Entry #71

I woke up today and smelled something burning. I ran downstairs. Nothing burning downstairs. I yelled for my parents, so I could see what was going on. My mom started down the stairs, and was about to say something when I heard a shout from outside, and I saw my dad outside the window. He motioned for me to open the window so he could talk to me.

"What happened?" I asked. My dad looked very puzzled.

"Y'know the shed out back? The old one we let fall down?"

My stomach dropped. I knew what my dad was about to say.

"It's burned down. I don't get how. We didn't get any lightning or anything. It must have just been a freak spark or something. Oh well, nothing wasted." He chuckled nervously and walked around to the garage so he could get back in.

Then something out in back caught my eye. Something moved forward, out from the trees a little. It was Locust.

Except something was different about him. He wasn't a normal height anymore. His waist was above the fence of the pool, which is at least 5 feet high. He was still dressed in his business suit, but it was stretched so far that it looked like it was going to rip. His hat was gone, and his head was just...blank. Pure white. No facial features, no eyes even.

I froze. My fingers clamped down on the windowsill. I couldn't move. At that moment, I got the same feeling I had gotten the last time I saw him, the feeling of all the blood rushing to my head like I was about to faint. But I didn't. I resisted the sensation, I forced myself to stay upright. My eyelids started spasming, but I didn't faint.

Then I got a burst of...emotion in my head. A blast of pure, unadulterated hatred. A sneer. Locust didn't move this entire time. Nothing was moving.

Two little black branches wound up from behind Locust's back. They squirmed up above his head, flapping and waving back and forth, intertwining and meshing. More little branches--tentacles, more like, joined the two, madly weaving among themselves. Finally they settled down on his head. They formed a hat, a bowler hat.

Locust turned around and melted back into the trees. I couldn't move from the windowsill for another ten minutes.

R.C.