The roots struck like vipers, wrapping around Vinny's legs before he could react. They yanked him forward, dragging him across the rain-slick grass toward the gaping maw of the split oak. Deborah's scream tore through the storm as she lunged for him, her fingers brushing his for one desperate second before the roots wrenched him away.
"Vinny!"
Her voice was the last thing he heard before the tree swallowed him whole.
Darkness.
Not the soft dark of a moonless night, but something thick and suffocating, pressing against his skin like wet soil. The air reeked of decay and something sweetly metallic—blood, he realized. Old blood.
Vinny tried to move, but the roots held him fast, their grip tightening with every struggle. His marked arm burned, the silver lines now glowing faintly in the gloom, casting just enough light to reveal the nightmare around him.
The inside of the tree was far larger than it should have been. A cavern of gnarled wood and pulsing veins, its walls studded with…
*Bodies.*
Students—dozens of them—embedded in the tree's flesh like insects in amber. Their faces were frozen in silent screams, their eyes milky white and unseeing. And at the center, hanging suspended by a tangle of roots, was Sheila.
Except it wasn't Sheila. Not anymore.
Her skin had taken on the same bark-like texture as the tree, her dark hair now threaded with vines. The roots pulsed around her, feeding something into her—or feeding *from* her. Her black eyes snapped open as Vinny thrashed, her too-wide smile stretching further.
*"Welcome home, bridge-builder."*
Her voice was layered with something ancient, something *hungry*. The Lady of Roots.
Vinny's breath came in short, panicked gasps. "What do you want?"
She tilted her head, the movement eerily insect-like. *"What was promised. A life for a life. A memory for a memory."* A root uncoiled from the wall, slithering toward him like a serpent. *"You broke our pact."*
The root pressed against his forehead.
Agony.
Images flooded his mind—Deborah laughing in sunlight, her lips brushing his beneath the oak's branches, her tears the night he made the pact. Each memory was a knife twisting deeper, the pain so intense Vinny nearly blacked out.
The Lady sighed, the sound like wind through dead leaves. *"You love her. How… predictable."*
The roots tightened around Vinny's chest, forcing the air from his lungs. Spots danced in his vision as the pressure grew, his ribs creaking—
A deafening *crack* split the air.
Light—real, golden light—poured into the tree's hollow as something smashed through the trunk. Vinny barely had time to register Deborah's rain-soaked silhouette before she was there, swinging a rusted fire axe with terrifying precision.
The blade bit deep into the roots holding him.
The Lady shrieked, the sound reverberating through the tree like a earthquake. The roots recoiled, their grip slackening just enough for Vinny to wrench one arm free. Deborah didn't hesitate—she grabbed his hand and *pulled*, her muscles straining as she dragged him toward the jagged opening she'd made.
"Run!" she gasped.
They stumbled into the storm, the rain now falling in near-horizontal sheets. Behind them, the tree trembled, its branches lashing as the Lady's fury shook it to its roots.
Deborah's grip on his hand was iron-tight. "Where's Lena?"
Vinny opened his mouth—then froze.
Near the shattered greenhouse, a figure limped toward them. Lena, her clothes torn and bloody, her knife still clutched in one hand. But it was her eyes that made Vinny's stomach drop—the inky blackness had spread, consuming nearly all the white.
Just like Sheila's.
Lena smiled, her teeth tinged red. "Miss me?"
Deborah stepped between them, her body tense. "What happened to you?"
"The Lady made me an offer." Lena's voice had changed, layered with something darker. "Turns out, I like her terms better than yours."
She lunged.
Vinny barely had time to shove Deborah aside before Lena was on him, her knife flashing toward his throat. He caught her wrist at the last second, the blade's tip hovering inches from his skin. Up close, he could see the roots twisting beneath *her* skin now, black veins spreading like cracks in glass.
"You're infected," he gasped.
Lena's grin widened. "I'm *upgraded*."
She wrenched free and slashed again. This time, the knife grazed Vinny's collarbone, drawing a hot line of pain. Deborah tackled Lena from the side, sending them both crashing into the mud. They rolled, a tangle of limbs and snarls, until Lena gained the upper hand, pinning Deborah down with unnatural strength.
"Always knew I'd get to kill you eventually," Lena hissed, raising the knife—
Vinny slammed into her like a linebacker.
They hit the ground hard, the knife skittering out of reach. Lena snarled, her fingers clawing at his face as they struggled. Vinny barely registered the sting of her nails—his entire focus was on the mark, which now burned so brightly it lit up the rain around them.
The Lady's voice slithered through his mind: *"She will die. They all die in the end."*
Vinny gritted his teeth. "Not this time."
He drove his marked wrist against Lena's chest.
The effect was instantaneous.
She arched off the ground with a scream, the roots beneath her skin writhing like live wires. The blackness in her eyes receded just enough for Vinny to catch a glimpse of the real Lena—terrified, trapped, *fighting*.
Then the tree shrieked.
Not in anger.
In *pain*.
Vinny looked up just in time to see the massive oak shudder, its bark splitting further as something—*someone*—forced their way out from within.
A boy. Tall. Dark-haired. His skin nearly translucent from years buried in the tree's heart.
Daniel.
Alive.
And *pissed.