The Tension Tree

It started innocently enough. Summer boredom. My best friend, Mark, and I—we were always getting into trouble. This time, it was Widow’s Woods. Okay, so maybe Widow’s Woods wasn’t exactly innocent. It was creepy. Really creepy. The kind of woods where the shadows seemed to watch you, and the trees whispered secrets you didn't want to hear.

Then we saw it. The Tension Tree. It was huge, this oak, bigger than any I’d ever seen—like a giant, gnarly fist punching up from the earth. And it hummed. A low, vibrating hum that made your teeth ache. It gave me goosebumps. Mark, he was fearless, or so he always said. He touched it.

“Whoa!” he yelped. His hand flew back, like he’d touched a hot stove. He was pale as a ghost. "Something’s…wrong," was all he managed to say before we practically sprinted out of those woods.

But it didn't end there. Nightmares started. Mark’s nightmares. He’d scream in his sleep, muttering about…the hum. He got weird. Quiet. Scared. Like something was chasing him—something he couldn’t even name. He wouldn't talk about the tree—he'd actually started avoiding any talk at all.

Then came the note. Tossed in my locker. It looked like Mark's handwriting, but it was all shaky, like he'd written it in a hurry. It said, "RUN!" Just that. That freaking word. "RUN!"

I ran to Mark's house. His room was empty. The window was open. The same creepy metallic smell from the wood clung to the air. The only thing there was a small, smooth pebble—just like the bark of the Tension Tree.

Days turned into weeks, then months. I never saw Mark again. He just…vanished. People said he ran away. But I knew better. Something took him. Something from the Tension Tree.

Years later, cleaning out my attic, I found it—the pebble. Holding it in my hand…that awful hum started in my chest. The metallic smell that haunted my childhood... And it wasn’t just coming from the pebble. It was all around me.

The hum wasn't from the Tension Tree. The Tension Tree was the hum. It wasn’t in the woods anymore. It was in me. It had infected Mark and now...it found me. The Tension Tree wasn't a tree at all. It wasn't something we ran from, it was something we'd become.