Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2002 23:25:32 -0600 From: John Carpenter Subject: force of Nature - part 2 (scifi/fantasy) John Carpenter If you like the story, you can email me at IJrge@hotmail.com Tell me which parts you liked The story involves M/M and fantasy elements, but it does have violence. I caution you beforehand that there are disturbing elements to this story. In this chapter we learn more about John. Since the last story he has developed extra tactile sensing.. Force of Nature Chapter II : The Gathering Nick's arms threatened to buckle. If one gave way, we would tumble helplessly to the floor, still connected at the hips. Nick was getting better with his endurance, but he still was only capable of handling several hours of our marathon fucking, if given a week to rest. It didn't help that I knew every motion, rub, tickle, or tweak that could send him cumming. Even with his two extra large egg sized balls, his dick would dry heave after the eighth orgasm. I never ended up running dry, because it always took a lot to cause me to shoot. I often found myself just starting to build when Nick would launch a load into my lap and distract me. I wasn't certain if it was so much of a distraction as becoming caught up in Nick's orgasms. When I rammed him in the ass, I felt his rectal walls quiver and contract around me, and I felt his body gush over my own. When I flicked my tongue along the underside of his dick, my tongue tickled and surged with energy just before tasting his seed. I knew how to touch Nick to get him off, and that got me off before I was able to release, as confusing as that sounds. It had become this way ever since we returned from my parent's orchard. I could sense tension where he wanted to be rubbed, tingles on my skin around pleasure spots, and when his body trembled so did my own. The longer, and the more often, we spent together the better I knew his body, which is how I knew he could hardly support me for much longer. My weight bouncing off his back and drives against his hips would soon cause him to collapse. I needed to blow my load. It had been beckoning me for an hour. Frustration was partially driving each thrust now, and I was ready to try anything to let go. I dug my cock in deep. My head pushed into the center of one of his hot spot, a place where more veins and nerves were located. In that extra-heated spot, I felt the skin tensing inside him and the energy flowing through his groin. The walls quivered and pulsed then tensed with a contraction. The longer I held it there the quicker it happened. Nick started stroking his cock rapidly and bucking his hips slightly. He was about to get off again. The word `no' screamed in my head. I wasn't going to let him off before me. I shoved my cock as hard and deep into his hole as I could. Nick's ass puckered and his linings twitched then contracted hard around me. There was a flow of force I sensed, which meant Nick was about to cum. Somehow I pulled at that force. Like a bursting dam, hot fluid engulfed my cock head. Then without fully knowing how, I drew the fluid into me. Bursts of hot liquid flowed around my cock, each being drawn down within me. Burning weight grew in my sac, until a sudden orgasmic purge rocked my body, forcing the fluid, and my own seed out and into Nick. My cock swelled and my nuts churned. I bucked my hips and rammed Nick's ass. Cum exploded up through me and gushed into Nick. Out of control, I flooded Nick, forcing the hot fluid back into him and through him. "OH GOD!" Nick yelled. His cock erupted with a thick long load. I rammed hard and deep into him repeatedly, the semen flowing out from my full heavy balls in large increments. The fervor driven loads kept flowing, and so did Nick's. Nick's arms collapsed, and we fell onto the puddle of cum. We then rolled off the bed and over onto the floor. I finished with three final powerful shots. I looked over Nick's shoulder and watch his cock erupt. A long stream of cum shot from his dick and splashed down on his chin and chest, a slight trailed down to his groin. A second and third load, as large as the first, followed. Drops of cum rolled off Nick's side and dripped onto my body, pooling in the crevice between us. I raised my arm and rubbed my hands on his slick stomach and rapped my other hand around his leg and massaged the inside of his groin. Nick turned his head and passionately kissed me. After a minute of quiet, Nick suddenly spoke. "That was amazing. I started shooting hard, but nothing came out." I nodded semi-understandingly. "When you suddenly shot, my whole fucking body erupted, again. Then I felt it, like it was flowing from you through me. When I started shooting, it wasn't even really like I was shooting. I know it sounds crazy, but I felt your cum pushing into my cock then rolling up my shaft, coming out with whatever I had left." "Really?" I asked surprised. "You saw how much I shot?" The picture of Nick's last three enormous loads flashed back through my mind. "Weird!" It was only a four-day break, Thursday and Friday then the rest of the weekend, but we seemed to pack enough clothes to travel cross-country. I had a full duffle with four sets of pants, two shorts, five days worth of underwear, a shit load of shirts, eight socks of varying size and color, and all the toiletries I owned. Nick was just as bad, filling a suitcase and a half, but we were being precautious. We needed back up clothes in case of obscene stains. "You ready to go?" I asked as I started out the door with my last load to the car. "Yeah, just hang on a second, damn it." Nick said with mock anger. "I need to make sure I have everything I need." "I'll be waiting out in the car." "Ok" Nick nodded then rifled through his suitcase again. I passed into the hallway and started towards the stairs. My neighbor was hanging in the doorway of his room talking on the phone. I caught a dirty glance from him, and I thought I heard some derogatory expletives, like fucking fagot, being uttered into his phone. "How's it going Travis?" I asked with a smile. He scowled and tilted his head sideways. "How the hell do you think I feel? I'm fucking tired." He accented each word with a forceful forward head thrust and characteristic gangster style accent on certain words. "Why don't you two fagots try moving your bunk, so it doesn't bang against my wall?" I sauntered towards him and paused when we were shoulder to shoulder, right at the moment he spouted out `fagot.' I patted him on the shoulder and told him, "I'll keep that under advisement." Travis shook his shoulder and tried to act pissed, as if he may attack me for making contact. Travis did look like a giant thug. He had the Neanderthal build, minus the sloped forehead, hunched back and animal hair. He had heavy eyebrows, shoulders about a half a foot too wide, and thick strong arms and chest, like a gorilla, but he didn't have the fighting nerve. He just talked a lot of crap. I stood close to him for a second too long and felt him become uneasy, and then I continued walking down the hall. "Have a good thanksgiving Travis." Travis fidgeted and struggled to say something. "Yeah. You too John." I felt like laughing, but I didn't like hurting people's feelings, so I held it until I was out the door then shook my head and chuckled. It was amazing how easily I broke his strong man routine. Nick had taken an extra hour to get ready, and the roads were slow from traffic, so we didn't get to my house until nearly three hours later then I wanted to. My family had already had dinner and was in the den communicating and catching up with some of my cousins. I slinked in quietly and rummaged through the fridge, threw Nick a full Tupperware container of spaghetti and grabbed myself the milk. We reheated the meal mostly in secrecy, until the timer loudly announced our presence in the kitchen. I heard my mother's voice first. "I wonder who's out in the kitchen?" My father's voice replied with, "I don't know." Then came the sound of at least several people getting up and stepping into the kitchen. I looked at Nick. "Damn!" A flood of relatives filed into the room, and for the next four hours, we where prodded by questions. They were the same unanswerable questions I heard every year. Have you decided what you want to do? Are you doing well in class this semester? Any Girlfriends? Well then, any prospective girlfriends? I just wanted to answer them bluntly and truthfully. No, I have no idea what I want to do, and I don't even want to try to guess right now. I don't know my grades, because I haven't even hit midterms yet. No, I have no girlfriends. No, I have no prospective Girlfriends. I'm gay so quit asking. They then asked me about my friend then asked my friend directly. My uncle started in. "Where are you from, Nick? "Spain." "Really? I always wanted to go see the Spanish beaches. I heard the Spanish ladies sunbathe nude?" He winked at Nick and I. We returned forced deviant smiles and agreeing nods. My aunt luckily broke up the awkward gestures with a quick slap to my uncle's shoulder. "So why did you go to John's school." "It has a good criminal science program. They have high acceptance rates in the FBI and security firms." "Oh, better watch yourself John. Wouldn't want him to put you in cuffs some day." I laughed a little and shook my head, trying to nock out the arousing imagery of being cuffed to a bed with Nick. I also did not want to lead any others to think I was receptive to the idea. "Why do you want to be an FBI?" My uncle asked with a watchful inquisitive eye. Nick shrugged and said, "Too much X-files, I guess." Sometime around two in the morning Nick and I were finally the only ones still awake. We had opted for the guest room, in the basement, because it had two beds, and so my aunt and uncle could take my king sized one upstairs. The room was also conveniently close to a way out of the house that we could use, without being noticed. We put on a few extra layers and packed a sleeping bag, and some sheets, in our backpacks then set out for the clearing. Hopes of recapturing our first night of passion quickened our step, and, in half the time it took us to reach it the first time, we soon were skipping down the steep path towards the creek. "Wow, John check this out!" I jumped out into the clearing and began to ask, "What?" but I knew exactly what the spectacle was. In the middle of the clearing there stood a giant willow tree. The branches spread out far and even reached as high as the ancient oaks that over hanged the clearing. Millions of ropelike swaying branches rained down from above, completely obscuring the creek, across the small clearing. "How is this possible?" Nick asked. "I don't know. I'd say it was transplanted but there isn't any path for trucks or any signs of digging at all." "So it just grew here in the last month?" I slowly walked towards the tree's base. "Perhaps, shit I don't know." I touched the bark slowly, almost unsure if it was real. The bark felt real but underneath the bark the wood felt loose and almost fluid. It felt as if I was pushing on loose flesh covered in tough skin, like a tomato. "It's soft!" I exclaimed. Nick pensively approached the tree and carefully laid a finger on it. I saw him lean his weight against it for a moment then step back. "What do you mean?" Nick asked confused. "Feel it! It's like touching a wad of putty." I reasserted my hand as I spoke. The trees bark split and some green fluid rolled down onto my hand. I reached to brush it away, but my hand was already dry. Nick knocked his knuckle onto the tree and several hard wood raps returned. "I don't think so?" "It must be this part over here. It has some stuff growing in it." I took a step back to let Nick inspect. Nick walked over to where I was standing and started to feel around. "I pushed on it pretty hard and some sludge oozed out onto my hand." I pointed at the spot. "Let me see?" Nick asked while inquisitively rolling over my hand. I shook my head. "I already wiped it off." Nick clenched his left hand into a ball and knocked it against the tree again. The sound of hard wood returned, just like it had for Nick before. "What the fuck!" I pushed my hand against the same spot and this time felt sturdy willow wood. Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Eh its late, and I know I haven't had much sleep. It's just our minds fucking with us. We probably came down a wrong path. Hell, the real clearing could be a mile down the river. We got here so fast I wouldn't doubt we took a wrong turn." I nodded slightly. "I guess?" It was a much more logical explanation then anything else I could figure, but I argued anyways. "Yeah probably, but this path and everything looks just like the other place, and I mean exactly like the other place." Nick stepped in close and rapped his arms around my waist. "Well whatever, lets look for the clearing tomorrow. I can think of better things to do tonight." I laughed then bent my head over and kissed his lips. Tongues lashed, clashed and our pulses quickened. "How about we set up camp?" I panted. Nick rubbed his hand up and down my crotch. "I guess we should." "On second thought, fuck it." I grabbed Nick, swung him around me and then dragged him down to the ground. I sat up against the tree base, and once again felt the soft fleshy bark flex behind me. "I feel it! It's just under my back." Nick got up on his knees and looked at me inquisitively. "What is?" "That rotten spot, it's all around my back." Nick raised his hand and put it over my shoulder, pressing against the tree. The wood solidified behind me moments before he could touch it. Nick shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about, there isn't anything here." Nick's face stared at me inches from my face, disbelieving brow sternly clenched before my eyes. "I can't believe it. I swear it was. Just moments before you touched it." Nick's expression begged the question if I was just yanking his chain. He abruptly loosened, and I think he thought it was just to get him this close to me. The inches between us shortened until our lips bridged the final distance. Kissing led to holding and holding led to undressing. I unbuttoned and unzipped my layers of clothes, slowly revealing my naked body. The cold night air condensed my evaporating sweat, wisps of fog rolled off my body. When I was naked down to my pants, I waited for Nick to catch up. He was still struggling to remove his t-shirt. The shirt had rapped tight around his arms, up over his shoulders and head, and he flailed like a cat with a rubber band over its ears. I grabbed Nick's pecks and rubbed them with my palms. Nick stopped flapping around and just allowed the shirt to continue blinding him. I worked his nipples with my index finger and chuckled as they got glass hard in the cold night air. When they started to become hard enough to hurt, I stopped and pulled the shirt off of Nick. Nick returned the manipulation by leaning over and sucking on my breast. I let him play with them, even enjoyed it a bit, but I was allowing this time to think of what I might do to him next. Nick's tongue thrashed over my nipple, and his lips sucked at the curves of my pec. I reached around under him and undid his pants, pulling them off the best I could while he sat. I ran my finger down his furry crevice and began penetrating his orifice with my middle finger. Eventually Nick became further aroused, and his hole twitched and loosened under my attention. Nick pulled away and slowly bellowed fog from his mouth. His right hand undid my button, and his left hand pulled down the zipper. I tugged my own pants off my legs and let my cock spring up and slap my stomach. A plume of steam escaped my crotch and disappeared by Nick's face. Nick Licked his lips and dove down onto my thick cock, liberally spilling his saliva over my glands. His tongue flicked repeatedly bellow the head, while he rubbed his hands through my inner thigh. Nick occasionally tweaked my nipple or clasped his palm across my ass, intensifying each sensation. Suddenly my cock was free in the cold night air. I peeked through my drowsy lids to see Nick lower onto my prick. When he began riding my cock, I could feel inside him rapidly surging flows. It was then I first felt the commune. I became aware of the tree behind me, slowly loosening, becoming malleable like it had before. Cold liquid seeped out of the wood and ran down my back, each droplet creating a tingling line. The lines grew longer and wider along my back, branching paths like roots along through their lengths. The commune is a complex yet simple thing, but foreign to human mentalities. When I rejoined, I didn't remember feeling apprehensive or uneasy. I knew it wasn't normal, even before it happened, but I was calm with it, receptive to it. Nick didn't notice, his mind was closed in bliss, my veiny cock radiating pleasure through his body by some extra force. The tree had connected with me, extending my senses with its own. The thing I had become a part of, I learned, extended further beyond just the roots and leaves of the tree. I felt it in the water, as part of the new grass around the tree, and even in the moss on the rocky banks. This early in my life I could barely sense it, but I had the inkling of how far it did extend. I just did not the grasp what it really was. While my whole body bounced with each labored thrust against Nick, a vein extended through my back, from the tree. Hot fluid poured into me from it. Nick groaned, and I felt his organ open inside, seed spilt through his piping, building pressure for the release. Knowing this, feeling this in Nick, sent me rocketing over the edge. My balls puckered and seed flooded out of every reservoir, and seething through me, the hot liquid coursed to my groin. Hot semen splattered against my chest, as Nick released his first load. I erupted into Nick, unable to control the force flowing through me from the tree. Gaining sexual substance from my connection, I released so rabidly it seemed to be almost a constant stream. Nick's whole body tensed, and he sat down with my entire length exploding inside him. My ecstasy began to affect him, and, along with his tensed body, his cock stopped shooting and strained perpendicular to him. It engorged to a full ten inches, and its length ribbed with veins. Steady pulses made it seem to grow to the eye. A bulge then ran like a bullet up the underside of his cock. The grape sized wad exploded from his tip, a stream of pure white cum spraying forth. As the first great shot splattered across my chest, a second stream sprang after, thick as several willow branches and streaming almost as long. We writhed together for minutes, reveling in the unwavering releases. When the flow subsided, both of us could hardly speak. I closed my eyes wondered how any of this was possible. I was drenched in cum. What felt like a gallon covered my chest, ran over into my armpits and down into my naval. More of my own cum flowed out from Nick's asshole, falling down along my shaft, across my balls and sliding through the crack of my ass. For A while I forgot about it, and allowed myself to just drift between sleep and consciousness. Nick must have had done the same as well. I had dreams that puzzled me that night. I saw the earth bare of all life; all was black and rich, directly formed from the core. Above me there was a fuzzy ball in the sky, the moon an amorphous cloud. A comet lashed across the sky, burning like a thousand suns, plummeting into the unformed moon. Then came a brilliant flash followed by deafening silence. On the face of the moon the greatest circle slowly took shape, the one most recognizable today but cleaner and deeper, new. The entire horizon began to glow, as darts of burning moon dust and rock plummeted to earth. A brilliant shower, a divine show played before me. Questions slowly formed, not by words but images. The images began to change, emerging altered from the actual occurrence, not in vision but in thought. I saw a fragment crash down towards me, and I first knew fear. I saw a meteorite burn patterns in the sky, and I first knew beauty. Then for the first time, I realized my own position and direction, and I had sense of self. I was beneath the water somewhere, in a sulfuric pond, the smell of burnt atmosphere all around me. From that pool I knew no body, but I was all about it, swarming and swimming within. It was then I became aware of my own self, a living thing separate and special from all else that engulfed this dead planet. When I awoke, I was still naked and wet. The sky was dimly lit bellow a murderous black cloud, which howled wind and furious rain down upon me. Nick had disappeared and without waking me. I felt cold, and I felt numb. I looked all around for my clothes, but they had been taken or maybe they even washed away. At that time they could have been sitting next to me, but my eyes were too blurry to recognize things. Through chattering teeth, I tried to call for someone. My lungs barely worked and the noises that escaped my lips barely spoke English. Each cry rattled my vocal cords harshly, dredging up phlegm and blood. They were sensitive like new skin, and I chose not to call and die of hypothermia rather than bare the pain of using them again. I became aware of a hand touching my shoulder, not immediate like I should but gradually creeping into my consciousness like it had always been there. It gently pushed my shoulder back and forth. I heard a muffled voice, unrecognizable in tone or language. The voice became loud, but I still couldn't understand. The hand then sharply shook me and the sound became a high-pitched wail. There was the obscure sensation of draining in my head. The fluid moved away from my ears and slowly the sound sharpened from a muffled tone to Nick's sharp panicked voice. I turned my head as fast as my cold convulsing body would allow. Nick was pale. Even the pallor of his lips had flushed away. His shirt and pants were torn and unfastened, as if hastily adorned then run through razor wire. "Are you ok?" He screamed frantically. "Are you alright? My God, My God, My GOD! How is this possible?" "What happened? What's happening?" I slurred out past my sore throat. Nick didn't answer me. He just kept posing rhetorical questions to no one, and then he said it, "I thought I saw you, I know I saw you, you were." He paused. "What's going on?" I crackled. Nick stood up and backed away from me. "You're dead." Then again he frantically rolled on, "This can't be. I'm going fucking crazy. What am I going to do?" Nick screamed at the sky, "Why did you do this? Why are you doing this to me?" Drowsily I spoke up to him, "I'm right here. What are you talking about? I'm right here, Nick." I raised my hand out to him, begging him to hold it. "It's just not possible." His voice slipped lower and quivered on the edge of crying. "It's just not." "Please Nick, I don't know what's going on, but if you don't help me I will die out here. PLEASE HELP!" I yelled out to him. Nick slowly rationalized my plea, and, hesitantly, he reached out for my hand. His palm clasped my clammy one, and I gripped it to pull myself up. The heat from Nick's hand was so foreign to my cold body that it nearly burned. Nick took immediate notice of how cold I was, and I saw fear rush across his face again. "You're too cold John. No fucking way!" He screamed then let me go. I dropped back onto the tree, semi-painfully. Nick backed away from me, and started looking around the clearing for anybody else. I stood myself up. Angry and freezing, I yelled at Nick, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I was so irate that I hardly noticed the river's crest rising up around me. Nick froze at the edge of the clearing, posed at the brink of running. I was angry and fear driven. Through raspy voice and angered tone, I ordered him. "Just give me back my clothes then damn it. Don't leave me out here to freeze to death." Nick turned and yelled back at me, "I don't got em." With horrid anger I screeched back at him, "Who does?" "You did. You took them with you. Don't you remember?" "QUIT fucking with me!" I howled. Nick's eyes drifted beyond me and opened wider then I knew possible. He then screamed the most horrid cry of my life, and frantically scrambled up the hill, away from me. The water was swirling all around me now, the level reaching as high as my thigh. I turned and saw a muddy figure floating face down in the water. Pale and unmoving the person was a corpse. That corpse wasn't passively flowing with the river, though. It fought against it. Some unseen tether slowly pulled the body towards me. I was frozen with horror as it neared my leg. The head bumped my knee, and I was still too frozen to react. The body bobbed several times without provocation, and abruptly flipped. Pale white eyes stared up past me. Horrific gashes, still releasing trails of red from its cheek and neck, destroyed his identity. Deep stab wounds in the chest showed the extent of cruelty. On the scalp there was an indentation, where a bludgeoning wound had cracked his skull. I couldn't tell which had likely killed him first. Slowly I lowered my hand and reached to his pocked. I found a wallet there, much like my own, caked in mud much like the rest of his body. The ID inside was also covered, and I swished it in the water to uncover the name. My worst fears were given form in the picture and name upon that ID, each being of my own. Shaking, I reached down. Splashing water over his body, familiar clothes became uncovered of dirt. With terrified vigor I washed him, looking for difference, hoping for some change. My mind, sedated by fear, didn't stop me from touching him. I reached out and manipulated the flaps of dangling skin. I pulled it back over the head, trying to reconstruct his face. I hoped it was some drifter who stole my clothes, and it was not actually me. I pressed the skin back into place, but the skin was tacky to the touch, each time I pulled my hand away the skin pulled away with it. I pressed it down harder and green fluid leaked from the pores of the victim, adhering the skin to my hand. I retracted from revulsion; the skin tore off the face and kept to my hand. I tried to frantically fling the skin off, but it firmly held. I felt tingling across the tips of my fingers where the green gel touched me, and I froze in distant recognition of the sensation. I watched closely as gel exuded from the skin patch and ran down my hand. The fluid then branched outwards and seeped into my skin. Slowly the very pallor of the skin turned green and then the flesh. Little by little the skin converted to the fluid then absorbed into my hand until nothing remained. With half-understanding, I took my palm and pressed it to the tree. From the tips of my fingers, veins of green fluid extended out and the substance escaped through the bark. With my other hand, I laid my fingers on the corpse. I felt the flesh wriggle beneath my fingers then cold tingling danced along my hand. The fluid coursed into my wrist and traveled along my shoulder to the tree. I could not open my eyes to watch, but I knew the body was withering, dissolving, and then absorbing into me. I felt it pass through me, run up my arm, across my shoulders and through my arm to the tree. As I felt him pass through me, I started to remember things that I didn't know had happened, things that had happened to the man. I recalled walking with Nick to see if we could find the real clearing. We crossed along the riverbed for an hour, unable to locate the place. I remembered knowing we had gone to far, but Nick insisted we continued. As the sky became overcast, we settled down for another sexual break, but as we took off our clothes, teenagers found us. They were high school druggies and outcasts, they liked to hang out under the state bridge to drink, screw and do stupid things. They were yelling at us and calling us names. One broke a bottle and stabbed me in the chest, while another knocked me to the ground. They kept stabbing, kicking and hitting me. Then one hit me with a rock and the world turned black. I remembered beyond it, though. I felt them drag me. I felt the ground being broken around me then I dropped. Cold dirt covered me, and I was alone for a while. Then the water came. It soaked through the lose dirt and drudged away my covering. My body was pulled out of the hole, and I dragged along with the current. Then I sensed home, some intricate connection with a person or a place I fought the current and touched against that person, part of my home. The continual tug of the body gradually lessened, until I could feel its pull no longer. I opened my eye and looked to where the body was only to see the last remnants of a spine gel and absorb through me. They were my memories. I had gone with Nick this night. Those fuckers, those intolerant stupid fuckers attacked us. They killed me because I was gay! My blood seemed to boil. I was no longer cold. I was burning with infuriation. Tendrils of steam rose from my shoulder, and my entire body quivered with rage. I screamed and yelled. I relived all the anger and pain over and over in my memory. In anger, I thrust my fist at the tree. My clenched hand struck the surface and broke through to the soft core. I let it lay in there, while my mind kept thinking about how I wanted to watch them feel fear, let them feel pain. I pushed my free palm against the bark and leveraged it to wrench out my other hand. A horrific clawed hairless paw came out instead of my familiar hand. I stared at it with shock. I turned it over and flexed it, not wholly sure if it was actually my own. I started to feel dizzy. Across my body things seemed to be moving and wriggling. I then realized I was absorbing from the tree. I looked at my arm and saw the fluid running along it, breaking the surface and diving under my skin. I felt it flow through my body, pooling in and around my muscles and frame. I felt the rage well up inside me again, and in ferocious bursts of rage, I began to change. I remembered Nick being chased away, and I yelled as my legs extend into hairless pale hindquarters. I saw glass being dug into my chest, and my arms bulked and lengthen to amazing rippling forelegs. I clenched my fist with recalled pain, and insidious talons grew from my fingers and bony barbs from my shoulders and arms. I remembered Nick fearful of me, not willing to touch me, and I bellowed rage from an open mouth, which extended outwards to a muzzle. My lips peeled back wickedly across my blood- engorged gums, and dozens of dagger like teeth protruded out from it. As I seethed with anger, my body grew, both taller and wider. As my head touched the willow's canopy, a flash of lightning reflected my horrid visage in the torrent river around me. What I saw was straight from the most twisted hidden nightmares, of my subconscious. A demonic pale beast adorned in hooks and teeth standing as tall as a building, pale and hairless as frost. I ran into the forest, screeching rage from my shrill altered voice. By morning I laid them down bellow the willow tree, and I bathed away their remnants, in the raised riverbed. The tree, I found, could be commanded as an extension of myself. Knowing this allowed undoing the creature I had been, and allowed me the ability to dispose of unwanted things unnoticeably, by dragging them under by my roots. The green stuff would eventually absorb them, like how a fungus leeches nutrients from rot. That stuff also cleared away the blood under my nails and the skin out my teeth. It cleared away all the evidence, except that which resided in my tormented memory. I found some remnants of my clothing rapped around branches. With what I found, I was able to dress adequately enough to go home. Before a mouth could yawn, I was back in my bedroom. Sitting pale and motionless was Nick, still awake from the night before. Emotionally drained he spoke dead, "You're here?" Less up for conversation, I replied with a simple yes. "How?" "I don't know." "Were you ever dead?" "Yeah, but now I'm not." "Oh." "Yeah." "Know why?" he asked with the mildest of curiosity. "Not really." "Ok..." He paused and shook his head. "I'm going to go to sleep and pretend nothing happened, alright?" I nodded slowly. "I think I'm going to do the same." "Sounds good." "Yeah."