Author's Note: In this chapter, there is lots of bloody stuff happening. If decapitation or body horror disturbs you, then tread lightly.

We jumped up from the log, and I grabbed Addie's shoulders. "What are you talking about? Addie, tell me everything, right now!"

"I don't know how it happened, but we walked into the room, and there were walking skeletons waiting for us! I… They grabbed Sunshine and Whisper, and I ran to get you guys, and I don't know what's going on, Asher, please, tell me this can't be happening!"

I shook my head. "Whatever it is, it's happening. Come on, Enoch, we've got to save them."

He nodded, and we ran back to the town.

Sure enough, living skeletons were walking about, grinning their terrifying grins. Whisper and Sunshine were restrained, tied up to a post, a ring of jack-o'-lanterns surrounding them.

A tall skeleton suddenly shouted. "ATTENTION! THE SENTENCING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

The skeletons laughed, and began to circle around Whisper and Sunshine, leering at them.

"Please…" Sunshine whispered, tears streaming down her face. "We didn't know… please don't kill us…"

The tall skeleton cackled, cruelly. "You think you can glean sympathy? You, who stole from us, and was then so foolish as, to come back to the crime scene?"

Sunshine stared up at the skeleton, and I clenched my fists.

"If he makes one move to hurt her…" I heard Enoch mutter. "I'll crush his damn bones into dust."

The skeletons watched with anticipation, waiting for the sentence to be laid out.

"These living's will face their punishment. For their crimes, the sentence is: death, by beheading." The tall skeleton was handed a sword, and he swung back-

"NO!"

Enoch and I shouted in unison, running to the center… but Enoch made it there first, jumping in the sword's path…

I will remember what happened after that forever.

Time seemed to slow as the sword continued it's journey, cutting through the air, and hitting his neck, and his head fell to the ground as the blade only just cut my sister's cheek. For a moment there was silence, as Addie, Whisper, and I stared in horror, and tears streamed down Sunshine's face.

Then, my sister screamed, and in a burst of light, the ropes around her and Whisper snapped. She fell to her knees, crying over Enoch's body.

"No… please, no…"

That was when Enoch's hand moved. Even the skeletons gasped in shock as his hand wiped the blood from my sister's cheek, and then curled into a fist.

He got up, and started towards the tall skeleton, who stepped back.

"I… that's not… that's not supposed to…"

Enoch lifted a jack-o'-lantern from the ground, and placed it over his neck. Then he turned to me.

"Asher, mind holding this freak down while I destroy him?" he asked.

"Got it," I said, grabbing the bones of his arms. Enoch broke every bone in his body. Twice. Then, he began grinding the bits of bone into nothing.

He turned to the terrified skeletons, which hadn't done anything since we showed up, for some reason; I still never figured out why… anyway, he began yelling. I don't know how that worked either.

"I am in charge now! If any of you lay a hand on any of my friends- if you so much as look at Sunshine- Asher and I will do the exact same thing to you. I'm relatively sure that I'm officially dead now, and so I have exactly nothing to lose aside from them."

Sunshine walked up, and wrapped her arms around him.

I sent a glare around the circle, and hissed, "Leave." They scattered, and left the five of us standing there.

"We're never getting out of these woods, are we?" Enoch asked quietly. "We really are dead."

"No… no, we can't… you're still here, we still have a shot, and I'm sure that if this is some kind of in-between world, everything will go back to normal when we get out, right?" Addie tried to reason desperately.

I looked down at the lantern. It had somehow stayed lit since that creepy old guy tortured me. I hadn't really noticed before.

"No," I muttered. "We're not going home…"

That was when my head erupted in pain. It almost felt worse than whatever the Unknown did… almost. I fell to my knees, clutching my skull, and that was when I felt the branches for the first time.

Finally, the pain let up, and everyone was staring, horrified. I felt the branches again. They came out about six inches from my head, and had no leaves, but they were definitely branches. Addie was the first to help me up.

"What are those?" she asked, sounding interested, concerned, and sort of… I don't know. I could never read Addie completely.

"Um… branches. I think."

Whisper smacked me suddenly. "You idiot! What did you do Asher?"

"I…"

"Do you realize that you can't go home anymore? You're part of the damn forest!"

That's how my transformation began.