Page 92 of Ever After

I grunt, trying to break the unseen force holding me. My eyes widen in horror as I’m shoved back against the tree, the rough bark slamming against my back and my hands forcibly pressed to the massive trunk.

“Levi!” My throat constricts and my cry is cut off. Oh fuck. The bark vibrates beneath my hands, and my teeth slam together as a shock, painful and electric-feeling, shoots through me.

“Ahead! This way.” Distant voices—a hum that indicates many of them speaking at once—sound from beyond the clearing.

Has Levi found help? Or, god, is this something else? The voices murmur, almost like idle chatter, and then they become louder and the clearing’s atmosphere sharpens, becomes edgier. A voice rises above the crowd, familiar and rhythmic—a man’s posh voice that’s making some kind of pronouncement. As if from a pulpit.

Boynton. I recognise the sneering cruelty that lies underneath the words. He carries on talking, his voice rising and falling. A woman sobs, so close I should be able to see her face, but the clearing remains empty.

Fabric rustles, there’s the sound of skin against skin. Someone prays. A branch creaks from above me and I raise my chin, trying to see what’s happening. The branches move and dance as if someone is swinging on them, and suddenly, I know what this is.

A body swings from a rope above me. It’s a man. He jerks and twitches in a horrible dance of death, and I gag as I take in his slack jaw and bulging eyes.

I grunt, trying to scream, trying to break free from whatever force is holding me.

“No, no,” a garbled, broken voice says. “Stay.” The dangling man reaches down and pulls me up and into his arms. “Stay,” he says, his breath rancid, blood dripping from his mouth. “Stay with me.”

I raise my head towards the sky and this time my scream breaks free. But as I shout, the branches of the tree move violently, coming toward me, slamming into my mouth, trying to silence me. One of them transforms into a rope, twisting around my neck, becoming a noose. My shout cuts off.

Suddenly, warm pink, gold, and silver lights surround me. They look gentle, feel so warm, but they disintegrate the branches, and the tree itself seems to fall away.

There are no cold, clammy hands gripping me, no awful stench being gusted across my face.

I’m standing once again on the ground. I gasp when I see Levi’s precious face in front of mine. “Blue?” he asks, his eyes full of worry. “Come away from the tree. I’m getting a bad feeling about it.” He takes my hand and tugs me easily away, no zapping, no electrical force.

I glance back at the oak’s broad trunk, up at its crooked branches. There’s nothing. It’s just a tree.

“What happened?” he asks.

I put my hands to my throat and feel nothing but smooth skin. Push the images away, I tell myself. Shove them down.

“We need to move,” I say hoarsely, grabbing his hand and pulling him after me. “You’re right. We can’t be near this.”

“Near what? What is it?”

“It’s a hanging tree, Levi.”

“A what?” He’s following me but we’re moving too slowly.

“Gallows—it’s where they used to hang criminals. Come on. We need to leave this place right now.”

A feeling of menace is again growing over the clearing, and I speed up, urging on Levi. But when I reach the clearing’s edge, I see him.

He’s dressed in black and cloaked. The hood covers most of his face, but when he tilts his head moonlight reveals he’s wearing a mask. It’s been carved into a grotesque, ornately detailed face with a beak. I saw one like it once in a museum of medieval folklore that Levi had dragged me to. The beak gives the cruel face a creepy edge of cold humour.

“Oh god,” I whisper.

“What is it?”

“The hangman. He’s here.”

“Move,” he snaps. When I don’t move, he pinches my arm. “Now!” he shouts. Then he takes my arm and drags me from the clearing.

Branches bend low over us, tearing at our clothes and our hair. My arm wrenches and I glance back to see a branch has snared my sleeve. It won’t come free when I tug.

“Shit!” I’m caught fast and I struggle wildly, looking all the while at the path behind us, waiting for that awful mask to appear.

“Let me,” Levi says calmly. His long fingers begin to work at the branch.