Black Oak Burning by Monique Edenwood

Author:Monique Edenwood [Edenwood, Monique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Monique Edenwood
Published: 2020-12-23T18:30:00+00:00

Fifteen minutes later, lying in my bed, his face is the last thing I see as my eyelids fall heavy, sleep consuming me, saving me from the unrelenting fervor of Cameron’s glare.

“Jessynia…”

The voice is faint, distant.

“Jessynia…”

There it is again. Deeper, this time. Louder.

“Who’s there?” I shout, looking around the clearing, scanning the trees all around as I try to figure out which direction the voice is coming from.

“Help me…”

The voice echoes around me.

“Help me…”

The deep rasp is unmistakable.

Jack.

I run through the featureless dark, trying not to slip on the wet grass under my feet.

“Jack?! Where are you?!”

I strain to see through the obscurity, studying each tree on the periphery.

“Jessynia…”

I pivot as I realize the sound is coming from behind me and start to run in that direction, the moon the only source of light, a beacon in the inky sky. “I’m coming. Hold on!”

I dart through the first row of tree guards before me, entering the somber forest, twigs crackling under my feet which slip and trip on twisted roots and stacks of wet leaves.

“Jessynia…”

“I’m coming!” I keep stumbling forward until suddenly, in a sparse patch of forest, I see him, illuminated by the blue moon lying low and heavy in the sky.

“I can’t hold on…”

Though far away, his voice echoes through me as I race towards him, making out a rough shape standing with his back against a sinewy tree, a mammoth onyx canopy reaching up above him.

As I run forwards, dodging trees and tripping over branches which leave scratches and welts and specks of blood on my arms and legs, I finally see him clearly, naked from the waist up, his back against the dark tree, sanguine licks of orange and crimson flame emerging from its center, billowing behind him.

“Jack! I’m coming!”

“I can’t hold on.” His blood-stained mouth doesn’t move, but I hear his words inside me.

“Yes, you can…”

As I make it within thirty feet, ebony branches emerge from inside the fiery trunk, reaching out to clasp his waist, bursting to life, contorting, grabbing onto Jack’s weakened body.

“Goodbye, Jessynia.” The gleaming ice of his irises cuts through the dark and into me.

“Jack, no. Hold on!”

“I’m sorry.”

“No!”

Corrupt branches shroud his face and neck, yanking him into the blazing inferno of hellfire within.

“Jack!”

As I make it within ten feet, there is a final tug and he is swallowed whole, the opening in the wood closing around him, returning the tree to its natural form, all sign of flame extinguished.

Reaching it, I shove my hands into the treacherous wood. “Jack! Where are you?!” I scream, banging and clawing against the jagged, fibrous bark, blood trickling from my hands as I do so. “Let him out! Let him out! Jack!”

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