Vampire Tree

“It is said that the place in that jungle is cursed, or you can say that if you are thinking of going there, you are dead.”

“That’s just a hoax. I want to go there. That place is awesome. I can have a good plot for my story there.”

“You and your stories, a guy killed his girlfriend there, and you think that you will get some good ideas there.”

“Or what? On which topic do my stories are? I have to go some dark places.”

“That places, they made you dark. You were never like this. You started reading this kind of thing because of which now you want to do everything dark.”

“If you don’t want to join, don’t. I am going there. Between what do you mean from this last sentence? Things were not clear.”

“Never mind.”

My name is Alex and, I decided to go into the jungle, which was cursed to get some good ideas for my new story. I wanted it to be the best seller of the year, ok not the year but at least for the month.

None of my friends were ready to join me there. So, I decided to go there alone. My parents didn’t allow me to go there. So, I decided to go there in the dark when they were asleep.

It was around 9 pm. I packed my things to go there and waited for my parents to sleep. I heard them going to sleep. Soon they were snoring. I used my bedsheet and tied it on the rods of the balcony to get down on the street.

Soon, I was in the jungle. Slowly I moved to the place that was cursed. I was near a huge tree. I waited there for something to happen, but nothing happened there. I was sad. So, I decided to get back to my house. Suddenly, from behind, I heard a thump voice. Like, something heavy falls. I thought it might be some branch of the tree. It was too dark to notice what it was. I focused. It was a dead body. The dead body of my friend. I saw a stem was attached to his body, and when I saw more carefully, his face was turned white.

As the legend says, the tree sucks the blood of the person who goes near it. I ran as fast as I could. I reached home. I knocked on the door and waited for it to open. But there was some flowery smell in the street. I turned and saw something was there among the trees near the street.

I shouted because I was scared. I thought that tree creature came chasing me here. Suddenly the door opened, and my parents were there. I pointed towards the tree, but there was nothing then.

They took me in and locked the doors.

“We smelled something in the air, and we woke up. So, what was that?” My mom angrily asked me.

I told everything I saw. My parents called the police, and we went there with them. I was in the car when all of them were checking that place. They found nothing there. After this incident, they sent me to the boarding school for my studies. And to keep me away from this kind of thing.

After 15 years, I came back. I got a job as a police officer in the same town. I almost forgot everything happened here with me. The first day on duty was great. The first month, tiresome.

Then one day, I was on my desk making some reports. Suddenly, I received an emergency call.

“Hello… Is this police station?”

“Yes, how can I help you?”

“I am at the North-East of the jungle. And a tree has grabbed my friend. Please come and help us.”

“A tree?”

“Hello…. Hello.. AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

She screamed on the call. It was like someone hit her very hard. I took a few of the officers and went to the jungle.

The officers were scared of going into the jungle.

“What’s the problem?” I asked them.

“Sahab, here lies a vampire tree. That attacks the humans for their blood.”

“Seriously? That’s just a legend created by you all.”

“No sir, 15 years ago, a few kids went near the tree, and one of them was dead. On checking, we found that something attacked him very hard and sucked all his blood.”

“And, the case was closed. Right?” I said.

“What can we do against such kind of creature?”

“Follow me. And, don’t behave like a dumb.”

They followed my order, and we started searching for the girl. Soon, we were near the tree they were talking about.

“That we were telling you about.” One of my officers said.

“So, this tree attacks and suck all the blood?”

“Yes, sir.”

I checked the tree but found nothing, except a big hole in it.

“Give me a flashlight.”

I was trying to see what was inside of the hole. Suddenly, a big branch fell near me.

“Sir, come back. The tree is angry now, it will try to suck your blood. Come back.”

I moved a few steps back, making a safe distance from the branch. Above the tree, there was something. Something that made the branch fall.

It was a dead body of a girl. That fell from the tree on the ground. Her face was white.

“The tree sucked her blood too.” One of my officers said.

“Stop rubbish. Check the body for any mark.”

They were checking the body and found that the body was having many bite marks.

“Send this body to the forensic. They will find out the real reason for the bite marks.”

Back at the office, I asked for every file related to the murder that happened near that tree.

There was a common thing. The caller was always found dead but not anyone else. In my case, a girl called saying that her friend was in danger and was found dead but not the friend.

I asked my officers to make sure that no one could enter the jungle at any time. I was suspicious about this tree. I remembered the thing that happened when I was a child. I remembered the friend I lost. Those bad memories returned. I wanted to cry. I closed my eyes and started remembering every detail I could.

Suddenly, I remembered the shadowy figure that was in the trees around my house that day.

“Maybe, this hoax is true. Maybe, the tree is a vampire tree. It killed my friend and chased me to my home. I guess I should leave this city. I am not good here.”

I made my mind to leave the city. But, I was unable to. I wanted to know more truth about the tree. The tree which killed so many.

I night, I sneaked there. I was near the tree. It was very huge with long branches spread in all directions. The leaves were dark green. I could see a few roots there which were above the soil. I touched the tree.

It was wet. I looked at my hands, it turned red. Something red liquid-like thing was there. I used my flashlight on it. It was blood all over the tree.

I stepped back. I could hear very deep breaths. I looked up, there was a creature with someone’s hand in his mouth. I ran from there to save myself. I looked back while running, no one was there. I came out of the jungle and went near the officers, who were doing patrol there.

They were shocked to see me there. I explained to them everything I saw, and then we all went inside to check.

Nothing was there, just the tree was surrounded by some fogs with some strange flowery smell.

“Nothing is here. We should leave.” An officer said. He was scared. He wanted to leave the jungle and to be at some safe place.

“Wait a minute, I know this smell. I have smelled this before.”

“What smell sir? We can’t smell anything.”

“You can’t?”

“NO!” All of them said.

“Then why only me?”

“Might be you are tired. Let’s go back.” They started returning.

I was still looking at the tree and was remembering the things I saw.

“Why only I can smell that thing?” I questioned myself.

“Sir?”

“Yeah, coming.”

I went back with them to the office. I was sitting on the chair and was thinking about it. Again, I received an emergency call.

“Hello? Police station?”

“Yes, how can…..”

“Sir, please help. We are on the Noth-East side of the jungle and the tree has attacked us. It sucked my friend’s blood. Please…Aaaaaaaa”

Again the same thing. Someone called for an emergency, saying a friend is in danger, and suddenly a big shout.

“There is something behind this. How a tree can do this?” I was asking myself. I ordered a few officers to go there and check.

I was scared to go there. Officers were scared too, but how could they deny my orders.

They went there and returned very soon.

“You came back?”

“I quit. I can’t di this jo anymore.” An officer said.

“Why? And where are the others?”

“I can’t help anymore.” He took out his gun and pointed at his head and…. bang. He was dead.

He saw something that made him scared. I decided to go there and check on my own. I took his gun and mine too for extra defense. I reached the outskirt of the jungle. From there I was able to hear some growling voices.

I used my flashlight to see through the fog. But, nothing was visible. I saw one of my officers was there. I called his name, he turned back to me and started walking. He was walking very slow. I pointed my gun towards him and said, “Hey, is everything alright?”

No response from his side. I smelled. The fog was having the same flowery smell.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw a shadow figure. I turned towards it and tried to see through the fog. Nothing was there. I turned back to my officer, who was on his knees.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

He twisted his body in an unorderly manner. The growling voice began to increase and then I realized that I was surrounded by my officers. The officers were turned into something else. They were slowly coming towards me. I pointed the gun and start shooting. They all stepped back and vanished in the dark.

“Aassshhhhh… Another fresh blood……sssss”

“Who is there? Surrender yourself else I’ll shoot.” I said.

“I wanted to taste your blood from very longssssssss… Come here… To me….. Let me get the peace……”

I start shooting towards the voice. But, still, something was growling there. From the fog, I saw a figure come out.

It was a man with a very long beard and hair. His face was covered with facial hair. I looked closely. In his mouth, there was something.

He opened his mouth to say something but then, that thing fell from his mouth. It was someone’s hand.

I was losing consciousness because of the flowery smell. He was coming to me slowly-slowly.

I closed my eyes and fell to the ground. When I opened my eyes, I saw I was tied with the tree. My leg was hurting, but I was looking for the man I saw before. He was nowhere to be seen.

I looked down at my legs. He was sitting there, eating something. I realized that he was cutting my muscle strips from my legs and was chewing them.

“Hey, stop it.”

“Let me eatttssss….”

“Let me go, please.”

“This fleshhhsssss… So tasty…..sssssss”

I wanted to run but I was tied and also my leg was hurting. I heard a gunshot.

The officers who were behaving strangely earlier were walking towards me. They were good now. They shot the man right there and untied me. They sent me to the hospital.

In the hospital, they came with some more officers for asking a few questions about that man. We received the forensic reports from the dead bodies that said, “In, their lungs some very small particles were found which were made of the poisons flowers. And those were the reason for unconscious behavior of the officers”

“We solved the case, sir. The man is dead now.”

“Yeah, we did it. Finally, there will be no more case related to that tree.” I said and took a deep breath.

The officers left me there in the hospital room to rest.

I was almost asleep, I heard, “The flesh I want to eattsssssss….”

I opened my eyes, there was nothing. I turned my head and checked the room, there was no one there. I thought it was just a dream.

The nurse came into the room in search of the doctor, she suddenly screamed.

The officers came, they all were shocked. Below my bed, there was a half-eaten dead body of the doctor. The blood was sucked from his body, suddenly there was fog in the room and all the officers went unconscious. I stayed there on the bed. I wasn’t able to move. I saw, there was something on the ceiling, which was moving. The glowing eyes came near me and said, “You have it… Enjoy it as long as you want… Visit me in the treeesssss……”

The next day, I left the city and tried to forget everything. I started my new life in a new city. My days and nights went peacefully.

“Never thought, eating the fresh humans can give me this much satisfaction.”