The Trees of Rose Garden (standard:horror, 1166 words)
Author: Alexander C. Quinn	Added: Aug 18 2002	Views/Reads: 3535/2288	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
There are many lessons we can learn from trees.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

him stupid again. 

After dinner and after about five straight hours of soda drinking and
video game playing it was time for bed. As soon as they settled down 
and Jeff's mother went to bed, they got up and went to the window. Sure 
enough, the roots began their nightly dance. Eric's eyes lit up. He was 
speechless. The boys sat at the window and watched but this time Jeff 
noticed something he had never seen before. There were shapes forming 
in the roots, the dark brown bark that housed the roots were turning 
into faces. They appeared to be children's faces. Young boys with 
curious, foolish expressions on their faces like the one he sees on 
Eric's face as he looks over at his friend. 

After a few moments Eric slides the window open and simply says, "Come
on." Jeff somehow knew what was going to happen. It was as if somehow 
the trees conveyed to message to him. Eric couldn't see it or feel it. 
He was the stupid one. His foolish curiosity brought him out to the 
trees. He walked on the moving roots and started climbing the trees 
again. Jeff stood back and watched, like he did earlier. The roots 
reached up and caressed Eric and wrapped themselves around his legs. 
They went up his legs and up the rest of his body to his head. 

The roots dragged Eric to the ground with the tapered ends digging into
his eye sockets and mouth. There was no sign of struggle and as the 
roots pulled him into the soft ground. Jeff could see the blood being 
squeezed out of his body and being absorbed into the dark rich soil. 

Jeff stood and watched the roots for a few more minutes. They seemed
more alive and the faces seemed more foolish. He wasn't at all 
interested in the trees anymore they were just as stupid as Eric. Jeff 
would no longer spend his nights watching them. 

Jeff went back to the trees once more with the police looking for Eric,
but, of course, the were no signs of him. After that he kept his window 
shut and his curtains closed for the rest of his life.  Jeff learned an 
important lesson from the trees, that the curiosity of a child is a 
dangerous thing. 


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