm...I'm sorry. Why didn't you tell me about any of this?"

"I didn't want you to worry about me. Hell, I think I'm screwed too. If Samantha keeps this up, I might end up like him."

"Trey, call the fucking cops. Please. It's all in your head, your brother was just fucking with you -''

"Fuck you. My brother wasn't lying to me. Our wishes came true, because of that tree. My brother went from a low life to a millionaire. That wasn't because of luck, Mark. He literally ended up rich overnight. How do you explain that?"

"Trey, you're scaring me. You're only freaking out because of what your brother told you. He probably won the fucking lottery, and kept it from you, because that is the kind of shit that brothers do -''

Trey gave Mark a wan smile.

"You don't believe me. That's fine. Just stay away from me, man. I don't want you to get hurt. If something bad happens to me...I just want you to know that I'm so grateful to have you as a friend."

Mark opened his mouth to say something, but the bell rang at that moment, signaling it was time to go back to class. Trey scurried away, not looking back once. His shoulders were shaking, almost like he was fighting back tears.

Mark didn't realize that would be the last time he would ever see his friend.

Alive.

School was cancelled for the week.

Due to the extreme murder that took place in a boy's home.

Trey's home.

His parents weren't home for the weekend, to stay with his brother. His mother claimed that she didn't understand why Trey refused to see his brother, but Mark now believes that he wanted to protect them, from possibly getting hurt.

Samantha had broken into Trey's home and shot him with a gun. Point blank, in the face.

Neighbors heard the gun, and called the authorities, and they had stumbled upon a brutal sight. They discovered Samantha attempting to stitch herself to Trey's body. She had successfully attached their arms together, and she smiled at the officers, blood all over her face.

She waved at them, using the same one that was attached to Trey's. It was described as a sick display of puppetry, a live person stuck with a dead one.

"I wanted us to be together forever. I was going to stitch our faces together too," she said.

One of the officers had thrown up from this disgusting sight.

Mark didn't blame him. He would have done the same too. The image of the hospital being forced to tear Trey and Samantha apart never left his head. Everyone who was there that day claimed that Samantha had to be sedated, because she refused to be apart from him. She offed herself before trial, claiming that she wanted to be with him forever.

Mark attended the funeral in a daze, and he had seen Trey's brother on a wheelchair, staring off into space.

Once school began, it felt like a dream. Mark still didn't believe the tree story, he just thought Trey and his brother were dealt a bad hand, and that family was officially ruined forever.

But it didn't hurt to play along.

Mark thought it would be funny to sort of honor his friend, and without thinking, he placed his hand against the broken tree, and made a wish.

"I wish my friend came back from the dead."

That was it.

Mark waited for something to happen, but there was nothing. The school day went by like whatever, but it was hard to avoid the pity stares the students would give him, or the whispers of Samantha secretly being a crazy bitch.

Mark went home and locked himself in his room for the day. His parents asked Mark if he wanted to have dinner, but he declined. They talked amongst themselves, worried about him. Mark ignored this, and remained in his room, staring out the window. The street was dark, minus the lights in several windows of the homes, or the streetlights. There was a person standing underneath one of these streetlights.

He was looking straight up at Mark, right in front of his house. He was waving at him, offering him a rotted smile.

Mark could barely see Trey's tongue sticking out of a hole on the side of his face.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn