Chapter Eleven
The scent of the flowers wafted in the breeze as the girl, in her cream dress, swung back and forth. The swing, two lengths of rope and a rectangle of wood, hung from the only solid branch on the small tree. Her basket, half full with dead shrivelled flowers, sat discarded at the edge of the lawn next to a bush where bees hummed as they collected pollen. The man in white robes descended from the sunless, violet sky and came to rest in front of her.
“Father!” she cried. “Will you come and push me?”
“My child, I have come to ask you to return to the Land of Trees once again.”
A shadow passed over her features. “Why must I go back there?”
Darkness descended over the garden. The fragrant smells and the drone of the bees had gone.
“Because the wrong flower was picked the last time.”
Her face became distorted, and her mouth enlarged and filled with pointed teeth. Her soft, blue eyes had gone replaced with total blackness. The child’s skin became pallid and wrinkled. “Don’t fuck me around!” she thundered, in a voice that shook the garden. The man stepped back, but there was no sign of shock written on his face.
As quickly as the demonic features had appeared they disappeared. Her skin returned to porcelain, and her mouth shrank back to normal. The light returned to the garden, and the scent of flowers again wafted in the breeze.
“Very well father, I will do as you ask.”