The Blood Trees

by Chiiiiiiiiiiii

My entry for Queenie Chan's THE DREAMING fanfic contest. I didn't win and ain't surprised. It's tricky o summarize this but it is LONG for a oneshot. 20 pages. Please R R and tell me if the rating needs to be upped from T.

PART I

At Merriwheather Finishing School, the unnamed one exits the school in the night. She walks and walks, deeper and deeper into the Bush. The pain that she had endured that day… it blazed in her mind, not allowing her to forget. She must remember. She must remember. The coffin was the worst but she knew its secrets. She could keep control of herself. The coffin was black as night- darker even. You thought that there was no oxygen. You thought that you would suffocate. There was a hole though. The hole was covered but allowed you to breathe. You would be fine as long as you didn't snap.

The rain began to fall from the sky as she walked. Drizzle… light rain and then pouring. Her beautiful Victorian dress became water laden and heavy within minutes. She didn't stop though. She was free when she was out here. Free, free, free.

She continued until she came to a pond. It was very small and set in the dead center of the forest. She felt a presence coming from it. Dark, though strong. She felt its spirit ebbing in the pool. She set forth a timid foot and tapped the surface and the spirit came forth.

"Do you desire revenge?" it asked, reaching into her mind.

She paused and everything that had ever happened to her, flooded through her mind. Replaying and replaying, burning her retinas with the physical and mental trauma. The fear.

They had all hurt her.

So very bad.

She looked at the being. She had her answer;
"Yes. Revenge is what I desire." She confirmed and the spirit entered her body and mind, devouring it but all the same leaving her the tiniest bit of control. The being liked to possess people. It needed to. It was a joint relationship- she could deal her revenge and it would gain possession over others.

It was happiness.

Avril Merriwheather tapped her nails against the desk, wondering when the orphan girl would return. She had gone into the Bush again. Stupid girl- there was something lurking in there and it was very bad.

Dangerous.

The clock tolled for nine p.m. and she could hear the scurries of the girls, frightened as they ran to their rooms and beds to sleep. She tutted and decided to retire to sleep herself. Heading into her room she thought she felt a chill but shook it off. She stripped down to her camisole and undergarments and climbed into bed. The night was hot and although she required all of her students to wear night gowns "For a Lady must always be decent, even as she sleeps," Avril herself didn't. The students were all afraid of her so none of them would say a thing about or against it.

She drifted into a deep slumber.

The Nameless One chose to take Headmistress Merriweather first. She had inflicted the most pain upon the orphan girl because there was no one for her to complain to. Torture upon torture upon torture. Day after day after day… for the foolish things done wrong, that no other girl had to deal with.

The bitch would be the first one taken.

The Quinkan entered into the mind and body of Avril Merriweather, as it did for the orphan. It devoured the body.

The only thing to ever mark Avril Merriweather's presence was her clothes, hanging beside her bed. The sheets weren't even rumpled and the bed held on trace of warmth, even if you had touched it right after she was gone. It was cold.

The night turned into day and the students of the school automatically knew that their Headmistress was missing- as was the orphan girl. They were scared but unbothered for the moment.

And then the other girls began to disappear. The ones who had enjoyed the torture inflicted upon the Nameless One were the first to go.

Then the other Quinkan came. They took more of the girls.

There were only four left.

Then Beatrice and Mary Spector showed up.

Peggy Sue ran away with the carriage that had brought the twins.

The few remaining girls were scared and lacking sense after all those many sleepless nights. The mistake that the Spector twins made was saying that Headmistress Merriweather was their aunt.

That was what scared them the most.

The girls were completely alone in the school from hell, surrounded by the fears of the Bush, living day by night, always awake for if they slept…

They knew they would disappear.

The remaining girls were very fearful. As yet another disappeared, they zoned in on the Spectors.

As they took the girls into the Bush, they passed a once empty patch of Earth. It was now growing Weeping Trees. Their sap was everywhere and dripping upon the girls.

Beatrice and Mary were sure that they were going to die.

Everyone was filled with fear. Of sleeping and disappearing. Of death itself. All these girls were all different but so very much the same.

Mary was willing to sacrifice herself though, just so that Beatrice could survive. What Mary didn't know though, was Beatrice's axe.

It was over for the girls almost instantly. Knives could do nothing against a scared and angry Beatrice.

They went back to the school and the next night, Mary disappeared.

A new willow began to grow.

PART II

The Nameless One awakened once again. She hadn't worked much, yes but there was something about these girls that made her tick. Other girls had disappeared, yes, but that was not the work of her. She had been resting in a way. She had faded into the shadows.

Millie was the first one to vanish. However, for some reason she was able to escape but ended up drowning herself. She'd rather die than be possessed by the cause of her nightmares. It took weeks to find the body but when her body was found… it all went to hell in the school.

More and more girls disappeared. Then, at the end of it all, the school caught fire and killed many Quinkan.

That's when the Nameless One finally died. By this time, the grove was filled with the Willows. The largest one was the one farthest back in the grove. It bled the most but was also the strongest of them all.

Amber had barely escaped possession herself. She only survived because the smoke killed the Quinkan possessing her. She suffered memory loss but it all came back with time. Much time.

Her paintings were like Mary's but only slightly. They portrayed events of the future though. It was much more gruesome though. The premonitions of more girls dying in the Bush- More girls losing their minds…

The years went by and Amber grew older but her paintings kept coming. There were at least a hundred by now. They had no timeline- some would be first but then were painted in the middle of her mind purge. No order so no one could be protected.

PART III

Adrian and her friends were camping. Of all places- in the Bush. It was a dare, she was a journalist. She wanted to really see if there were such horrible things there. They said a school had burned down and girls had gone missing there. That there were spirits- Quinkan in the Bush that would take over your mind and body and make you vanish.

She didn't believe a word of it. It was all just superstition. There was no fact behind it. It wasn't like there were any paintings or books on the school.

She didn't know all the things that were to happen here.

"Adrian! Help with the tent!" Stephanie yelled. Adrian was writing notes on the Bush around her. Pretty much summing up that there was nothing scary or peculiar there.

"In a sec! How close are we to the old school?" she called back. The tent flopped over on Stephanie and she pushed it off of herself with great difficulty."Help with the tent and maybe I'll tell you!" she glared and Adrian finally came over and pulled the tent off of her and started setting it up. When it was done Stephanie pulled out her GPS. It was a miracle that it worked all the way out here.

"About five miles. It's getting dark though and we've been walking all day. Speaking of which- have you seen May since she went to get wood and take a leak?" Stephanie glanced over her shoulder, her green eyes flashing as she pushed a strand of platinum blond hair behind her ear. Adrian looked around. She had bright blue eyes and her brown hair was up in a short ponytail. She paused and frowned, "No… I haven't."

May was a klutz. Adrian worried she somehow managed to fall off a cliff or something. Wouldn't be surprising.

"She probably fell in a swamp." Adrian speculated and then there was a crash and both girls screamed and jumped.

"Hey everybody!" May said, her black curls bouncing, dark grey eyes sparked with happiness.

"MAY!" Stephanie yelled and kicked her. May yelped but continued to laugh. In front of her was the firewood that she gathered. When Stephanie had finally calmed down May stood up. "Oh crap!" she put her hands to her mouth and Adrian looked at her in speculation, "What?"

May paused and looked up sheepishly.

"Well…. I kind of forgot to go to the bathroom while I was out there…"

Adrian and Stephanie stared.

"WHAT?!"

May jumped up and ran over behind a bush, pushing down her jeans right there. Stephanie covered her eyes and Adrian hit her self in the forehead. "Have some decency will ya?!" Adrian scolded and May giggled as she pulled up her pants. She came back to the group and the tent was stabilized, sleeping bags were set inside and the fire flickered outside their tent and they fell asleep.

The next morning, the three packed up and headed out. Adrian kept her notebook out, taking notes of everything around her. She was determined to prove that there were no ghosts or spirits lurking in the Bush!

"Adrian! Are you trying to convince the rest of the world that this place doesn't have ghosts?" May asked.

"Not ghosts- even though they don't exist either- Quinkan. What in the hell is a Quinkan for the love of God?"

Stephanie and May stared at Adrian darkly.

"What?" she asked and Stephanie looked at her, voice lowered.

"The school site that you're so very obsessed with is the location where dozens of teenage girls like us went missing." Stephanie said quietly, "They were all possessed… they all vanished…" she continued.

"Oh come on! Those are just folk tales! The girls just ran away and probably eaten!" Adrian insisted, "Besides. We're not as young as they were. We're almost adults!"

The other two girls stared.

"What's out here that would or could eat a bunch of girls? I'm telling you they were possessed!" May nodded quickly, confirming everything Stephanie had said.

"Well I'm gonna prove it one way or another!" Adrian said, "Come on- I wanna see the site of the school before it gets dark again!" she said and the trio continued walking.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Adrian winced as something warm and sticky hit her in the face. Touching her fingers to it and looking at them she screamed and looked up at the trees.

She expected to see bodies but there were none.

Just… trees…

May rubbed some sap off of her own face and looked at Adrian, "It's just tree sap." She said calmly and Adrian blushed furiously. She had thought it to be blood. She felt stupid now.

"There are a lot here…" Stephanie commented and touched each of them, pausing at the largest one. Her eyes widened and she fell over onto the ground.

"Stephanie? Steph? Are you alright?" May shook Stephanie who blinked after a moment and looked up.

"What scared you?" Adrian asked curiously and Stephanie shook her head.

"You wouldn't believe me." She stated but Adrian frowned, "Maybe not but I still want to hear." she said and Stephanie sighed.

"I could… feel pain and fear ebbing from it… It was like a living grave marker." Stephanie said slowly, "It represented someone who… didn't die in a normal way… never really died at all…" she stopped, "Let's keep going. You want to see the school don't you?"

Adrian nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know if you're okay-"

"I'm fine." Stephanie insisted, "Come on. We're not far." She said and they continued walking through the Bush. Adrian noticed how antsy Steph was and worried. What if she was hallucinating or something? She could hurt herself… or them.

"Here's your damn school, Adrian." Stephanie said hotly and Adrian ran up to the ashen remains and the only room that was still standing after the fire had hit. No one had bothered to clear this area, preferring not to disturb the wildlife any more than the fire already had. The fire had been contained to the school by some miracle and by an even further miracle the coffin room still stood as if to say it could never be gotten rid of- a forever memory of the torture that had gone on at the school during it's first days as Merriweather's Finishing School.

Adrian had researched all the disappearances and the past of the school. Avril Merriweather had been the sadistic headmistress until her own disappearance and then Beatrice Spector inherited it from her father upon his death. The disappearances really flared up when Amber and Jeanie enrolled. Twins. All hell broke loose again. Their aunt had been the headmistress but she left for business so then Vice-Principal Beatrice Spector took over temporarily.

After several months of disappearances the school burned to the ground… there hadn't been many students left then any way. However they all survived. Amber was reported to have suffered memory loss and Jeanie left with no side effects.

Adrian stepped lightly among the wreckage and to the coffin room. The coffin had been left in there and the entire inside was in pristine condition. She ran her fingers lightly over the coffin and over the walls. Everything in the room, taking notes on it as she went. She couldn't sense a threatening thing about the place. She glanced outside and noticed how low the sun was, not realizing how long she had been in there.

The three girls spent several weeks out there for Adrian's research. May continued to be bouncy and hyper but over the weeks, Stephanie began to withdraw and complain of constant headaches. She slept and slept too.

"Stephanie! Get up! What are you, having nightmares?" Adrian said playfully but nervously and Stephanie looked at her in all seriousness.

"Yes." She said and rubbed her head, "Abuse, abuse, abuse!" she yelled and buried her face in her hands, "I feel things that I shouldn't! The fear yet constant calm of being locked in a coffin live for hours upon hours! Going into the Bush- finding the dangerous wilderness to be your only sanctuary from the abusive bitch who orders everyone to lock you inside alive! You have to flail and struggle to convince them that you're scared, just so they don't do worse to you!" she started heaving dry sobs and May ran into the tent and held her while Adrian stared in horror. She grabbed her notebook from the other side of the tent and flipped to the front of it, her notes on an orphan girl who had attended the school in its days as the finishing school. She dug up accounts from internet sources that were mysteriously shut down after she gained the information. The orphan girl had no name in any records though. She indeed suffered though, as an account from a girl by the name of Peggy Sue who was the only one to escape from the Finishing school during its final days. She reported all the horror done to the Orphan and the actions of the headmistress. The disappearances of the girls before she escaped and how they cut themselves for pain kept them awake, preventing them from falling asleep and being taken by the unknown things of the Bush.

Was Stephanie somehow… seeing the Orphan's life in her dreams? That didn't make sense though- it wasn't possible by scientific law.

"Come to the school with me Stephanie." Adrian said.

"Are you freaking CRAZY?!" Stephanie yelled, "That damn coffin room still stands! They stuck her in there alive. YOU EXPECT ME TO ENTER THAT HELL HOLE!? ARE YOU INSANE!?" May clutched Stephanie's hand and smiled reassuringly.

"Maybe you'll gain some insight to your dreams. I'll go with you." She said, face bright and cheerful. Stephanie stared at her friend and sighed. "O-Okay…" she said, finally giving in and the three exited the tent. Stephanie clung to May all the way. Adrian thought it was more intense than the analogy of a frightened child and her mother could explain. It was more of… Like they loved each other and May was Stephanie's knight.

Whatever. Adrian thought and led them to the coffin room. Stephanie peeked inside after Adrian, and May led her in. Stephanie touched the coffin and her eyes welled up with tears of horror. She clung to May tightly and Adrian shuddered. It was hard to imagine that anyone had been locked in there for indefinite periods of time, believing that they were going to suffocate and trying to claw their way out. Adrian lifted the lid of the coffin and shuddered for indeed were there ancient claw marks.

"Can we leave now?" May asked and Adrian looked back at the coffin for a minute but turned back and nodded. They headed out and to the tent again.

May slept closest to the door, then Stephanie and Adrian was on the end. It was decided that since Stephanie was so unstable, May should sleep by the door to make sure she didn't walk out. May was a very light sleeper to the point that a storm would keep her awake, just from the wind blowing.

That night, Adrian noticed how they held each other in sleep. She confirmed in her mind that something deeper than friendship was going on. She didn't mind much really but it worried her about how long it had been going on and how long they had been hiding it from her. She felt that she was untrustworthy to them. She would never tell their secret- if it even was a secret… Why didn't they tell her?

She kept herself awake with these thought for a little longer before the stress of the day finally knocked her out.

"STEPHANIE! Stephanie where are you!?" Adrian woke with a start from May's screams. Stephanie's sleeping bag was empty and smooth but the tent door was still shut.

May's eyes were welled up with tears and she scrambled to get the tent open. Adrian was just as scared but managing to keep a level head on her. She grabbed May and dragged her to the ground, holding her back as she screamed Stephanie's name repeatedly. When May's screams subsided to whimpers and sobs, Adrian let her grip loosen.

"Shush. May… May please calm down…" Adrian pleaded and was met with the most gut wrenching stare she'd ever had to face.

"The most important thing in your life didn't vanish in the night. Dammit Adrian! We told you that there were things out here! You damn Americans don't know crap about the Bush! You didn't believe when you read about the girls walking the halls of the school and disappearing through walls! Not that they were possessed and vanished so easily either! You think you're such a great journalist but your not! You have to have the ability to think beyond the proven facts of the world! You must think to the supernatural things to explain kidnappings and disappearances that leave no evidence!" May breathed.

Adrian looked away, "I-I'm sure she just left to get water or something…" she tried to say but May slapped her.

"You're so stupid! She's gone! Gone, gone, gone!"

Things became tense between them from then on.

Soon three months had passed since their entry to the Bush. Adrian had filled three notebooks on what she had seen, and even Stephanie's actions before she disappeared. Those actions and personality changes themselves filled a whole notebook. She visited the school site daily, trying to gather more information from the charred ruins. She spent almost all her time in the coffin room though.

"Quinkans my ass." She said to herself on one of the days. What were the chances of her friend being taken by a mythological creature?

However, May's words constantly echoed in her mind:

"You have to have the ability to think beyond the proven facts of the world!"

They felt so very true and so very right. However, Adrian's mind would not allow her to believe it.

And so there were even more questions and mysteries within her notes.

"Hey… May?"

"What do you want, Adrian?" May asked quietly and Adrian stared at her feet.

"To apologize. I'm sorry." She said quietly and May nodded slowly.

"'S'all right. It's not your fault Stephanie disappeared." May acknowledged.

"Can I ask you something personal then?"

"So you report it or some crap like that?"

Adrian met her eyes.

"No. I kept lots of notes on Stephanie's behavior believe it or not. I'm just curious as to this…" she paused and bit the tip of her tongue, trying to say it more gracefully than her mind wanted her to.

"Were you and Stephanie in love?" Adrian said. It came out rushed and she clamped her eyes shut, waiting for a blow or sharp words.

There was nothing for minutes.

"May?" Adrian dared to whisper and she looked at her friend who had tears pouring from her eyes.

"Yes… we were." She said almost silently and then curled into her sleeping bag.

"I went to the Eucalyptus grove yesterday." She said, "You know- the one with the Weeping Trees?" she asked and Adrian blinked to say yes.

"Well, I touched the tree that Stephanie had touched right? I didn't feel a rush of emotion or anything but it felt like it was more alive than was thought to believe. Like… it represented someone… who had lived and vanished even." She looked Adrian dead in the eyes.

"I think Stephanie was possessed before she disappeared. I think a Quinkan took her."

Adrian cocked her head, "What makes you think that?" she asked and May smirked impishly.

"Firstly, her dreams were like memories she said. There were a lot of reports as you know that the girls who went missing had really weird dreams like they were wearing Victorian dresses and that there dreams weren't their own, more among the lines of memories and everything was intensely real. Secondly, she slept all the time. It was like a drug she couldn't get enough of!" May exclaimed and then went quiet. "The third thing is," her voice was very low so that Adrian had to strain to hear:

"There was a new tree in that grove at the very front."

Adrian tried to apply logic but it wasn't coming.

"It felt very much like her too. Very smooth and its sap fell with a kind of grace." May said wistfully.

The wind blew, bringing the scent of trees to the tent and Adrian shuddered. She hadn't reckoned for her friend to disappear. So much had happened in this trip that was unexpected. It scared her.

"I'm going to the school again. There might be something that I missed." Adrian said and stood up.

May raised her eyebrow in puzzlement, "In the middle of the night?" she asked, confused.

"Yeah. All the girls vanished in their sleep so maybe, something will happen if I'm there at night. Maybe something will light up! Or, or-"

"Maybe we'll see some of the girls."

Adrian stared at May. That was improbable to her but she shrugged and the two set off.

The air was very different. Usually, it was just… air but now it held a chill that was different from the rest of the Bush.

A lone girl stood in the center of the ruins. She saw Adrian and smiled at her gently. She was wearing a nightgown and had soft blonde hair that glowed in the moonlight.

Adrian and May took careful steps forward.

"Hello. My name is Millie." She said. Adrian blinked in horror. That had to be incorrect! Millie was dead!

"But- But you're dead!" Adrian insisted and Millie shook her head.

"Yes. I drowned. However, I was able to communicate in dreams because a Quinkan had captured my body partially, even though I killed myself." She said, "Someone will be here soon. Maybe. If she got my message." Millie said, looking out.

"There's no such thing as Quinkan!" Adrian insisted and Millie looked at her.

"Then what am I?" she asked and pointed behind her, "And who is she?" she asked and May screamed.

Stephanie stood there in the mist for a mere moment before vanishing.

"Wait though- Didn't the fire kill all the Quinkan?" May asked, "Smoke purifies and exorcises Quinkan." She said and Millie nodded.

"Not all the Quinkan of the forest entered the school that night though. There are many, many Quinkan in the Bush."

"What happened to Stephanie?" May asked and Millie looked at her, "What do you think?"

"… She was possessed or some crap like that." Adrian said and Millie shook her head.

"It's not crap. That's what happened to the girls. Me. Stephanie and almost Amber."

"… Amber?" May asked and Adrian intervened, "She was reportedly possessed but exorcized. She suffered a lot of memory loss and took up painting shortly after her release from the hospital."

May stared at her.

"I told you I was going to be a journalist and a journalist has to do the research." Adrian pointed out. Millie chuckled which surprised both of them.

"Very nice!" she looked at the two in turn and waved, vanishing before their eyes.

"Still don't believe in Quinkan?" May asked as they were walking back.

"… I don't know at this point." Adrian admitted. May smiled and patted her on the back, "You'll come around. We both saw Stephanie." She said a little sad but smiling all the same.

"We did, didn't we? And Millie." Adrian smiled.

The two girls had reached an uneasy agreement within all of their disagreements.

The next night, Adrian's dreams revolved around Stephanie and her ghostly form. She woke up automatically around midnight and stepped out of the tent. May was in a deep sleep for the first time since they met. Adrian had known Stephanie for two years when she decided to travel abroad to study journalism elsewhere than the states where everything revolved around celebrities. She wanted to know if it was the same elsewhere, and desperately hoped it wasn't. They all had met in a courtyard in town, the commonality between them being where they bought lunch. It had been quite a hilarious day.

Adrian shook the thoughts away and went to the center of the school grounds again. Unsurprisingly, Millie stood there.

"Millie." Adrian said to alert her and the ghostly girl looked over.

"Yes?"

Adrian looked at her and out past her, "Who did you say was going to show up? Was it Stephanie or someone else?"

"…Someone else." Millie answered slowly and Adrian locked eyes with her.

"Who? Tell me. Was Amber supposed to magically show up or some crap like that? And why was Stephanie taken? Why wasn't it me? Or May?" Adrian was angry. She wanted her questions answered now.

"One at a time, Adrian. Yes, it was supposed to be Amber but it was just chance. I felt that she may come but I also doubted it very much so. She's in her seventies you know. Secondly, Stephanie was taken because she shared the most common characteristics with the Orphan. "

Adrian stared, not understanding.

"What… Do you mean?" she asked and Millie looked at her.

"You didn't know?" she asked.

"Didn't know what?"

"Stephanie was hurt very much as a child for stupid things. She suppressed the memories, however, when she touched the tree, the Orphan's spirit could feel it and a connection was formed between them." Millie explained.

Adrian stared off into the distance, unbelieving that her friend was hurt so much. Images flashed in her mind, she could see the Orphan's pain and Stephanie's simultaneously as though they were the same person.

She reeled and fell on her butt. The images startled her greatly.

"What did you just see?" Millie asked and Adrian shut her eyes tightly, "I- I don't know." She said, "But it hurt."

Millie sighed.

"Why did you come back?" she asked.

"My questions were left unanswered." Adrian explained slowly, "So answer them and I'll leave."

"I've answered all of those that you've asked."

"I have more."

"And what would they be?"

"What is a Quinkan?"

There was a long silence.

"It's hard to explain," Millie began, "But basically it's being that that takes over your mind and body. A dark spirit."

Adrian nodded slowly.

"Was Stephanie really taken by a Quinkan?" Adrian asked. She had to know.

She already knew the answer- she'd known it since the first night when Stephanie disappeared.

"Yes. You knew that, Adrian."

"… I know I did." Adrian sighed, "I… I just wanted to confirm it… that simple statement… killed everything I knew to be true and logical."

"You're stupid. Everything is very simple. You just need to think outside the box." Mille smiled and made her fingers into a square as the sun started to rise and she disappeared. Adrian stood there for several long moments, contemplating what Millie had just said.

Think outside the box.

Think outside the box.

Think outside the box.

That line rang in her head, making everything click.

"Adrian!" She whipped around, looking at May who was smiling blissfully.

"What's up?" Adrian asked and May looked back at the Bush.

"Stephanie came to me in a dream. She said she loved me very much."

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Adrian gripped the magazine in her hands. This was the first time she'd ever been published. She was only nineteen too- a record for journalism.

She'd been published in a nature magazine. They took her because of everything she'd experienced in the Bush with the Quinkan and Millie. The disappearance of Stephanie. The first parts of it were drabble to her now. The last paragraph surprised her- she couldn't believe that she wrote it.

Of the chaos that happened in the Bush, I was not murdered, and nothing logical happened. The one thing that I took away from this whole thing was that not everything in our world follows the rules of logic and science. Science cannot explain the supernatural events of vanishing girls or the sprouting of Eucalyptus, shortly after someone vanishes. Science cannot explain dreams that see the past that you've never known, or the future. Science can explain many wondrous things for us, such as the growth of a child and the death of a virus. The growth of a plant, the tornados that destroy cities and towns. While I was in the Bush though, a girl told me this. She was not one of my living companions but what she said made more sense than anything I'd ever heard within the laws of science and logic:

Sometimes you just need to think outside the box.

That single line, made all the things that never made sense, work. I'd believed my father left because he did not love my mother any longer. I had never considered that my mom drove him to leave. By thinking outside the box, I was able to also understand the disappearances of the girls at Merriweather finishing school, and Greenwich Private College. I was able to understand the supernatural events that occurred at that site and the passing of memories between people who never met. I understood everything.

Thinking in this new manner, has not diverted me from logic and reasoning- it has merely enhanced my ability to logic and reason.

I suppose you could say that even though I lost a friend, and my friend lost her love, everything worked out in the end for everybody involved, and perhaps, the people who have read this but were never involved in the actual situation.

I now keep this line in my head everyday, for every situation that I come across that I don't understand:

Think outside the box. It's the simplest thing you can do to make sense of it all.

Adrian thought about the trees again. Had they themselves, been what made her investigate the school and talk to Millie? The trees had always been in the back of her mind. When Stephanie vanished there had been a new sapling too.

She remembered the very first thing that made her curious about the Bush. She'd heard it from her neighbor back in America:

"There's a particular kind of Eucalyptus tree in Australia. Its tree sap is red and warm, so often that they're called 'Weeping Trees'. It's also said that these trees are the souls of those who vanish in the Bush."

The Blood Trees…

[THE END]

Leila Marisa Baker (937)254-6266The Blood TreesPage 12