68

When you take another step, however, they start and turn in your direction.

"Oh—hi! Wow, I must have zoned out."

They laugh, seeming just as surprised as you. Still, seeing how quickly they turned away from the building makes you wonder if you've interrupted something.

Out of curiosity, you follow their gaze through the window into the smoke-blackened room—

Only to see a full-grown tree pushing up through the floorboards, reaching all the way to the ceiling.

Next

You have to blink a few times to really process what you're seeing. There's really no doubt about it, though—in front of you, right in the middle of this old, burnt-out store, there's a tall tree gently waving its branches.

"Weird, right?" Marlowe says, nodding at the tree. "Yesterday it was just an empty store, and now there's this tree. And it's not even the first tree that's turned up somewhere in town—at least, if you believe all of our news stories. I think I might have been the first person to see this one, though."

Suddenly, you're taken back to your first evening in Silvertree, when you checked the news and saw the slightly dubious headline: "Local Man Swears Tree Wasn't in Yard Before." You might not have taken it seriously at the time, but now that Marlowe has mentioned it—well, what the hell? Did this tree really show up overnight?