“It’s colder out here!” Janice complained, but kept walking towards the meadow. Henry was keeping close to her, looking around the forest. “Don’t you feel like the temperature dropped since we entered the forest?” Janice continued.
“I guess so” Henry shrugged, “it could be because these paths are always in the shadows.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Janice agreed, as she took the first step into the meadow.
It was early afternoon, the April sun heating up the small clearing. They both stopped and looked up towards the light.
“This is nice” Henry murmured, closing his eyes.
“It still feels a bit cold…”
“You’ll be fine, the sun will warm you up, you’ll see! Now, where should we put the blanket?”
“Over there, next to that tree?” Janice asked pointing towards an old and thick tree, the only one that seemed to disrupt the circular shape of the clearing by being slightly inside it.
“Is that a Moroccan cypress?” Henry asked, dropping his bag on the grass and looking at the tree, mesmerized. “This is an endangered species, meant to be only in North Berwick park, how did it get all the way up on this hill?”
Janice shrugged, she wasn’t that interested in trees. She knew Henry was studying horticulture at Edinbugh University, but she didn’t pay too much attention whenever he started talking about trees, plants and flowers. They were meeting in that clearing for one thing, and one thing only, and it wasn’t to talk about trees. She rolled her eyes, as she started to pull the blanket out of Henry’s bag and lay it gently on the fresh grass next to the tree. As she sat down, she heard the branches shuffle, like the wind just hit them. She waited to feel the breeze - bracing herself in case it was cold - but nothing came. Henry sat next to her, still looking up at the tree.
“Nice,” he murmured with a smile on his face.
“You think that is nice?” Janice asked, fed up. Henry’s eyes finally moved on to the girl he came there with. “Wait ‘till you see something better!” she continued smiling, getting up on her knees and opening her light blue cardigan.
Henry’s eyes were on Janice now, no more talk about trees, or even looking at them. As she discarded her cardigan and took off her shirt, the branches of the tree above them shuffled once again. No breeze, still - Janice thought, grateful. Her bra wouldn’t be enough to keep her warm if there was a breeze. Just as Henry was reaching towards her, she felt a shadow cover her from above, making her shiver.
“What the-?” she started looking up. From where she was sitting it looked like the tree, the Moroccan cypress Henry admired just a minute ago, was bending over her, sheltering her from the sun.
“Watch out!” Henry’s shout startled a few birds from the trees nearby. As they took off flying away, silence fell over the meadow.
Janice’s mouth was wide open in shock, her bottom lip trembling. Her left eye wide open was staring right at Henry. As he got up and started to fumble, trying to find a way to help her, her right eyeball fell on the blanket. It seemed intact, like the branch that hit the back of Janice’s skull and came out through the eye socket merely pushed it, without actually puncturing it.
Janice’s scream disrupted the silence in the meadow. Then her left eye rolled back, and she melted on towards the blanket, the branch retracting from the skull, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
“What the fuck?” Henry shouted, trying to lift Janice up. “Stay with me Jan, I’ll call for help, we’ll get you to the hospital!” his voice was raised, trying to keep his friend awake. But Janice’s left eye was now closed with no sign it will ever open again. Henry hugged the lifeless body between sobs. The branches above him shuffled again, this time louder, almost like the...