Don’t Let the Family Tree Touch the Ground
Hello, I’ve been expecting you! I can see fear and confusion in your eyes. It’s okay, I don’t blame you. Clearly I have some explaining to do.
Okay so, I noticed my life had always been a little different than most of the kids growing up in New York at a fairly young age. Mother and Father were always pushing the whole, “don’t ever give out your true name,” or, “don’t share our teachings with anyone.” Not to mention being home schooled with the focus on botany and ancient literature that I’d doubt you’d find in any sort of classroom.
Every single one of my summers were spent on our family’s private property. The home to a creepy shed I wasn’t allowed to even look in until I was old enough. I mean, I didn’t even know the whereabouts of the property until I turned twelve years old. The literal blindfold came off like hitting puberty was magical or something.
That summer I learned a lot about my family, and myself at that. Finally understood why Father would say, “we could never stray too far from the eye because they’re always looking for an opportunity.” I always assumed he was talking about Grandma and Grandpa being old and whatnot, but we’ll get back to that.
Our drive was just as quiet as any other. The only difference was that I could actually see where we were going for once. It was pleasant driving out into the wilderness, watching the green overtake the gray, and then onto the dirt road that led to the property. I noticed we were getting close to the property after the fourth turn out of feel. I could have blindly walked here if I wanted to. I felt it in my bones.
Everything was normal by my standards until we came to a stop at this stream. As you can see, we have a stream that runs just along our property line. Yep, confused the hell out of me too. A moat with a current? What the hell, right?
That’s when I started thinking, how did we get our car over the stream of water? Did dad build a bridge every time, then knock it down? Does Grandpa have some sort of pulley system set up? Impossible, I would have noticed something.
Anyway, we stopped right at the edge of the property line, just like yourself. Father pulled out his knife that was carved from bone to give to Mother. At first, I had no idea why, or what was even going on. Silly to think Mother was going to build a bridge out of sticks.
Mother looked back and said what she always said. “Honey, remember to never show fear.” Before then, I thought she just wanted me to be a big girl, all strong and whatnot, but this time it was different. Mother stepped out in front of the car, pressed Father’s engraved bone blade to her palm and slid it across her hand with such force to spray some of the blood into the water.
I watched with wide eyes as she crouched down to place that same hand in the dirt, and I couldn’t believe it. The stream parted, but continued to run as if the divide wasn’t there. Shortly after the ground below started rising to level itself out to give us a clear path to drive on through.
Before that moment, I had never seen anything like that happen. Maybe in the books we read, but never in person. Mother nonchalantly pulled her white handkerchief out from her pocket, wiped the blade clean and just turned around to get back in the car.
Mother handed the knife back to Father before looking back to say something along the lines of, “I hope you’ve been paying attention,” or something like that. Right after that she looked down at her cut hand. She said something while making a symbol on her palm with her freehand, then wiped her hand clean with that same handkerchief. No cut, no blood was left.
Now, that handkerchief was still as white as the first day it was cut from the fabric. You’d think that made my little brain go crazy, wouldn’t it? Well it did, and before I can even question what the hell was going on we were already at the house with Grandma, Grandpa and my Aunt greeting us as we pulled up. They seemed more excited to see me than usual since that would have been the point where Mother and Father would tell me to take off the blindfold.
I was told to wait in the car while Mother and Father got out to speak to the rest of the family. Normally I get told to take off the blindfold, we give our love, eat dinner together and then Grandma and Grandpa go out of town for the summer while the adults tend to the shed. It’s the best since I get to help out in the garden and brush up on some herbal lessons.
This time it was nothing like that. They exchanged some words before Grandma and Grandpa nodded, got in their truck and went on their little break. They waved as they drove by just how I pictured it would be in my head when I was finally of age. Yet, their stone smiles made me think they knew something I didn’t.
Father walked back over to let me out of the car. He opened the door and told me, “It’s time.” I simply did as I was told. I followed them through the property to the shed. Sorry, I haven’t spoken to anyone in a very long time so please bear with me.
I followed them into the shed to see something that looked like a tree. A tree that stands about six feet high before bending at an angle as if it was trying to return from the depths from which it came from. What keeps it from doing so are very special chains that are wrapped around the crown of the tree and are fastened to the ceiling. There are five branches at the top of the tree that dangle down, or reach for the ground. Don’t worry, I’ll be right next to you when it’s your turn.
My parents and aunt were standing by the tree. They waved me over for a closer look, and so I did. It was a fucking arm coming out of the ground with freakishly long fingers that was covered in scabs. Being so repulsed, I obviously tried to step back, but Father was right behind me.
He said, “This is our family’s duty. To keep them on the other side by not letting the idle hand make contact with our world.” That’s when I made my first mistake. I asked, “And how is that?”
I mean, it was fairly obvious they were doing weird stuff every summer. We would have bright green fires every night every night on these vacations, but I just needed to hear, or see it for myself. Father handed his knife to my aunt so she could cut off the dangling fingers. I stood between my mother and father watching my aunt perform the ritual.
She scooped up some of the dirt beneath her to sprinkle it across the blade. The tree started to sway while its branches curled in. It reminded me of a hand making a fist as if it was trying to get away. My aunt was as fearless as they came. She stood under the tree, and lopped off the longest finger-like branches.
The tree shook the shack trying to get away from her, but the chains stayed true. Mother and Father stood unphased watching the tree spit out a green viscous at our feet. My aunt went for another branch when I noticed one of the fixtures holding a chain started to shake loose on the ceiling.
The first thing that came to mind was what Father would always say. “They’re always looking for an opportunity,” but before I could say a thing everything had gone very, very wrong. We all noticed too late.
The branches fanned out, knocking my aunt to the ground. They pointed at her with their remaining fingertips creating a point while she got to her feet with the knife in hand. The fingers dug through her stomach into the earth below. My aunt, the beast of a woman she was, used the last of her strength to throw the knife back to my father. I watched the arch the arm made created a portal that sent out a shockwave.
My father put the knife away, locked hands around me with Mother and the whole shack came crumbling down on us. All I could think to do was bury my face in my knees and hope for the best. I honestly thought we died until I heard my Mother say something under her breath. It was, “blood is the catalyst.”
I looked up to see Mother and Father still around me with a red bubble protecting us from rubble. Mother had bit into her lip, and let out a soundless wail that expanded the bubble, tossing back everything around us. The only things left standing were that fucking tree and whatever was left of Grandma and Grandpa’s place.
We stood before a portal into another world that secreted the stench of decay. A mirror of our earth, but did not follow our rules. Nature was flesh, and flesh was nature. Long black hair that grew from a bruised covered ground swayed with the breeze. Arms, like the one from the shed, stood smooth and tall with their hands reaching for the sky with flaps of skin hanging off their fingers resembling the leaves of a tree.
Snake-like creatures made of tree and stone tasted our air with grass tongues. They entered our world and slithered into the skies. Man, I sound like my mother when she used to tell me all those stories. The creatures that would fly in our world were too heavy to do so with their stone wings, so they dragged their heavy bodies along the ground leaving a trail of blood from their world into ours. Each creature that entered our world had started dripping gold from every crack and orifice on their body.
Mother stepped forward with absolution. She dragged her thumbnail across her forehead making a sheet of blood pour down her face. She then pulled her special pouch out from her pocket while all those things flooded our world. Mother stuck her bloody hand in her pouch before throwing a handful of herbs in the air.
Five herbs shot in different directions with trails of red mist following behind them. They burrowed into the earth around the property line with the red mist creating a bubble around us. One of the herbs Mother released gracefully landed on the arm of the portal. The air within the bubble became dense and heavy at that very moment.
The creatures themselves staggered for a moment before they continued their invasion at a slower pace. The mist that surrounded us deconstructed the creatures on contact. Like, they immediately fell to the ground in pieces, but in doing so drew their attention to us. Mother yelled at Father to protect me while she closed the portal. Father moved me behind him while unsheathing his knife again. That time it was much longer like a bone machete.
Father’s blade cut through anything that bared its fangs at us like a hot knife through butter. One after another they fell around us. All while Mother took center stage using her blood covered hands to seal, if not, contain the creatures as they pushed their way through.
I stayed by Father’s side waiting for the nightmare to end. I watched the snakes surround and bite Mother while the flightless monstrosities beat at her legs with their stone wings. I could see her struggling. I could see she was trying her best to finish the spell, but my heart dropped when I watched it first reach into our world.
A marble behemoth forced itself through starting with a massive hand. It fed its arm through to the shoulder until its hand landed on my aunt, forcing her body into the ground. It then stuck in its smooth, featureless face as if it was peering through a doorway into its new home. The behemoth’s marble shell began to crack and ooze the gold, metallic substance like the rest of the creatures from the other world while it was in ours.
It used its shoulder to press against the top of the portal, sticking a leg through the portal to balance itself before standing. The thing forced the arm, or tree to extend further from the ground. The newly exposed flesh was covered in gashes from the ground it was lifted from. I could see the behemoth’s feat had shaken Mother at her core. A pain I’ll never forget. More and more creatures started to pile against Mother’s barrier making it grow weaker with her fading power, and all I could see was the worry on Fathers face.
I ran to Mother out of impulse. I needed to pull off the snakes that were covering her body. Some wrapped around her in different spots, but the worst latched on with their stone fangs. All while I kicked at those damn little bird things on the ground. I know it was stupid. I broke my toe in the process, but I needed to do something.
I knew Mother was almost at her limit when I saw how pale she had become. The behemoth pushed through her barrier, grabbed Mother and slung her into their world. Her body floated on the other side of the portal as if she was thrown in the ocean of nightmares. I watched her smile one last time before her insides forced their way out in every way you can imagine. I turned around to see Father being overwhelmed by the creatures that were coiling around him like they had done to Mother. A tear ran down his face as I watched him mouth, “I love you,” before his body went limp.
It was the end of the world for all I knew, so I thought I’d stand face to face with the marble giant who sought to claim our world. I could feel it staring at me with its featureless face. Out of nowhere, Grandpa and Grandma’s truck came roaring down the dirt road. They drove right into the behemoth arm that just batted the truck to the side. My grandparents may be old folk, but they’re about as resilient as Chernobyl roaches.
Grandpa crawled out from the wreckage holding his shotgun with sigils engraved in each barrel while Grandma crawled out of the other side. Grandpa loaded two white shells, and unleashed a cone of black fire that covered everything making its way through into our world. Grandma ran over seeing that I was in shock. She took that second to reassure me that everything was going to be okay.
My grandma stood in front of the portal saying these words. “Oh Mother, we seek power in you and your beauty. I call upon the one who gave us flesh and soul to protect you from evil and now evil has presented itself. BY THE NAME OF.” Ha, you think I’d give away our names so carelessly?
Anyway, the behemoth looked to the sky after hearing Grandma’s words. It violently shook as if the scream it was trying to unleash was trapped in its marble shell that was covered in black flames. My grandma continued her spell. “SEND US AID SO THAT WE MAY BANISH THESE BEASTS FROM ONCE THEY CAME AS WE WERE BORN TO DO!”
The marble giant reached out to grab her like it did Mother. Yet, she remained fearless. Grandma stood between me and the behemoth with her arms out as roots burst from the ground like tentacles. They wrapped around the behemoth’s arms and legs keeping her just out of reach from its grasp. She let out a cackle and animals of all kinds came to our aid. Hawks were ripping snakes from the air while the beasts of the wild helped with those on the ground.
Grandpa continued to open fire on the army of monstrosities. The black flames left those of flesh and blood unscathed. I noticed Father’s machete was sitting next to his body so I ran over and grabbed it. I swung it at anything that came close. I’ve never felt such power in the palm of my hand.
I kept hearing Mother’s voice in the back of my head saying, “blood is the catalyst,” until it hit me. I used Father’s magic blade to cut into the palm of my hand before raising above my head. My eyes shut knowing deep down that there was power in me like the rest of my family. Grandpa pointed his shotgun in my direction then fired. I opened my eyes to see my Father’s blade was covered in the black flame.
I knew what I needed to do. I ran to the portal without hesitation, and stabbed the tree that kept the portal alive making it burst into black and green flames. The marble beast looked down at me like it knew it had lost. It crawled back from which it came with the portal shutting behind it. Everything that didn’t belong just fell apart leaving remnants behind. The tree itself was no more than a pile of ash at the end of that day.
I’ve been here ever since keeping tradition because that damn tree never stops growing. Grandma and Grandpa showed me a thing or two before moving on so that I may tend to our property like our ancestors have. Now that brings us here! I’m very sorry for making you wander all the way out here.
I promise it wasn’t just to talk your ear off. My words carried into your dreams because you share our family’s blood! You are gifted like me, so I would hope you’d cross over willingly. I kind of need someone here so I can, “relinquish the temptation,” as Grandma and Grandpa would say. Just think about it. It’s far easier than finding your way back home.