The tree appeared in front of me almost before I had time to react. It seemed to arise from the ground like an ancient beast, stretching towards the sky and towering over my small mortal form. Frost clung to the bark but the tree was otherwise bare. I began to walk around it to the far side, where the opening to its hollow inside was. I kept the light of the flashlight at eye level and below, not wanting to startle any wildlife that was sleeping in the upper branches. Still, scurrying insects caught my eye as they weaved in and out of the tree’s hide, fleeing from the bright light. The tree looked dead to me, its rich sienna bark turned a pale, peeling gray that seemed to be waiting to crumble into dust.
I reached the opening and took a step back to shine my light in. There again, as he had been when we were kids, was my brother. A rustling sound behind me caused me to turn, slipping on the icy ground. There was nothing there, but I was unable to catch myself. I fell to my knees and dropped the flashlight. I heard it bounce off something hard, a rock or tree root maybe. The beam of light spiraled through the air as it turned end over end and then rolled down the hill to the left of the path, leaving me in the dark.
Heart pounding, I turned back around and pulled my phone from my pocket.
“Sebastian?” I said. I hit the power button to awaken the screen and turned it towards the tree. The light was faint and didn’t go very far, but I could see my brother’s slumped shape, his chin resting on his chest and his legs stretched out in front of him. There was something wrong about the way his head was positioned. I felt my stomach drop into my toes and my feet carry me another step forward. My own breathing rushed in my ears. The woods around me had gone quiet and still.
“Sebastian? You okay?” My voice cracked into a high, strained whisper. He didn’t answer, didn’t even stir. I was standing in the opening of the tree, not sure I remembered taking more than that first step forward to get there. I crouched down and reached my free hand forward to touch his face. His skin felt icy even to my cold fingertips, and still he didn’t move. My first thought was that he had tried to take some refuge from the cold inside the tree and then fallen asleep. I grabbed his chin and tilted his face upward into the light from my phone. When the light fell across his pale face, I screamed. The phone dropped from my hand as I fell back onto my elbows and scurried backwards out of the tree in that position.
Without the warmth of my fingers keeping the screen on, I knew the weak light from my phone would be extinguished in ten seconds. Time stretched before me, elongating the seconds into hours. There was a rhythmic moan building in my throat, a sound I didn’t want to hear myself make. Eight seconds. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut but they felt frozen in place, darting in the sockets. His chin had fallen back to his chest, but I didn’t need to be looking at his face to see it. There would never be another moment in my life where I wouldn’t see it. Five seconds. The light angled upward, making strange shadows in the cavernous opening of the tree. There were thick streaks of dried blood on his shirt. On his arms. On his fingertips. Two seconds. Someone was whispering in my ear. Inside my head. No no no no no. A cold stream trickled down my face, froze on my chin. My brother’s eyes were gone. Their remnants were smeared on his cheeks. The light went out.
