Inside the Tree – August 19th, 2023 – 4:36 PM
It took us some time to figure out how to get in. (My watch reads 4:36 PM, so about 45 minutes.) The anonymous source is only nine, so they could fit in the base of the hole— No problem. We twelve-year-olds needed to find a different solution. Murlocke volunteered to run home to get one of his mom’s shovels.
Murlocke’s got kind of a “steer clear of me” vibe. His wardrobe consists solely of shades of navy, grey, or black, and he’s got an expression that could be described as a scowl or a frown. I always thought he looked kind of blue; my dad would say, “he has a sadness beyond his years.” When he smiles, his dimples make an appearance, and suddenly, he’s a different person. You start to notice the blue of his eyes and that he has a rosy tint to his cheeks, even when he’s indoors. In short, he stops looking so scary.
<—- Murlocke
When Murlocke returned, we took turns digging. It took so long, but eventually the hole was big enough that we could all fit through it.
Despite all the crazy things we’ve seen while part of the Neighbourhood Watch, this is up there… A ladder had been carved into the inside of the tree and descended deep into the earth. The ladder had shiny gold lines running along its side rails that resembled veins. The lines curved gently to and fro as if someone had traced the pathways of water droplets with golden ink. I ran my fingers along them as we descended.
As we went further down, the light became a bit brighter. Suddenly, we were standing in what looked like a building, only entirely made of red cedar. It’s hard to capture in here how strange it all was. The “room” we were standing in looked like a life-sized replica of someone’s office. Did the tree grow like this? Did someone carve it?
The room itself was unspectacular. It looked like any old dusty office, except for the creepy painting of an old man hanging on one of the walls.
It kinda looks like the Mayor’s Office. I remember it from our field trip because the eyes on the painting seemed to follow you around the room…
Why would someone or something carve a one-to-one version of the Mayor’s Office twenty feet underground? It would be rather dull if this were somehow not a supernatural event but, instead, someone’s life’s work.
Guys, there’s another ladder under the mayor’s desk. Do you think the soccer ball fell all the way down there?
I’m getting a bad feeling about this…
Maisel looked over to me with a smirk on her face.
You always have a bad feeling. What’s so strange about finding a room carved into the inside of a tree twenty or so feet underground?
I guess we’re going down…
– Sasheen
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