The White Tree

When you have very little to do, the hours seem to grow long and longer. Five minutes seem like thirty, and thirty minutes seem like a full hour. Taking walks around the entire neighborhood lost its novelty and I had caught up on all my reading. It was during this time that I learned the meaning of the phrase, "boredom is not a burden anyone should bear."

So in my desperation to get away from boredom, I called up Catherine and the others to carpool somewhere, preferably a place with electricity. Thankfully everyone was available to hang out, so away I went to pick up my friends and fiancee to steal them away. During the drive I heard several horror stories about what had befallen them in the meantime: Florence and her family had to clean out broken glass from not only her shed, but from her garage as well. Vivian's stove stopped working, which meant that they could not even warm up soup for mealtime. The window to Naomi's family room had a nice big tree branch thrust through it, making an unholy mess. Rebecca had to deal with her poor mother twisting her ankle on something. The injury wasn't too serious, but it made things harder on Becks.

We stopped at our nearest Sonic and ate a yummy lunch there. As we sat in my car, wondering what to do next, Catherine said, "Let's go to the park. I want to take a walk through the woods."

At first we were all a bit shocked that she would want such a thing. As you know, Catherine had developed an irrational phobia concerning forests, so at first I didn't know what to say. But she looked at me with this expression of 'trust me, I know what I'm doing.' I did trust her, so I complied. "The park it is, then."

On the way there Naomi asked, "So has Dr. Frey been helping you?"

"Mmhmm. Very much. He's a huge help."

"How are your parents doing?" Rebecca reached over and patted her arm.

"They're doing good. They're such troopers about this whole thing, making sure that I'm safe and keeping their eyes on me. Sometimes it get a bit much, but it helps."

Vivian said, "What do you want to do in the woods?"

"Walk around, get a feel of the place again. I want to see if I can do it."

After that, we spent the rest of the ride in silence. I trusted Catherine to know what she wanted to do. Maybe her fear of playgrounds would be conquered as well. All too quickly, we reached our destination. I parked the car and said, "Well, we're here."

As we walked towards the woods, I patted Catherine on the shoulder in comfort. I wanted to let her know I was here.

Vivian was the first to walk in, and halfway down the path she looked back to see if we were coming. Rebecca followed, then Florence, then Naomi. I hesitated walking along with them, since I didn't want to leave Catherine waiting. But she gave me a firm push, saying "No. If you're in there, it will give me a lot of incentive."

I whispered, "You can do it, Cathie."

To be honest I wanted to be right there with her, to hold her hand at let her know that everything would be alright. But if this is what she wanted and if this helped her, then so be it.

I walked as far as the girls did, turning around to see what Catherine would do.

She stood at the mouth of the forest, looking at the path and took one hesitant step forward. I saw her mouth the words 'here come the sun' as if it were a prayer that kept her from harm. She didn't close her eyes as she walked; Catherine kept them wide open as if in defiance, it seemed. With each step she got more and more confident, so much so that she walked right past us.

We cheered loudly on her behalf, and in my happiness I bum rushed her in a hug. I was so happy that she had faced her fears. I gave me hope that she would completely get better, and we could look back on all those frightful times and laugh.

All six of us walked down the long path, chatting and now fully enjoying ourselves in the soothing shade of the forest. I don't know how long or how far we walked, but in the fork in the road, we saw something...chilling.

Before us was a dead, white tree. The branches were bare and gnarled as if writhing in pain. It wasn't small by any means, but it wasn't big either. Hung on those branches were trinkets held with twine: bird feathers, fish scales, bottles of what looked like blood and dirt, pieces of goat horns, broken glass and mirrors, an entire assortment of bizzare and disturbing decorations. The trunk of the tree was not spared from oddity: some parts were smeared with what I assumed was ash from a burned thing. Some words were written on it (carved into it) in a strange language that neither I nor anyone else could identify.

Catherine tugged at my hand, "I want to go now. I don't like this at all."

I turned to look at her and saw that her face was nearly at white as the tree. I saw fear and anger in her eyes, but nothing that suggested violence. Without looking back, we all walked quickly away from the tree and to my car.

Happy Birthday, Rebecca!

Happy 22nd, Rebecca! I hope you have a great semester and get accepted into Miskatonic like you wanted. If you do, don't forget to send us an e-mail once in a while to let us know how you are doing. I hope you liked the books I got for you!

Still Dark

I got a call from Catherine at 9 am the next day. She apologized for not contacting me the day before, saying that the hurricane had caused her to have a panic attack.

"Is everything alright?" I asked, hoping that it was but prepared if it wasn't.

Catherine said, "I'm fine now, I promise. I just hid myself under the blankets and repeated a mantra that Dr. Frey taught me. I just say 'here comes the sun' over and over again and picture something beautiful, and I feel much better! I wish I knew this before hand, honestly. It would have saved us a lot of trouble."

"Hey, if you're feeling better, then everything is fine. What are you up to?"

"Me? I'm looking at the trees on the ground and wondering when the power will come back on. The same thing as everyone else."

We talked for a while and made some plans to hang out together. When it finished, I gently placed the phone down and briefly fell back to sleep. An hour later, I was finally ready to get up. I walked around the house for a while, doing any chores that I needed to do; fifteen minutes later I was done.

With the power out and nothing else to do, I took to catching up on the reading material that I planned on finishing. However, after a few hours of that it got tiring. My neck started to hurt from looking down so much. So what else was could I do? I painted a wee bit, picked at the strings on an old guitar, tried to knit but ended up just doing cat's cradle, and ate some chips. How exciting.

I wandered outside to get some fresh air. Lunagirl was back outside playing around, eating, sleeping, the usual cat stuff. For her, life continued as normal with nothing amiss at all. Cats live so simply. Electricity doesn't play a huge part in their lives at all.

Catherine showed up to my house at 12:30 just as I was doing yet another lap in our backyard pool. It had gotten so unbearably hot without the air conditioning that it was pretty much the only option. She called out my name and knelt down to give me a kiss. "So how is my little mermaid holding up without any power?"

I rolled my eyes, smiling, "I'm holding up. It's not that bad, really. How are your folks?"

She replied, "They're doing fine. Mom misses watching her shows and Dad keeps on flicking at the lightswitch. I even caught myself doing it."

I got out of the pool and got us two bottles of water from the outside cooler; we both needed the hydration badly. I can't say that the conversations that we had were anything of note. We sat in the shade and talked about simple things, like when the power would come back on and what the autumn semester would bring us.

"Well, one of the things Dr. Frey wanted me to do was put away all fo those drawings that I made in a folder, then put it in my closet and forget all about it. He said that Fear Dubh couldn't hurt me and my thinking about it like that was hindering progress."

Taking a sip from my water bottle, I asked, "So what else did he say?"

"He wants me to keep writing in my diary and focusing on the good things that I have instead. Won't be too hard, really. I have a lot to be thankful for." She placed her hand on mine as she said that.

Catherine stayed over for dinner that night, which consisted of us eating the rest of the coldcuts in the fridge. It wasn't all that bad; at least we HAD something to eat. She left after that, and I went to bed. Hey, I had nothing else better to do anyway.

On day three I woke up early to see the sun rising, walked outside for thirty minutes, and then returned inside. I read some magazines and greeted each family member as they woke up. My father opened the refridge for some milk, but he found that that all of our food had spoiled. Every last item had thawed to to the point of inediblility. And so with heavy, heavy hearts, my family and I had to toss out three refridgerators and freezers worth of food. It was so surreal seeing the usually full fridge now completely empty. It was a harsh reminder that things were getting serious.

The Storm

On August 21, we began to prepare for the oncoming hurricane. I can't tell you how many times I went out to the supermarkets (with and without friends) to get the supplies that we needed in case of something going wrong. With a hurricane that big on the way, we couldn't take any chances.

August 27 was pretty much judgement day. We were as prepared as we could ever be, flashlights, batteries, the works. Lunagirl, usually an outdoor cat, was brought in the house due to our fears that she would be hurt. We knew that she was smart, but from what we heard, the hurricane was too big and too wild to risk her safety. As I predicted, Lunagirl loved being inside. She roamed the house like an excited kid through Disney World, brushing up against and jumping up on everything she could find; it was the cutest little thing.

Before I headed off to bed, I made sure to call not just Catherine, but all of my girls to make sure that they were safe, sound and prepared for whatever came their way.

We all slept in our basement, where it was the safest. Lunagirl curled up next to me and didn't stir for the remainder of the night. If I dreamed of anything, I can't remember for the life of me.

In the morning I awoke to the sound of Lungirl meowing loudly in my ear. No doubt she was hungry. She pawed at me, insistent that I get up and tend to her needs.

"Alright," I croaked,  "I hear you. Come on...let's go"  I got up from the couch and lumpered up the stairs, rubbing my eyes as I did so. In my blurry vision I could not see anything outside the windows, besides the early morning sun rising. Lunagirl sat at the backdoor, waiting to be let out. I said, "Be patient, kitten. Let me get your breakfast...really? You want to be let outside now? Oh, alright. Come here."

I walked outside, with Lunagirl in my arms, into a near war zone. Fallen branches and unearthed trees were everywhere. One large tree had completely fallen over into our neighbor's pool, breaking the fence and crushing their heater. Luckily, our pool only had half a tree in there; all my dad had to do was fish it out, albeit cursing up another storm. My precious cat seemed confused about what happened and why the people around her seemed so distraught. It seemed that as she ate her food she was mulling over this puzzle.

My mother tried to turn on the lights multiple times and found that we, like the rest of our neighbors, were completely without power.

My phone came alive, and before I had time to say 'hello' to the caller, Vivian practically screamed, "Dude! That was one hell of a storm last night! That hurricane destroyed three houses on my street!"

"You're kidding."

"Nope. I'm looking at them right now. No one's dead, but their houses are toast."

And as if to prove her point, shortly after our call ended I got pictures of the said houses. They were indeed toast.

Twenty minutes passed and a text message from Florence read, 'Tell me that you're alright, El.' I responded with telling her that I was indeed alright, but without any power. She texted back with a '-3- same here. My parents are getting twigs and bushes out of the shed. The windows broke and there is glass every which way. I have to help clean it all up. Christ almighty -_-.' Damn, I really felt bad for Flo.

On a whim my father got us all in the car to see how everyone else faired. The neighborhoods around ours were lightless, looking with absolute horror at how many power lines were completely torn from the poles, knotted with the branches of the trees that fell them. Seeing as we were in the car already, we all went to the magical land of 7-11 to get breakfast. You never saw a convenience store so crowded, I swear to God. I got a cinnamon roll and orange juice to ward off the hunger. So there we were, sitting in the 7-11 parking lot wondering what the hell we would do, and in that time Naomi sent me some pictures of what happened near her. Surprise, surprise, it was as bad as everyone else's.

When we returned to our house, the power was still out and wouldn't come back on. The hours ticked by and still nothing. Rebecca set me a video message from her phone to mine, walking around her street and expressing her dismay at how the storm ravaged seemingly everying.

The one upside that I liked was that the stars could be seen much better without all the lights. The first day wasn't so bad, actually.

Therapy

Dr. Frey was a bona fide miracle. He talked to Catherine, and Catherine talked to him. She wasn't put on any drugs, but was advised to keep writing and doodling in the diary that I had given her. Obviously Dr. Frey could not disclose to me what they talked about, but I did listen in outside the door to sate my curiosity. I heard some things like, "The darkness cannot hurt you, neither can the snow, or the trees for that matter." and "You love Elizabeth with all your heart, I can tell. You are both so lucky to have each other in these stressful times." The secretary found me, and out into the waiting room I was sent.

Catherine was taken to get examined by medical doctors to check for any injuries or signs that she had been sexually assaulted. Aside from some scrapes not made my knives, bruises that were made by fumbling and falling, and a bloody nose, she was unharmed. She had not been raped, thankfully, and nothing suggested that she had been beaten or tortured. A cat scan was done to see if she suffered any head trauma; they all came back normal, much to the puzzlement of the doctors.

But we celebrated Catherine's return and good health, with Vivian driving all five of us to Chili's. And boy, was it delicious. Despite all of that, I still managed to lose four pounds. I blame Florence for her not-so little running trips she has us all do with her.

Another time that I accompanied Catherine to the doctor's office, I looked up from my fashion magazine and truly observed my surroundings. Some of the pictures were of nature: forests, lakes, mountain tops and deserts during different seasons were predominate, but there were also pictures of people. Some of them were done in a blanched, vintage style that was rather pretty. Near Dr. Frey's door was a small table with some little  fresh summer flowers in a green glass vase, and close to it was a photograph of two charming looking girls. After the session between them had completed, I asked him, "Who are those two girls there, Doctor?"

"Oh! Those are my two daughters: Justine and Juliette." He brought the picture forward so we could see better. The girls were very pretty, dressed up in formal wear. "This was a while ago, so if you meet them they will be much more beautiful."

We complimented the photo and his daughters, thanked the doctor again and off we went.
On the drive back to my house, Catherine poked my arm and said, "I hope our girls will be as pretty as Dr. Frey's."

"Oh, much more!" I laughed. "They'll be the prettiest, nicest kids in the world."

"Their names will be Alice and Dorothy."

"Perfect!"

"And they will wear little blue dresses."

"Even better."

So the topic of the day was children, and when we think we would be ready for them. We supposed sometime in our mid to late twenties or early thirties. Sometimes I wonder what kind of life we would have had if she stayed. I still miss her.

The Doctor

On the seventh day, Catherine returned.

I was napping, deeply in sleep with my phone at earshot  and when I heard the doorbell. Thinking nothing of it, I grumbled, turned over, and proceeded to drift off again. The person at the door rang it again, and this time I had little choice but to throw off my covers and answer it. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and opened the door to see no one else by Catherine.

And there she was: dirty, unwashed but smiling. "Elizabeth...hey. I have to apologize for acting so crazy. Things have been really, really weird as of late, and it's so--"
I threw my arms around her without letting her finish. I couldn't believe it: my Cathie had safely returned to me! Tears welled in my eyes and spilled over onto my cheeks, which in turn landed on her clothing. She hugged me back.

"I love you, too, Ellie. I really do." she whispered.

"Where did you go?"
Here she stepped back and looked at me oddly. "Wait. Why did you ask me that?"

I motioned for her to come on inside. Behind us I closed the door and locked it, just in case. "You were gone for seven days. Your parents and I tried calling you. Hell, we all tried to contact you. I went to your house the day after the beach and you weren't there. I looked everywhere!"
She folded her arms in concentration, "Are you...sure?"

I responded, "I'm 100% positive."
Catherine suddenly got this look in her eyes, a look similar to understanding. She slowly nodded her head in a 'oh, so that's it' kind of way. "Well," she murmured "You will never have to worry about that ever again. I'm getting my shit together."

I laid a hand on a shoulder. "I'm happy about that, Catherine. I am. But where were you this whole time?"
Here she looked at herself, noticing the mud, dirt and grass stains, some dried and some fresh. It looked as if she had taken a hike for six days and then slept in a field full of weeds. Her nostrils and upper lip were crusted with dried blood. "I don't have the slightest clue. I woke up outside of my room but didn't think much of it. I remembered how anxious you were about me...and here I am."

That was quite unnerving to hear. Even Catherine herself was clueless as to where she went and why she was missing.

I spread the word that Catherine had come back, much to the relief of every last person I knew. Rebecca still wanted her to go see a psychiatrist, which everyone agreed was the best course of action. Catherine herself thought it a wise idea. Luckily for us, a doctor was indeed available.

Dr. Alphonse Frey, a very clever and amiable man with several degrees in several fields came to her rescue. He gladly took Catherine as his patient, saying that she indeed need the help of a trained professional to get rid of these ailments, hopefully by the time of our wedding. I remember standing in his huge office with all those books and diplomas that proudly testified the extent of his knowledge. I saw copies of books by Frederich Wilhelm Von Junzt and Ludwig Prinn, two very notable German authors. 

One time when I accompanied her to the office, Dr. Frey offered me some herbal tea and cherries that he picked from his garden. I ate the entire bowl by the time they were done. Catherine liked him, I liked him, everyone liked him. Things were indeed looking up for all of us.

A Bit of Reason

I was so worried about Catherine that I barely got any sleep that night. I tossed and turned and counted the seconds until dawn. It seemed like an eternity before the sun came up, and when it did, I was out the door and into my car. I drove to her house in a trance, my hands gripping the wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.

As I pulled up the driveway, I saw that her parents' cars weren't there; they got up early for their job and sometimes got home late. Catherine's car, on the other hand, was in its usual haunt. I approached the front door, unlocked it, and went right towards the stairs.

"Catherine? Are you awake?" I called out from the bottom of the steps. "Are you sleep asleep, girlie?" I quietly walked up the stairs, before finally getting to her closed door. I knocked twice, and when I recieved no answer, I opened it.

She was gone.

The blankets on her bed were tangled and pushed back seemingly in a fit, as if she had clawed her way out of a nightmare. Some papers with the creature were flung around, and on closer inspection of found small droplets of blood upon a few. I stood there completely dumbfounded for some time before rushing through the house screaming her name, looking everywhere in the house. She was nowhere to be found. I clearly remember a cold panic thundering through me, and the helplessness and worry seemed to take me over.

I called Catherine hundreds of times, left hundreds of voice mails, and paced any room I was in so many times I swear I left a long groove in the floors. I asked her parents if they knew where she was, but they were just as confused as we all were. A part of me tried to reason that it was her going out and looking for a wonderful place for us to vacation to, as she had said before. But judging by the way she acted the night I dropped her off, it didn't seem likely.
On the fourth day I simply curled up into a ball on my bed, clutching my cell phone and crying softly into my pillow. I wished that I had walked into the house with her and stayed. I wished that she would get better. I wished harder than ever before. I don't know how long I stayed that way, but the sound of the doorbell roused me from my stupor. I slowly walked down the stairs, hair disheveled and eyes bright red, and answered the door.

Lo and behold it was Rebecca, who wanted to check up on me and see how I was doing. From the sympathetic look on her face when she saw me, Rebecca was kicking into full on mommy-mode; ready and willing to ease my pain. I felt my eyes beginning to sting; the tell-tale sign that another flood of tears were coming my way.

Immediately she escorted me to the kitchen, sat me down, and let me cry a river into her shoulder. As I wept, I also heard her cries join mine. It took too long for my tastes to calm down again, but when I did, Rebecca was right there for me.
When I could manage words again, she asked, "Do you have any idea what might have caused Catherine to act this way? Any hint at all?"

I took a deep breath and told her everything that had happened with me and Catherine; the new fears, the insect, the bloody coughs...and then I told her about this Fear Dubh, and how it might be connect to all of these events.

Rebecca sighed and looked at me incredulously, "Elizabeth, really? Fear Dubh and any related stories are just that: stories. Anyone and everyone claiming to see it is just mass paranoia. There has to be something else that is the matter."

It was so tempting to just nod my head and agree with her. Rebecca took nonsense from no one, tolerated stupidity from no one, and used logic and reason to sort out any problems. Her being that grounded helped the rest of us many a time.
"But Becca, you know her. She was never like this at all. What if someone--something-- is stalking her? Actually, no. I know that something is stalking her. Maybe it's that thing."

Rebecca shrugged, and I could see that she, too, was as anxious as I was. "Catherine is such a sweet person; I can't see her earning the ire of someone, unless this person was just sick in the head. Maybe, just maybe, there is a stalker who is using the image of the Fear Dubh to terrorize her. Maybe she is an unfortunate, random victim of a person who likes to torment their targets by messing with their minds as much as possible."
I opened my mouth to speak, but as I thought about what she had said, it had some basis. In fact, I was willing to believe everything that she had said. And then she continued, stating facts and giving logical answers to the confusing questions I had. Another knock at the door came an hour later, and this time I saw Vivian there, also coming to see how I was. As soon as Rebecca gave her the rundown on what was going on, she, too, joined in the conversation, though Vivian was a bit more willing to believe that something supernatural was most likely happening.

"It could happen!" Vivian exclaimed. "I mean, Catherine was never like this before. Who is to say that Fear Dubh doesn't exist? Stranger things have happened."

"All I'm saying is, I just have a hard time believing that a tall man all in black exists." Rebecca replied. "It doesn't seem probable in the slightest. When we find Catherine, we should get her to see a psychiatrist and clear this up. Something is going on and we have to get to the bottom of it. We all hate seeing her like this."

Vivian raised her hand. "I'll drive her, when the time comes. And we can all go to a restaurant afterwards."

I muttered agreement. I wondered how long my Catherine would be gone; a moment longer and I would pack my bags and look for her myself. The big problem was, I had no idea where in God's green earth she was. None whatsoever. I would be pure foolishness to go out and try to find her when I don't have the slightest clue where she is.

On the seventh day, Catherine returned.