A gust of wind threw stray needles in their faces, along with a thick cloud of smoke. The fire continued to swallow the circle of pine trees. The lower limbs dead and bare, the fire eagerly fed off them and used them to climb higher. It fed plenty off the gusts of wind carried through that circle too. 6 pine trees in a circle, maybe 15 feet from one side to the other, now becoming a column of heat and flames.

Panic set in long ago, the moment they lost control. Probably before to be honest. No, definitely before. Charles, being the careful one, knew it was going to happen. Steven, the leader of this destructive duo, pushed Charles back, “Just let it go a little longer”. He did, against his better judgement, and that’s when it started. Charles felt a creeping sensation on the back of his neck, like the embers of that little fire somehow settled on the back of his neck and crawled up to his head. Almost like the unpleasant burn let him know “your choice has been made”, melting into his nerves to send the message to the rest of the body and ask "So what are you going to do now?".

This isn’t quite the adventure they had been after. Afternoons were supposed to be spent looking for monsters in the woods, dead bodies, and signs of the supernatural.  Armed with their sturdy spears, finely crafted from rakes they took from their respective sheds. Sharpened to point after sitting in the street, grinding them on the rough asphalt all the while debating the best ways to handle the various deadly situations and terrifying creatures they hoped to come across.

Today’s adventure, blazing trails through an area of woods they had dubbed The Pines, for obvious reasons. The area was strange to them. There was a strip of what you could call “normal trees”, these boys too young and couldn’t care less about the genus or species so that’s what they called them. To be honest this pair would be in the back of the class with Charles doing his best to contain his laughter, and Steven holding his stomach laughing at how the word genus sounded like penis. Normal trees surrounded the entire back of the neighborhood. The woods went back pretty far, a few acres at least. But the boys didn’t know that, just that they go back far enough to escape the real world.

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The Pines lay beyond a particular are behind a strip of normal trees maybe fifty feet back. It was like a wall of short green, bushy needles growing in patches in oddly long branches. These bushy needles coming from short, stubby trees leaning at unusual angles. Some falling into each other, some parallel to each other as if a very strong person stood between them and pushed them over at a 45-degree angle. These weren’t the pine trees the boys were used to seeing. Charles had a theory that he shared with Steven.

 “A long time before, someone thought that it would be a good place to put up a Christmas tree farm. After growing them all season he got nothing but these ugly, patchy ones with short dark needles and the branches were way too long. They didn’t grow straight up and down either, like they were trying to fall over. Like they wanted to die.” Charles could see Stevens eyes roll, but he continued, “The trees were sick! The man didn’t realize that the ground he planted them on was cursed, so they didn’t grow right.”

“I've got a theory too”, Steve interrupted, “I think your mom dropped you on your head a few times. You’re bat shit, man!”

“Well your mom dropped to her knees…”

Before Charles could finish his sentence Steven smacked the back of his head and said, “Come on Chucky, you know what happens if you finish that sentence. Unless of course, you actually like the taste of my knuckle sandwich”.

Charles rubbed the back of his head and let out a sigh, “Quit with the Chucky, I hate that”.

They both laughed after a minute and Charles pushed Steve forward into the strip of normal trees towards The Pines.

The little pine trees were tightly packed together. Most places the trees were spaced enough for the kids to easily get through, but some places they were right on each other with limbs running together like interwoven fingers. They were going to come across some tight spots. The boys were in decent shape, maybe not athletes, but they spent their fair share of time outside running and biking around. Especially now that they had started hunting. Steve thought to himself, “they really do look like a failed Christmas tree operation, don’t they? Maybe they were just planted too close together.”

“Hey Charles, what if its nuclear waste or there was some chemical spill and these aren’t cursed trees, but mutant trees. Watch out for any of ‘em trying to snatch you up!”

This made chills run up Charles’ back.

Steve looked back smiling and offered a deal, “I just might beat it off you if you lay off the mom jokes.”

Charles smiled right back. “I don’t wanna. I’d rather lay into her.” and ran ahead into the first opening in The Pines he could find.