[Fiction] Dear Posse No. 8: The Black Tree

I’m working on a serial fiction project. Each segment will be published here and on Patreon. It is available in full to Patreon supporters:

Dear Posse,

Something’s growing in the garden. It’s not the tomatoes I planted, or the basil that sprouted early this year. It’s something else, something that thrives in this endless twilight.

It’s a tree, but not any tree I know. Its bark is as black as the space between stars, and its leaves shimmer with a light that’s not reflected but generated from within. Brad won’t go near it. He barks and then retreats, his tail between his legs.

I reach out to touch it, half expecting my hand to go through it like a ghost. But it’s solid, warm, almost pulsating with life. The leaves rustle, and I swear I hear them say, “Watch.”

Watch what? The end of the world? The rebirth of another?

I’m keeping an eye on that tree. It’s growing faster than it should. I think it knows I’m watching.