The Last Tree

Chapter ten

Adam hasn’t gone out of the room since the day the emperor tried to dig in his brain with a stone. The stone never leaves him. Even in the bath he takes it everywhere, paranoid of it going missing. And it’s been weeks, the days run together. Adam constantly thinks of ways to get out. He’s tired of waiting for brother squid and so are the stones. He knows it’s not brother squids fault he’s not here, we’ll maybe it is? He can fly, Adam’s sure flying is faster than riding a horse. Adam no longer cares to speculate. There has to be a way out of here. He can feel the stones silent approval. Adam wishes they could talk to him, but they don’t have a body. And the sister trees are just too far to hear. He can feel them reaching out for him and the stones. And Adam can feel brother squid’s determination to come but he can’t hear his voice yet either. Adam hasn’t had a conversation with anyone in weeks. He feels so alone.

The door suddenly burst open and in walks the emperor. “Nephew! I have come to take you to dinner! How exciting, we haven’t eaten together in some time.” He plucks the book I was reading out of my hand and closes it without saving the page. He tosses it on the table. Adam watch’s in silent horror as it thuds, and then tumbles onto the ground landing open and bending the pages. The emperor yanks Adam’s hair so they face each other. “Adam, pay attention to me, I know you like books but a person is talking. Your mother liked books too.” The emperor smirks and my winch. “Why don’t you get dressed, and tell me about your day. How was it? Did you do anything other than read books?”

“I took a bath,” he begins to pull out cloths from a dresser the emperor brought in so he wouldn’t mess up his mothers cloths. “I stared out the widow at the sky.” Adam wasn’t going to mention his plotting but he could talk about everything else. “I found the book you tossed around very interesting.” He took off the pajamas, “before you lost my place,” was muttered into the shirt as it went over his head. “And now I’m ready for dinner, your majesty.” Adam turned to face the emperor. He looked bored as he casually sat waiting, although his eyes were intensely following all of Adam’s movements. Almost like he was waiting for Adam to die at any moment or disappear. Which, fair, if Adam had his way he would be with brother squid and sister tree at this ver moment. The emperor get up and walks over to Adam, he gently put his hands on his cheek. Adam freezes, unable to move as the emperor’s face has so much sorrow on it.

“Your mother also hated how I treated books. You are so much like her it almost hurts.” He places his forehead on Adam’s. “Do you know why I’m doing all of this?” Adam shakes his head no. “Come, I’ll show you why.” The emperor grabs Adam’s hand and pulls him from his mother’s room. They walk down many sets of stairs until they come upon a door in the basement. It was metal and the emperor put a code in where Adam couldn’t see. And they walked into a room that had all the stones in. It was dark until the emperor switched on a light. In the middle of all the stones stood a tank filled with liquid. Attached to a bunch of wires floated Adam’s mother’s corpse. Except she didn’t look like she had decayed any. She looked just like the day she died, it doesn’t make sense. Adam watched as she was buried under his tree. “I found her grave and dug it up. She didn’t look as she did now but the stones fixed that. And once I have all of them, she will be resurrected. She will like once again. And since you live with a sliver of a stone in your chest, so will she.” The emperor grinned madly. Adam stood frozen staring at his dead mother. Almost in a trance he began to walk forward to place his hand on the glass and her body gave a full body twitch. The stones began to scream and glow and Adam jerked back falling down on the floor. Covering his ears against the onslaught of horror even if it couldn’t cover the sound in his head. The emperor was laughing maniacally as Adam’s chest began to hurt. He coughed up blood and his ears started to bleed. The emperor stopped laughing at the sound and looked at Adam. And all became silenced, the stones and the ringing in his ears. The emperor crouched down. “Why are you bleeding?” His voice was shockingly loud in the silent room. He wiped the blood from Adam’s ears.

“Because you almost transferred my sliver to her.” I cough up more blood. “And sped up the process of my body breaking down from being away from my tree for so long.” The emperor grinned madly as he grabbed my face to face him.

“That’s wonderful news, I needed a sliver and a brain that was close to hers. I no longer needed your body anyways. And since I couldn’t figure out how to transfer the sliver I was stumped.” He laughed freely as Adam stared in horror as his words sunk in. “Oh but your mother’s body isn’t quite ready for that yet.” He pet Adam’s hair, “so you’ll have to go back to your room now.” He pulled him out of the room and threw him at the guard. Adam coughed up more blood as his vision began to narrow. The stones were crying as he finally closed his eyes.