The Willow

The Willow

It was a quiet night. The sort of night where you would look out your window and contemplate the wonders of life. Ron was the sort of person who would do things like that. Sitting by the window and looking at the stars. The warm summer breeze ruffling his pajamas.

Ron and his sister lived in a lakefront cabin with their foster family. Their parents had died years ago in an accident. Not much was known about the event. They'd both washed up on a beach with strangle marks on their necks. A beach not too far from this lakehouse.

Now Ron lived here, in the house he had lived all his life. The foster family had taken advantage of him and his sister(Mary)’s living conditions. Instead of taking them back to their house, they were enjoying a lakefront vacation. Tonight they were out as a family getting dinner somewhere. Ron and Mary had decided not to go. Ron had a big soccer game in the under fourteens league tomorrow, and Mary had her first drivers test.

As Ron lay in bed, something outside his window creaked. Intrigued, he lugged himself out of bed and wandered over to the window. He pulled aside the curtains to reveal a willow branch, growing from the willow tree in their backyard. That was curious. Ron could have sworn that the tree had never grown so close to his window. He looked over to his sister's room, which had a balcony. Another willow branch was hanging over it. Its leaves hung down on the wood like a spider’s web.

Mary must have heard the noise as well, because she appeared on the balcony a second later.

As Ron was about to call her name when something wrapped around his arm. Ron fell silent and looked down. Wrapped around his arm, ominously curling and tightening, was a willow vine. Too stunned to speak, Ron did nothing as another vine lunged down and enveloped his leg in vines. Coming to his senses, Ron heard his sister screaming his name. He glanced over at her. She was in a similar situation to him, with willow vines wrapping around her waist and limbs.

Thinking quickly, Ron lunged towards his nightstand. More willow vines flew through the window and grabbed him, but Ron still reached his nightstand and grabbed his pocket knife.

Then the vines yanked him out the window.

Vines raged towards him like vultures to a carcass. They wrapped around his torso, waist, limbs and throat. The world around him blurred. He could vaguely see a wreathing cocoon of vines that must have been Mary. The vine around his neck tightened. Gasping for air, Ron poked his knife through the vines and pulled. To his satisfaction, the vines sliced and broke. He sliced again, freeing his other hand. Again and again he sliced. But the vines seemed to just keep replacing themselves. Slicing even more viciously now, Ron sliced one of the vines, and with a swoosh, he fell to the ground. The vines still wrapped around him fell limp. He shook them off and rushed, with knife in hand, towards his sister.

Mary’s struggling was becoming less noticeable. More vines were wrapped around her, creating a coffin of leaves. To make things worse, she was well out of reach of Ron, who was quite short for his age. Panicking, Ron didn’t notice when a vine wrapped around his arm and tugged him up towards his Mary. More vines assaulted him, but Ron ignored them. He slashed and tugged and stabbed the vines around his sister. He paused his efforts occasionally to slash a couple of the vines around him. He could see her face now. Hazel hair and green eyes. Her struggle seemed to be renewed by Rons efforts to save her.

Ron stabbed forward one more time, slicing three vines that were holding Mary. She and the remaining vines fell to the ground. Ron sliced the few that were still holding him and dropped down beside her.

Together they rushed to the lake, leaping into the dark night time water. Like cool, soothing tar it dragged them in, out of reach of the willow tree.

Ron stared at the Willow tree, awestruck. Neither he nor Mary spoke. They just stood there, gasping. Ron realized now what had killed their parents. This tree. This cursed tree.

The starlit sky gazed down upon them, and the warm summer breeze ruffled their pajamas.