The nice man locked the door, then held the key in front of Christopher’s face.
“i wilL starT oveR witH yoU.”
He put the key in his mouth and swallowed. Christopher saw the metal poking inside the skin of his throat. The door was locked. The key was gone. Christopher was trapped.
“yoU wilL neveR leavE mY sidE.”
Christopher looked for an escape, but there was nowhere to run. He had given all of the power to his mother. David was gone. The hissing lady was passed from deer to damned. The man in the Girl Scout uniform pulled out a knife. The kissing couple regrew their teeth to twice the normal size. The man in the hollow log giggled like a child. They stood, waiting for their turn.
Christopher looked to the horizon and saw soft light begin to break above the trees. The sun was rising. Something would change in the dawn. He felt it all around him. The voices chanting.
Death has come.
Death is here.
You die on Christmas Day.
Christopher saw the sun break over the horizon. Suddenly, he felt a voice. A little voice cutting through all of the others. He would have known that voice anywhere.
It was his own.
“I forgive you,” he said.
“whaT?” the nice man asked.
Christopher looked at the nice man in the light of dawn. He realized he was a magician. He always had people looking in one hand while he moved things in the other. That was his only real power.
Christopher looked down into his hand. He saw a string. Invisible. He had carried it his whole life. He never knew it was there. He hadn’t given all of his power to his mother, because the power of God was not omniscience. The power of God was not omnipotence.
The power of God was love.
“I forgive you,” he repeated.
Christopher knelt down in front of the nice man. He loved everyone. All the people above. All the people below. He knew it was his destiny to die in these woods. To keep the nice man unaware of the fact that to get out, he only needed to look in. Because in was out. To keep power you give it away. It doesn’t take violence to kill evil. It takes good.
“I forgive you,” Christopher repeated.
The nice man ran at him like a howling dog.
“sssStoP sayinG thaT!” he hissed.
“You can kill me,” Christopher said. “I will take all of their places.”
Christopher lowered his head, ready for death.
“i won’T leT yoU diE! yoU wilL neveR escapE! i havE lockeD thE dooR.”
“You can’t lock the door,” Christopher said.
“whY?!” the nice man laughed.
Christopher looked at the hissing lady and smiled. All was quiet and calm.
“Because there is no door.”
Christopher reached up and felt his eyes. It was so easy to see in everyone else, and so hard to see it in himself. His eyes were sewn shut. Christopher reached up and tore the stitches from his eyes. He looked at everything in the plain light of day. The clearing. How small it seemed now. Like going back to his old school and seeing the tiny lockers. The shadows were not terrifying. They were the proof that light exists. The fire and brimstone were all a mirage. The clouds nothing but steam inside a bathroom. All he needed to do was wipe away the mirror.
He didn’t need a key.
He was the key.
Christopher turned to the nice man with his real eyes. For the first time, he saw…
The d
evil.
Calm. Still. Ready to strike. Abandoned. Insane. Inside a trap that hE could not see. hE was all alone. hiS eyes were sewn shut. hiS mouth was zipped tight. hE held the string around hiS own neck. hE did nothing but gaze into the reflection of hiS own smoke and mirrors and call them clouds. hE wasn’t a God. hE was a coward.
Christopher reached up and unzipped his mouth. Christopher loosened his jaw and spoke for the first time out loud.
“I am free now.”
Christopher dropped the string. The door inside the tree opened.
“nOOOO!” the devil screamed.
The tree opened everywhere. The light broke through the cracks in its skin, cascading out of the giant trunk. The deer and damned ran from it. Their eyes wild with panic. All Christopher heard were two words inside all of their madness. Inside all of their screams.
“Help me.”
The light absorbed them all and took them away in floods. Some wept. Others screamed. And in an instant