It was already snowing again by the time I pulled up to the edge of the tree lot. The only sign was a dubious-looking piece of particleboard propped against a small and scraggly fir, and I couldn’t help but think that the puny tree had been relegated to sign-holder because no one would want to buy him. I glanced at the dash clock. 7:32. Fuck me. I had to hurry up bef-
My phone began to buzz in my coat, and cursing under my breath, I dug it out. It was Neal, either calling to tell me Merry Christmas or to ramble on about something that happened on his family’s vacation to Florida. I almost didn’t answer at all, but I worried there was always an outside chance it was work-related, though he’d been gone to Orlando for almost three days. Sighing, I hit the button and said hello.
“Hey, man. Just calling to wish you a Merry Christmas! You’re going home this year, right?”
Grimacing, I tried to keep my voice light. “Yeah, almost there now. I’m stopping to pick up a tree on the way out to Sarah’s parents’ house. They’ve already got one up, but I promised the kids, you know?”
His laugh crackled into my ear. “Shit, you’re cutting it kind of close aren’t you? Tonight’s Christmas Eve. Do you think they’re even open?”
Not if you keep running your mouth, they won’t be. “Yeah, supposed to stay open til eight according to the website. Only one I could find this far out that was on the way. Sarah’s parents are loaded and live out on an estate about an hour from here.” I paused, and then to my surprise, I went on talking. “I just…I don’t want to fuck this up, you know? Me moving to Nashville for work last fall and then working through Christmas last time…it didn’t go over well. We’ve never said we were separated, but I kinda feel like I need to prove to her and the kids that I’m still invested and want to do better, you know?” I felt a flush of embarrassment warming my cheeks as I stared out at the increasing snowfall. Neal was a cool boss overall, and we got along well, but I wasn’t used to sharing personal stuff with him.
When he spoke next, his voice was more serious, but still kind. “I’m sorry, buddy. I knew you were living apart, but I didn’t realize how strained things had gotten. Family comes first, man. You take the time you need on the holiday, and when we get back to it, let’s talk about options to make things work better for you and your wife, okay?”
I started in surprise. “Um, yeah, okay, Neal. I…I appreciate that. I love my job, and I hope you know that. I just want to be a good husband and father too.”
“No worries, man. I get it. Have a good Christmas.”
Wiping at my eye, I put the phone back in my coat and got out. The place had a few strings of dancing lights hung up past the wooden fence and the tree sentry, but I didn’t see any Christmas trees in the space beyond. Instead it was just a small empty field that led to the edge of a forest of sorts, though none of the trees looked at all Christmassy. Panic filling my chest, I started forward before noticing the small trailer parked further down on my side of the split-rail fence. Heart thudding, I jogged over to the trailer and knocked on the door, praying there was someone inside.
After my second round of knocks a heavy-set woman in her fifties opened the door, staring down at me with mild interest as she absently gnawed on a candy-cane. “Can I help you, mister?”
I tried to give a winning smile despite being cold, wet and worried. “Um, yeah. I needed to get a tree? Please tell me you still have Christmas trees for sale.”
The woman studied me for several moments, rolling her cane from one side of her mouth to another. “Waited a bit late, didn’t ya?”
Trying to keep the smile on my face, I nodded. “I did. I’ve been driving since four this morning. And I promised my kids I’d bring them a tree.”
The woman’s face changed slightly as her eyes drifted from me back to the car. “Kids with you, are they? Maybe your wife?”
I shook my head. “No, they’re all at the grandparents waiting. Which is why I was hoping to get a tree and get back on the road.” I started digging into my pocket for my wallet. “I can pay cash, and I don’t mind paying extra for, um, the inconvenience on Christmas Eve.”
She was already waving her hand at me. “No need for that. It’s a Christmas tree lot, after all. Not much of an inconvenience to sell Christmas trees.” The woman looked me over again before giving a small frown. “The main lot is empty though. Sold the last ones this morning.”
My stomach began to sink when I thought of something. “The main lot? Meaning there’s another lot you could get me a tree from?”
Her frown deepened. “Sell? Yes. ‘Get’? No. The property goes on back for some ways, and past that stand of hardwood is the kind of trees you’re talking about. For the kind of folks that want a more authentic tree-getting experience.” She shot me a look. “Or fellas that come on Christmas Evening.”
I stared at her a moment, trying to see if she was joking or if there was any wiggle room. “So you’re saying I’d have to go and chop down the tree and drag it out myself?”
She shrugged. “Only if you want to. You get your pick for $100 even.”
I glanced back toward the dark woods outside the halo of the lit but empty lot. “I don’t have the tools for that.”
The woman sniffed. “All you need is an axe.”
I shot her an irritated look. “Do I look like I have an axe?”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “Mister, I don’t make a habit of studying the appearance and behavior of those who might be so inclined as to carry an axe with them. I tend to, especially around the Yuletide, endeavor in mainly two areas: Selling trees is one. Drinking eggnog while watching my stories is the other. And based upon your tone, I’m beginning to think I’m better off applying my time and talents to that second pursuit.”
I raised a hand as I shook my head. “No…no! Just…do you have an axe I can borrow?”
The woman bit off the tip of her candy cane and crunched it as she stared out at the snow. “I have one you can rent. $10 for an hour. You break it, you have to buy me another, of course.”
Nodding, I started digging out the cash. “Are there lights back there where the trees are?”
“There are not. Other than the sun and the moon and the stars.”
Sighing, I reached back into my wallet. “Can I also rent a flashlight or lantern?”
Her face lit up in a broad smile. “Why yes you may.”
“Stupid fucking…of all the fucking dumb motherfucking…”
I was pushing through the hardwoods now, and while they had seemed dense from a distance, up close I saw that they were actually just a few yards deep before breaking out into a much larger expanse on the other side. A snowy hill sloped down from where I came up, dipping and curving off before swelling into a much greater incline on the far side. And on that far side, dotted here and there, were some of the largest, most beautiful Christmas trees I’d ever seen.
I felt a combination of awe and fear as I stared out at them. They were very impressive, but even the smallest of them had to be…what? Twenty or thirty feet tall? It might be that Sarah’s parents’ house could accommodate such a beast with their giant rooms and cathedral ceilings, but I had to find something I could actually cut down, drag out, and tie to the roof of my car.
Climbing up the hill, I scolded myself. There were bound to be smaller trees too. Maybe deeper in, where they wouldn’t get as much light because of the big ones around them. Holding up my little lantern, I pushed into the thick dark between a pair of green giants. The air was different here. Thicker and shot through with the smell of wood and sap and something else I didn’t recognize. Wrinkling my nose, I kept going, but all of the trees seemed enormous, especially this close up. Nothing I could manage to get out by myself.
After walking for several minutes, I finally started to notice…if not smaller trees, at least less of them. The ground was sloping down again, and down in the small valley there was a slight rise. And on that rise, there were much smaller trees—manageable, reasonable trees of the sort that I could chop down and bring home to my family. Grinning, I stumble-slid down the bank to the smaller hill and started looking at them. It was funny, they all looked almost identical—not just the kind of tree they were, whatever that was, but everything. Each branch, every needle, appeared at a glance to be represented on every tree. If not for the overpowering scent of them, I’d have thought I’d stumbled into a backwoods artificial tree farm. Laughing at the thought, I pulled off my glove and reached out to touch the nearest tree. No, it was definitely real and…had the branch pulled away from me?
Frowning, I reached forward to touch the tree again. This time, the branch recoiled before I reached it, and when I kept reaching, it lashed out, whipping me across my hand. I yelled then, more out of surprise and fear than pain, and began to back up even as I sensed more motion around me.
The smaller trees around me were all moving—not just their branches, their whole bodies were shifting as they moved through the snow toward me, as though racing to surround me. I started backpedaling quicker, and was almost off the hill when I felt a fragrant branch snake around my left arm. They were grabbing me. Trying to…I didn’t know what, but I had to get away. I tried pulling my arm free, but I barely moved at all, and to my horror, I felt the branch tighten its grip even as another tree began reaching out toward me. Stifling a scream, I hacked at the branch with my axe, freeing myself even as the freezing air split with a sharp, keening cry.
I felt the ground underneath me begin to shift as I turned and began to run. After the next few steps the earth was steady again, but looking back, I thought I could make out the ground shifting beneath the snow even as the trees began pursuing me. This was impossible. It was all impossible, and yet something in me knew it was all very real, all very deadly. I had to get away from these trees or whatever it was beneath the ground or…I didn’t know, but I had to get away, get back to my car and away from this place before these things caught up to me.
I had completely lost my bearings, but I had a dim sense that I was going in the wrong direction. The lot and my car were more over to my right, right? It didn’t matter. I had to keep running, try to put distance between me and the dozen or so trees pushing through the snow toward me.
And I was managing to do that. I couldn’t see well, but when I held my lantern up and looked back, I could see that the trees or whatever was beneath them was slowing down. Maybe it was tired or had given up? But no. They were still moving toward me, just not as quickly.
Looking ahead, I saw a washed out gully that seemed to split in two further down. Hoping I had time to make it before the trees saw where I was headed, I cut down into the right branch of the gully and lay against a depression in the wall as I fumbled the lantern off.
In the dark, the small noises became the world. The snow muffled everything, taking the edges off every sound before it reached me, soft and dead and cold. At first there was only the sound of my own breath, but then I started hearing something from farther off. A stealthy shifting sound, then another, and another. Snow being shunted and displaced as things drew nearer. My eyes were adjusting to the dark now, and in the ambient light of the moonlit sky I could make out the sihouettes of the trees as the moved past me, slowly, carefully, twitching this way and that as though looking for some sign I’d left behind. These trees weren’t just chasing me.
They were hunting me.
I held my breath as they passed, blood hammering my ears as I forced myself to stay perfectly still. If they noticed me now, I’d be trapped. They’d fall on me, pull me apart, feed me to whatever lay beneath the shifting snow at their feet. Hands trembling, I gripped the lantern and axe tightly as I waited. Just a few more seconds and it would be gone around the next bend and I could sneak back the way we’d come. Just another minute and…
The thing beneath the trees let out another screeching cry, this one louder and more fierce. I couldn’t help but feel a bit of satisfaction. It sounded frustrated, like a spoiled child that hadn’t gotten i-
Behind us, a thunderous roar echoed its response and I felt myself shuddering in pain as I tried to cover my ears. Nothing could be that loud, that large, that…Stepping away from the wall, I turned and looked past the wall of the ravine I was in. The big hill, the hill with all the giant trees…it was standing up. Standing up and turning towards us as it bellowed out another ear-splitting cry. To my side, growing closer again now, I heard the thing that had been hunting me call out in kind, a more complex and musical message. Happier and more satisfied. Perhaps saying “Here it is! Come help me catch it.”
I didn’t wait any longer, but started running back up the gully just far enough to take the other, left-hand path back away. And it might have been enough to stop the small thing at my heels, but not the mountain that was taking its first heaving steps forward as snow poured down its sides and the tree-looking things across its back began to shudder and shake with a rasping noise that reminded me of a rattlesnake’s rattle big enough to fill the sky.
It was then that I knew I was going to die there. Die in that cold, dark forest with no one knowing where I was, maybe no one even caring. I hesitated for a moment, slowed for a second, and then stumbled as my foot slid on something hard.
Hitting the button on the lantern, I let out a gasp as I saw what filled the left path of the gully. It was bones—mostly animals, but there were a number of human skulls and leg and arm bones sticking out of the snow-crusted piles here and there, and looking down I saw I had slid on part of a broken rib cage. I considered just running through, but I thought better of it. I couldn’t outrun the big one, not without my car. And while I couldn’t say for sure, I felt like I was getting farther from the tree lot, not closer.
I puffed out a breath. If I kept running away I would die. My only chance was to take my best guess at where the car was and go for it. Big as that thing was, maybe it wouldn’t see me in time and I could get away.
I let out a cry of pain as a small branch curled around my ankle. Turning in horror, I saw the smaller thing had caught up with me again, and in the ravine I could see more of what lay beneath the snow.
Its body seemed long and flat and ghastly white, with dozens of small, spindly arms that pulled it forward, each ending in small hard claws that bit into the snow and rock as it crawled toward me. I couldn’t make out a distinct head at all, but after a terrible moment of looking at it in the lantern’s light, I could make out hundreds of small, white eyes covering its sides and front. They blinked at me, almost curiously, as one of the tree-things on its back began to tug me closer.
I screamed and chopped at it, and after two frantic blows it let me go, but it was already advancing again, calling for the large one to help as it tried to stop my mad scramble up the wall of the ravine and away from its grasp. It brushed the sole of my shoe, but then I was past the edge and on my feet again, running in what I hoped was the right direction, even though it took me back toward the gigantic hill that was coming for me.
I was going as hard as I could, but I could already tell it wouldn’t be enough. Despite its massive size, it was faster in the snow than I was, and it would cut me off before I could get to the lot, much less my car. I thought again about the smaller one’s eyes, blinking in the light. Curious maybe. Or maybe drawn to the lantern because it meant people. It meant new food.
Turning, I flung the lantern as hard as I could back in the other direction and paused long enough to see if the hunting mountain took the bait. It did. I could see it swinging in that direction even as I began to run harder toward the way I hoped led out of the forest.
I’d made it another hundred yards before I heard the enraged roar behind me, echoed by a smaller cry further away. Glancing back I saw it had figured out my trick, and it was now bearing down on me with all the weight and deadly speed of an avalanche. Ahead I could see the lights of the lot, but what difference would that make? I couldn’t get in my car and drive away fast enough, and what was to stop it from just following me into the lot and…I kept going as my brain ran its own race.
Why was the lot there anyway? It was a kind of trap, right? It had to be. That fucking woman was feeding these things, at least sometimes. And the fact that she was still there, that the lot was still there, meant either these things had a deal with her or something kept them from being able to go into the lot itself. It was like freeze tag or something, and the lot was a safe space.
Or not. It might be that whatever kept them from normally charging in and killing anything they found only applied when they weren’t good and pissed off, which judging from the sounds behind me, they certainly were now. The hardwood trees--real trees so far as I could tell--were being split and raked aside as the creature closed the gap between us. Nothing was going to stop this thing, and it was going to catch me after all.
But no, I couldn’t just give up. I had to keep trying. I had to see my family again.
Leaping forward, I felt some relief as I cleared the first string of twinkling lights. And when I reached the split-rail fence at the other end of the lot, I stopped to look back. I could just make out the hulking shape of a tree-laden hill, brooding at the edge of the shifting yellow light for several moments before shuffling off into the dark.
I gave a shudder as I stepped past the fence. Motion to the left caught my eye, and I raised my axe as I spun in that direction. It was the woman, peering out at me from behind her trailer door. I could see the surprise on her face, but her voice was even when she called out to me.
“Didn’t find one you liked?”
I pointed the axe in her direction. “Fuck you!” Trembling, I looked around, momentarily at a loss for what to do. I wanted to beat her skull in, or just get in the car and drive away as fast as I could or…my eyes landed on the scraggly sentry tree. Shuffling over to it, I kicked the particleboard sign away and hacked at its trunk, spit flying from my mouth as I cursed. When I was done, I opened the back of my SUV and stuffed it inside, upholstery be damned. Raking my eyes back toward the woman, I gestured to my prize as I puffed out an exhausted breath. “Got my tree. And I’m keeping the axe.” I waved the axe head in her direction. “Any more smart fucking comments?”
I pulled my phone from my coat pocket as she murmured something. I had to text Sarah and tell her that I was running late, but I’d be there. Just a bit longer and I’d be home. The woman said something else. Getting into the car, I cranked up and rolled down the window.
“What was that?”
She frowned at me. “I said Merry Christmas.”
I heard my jaw click as I gritted my teeth. “Seriously? Fuck you!” I put the car in drive and was about to stomp the gas when I stopped myself. Letting out a long sigh I looked back out at the woman. Yes, she was most likely a horrible devil woman who was luring people to their deaths, but I still couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for her as she looked out at me across the thinning snowfall. I had a wonderful family waiting for me. She was alone on Christmas, sitting in a trailer with hill monsters in her back yard. Fuck her, sure. But maybe fuck me a little bit too for taking so much for granted. Shaking my head slightly, I gave her a little wave.
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