where I was to the broken window of the Director’s office, almost on eye level with me. There he was, the monster of monsters himself, staring downwards and directing his generals. Beside him lay the crushed remains of Mousy, a sight that made me more angry than sad. He’d put his life into helping me, stopping this evil, and wouldn’t even live to see the end of it. It was up to me to make sure their sacrifices weren’t for nothing. Siegfried, the Mushrooms, Mousy, Hammy, all of them. I’d probably die up here, but I’d do what I could to make things rights.
I climbed higher, snapping off a few flaming branches to take with me in hopes that I might spread the flames quicker as I went. I was more nimble than most of the Tormentor’s, small enough not to get caught up in the branches when some of them did. Also light enough to balance on the thinner branches, which I noticed with amusement that some of them would snap as they put their weight on it.
The flames grew hotter beneath me, growing in fury and now consuming whole branches. But it didn’t stop me. Smiling, somehow happier than I’d ever been before, I pulled myself up to the next branch, sweat running off me like water.
Glancing down upon hearing another crash, there was the Twisted Puppet, falling and screaming as the flames ate at his wooden body. The Skeleton was closer now, no more than ten feet beneath me, unperturbed by the fire.
Still I climbed, hand over hand, branch after twisting branch. The little crystal prisons flashed all around me as the flames broke them, freeing the spirits trapped within. I laughed aloud as I watched them explode like fireworks, the former patients ascending cloudwards, each one raising a fist to me, saluting my triumph.
Higher still I went, flames licking at my feet as they raced me to the top. But I didn’t mind. No, I still laughed, laughed and laughed as the race went on, until my head broke through the topmost leaves. I saw sunlight at last, for what seemed like the first time in years, its beams caressing my face. A few birds took flight, startled at my unexpected appearance. I watched them till they were out of sight.
Only a few crystals remained up this high, and I took the nearest one to examine it. The small figure looked horribly familiar. Though tiny and hard to make out due to the obscuring prison that surrounded it, it looked an awful lot like Jeremy...
Arms crossed, he looked as if he’d just died, not a wrinkle of death upon his body. Fear etched his face though, and the very thought that the Director would do this to terror prone, helpless little Jeremy, made my blood boil. To see one so innocent suffer in such a way was almost more than I could bear. With everything I had, I hurled him downwards.
The spirits of the imprisoned were flying up all around me now, disappearing in waves through the sky. Their ranks slowly petered out, till the final few flew by me. The last was Jeremy, stopping to stand beside me. He looked different in death than in life, less nervous and standing just a little taller.
"Don’t give up hope," he said quietly, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Sometimes prayers take a little while to come true."
"What prayers?" I asked.
Jeremy smiled and started to float once more upwards, following the trail of his fellow captives.
"You just released over a thousand wrongfully imprisoned souls," he whispered, just before he blinked out of sight. "That’s a good way to earn points from Above..."
Realizing what he meant, I looked up, trying to pierce the vaults of Heaven, hoping to see what was beyond that blue sky and maybe, just maybe, see Someone looking back at me. I didn’t. I saw nothing. But I knelt on my knees regardless and gave the prayer thing another try.
It wasn’t fancy or elegant, certainly nothing that would stand up well in church. Just a quiet save me as I looked upwards for a sign, for anything. Nothing happened for a while and I started to feel let down again, until a small flash of light began far, far above. It descended rapidly, spiraling downwards until I could see it clearly.
The image will be forever etched into my mind. For what I saw was every spirit that I had just freed sent to my aid, soaring right past humble little me and down into the flames beneath my feet.
"Where are you going?" I shouted. They gave no answer, soon gone once more from sight, this time down instead of up.
Moments later, the whole Tree shook as if by an earthquake, and it occurred to me that whatever they were doing down there, it was hurting the Tree itself. The fire I had started was destroying branches and leaves, but the spirits seemed intent on uprooting the thing in entirety.
That thought made me smile, as I wondered just how much of the Director’s power might remain if the Tree was dead. My smile dispersed a moment later when the Skeleton leapt onto a nearby branch, his bony features distorted with rage.
I dropped to the branch beneath as he lunged at me, but still felt the hot sting of ripping claws as they left a deep gash in my arm. There wasn’t really much farther down I could go or I’d find myself in the middle of the inferno, so I made do with going sideways instead.
Burning leaves rained around me as the Skeleton crashed through them, dropping onto my level. I whipped around to face him and felt a claw rake my side, nearly knocking me off the branch. My blood splattered it enthusiastically.
"It’s too late, Dr. Sirius," I taunted. "The Tree is going to be destroyed and all of you with it! Maybe if you repent now you won’t go to the same Hell that the others are destined for."
"Dr. Sirius is no more," he replied with a growl, "I am the Skeleton. And if Hell is my future, then it shall be yours as well!"
He struck again and I felt pain for the third time. I didn’t even really care at this point. I was going to die up here anyways, so the fear of death from this Tormentor was remarkably absent.
"Is that all you’ve got?" I replied, laughing. "Come on, Dr. Skeleton. Bring it on!"
I ducked his next blow and grabbed him around the arm, trying my best to twist it off. My attempt met with little success. He lashed out with an elbow that hit me a jarring blow on the chin, knocking me a few branches down. I could definitely feel the flames now, receiving more than a few burns, but still I didn’t care.
No, all I wanted was to enjoy the last few minutes of my non-life and show this Tormentor who was boss. Looking around for a suitable weapon, I snapped off a semi-burnt branch and climbed back up to him, a defiant grin on my face.
I’m sure I presented a rather grim image, clothes torn, ends flaming and smoking, my hair a mess and probably on fire as well. At this point, blood and soot coated me like paint as I held the heavy branch in both hands.
Grinning like a maniac, I went at him, makeshift club flailing. He clawed once more, but I deflected it this time, following up with a heavy swing to his rib cage. I was rewarded by the satisfying crunch of snapping bone. There are two-hundred and six bones in the human body, and I was fully intent on breaking every single one of them.
My enemy was getting angry now and he lashed out twice more. One claw slashed across my face, leaving a red trail, while the other struck me across the shoulder. I returned the favor and hit him again, this time trying to take out his hands so he couldn’t decide to claw me again.
After that it pretty much turned into a slugfest, neither of us bothering to defend, just taking turns trying to do the most damage. All the while, the flames grew higher until we were in the thick of it, the Tree shaking every few seconds as the spirits did their part below us.
A clawed finger pierced the tendon on my arm, making it near useless, but I was winning all the same. My blows steadily chipped away at his form, until he had only one arm and a few fingers left to attack me with. I raised the heavy branch for my final assault, when the whole Tree groaned under my feet.
Tuned-bronze walls of sound assaulted my ears, crashing down upon me in a deafening avalanche. It was horrible, like the dying, drawn out groan of a battlefield, every soldier weary of life. The whole thing buckled beneath us and I grabbed a branch to keep from falling off as the Tree slowly be
gan to topple sideways. Rather conveniently, right into the Director’s office...
I closed my eyes and held tight, the jarring impact of collision almost knocking me loose regardless. I’m not sure how long I clutched the branch for. I only let go when the final scream of a dying Tree had ended. Tumbling out of the branches onto what remained of the broken office flooring, I rolled to a halt against one of the walls
I hurt all over and couldn’t walk too well, so I just lay there for a moment, before figuring that I’d better get further away from the flames before they burnt me to death. Half-crawling, half-rolling, I came up against another wall and looked up at the bones within.
Every one of them was broken, connecting veins dead and pale. Sighing at the effort I didn’t want to take, I hauled myself to my feet at last and looked around. The innards of every wall were just the same, dead or dying, no more, none left. As my weary gaze traveled the room, I picked out other key features.
There was the dead body of a Tormentor, head smashed in. There was Mousy, Paul, my friend and companion, lying next to him. The Skeleton, his broken form caught in the branches where I’d fought him. And there was the Director himself, back to human and pinned to the floor by a tree branch stabbed through his chest, breathing heavily as his eyes started to glaze over with