16. Vesper
VESPER
The soft sound of fabric moving against fabric wakes me up.
“The fuck are you doing, Locke?” I grumble, my eyes still closed.
He doesn’t answer, but the sound of fabric against fabric echoes around the clearing again. Frowning, I crack my eyes open, expecting to see firelight around us. Instead, the only light I see is from the stars and the moon, now in a different position in the sky.
“Locke?” I grumble again, still groggy as I try to sit up. It’s so dark, it’s hard to see. Without the fire, it takes me a minute to adjust to the darkness. “Locke,” I hiss, now more awake, trying to pinpoint where he is.
He’s not where he was when I went to sleep. In fact, he’s not in the clearing at all.
I hit my implant and pop open my inventory, dragging my Sunlight Medallion out. The moment I touch it, pale light shines around me in a three-meter radius, just large enough to light up the entire clearing.
The fire is still smoldering just the barest amount, telling me it hasn’t been out for long. There’s a nice imprint in the grass where Locke had definitely been lying. When I touch my hand to it, the grass is still warm.
“Fuck,” I whisper, whirling around. “Where the fuck are you?”
The sound of fabric moving against fabric echoes around me again and I whirl, searching for the source. It’s coming from the trees, whatever it is.
“Cipher?” I say shakily.
“Yes, Vespera?”
“Can you tell me . . .anything?”
He hesitates. “As long as you are within the light, you will be okay.”
“And Locke?”
Another long pause. “It is likely already too late for player number three million, six hundred and seventy-three thousand, five hundred, and seventeen.”
My heart stops. “What?” I choke out, moving closer to the clearing edge.
“Stay in the clearing,” Cipher orders.
“Locke!” I whisper-yell, afraid to be too loud. Whatever is stalking me is close, close enough that Cipher is worried. “Locke!”
The fabric sound again, slow and quiet, and then something else. A muffled gasp.
I follow the sound, stepping out of the clearing, using my Sunlight Medallion to light the way.
“Vespera!” Cipher growls. “Get back in the clearing. Now.”
“I have to find Locke,” I whisper. “I heard something.”
“He is not worth the risk!” Cipher argues, anger in his tone more than I’ve ever heard. “You are going to die if you do not turn around.”
I don’t listen to him. Cipher does not care about Locke. I know that. But I care about him. And I’m not leaving him to whatever this creature is if I can avoid it. Still, I keep close to the clearing edge, making sure not to trail too far away as I chase the muffled sound that echoes again.
“Locke!” I whisper again. “Make more noise.”
The muffled sound comes again, and I trail around to the other side of the clearing, barely a meter deep into the trees.
At first, I see nothing and I start to think I might be losing my mind.
It isn’t until I turn back toward the clearing, thinking maybe I should listen to Cipher after all, that I see it.
I gasp and take a step back, my eyes wide as I get a good look at the tree before me.
The tree that isn’t just a tree. There, in the front of the tree, is a person.
Or . . .was a person. It’s morphing with the tree, joining into the trunk of it, his mouth open in a permanent scream.
He’s rotting, clearing here for a while, but somehow, the smell isn’t overwhelming, as if the tree itself is drinking the rot in.
The light from my medallion catches on his arm where its raised up, the hand now one with the tree. An implant. This was a player.
I turn toward the other trees, realizing that each of them has a player being absorbed into their trunk. Some of them have multiple in various states of decay.
“What the fuck is this place?” I ask, horrified.
“The Killing Trees,” Cipher answers. “Do not venture too close.”
“Is Locke in one of these things?” He doesn’t answer. “Cipher!”
“Yes,” he replies. “I would not suggest—Vespera!”
I rush around the trees, holding up my medallion in each one’s face to try and find Locke. It isn’t until I reach the other side again that I find him.
The moment my light shines across his face, his muffled scream echoes as I get a good look at him.
“Oh, fuck,” I rasp. “Oh, shit. What the fuck do I do?”
“You will have to kill the tree to free him,” Cipher supplies helpfully. “But Vespera—”
“Kill the tree,” I repeat. “Got it.”
I pick up Locke’s short sword from the ground where he must have dropped it and start hacking at the tree.
It isn’t sharp, but as far as weapons go, it makes a hell of a good bat.
I chop at the smaller branches first, freeing his head from where it was held fast against the trunk.
Though I chop the branch from his neck, his mouth still isn’t revealed.
I reach up and yank at it, gagging when it comes sliding out of his throat and he lets out a gasp for air before he starts coughing.
“Get me off of this thing,” he rasps, his throat raw. “Please.”
“I’ve got you,” I grunt, chopping until my arms start to burn. “Just hold on.”
“Behind you!” Locke shouts suddenly, his eyes widening bare milliseconds before his warning.
I whirl, holding up the sword just in time to stop an attack from .
. . well . . .a person. Its arms slams against the sword and bounces backward, the thing stumbling and tripping over a tree root before falling on its ass.
It moans in annoyance as it clumsily tries to get back to its feet.
Only as I get a chance to get a good look at it do I realize what it is.
It was a person, that much is clear. And it was definitely a player judging by the implant in its arm, but there isn’t much left of the actual player.
Half of them is still fleshy, rotting skin, mottled and falling off in places.
The other half is tree, great viny roots and branches tearing through the skin and growing out of them.
Whoever this player once was, there are no longer any recognizable features.
Their head is completely torn through with branches.
“Get me out of this thing!” Locke says, more panicked at seeing the creature. “Don’t let me turn into that!”
“Fuck,” I grunt, chopping at the tree holding Locke again. “Let me know when it starts to get up.”
I’m trusting Locke to watch my back for me while I work to free him. Thankfully, he can’t survive without being vigilant himself.
“On the left,” he shouts. I spin. “Not your left. My left!”
The thing nearly takes my head off because of the mistake as I whirl in the correct direction.
But this isn’t the same one I’d been facing.
This is a different one, fleshier, and clearly was once a woman.
I shove her back hard and watch her go tumbling away from me, but not before the branch protruding from her stomach scratches across my arm.
The first one manages to stumble toward me then, the sound of fabric against fabric forcing me to realize the whole time these things had been out here watching me search for Locke.
I kick the first one over, holding him off for a few more seconds.
“More and more will be drawn to the sounds,” Cipher warns. “You need to get back to the clearing.”
“I can’t leave Locke behind!” I growl, hacking at the tree.
“You can if you want to live,” Cipher growls.
Locke’s upper body is free, but it’s still holding onto his legs.
He drags out a rock from his inventory and starts trying to help me hack at the branches still holding him.
When I get to his thighs, I realize one of the branches has torn through his trousers.
I hit the branch and Locke shouts in pain, making me pause.
We lock eyes and then he reaches down and tears the hole bigger so we can see.
“Oh, fuck,” I whisper, staring at the branch embedded in his skin. “What—”
Locke grabs ahold of the branch with both hands, grits his teeth, and yanks it out. A scream rips from his throat as blood spurts from the wound left behind, but the branch comes free. He tosses it into the forest and leans further down.
“There’re more,” he chokes out. “Vesper.”
I look down at his legs, realizing there are at least three more that have torn through his trousers. I meet his eyes again.
“I need you to rip those out for me,” I instruct him. “I need you to do it fast, or we’re both going to die here.”
His face scrunches in pain. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to walk—”
“I’ll carry you,” I growl. “Just get your ass free. Quickly.”
I turn back toward the ambling people. There are four of them now, closing in on me, and behind them, I can see more stumbling from the forest.
“Hurry,” I rasp.
His scream of pain from behind me as he rips out another makes my chest squeeze in sympathy.
Harrow, this is bad. I swing the dull blade at the nearest person, catching them upside the head and sending them tumbling.
I kick the next one just as Locke screams again.
He’s panting now, and I can hear the deep rattling sobs he must bite his lip to hold back.
“One more,” I tell him as I swing the blade, knocking them back. “You can do this.”
He grits his teeth so hard, I can hear the sound of them grinding together.
I glance over my shoulder quickly to see him wrap both hands around the final large branch on his opposite leg.
Tears trail down his cheeks as his muscles strain.
His breathing speeds up, and then with a whimper, he yanks the final branch from inside him.
His scream is so loud, it hurts my ears. Locke tumbles to the ground behind me, his legs weak and unresponsive.
“Watch out,” he croaks, his voice just as weak.
I shove the nearest person away from me and reach down to loop my arm around Locke’s waist.
“Up,” I command. “We’re almost there. You’ve got this.”
His legs don’t listen to him, so I end up having to support him fully, but I won’t be able to fight this way.