11 Oct The Bone Tree 

Kai couldn’t remember the last time he’d caught himself feeling truly frightened. He had watched all of the scariest movies he could find, devoured countless ancient tales of mystery and macabre, and even researched real-world accounts of ghostly sightings and unexplainable encounters. All of it bored him.

Of course, he hadn’t always been so unbothered by such things. Back when he was little, the mere mention of ghosts was enough to keep him up past his bedtime. He would hide beneath the covers, shivering in fear. Now, all of that felt like a lifetime ago. Tonight, however, Kai hoped to feel fear once again.

“Do you think it’s late enough now?” Kai asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“I think so,” his friend Morgan responded. “All the lights are off in the cabins.”

It was early October, and Kai K. Arkwright was spending the weekend with his family at their cabin in the mountains of central Oregon. Morgan’s family, the Bells, owned the cabin next door and had driven out for the weekend, too. Kai’s family and Morgan’s were good friends, and they often visited their cabins simultaneously, especially during the summer and on holidays. Other times, as on this weekend, they came simply to get away from city life for a few nights. Kai had known the Bells all his life and had grown up alongside Morgan, who was the same age. Naturally, she was his favorite member of the family.

Earlier in the day, Kai had suggested to Morgan a late-night walk in the woods. She had agreed to the proposal without hesitation, and was soon just as excited as Kai to experience the forest at night.

And so, once dinner was over, Kai and Morgan set up a pair of hammocks in the fading twilight. Kai’s mother wasn’t thrilled about them sleeping outside, but she had allowed it as long as they promised not to wander off after dark. Kai and Morgan both promised, doing their best to hide their mischief behind innocent faces. And as soon as Kai’s mother went back inside, they began to discuss their late-night excursion.

It was a quarter past midnight now, and Kai had his hammock wrapped around him like a cocoon. Beside him, Morgan sat upright in a hammock of her own. Each hammock was tied to a tree trunk at both ends, and both were filled with an assortment of pillows and blankets to keep the cold at bay. They were on the edge

of the forest where the trees were plentiful, but close enough to the cabins that they could see the rooms where their parents slept.

Kai swung his legs over the side of the hammock and stood up. Right as he did so, a cold gust of wind swept over him. The mountain air felt nice on his skin, but he zipped up his jacket all the same.

“Let’s at least bring Brutus with us,” Morgan said, pulling on a sweater of her own.

“Aw, come on,” Kai protested. “It’ll be much scarier without her.” “You heard those coyotes last night, didn’t you? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really feel like being eaten alive.”

Kai sighed. “Alright, I suppose you have a point.”

Brutus was the Arkwright family dog. She was a large black Rottweiler, and very protective of her family. Whenever the Arkwrights stayed at their cabin, Brutus slept on the front porch, loyally guarding her masters from the vast woods beyond.

As he approached the unlit cabin, Kai tried to be as quiet as possible so as not to alert his sleeping family. It wasn’t difficult; the ground had a thick covering of pine needles, which muffled the sound of his footsteps.

By the time he reached the stairs, Kai could just make out the rough shape of Brutus’s body, which was rising and falling with each breath. When Kai reached the top step, Brutus lifted her head and looked around. She growled for a moment before recognizing Kai.

“It’s me, girl,” he whispered as he reached the top step. Thankfully, she calmed down right away and made no more noise.

Kai selected a leash from beside the front door and gently fitted it to Brutus’s collar. With that in order, he and his dog rejoined Morgan, and they set off into the night.

“Which way?” Kai asked, eager to begin exploring.

“Over there,” Morgan said, pointing to the northwest. “Let’s follow the path for a little bit.”

“Okay,” Kai agreed.

The path Morgan spoke of was wide enough for five men to walk abreast, but it was heavily overgrown with grasses and ferns. The path seemed to be leading them higher and higher through the forest, albeit very gradually. Ancient evergreens

loomed on either side, so tall that Kai couldn’t see their tops. He had always loved these woods, ever since he was a small child. Because of this, his parents often joked that they had found him abandoned among the pines as a baby. “We’ve raised you as our own,” they would say, “but you never fully lost your wild spirit.”

Near total silence accompanied the two teenagers as they walked. Other than the steady rhythm of their footsteps, the only discernible sound was the occasional gust of wind.

Without saying a word, Kai looped his arm around Morgan’s. She responded only by taking his hand in her own. Kai smiled. It felt nice to be close to her when the world around them was so big and unknown. And so they continued onward, holding on to each other as they drank in the atmosphere.

Kai was thrilled by the palpable horror of the night. Already, he was starting to imagine all the terrifying scenarios that might befall him should something go wrong. Some crazed murderer could be lurking around the next corner, waiting to pull out an ax and chop them both to bits. Maybe a wild animal would emerge from the shadows and pounce on the defenseless teenagers. Neither seemed very likely, but the sinister thoughts made Kai’s heart race nonetheless.

After a few more minutes, Morgan finally broke the silence. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“I was just thinking what an exquisite night for exploring it is,” Kai professed. “Me too,” Morgan said, squeezing his hand.

“You’re not scared, are you?” Kai teased.

“Not in the slightest. But I bet you’re secretly shaking under that fluffy jacket you have on.”

“Good one,” Kai said. He lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned over to Morgan’s ear. “But maybe I should be scared. Maybe some dark terror is lurking just out of sight.” He paused for dramatic impact. “If you run away in fear, don’t blame me if I follow.”

Kai smiled, confident he had sent a shiver down his friend’s spine. But instead of looking frightened, Morgan just laughed.

“Trust me, it’ll take more than that to make me turn back. But I have a question I don’t think I’ve asked you before. What is your greatest fear? Is there anything in this world that could frighten the mighty Kai?”

Kai didn’t fail to notice Morgan’s subtly sarcastic tone, but the question got him thinking nonetheless. He was not easily scared, that much was certainly true. On the other hand, everything appeared a thousand times more frightening in the dark.

After a few moments, Kai still hadn’t thought of a response. “I’m not sure . . . I—”

He cut himself off. Right as he had started to speak, a disturbing image flashed inside his head. He fell silent, trying to place what it was he was seeing, but concentrating only made the image slip from his mind more quickly. Whatever it was had been so dark and horrifying that it made his skin crawl. That was all he knew.

“Kai?” Morgan asked uncertainly. “What is it?”

Kai realized Morgan was looking at him, so he quickly assumed his nonchalant demeanor once again. I’m being silly, he told himself. My excitement must be messing with my head. 

“Nothing,” Kai said. “I just had a weird thought, but it’s nothing.” “Wow, you really are scared,” Morgan said, sounding very pleased with herself. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “I bet I’d last longer—”

“Wait!” Morgan said so suddenly that he jumped. He looked around in every direction for a sign of something dangerous. There was nothing. “Jesus, Morgan, I thought you saw something.”

“No, I just had an idea.” She placed a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “Let’s go off the trail for a little bit. It’ll be even darker in there.”

“Good idea,” Kai said excitedly. Despite having hiked all the trails in the area countless times, he had never strayed off into the wilderness.

“We just have to make sure we remember the way back.”

Kai snorted. “What should we do, leave a trail of breadcrumbs on the ground behind us?”

“Very funny,” Morgan said. “Just pay attention, okay?”

“Why should I when I have you with me?”

Morgan didn’t respond, but he could feel her glaring at him through the darkness.

“Alright, I’ll pay attention,” he said.

“If nothing else, the moon is at our backs. If we get lost, we can just walk toward it until we’re back here.”

A changed atmosphere greeted them as soon as they stepped off the trail. The dense layers of trees hugged them closely on all sides. Even the sea of stars above them was now obscured from view by the layers of branches. Kai hadn’t realized how much light the night sky provided when it was visible. But now, with most of the overhead glow gone, Kai could only make out what was right in front of him. He and Morgan moved slower now, carefully navigating the labyrinth of stumps and fallen tree trunks. Brutus also helped guide them with her excellent night vision. Now, for the first time, Kai was happy he had his dog with him.

The sounds around him so absorbed Kai that he lost all track of time. He couldn’t have been walking for more than a few minutes, but it was difficult to say when he was surrounded by total blackness. Every heartbeat seemed to last for hours.

All of a sudden, the unmistakable howl of a coyote split through the silence. Kai froze momentarily, and Morgan squeezed his hand tighter.

“This is awesome,” Morgan whispered.

“I know,” Kai agreed, shivering with a mixture of fear, excitement, and the ever-present chill of an October night.

“Look over there,” Morgan said, pointing.

Through his limited vision, Kai could just make out a moonlit clearing in the trees ahead. He approached, still hand-in-hand with Morgan. It was indeed a clearing, roughly 40 feet across in all directions. The mountain fog was far more dense here, and silvery wisps swirled around the open air. A solitary beam of moonlight shone through the mist onto what looked to be a massive oak tree. It grew from the very center of the clearing, thick and ancient, with gnarled roots protruding from the ground. The tree looked close to death, with most of its limbs bereft of greenery.

All the other trees of the forest were evergreens. What on earth was an oak tree doing all the way out here?

Morgan broke away from him and jogged toward the tree. Kai was about to follow, but before he could take another step, Brutus tugged sharply on her leash and growled.

“What’s wrong, girl?” Kai asked, bending down to scratch her behind the ears. Brutus only snarled again in response. Kai shook his head in confusion. There was nothing there other than the old tree.

“Check this out,” Morgan called. She was examining something hanging from one of the branches.

When he came up beside her, Kai realized there were dozens of objects suspended from the tree, all of which were gently swaying in the breeze. It was difficult to see in the dim starlight, so Kai brought up his hand to feel what was in front of him. He felt an oblong shape, smooth yet slightly grainy to the touch. His stomach twisted slightly as he realized it must have been some kind of bone. Judging by how many there were, the bones could have come from an entire skeleton, dispersed throughout the tree. It was hard to tell what animal they belonged to, but they varied in size from tiny phalanges to lengthy femurs. He could swear he even saw a fragment of a jawbone hanging from a higher branch.

Kai had always noticed bones littering the land around his family’s cabin, but the idea had never much troubled him. His father always told him the woods were filled with wildlife, and their skeletons had to end up somewhere after all. Still, there was something inherently unsettling about this bone tree. Who would think to spend their time in such a way, tying animal bones to the limbs of a dead tree? Of course, it was most likely just someone’s idea of a joke, something to scare whoever might stumble upon it.

On the other hand, it seemed out of place so deep in the woods. To Kai’s knowledge, the only people with reason to be out here were his own family and the handful of other families with cabins in the area. That was how remote the land was.

Kai started to consider alternative explanations. Maybe some cannibalistic cult operated nearby, and they hung the bones of their victims after they were done eating them. Now that would be truly blood-curdling. He smiled. The night was proving to be far more interesting than he had anticipated.

All of a sudden, Brutus pulled forcefully, and her leash slipped out of Kai’s loose grasp. She fled into the woods so fast that there was no chance of catching her. Morgan turned to him then, a look of shock on her face.

“Don’t worry,” Kai said. “Brutus knows the way back. By the time we get home, she’ll already be fast asleep on the front porch.”

It was very unlike Brutus to run off so suddenly, though Kai didn’t say that part out loud. He decided not to let it bother him. She was an animal after all, and there wasn’t always a rational explanation for her behavior.

“Kai, maybe we should start heading back. We don’t want our parents to notice we’re missing.”

“But this is just starting to get properly scary,” Kai complained. “Maybe we’ll see a ghost or something if we stay.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Morgan said. “I have a much scarier idea. Follow me.”

Morgan took Kai by the hand and guided him back into the inky depths of the woodland. Once the clearing was out of sight, she stopped. “Close your eyes,” she instructed.

Kai did as she said. “What now?”

Morgan traced her fingers up his arms until both of her hands rested on his shoulders. “Let’s play a game. When I let go of you, we’re both going to spin around in a circle as fast as we can. Keep spinning until you’re so dizzy that you can’t keep your balance. And keep your eyes closed too. Don’t open them until you’ve lost all sense of direction.”

Kai was confused. “I don’t get it, Morgan, what’s the point of making ourselves dizzy?”

“Because, Kai, we’re out in the middle of the woods. If we spin around enough, our sense of direction will be completely scrambled. It’ll make finding our way back that much more exciting. If we forget which way we came from, we’ll probably starve out here. That is, assuming the animals don’t end up eating us first.”

“Wow, what happened to paying attention to our surroundings?”

“Oh, please,” Morgan scoffed. “There’s no real risk. Once the dizziness wears off, everything will be the same as it was. Besides, we can always follow the moon back if we really do get lost.”

Kai grew more and more excited with every word she said. Morgan’s idea was much scarier than hunting for ghosts or evil spirits, which probably didn’t even exist. This would be a real life-or-death scenario. Even if there was no real risk of getting lost, the brief feeling of panic was something he desperately craved.

“Let’s do it,” Kai said. “But you better keep your eyes closed, too. That way we’ll both be even.”

“Oh, I will, don’t you worry.”

Morgan prompted Kai to begin spinning, which he did with his eyes tightly sealed. Soon enough, he felt her remove her hands from his shoulders, but he continued just as they had planned. He whirled around so fast that he soon lost his balance and fell to the ground.

For a moment, Kai lay there, his face pressed against the forest floor. When his head finally stopped pounding, he pushed himself to his knees and brushed away the lingering pine needles from his shaggy black hair. His vision was still a little fuzzy, but he stood up and looked around for Morgan. He scanned the area around him, but there was no sign of her. All he could see were trees and dark emptiness.

“Morgan!” he called, expecting her to be just out of sight. There was no answer. He called again, louder this time. Nothing.

It made no sense. She had been with him just moments ago. How could she have disappeared so suddenly? Worry was just starting to creep into his mind when it hit him. This was all part of the game, wasn’t it? This was the exact type of thing she would do to try to scare him. She was probably hiding a short distance away, gleefully watching his confusion. As soon as he started looking for her, she would pop out from behind a tree and surprise him. Kai chuckled quietly, amused that he had actually let himself become frightened by such a simple trick. He had asked for a brief feeling of panic, and that was exactly what he got.

Now to begin hunting for Morgan. Kai glanced around him once more, trying to decide which direction to go. He had to admit that the woods did look virtually identical on all sides. It seemed that spinning around in a circle had done its job of disorienting him. In that moment, he couldn’t even tell which direction led back home and which led deeper into the forest. But he would worry about that once he was with Morgan again.

Kai set off almost at random, preparing for Morgan to leap in front of him at any moment. But when five minutes passed without any sign of her, Kai started to grow impatient. Even with his jacket on, the cold was becoming increasingly biting. And as much as he loved the forest, he was ready to be back with Morgan. He started to call out her name again, quietly at first, then more loudly. She didn’t answer. Then he began to shout, saying things like, “Where are you, Morgan?” and “This isn’t funny.” The only response was the faint whistle of the wind through the trees.

That was enough to ring the alarm bells in Kai’s mind. Hiding in the darkness to scare him was very in-character for Morgan, but she would never remain hidden this long with him shouting for her. Could she have somehow gotten lost amidst the pines? Was she now wandering off in another direction, too far away to hear him? He imagined a pack of coyotes descending upon her, fangs bared and fur standing on end. They might already be eating her alive, just as she had been afraid of.

There was simply no knowing which way she had gone. As horrible as it was, it seemed like the best bet was to head home by himself. Morgan had a good sense of direction, so it was quite possible she would turn up there herself. If not, Kai would wake up his family and return with flashlights. He shuddered at the thought of explaining to his parents how he had lost Morgan out in the woods.

Confronted with that sobering thought, Kai shifted his attention to himself. While searching for Morgan, he hadn’t paid any attention to his surroundings. Now, he realized with horror, he had no idea where he was. He glanced upward, hoping to find the moon, but it was entirely obscured by the trees and the thick layers of condensation. He tried to think, tried to remember which direction was which, but his mind was as foggy as the air around him. If he could only find his way back to the clearing, then he would know which direction would lead him home.

That was what he would do, he decided. He would locate the clearing, no matter how long it took, and then he would run all the way back to his parents. He set off again, but this time he paid close attention to every shrub and tree, looking for something to rekindle his sense of direction. He tried to walk in an ever-widening spiral, though it was impossible to know for certain if the path he was choosing was precise.

The next few minutes crawled by as Kai tromped through the underbrush. He was now actively shivering from the cold, and he kept his hands firmly in his jacket pockets to keep them from growing numb. Then the wind—which had been blowing noisily—abruptly ceased. Though the blackness of the woods impaired his vision, Kai’s other senses had sharpened. He could hear something, barely audible, but growing steadily closer. Kai paused for a moment, listening. It was a horrible scraping sound, like an animal dragging a wounded limb.

Kai had no interest in finding out what was causing the sound, so he continued on, his pace quickened. Still, the dragging grew louder, nearer, more intense. Whatever was making the sound was following him. When he stole a quick glance behind him, he glimpsed a long, thin appendage protruding from the darkness.

Kai’s blood ran cold. He abandoned all regard for where he was going and broke into a run. His breathing was heavy, and his heartbeat was like a drum in his chest. He dodged tree trunks and branches, nearly tripping on roots once or twice. The only thing he could figure was that some animal was chasing him, but he had no idea what kind of creature it was. Had it attacked Morgan? Was it now coming after him to finish the job? 

All the oddities of the night suddenly returned to Kai’s mind: his inexplicable vision, the bone tree, Brutus’s flight, and Morgan’s disappearance. He hadn’t thought much of these occurrences when they happened, but now they gnawed at his insides and consumed his thoughts. Something was not right about these woods.

Then, before he had a chance to dissect the thoughts in his head, Kai burst into the clearing. The fog had settled in much thicker now, making it difficult to see more than a few yards in any direction. He could only just make out that strange bone tree towering in the center. Kai fearfully glanced behind him, expecting some dark horror to emerge from the trees, but there was nothing. He breathed a shaky sigh of relief. He must have shaken off his pursuer while he was running.

He shifted his attention back to the tree only to notice a figure standing beneath the gnarled branches. He couldn’t make out any details, so he cautiously approached, batting the air in front of him in a futile attempt to clear some of the mist. He was relieved but also uneasy when he realized who the shape belonged to. There was simply no mistaking Morgan’s bright red jacket.

Kai hurried over to his friend, brittle twigs snapping beneath his feet as he went. Morgan stood as still as a statue, her head slightly downturned and her wavy brown hair hanging over her face.

“Morgan . . .?” Kai said uncertainly.

She slowly tilted her head upward. Kai stood directly in front of her now, his face only inches from hers. She was looking in his direction, but her eyes were clouded over, as though she wasn’t really seeing through them.

“You can’t save her.” Morgan’s lips formed the words, but the voice was not one she would ever be capable of producing. It was deep and guttural and devoid of any of the inflection of a normal human being.

Kai stepped back, horrified. “Morgan,” he said again. “What happened to you?”

Morgan didn’t answer; instead, she lifted an arm toward the tree. Kai could just make out in the moonlight the bloody stump where her hand had been.

Kai’s knees suddenly gave way, and he crumpled to the ground. Just then, the same image that had flashed in his head earlier returned. This time, however, it stayed with him. He saw a ritual deep in the woods, and the strange forms who attended were terrifyingly familiar.

Understanding washed over him. It wasn’t a vision—it was a memory. When the long-limbed creature emerged from the pines, it was accompanied by countless more of its kind. This time, Kai K. Arkwright wasn’t frightened.