The Willow Tree

As the sun dipped below the horizon, a radiant, golden glow enveloped Silent Hollow. The light fell over Evelyn and Mason as they wandered through the twisting cobblestone streets.

Their gazes were set on the three ancient oak trees towering over the town. The trunks were so thick, so wide, that parts of them could be seen between the old, stone buildings standing silently ahead of them.

For decades, the village had been empty.

For longer, it had been nothing but a quiet, distant memory clinging to the land.

“Do you think it’s true?”

Evelyn stepped closer to Mason, seeking, and finding, comfort in his presence. She tucked herself into his side. Her arm was looped through his. Mason’s head angled down towards her as she asked, voice low and soft, “I’ve heard the legends since I was a little girl. Do you think they’re true?”

Mason didn’t say anything for a moment.

The gentle brush of his chin across the top of her head was a whisper of a caress, but his words were a deep, soothing balm. “I’ve heard people in town say spirits live within the trees. Star-crossed lovers who died have immortalized their love within the wood.”

It was the stories that fascinated Evelyn.

Growing up, she had heard whispers spoken between young girls of the lights that would dance around the three trees. Rumors of the elders keeping people away from Silent Hollow, tales of heartache and tragedy following in the shadows of every person who had ever been there.

“How many people died here?” Mason’s question pulled Evelyn from her thoughts.

She glanced up at the man whose arm she was on. The thin fabric of his sweater was smooth beneath her fingertips. A scent of smoke wafted through the air. “If you people the people back at home, it’s up in the hundreds. Mostly suicides.”

The closer they drew to the heart of Silent Hollow, the smaller they looked beneath the shadows of the tree. How small they were in its shade, the sun vanishing behind the wood. The street was shifting, steadily rising, until they were on an uphill climb.

“Suicides, huh?” Mason slipped his arm from hers.

As they started climbing, Mason wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She felt the kiss he pressed against the crown of her head before he asked, “Does that frighten you?”

Overhead, the sky rumbled. Evelyn’s gaze followed the first arcs of lightning as she thought Mason’s question over. As the trees finally came into view, as they finally reached the center of the abandoned town, she turned to look up at the man she was walking with.

He met her gaze unflinchingly. As they stood among the large roots weaving through the clearing, the ancient network of wooden lines so intertwined they formed a single, contiguous bond, she found herself staring into the first hint of rust-stained irises.

“Does suicide frighten me or does death?”

His head dipped into a small nod, his gaze riveted on her face. “Both.”

He might not have meant it as a question, but she saw it in his eyes. Stepping closer, she offered her arm. As he took it, his fingers grazing over the scarred flesh beneath, she finally answered him. “I fear neither. Suicide is a tragedy, but death is nothing but a natural end to all things mortal. What have I to fear? Less, now, with you here.”

As the storm opened into a downpour of rain, Evelyn stepped into his embrace. She breathed in the smell of him, the smoke and cedar with an herbal undertone light and lively. Her eyes closed as his arms encased her, his heartbeat slow, inhumanly so, beneath her ear.

As darkness descended, small, glowing lights emerged to weave around the tree. Their soft, gentle warmth washed over the back of her eyelids. Leaning further into Mason’s chest, she whispered, “It has always been star-crossed lovers who found themselves under this tree…”

She was of this world, human and warm and alive.

Mason was of the darkness, something cold and unable to die.

The streams of time enveloped them, weaving his past into her present. Under the oaks’ protective embrace, they sought refuge on that stormy night. Raindrops danced and whirled through the air around them, thunder rumbling as lightning flashed through the sky.

As Mason pulled her closer, she heard him whisper a soft vow, “I will stand guard against Death, time and again, if that means I can keep you at my side for a moment longer.”

“And when I die?” She looked up, their gazes meeting.

He wiped a strand of hair from her face. “I will join you wherever your soul shall lie.”