I stared at it and then him, wondering if this was a trick and if I had what it took to defend myself if need be. With a shaky hand, I took it and jerked it away from him.
“This is the price to go to the tree. Everyone pays it.”
Seemed a bit high maintenance to me. “And if I don’t?”
Astaroth faced the thicket of plants. They bent and swayed with a fluidity that only currents of water could produce. “They will suck you dry.”
Just like the realm. The entire labyrinth was a savage garden, and the inhabitants were as bloodthirsty as the animated vegetation.
It’s only a bit of blood, I told myself and readied the knife with a shaky hand. The vampiric plants grew frenzied when I pressed the blade down and built the courage to slice. Would they attack me and try to suck me dry anyway?
Astaroth’s steady hand covered mine on the hilt, easing the pressure. “You will cut to the bone like that. I can make it quick and near painless.”
He didn’t have to ask. His unspoken question was loud and clear. Did I trust him? I licked my parched lips, hating the answer perched on the tip of my tongue. Squeezing my eyes shut, I nodded.
I startled when a slight sting pricked my fingertip. Blood oozed over my flayed skin, collecting under my nail before dripping off. My lip twitched into a hesitant smile. “That wasn’t so bad.”
Astaroth guided me forward by my wrist. I stayed a foot back and bent at the waist so I wouldn’t have to get closer than I had to.
“They will not harm you.”
“I’m not taking any chances.”
A tiny mouth raised up to catch a bead of blood rolling off my finger. Before it could hit its mouth, a bloom the size of a grapefruit barged in and knocked it to the ground. Its hinge-like mouth opened revealing larger teeth, and it smacked its leathery lips coated in my blood.
“Hey, that wasn’t yours!”
It pulled back, bloom drooping in shame. Astaroth’s brow furrowed as he watched it. The others came forward and received their offering. I grew braver and stepped closer to them, watching in wonder as these little things sprung up around me, patiently waiting their turn. When they finished, the vines retracted and coiled around the tall grasses and plants, pulling them open to reveal a path. Only, one of the vines remained. The bully.
It crept forward and cowered at my feet. I reached out, but Astaroth caught my hand and studied the prone vine.
“They won’t harm me. You said so yourself.”
Once he released me, I gently patted the bloom. The bloodsuckle nuzzled my palm, forcing me to pet its soft, crisp head. Even its lips pulled up into what resembled a happy smile. I returned one and knelt in front of it.
“You need to be nice.” With a gentleness I didn’t expect, it looped around me and rested on my shoulder before kissing my cheek. I laughed. “That will only work this time.”
It slithered back with the rest of the plants, happy and content.
I dusted my jeans off and looked at Astaroth who stared at me like I was the alien. I guess I was here in his world.
“Shall we?” he held out his hand.
His long, thin fingers beckoned to twine with my shorter, stubby ones. Accepting would be my first gesture toward a truce and embracing our future together—short or long term—until I could leave. I had to do this.
I placed my hand in his, excited about seeing the tree in person. “We shall.”
The smile that came over his face as he gently held my hand and guided me through the partition stirred something in my gut I didn’t want to feel. I ignored it and watched as the vines accompanied us, weaving through the overgrowth and keeping pace with our steps. They shot past us toward the end to create another opening for us to exit. When we stepped through, it was like entering another realm.
Bright green grass spread over the ground with vibrant clusters of wildflowers littering the landscape, and in the center stood the tree in all its massive glory. The tapestry didn’t do it justice. It was the strangest blend of specimens, as if three or four different species of trees had combined into one.
I released his hand and walked toward the tree in awe, completely mesmerized by it. My eyes kept bouncing to different details making it difficult to see the whole tree for what it was. I could stare at it for hours before my brain finally settled and allowed my eyes to relax, kind of like those hidden image portraits.
The blades of grass tickled my hands as I went. I rubbed one between my fingers, remembering summer days of lying on my back in the sun and doing the same thing. Only there was no sunlight here, no warm rays beaming down on you and making you cozy yet full of life. What would this tree look like on a sunny day, branches stretched to greet the heavens? I imagined the leaves would shimmer and the fronds and string-like leaves would billow in the light breeze. Then my brain switched gears as I turned my face up to the twilight sky. Could I survive here without that much-needed source of sustenance?
I turned slightly to peek at Astaroth and his grayish pallor, wondering if, over time, I would come to look like him. He hadn’t budged from the spot where I left him, yet judging by the distance in his stare and the teeniest of wistful smiles, he was somewhere else again. Somewhere he cherished and longed to be. But with whom? People only smiled that way when thinking of another. Places only did that when they were shared with someone, just like songs that became the soundtrack to our lives. Music. Man, I missed music. It was too quiet here.
Astaroth snapped out of his daydream to catch me watching him. The hunger he didn’t try to hide nearly took my breath away. It promised of passionate secluded trysts against the labyrinth walls as he whispered in my ear, tangled up in bed while eating Ziggy’s newest pizza recipe, and reading to one another before plucking the book from my hand and devouring my mouth, sharing the tub—
