And as he gazed out across the darkening plain, he knew that for a short time he was, gratefully, alone.
Johnny Ghost Tree had seen many wonders on his journey to this rampart. All of them baubles strung like blank Christmas lights, the spark gone from them. They reminded him of a long a dead sea front arcade at dusk. By far the strangest sight was one that only he had seen, despite the throngs of silent watchers in the forest. Their greedy eyes could not perceive this one treasure. It was never theirs to have.
Coming over the crest of a low hill he was into the faerie ring before he knew what it was. His long black great coat flapped about him in the nimble wind, a mockery of wings. If some other eye had been there to see beyond his own, it would have noted the strange spectacle before him with the same horror. Three beautiful golden haired children wearing diaphanous gowns were cutting themselves with long handled razors, etching splayed fingers of blood deep into their ribs and across their breasts. Atop tripods, cameras whirred, their darkened lenses drinking the light show with a thirst unique to glass. The black clad figure didn't stop to wonder what this signified. He knew he must keep moving if he was to reach his destination in time.
That final morning of early May he walked out to the highest point of the dark lands so that he could see the giants moving. The first one came lumbering, less agile than he supposed, blind to him for all it's many thousands of eyes. It poised smelling the air for blood. Ghost Tree sat still, watching as it blotted out the new sun. It's feet stirred the mists below into a paltry tissue of rags. Breathless but unmoved, Johnny stared in wonder. It was beautiful in it's way. He thought it looked at him, perhaps recognising something which had once cut loose from it like an encrusted cyst from one of it's vast thighs. The head of the beast was achingly far away and veiled with atmosphere. It stirred the heavens above it like pools of luminous plankton. Every motion of it's neck shook loose swarms of bird like creatures, their flocks carving strange liquid bruises in the sky. Then the colossus bent with terrifying suddenness. The volume of air displaced before it tore at every living thing upon the hillside. It's breath was cool and moist but not unpleasant. It leaned close to his vantage point. From inside the cavern of it's jaws, distant moans reached Johnny, far off subway trains eternally colliding. From this perspective all he could see was a mountain range of teeth and the sheltering darkness beyond. Then it was moving away, incurious, amid the titanic groans of shattering granite.
Trembling, Johnny fumbled a cigarette from among a nest of tissues and chocolate wrappers in his pocket. He blew smoke into the steady breeze which followed the retreating leviathan. He had enough tobacco for perhaps another three or four roll ups.
“Big fucker,” he didn't know how else to summarise the event.
Keeping vigil through the morning he heard the next one coming long before he saw it, clawing a way through vegetation and gushing steam from ten thousand orifices. The thing clambered into view out of the distant haze, swayed in momentous time. He could see kites flying from it and tethered dirigibles dragged along in it's wake. Blazing fires emitted dusty smudges of smoke and soot whenever a limb pitched forward, and across it's irregular back a billion surfaces scattered the sun in swiftly moving waves of silver and gold. Johnny grew seasick watching. It travelled on it's far off path, emitting a resounding bellow, a somehow friendly howl which reverberated across the plain for at least a minute.
In the afternoon he watched other fabulous beasts make their crossings, escalating in stature. Most of what had been pristine forest or meadow was now a trampled wasteland as far as he could see. Later as the sun was dipping below the horizon the cold began to bite. Johnny drew his coat around him and waited, steadfast, for nightfall.
By the time the moon swam into view she was lovely in all her refinements of cloudy drapery. Johnny looked upon her wistfully. She had shone through his nights for many revolutions around the sun, catching it's rays and hurling them kindly down into the darkness. He loved her then, and for a few moments he experienced some happy memories of her company. Too soon his ears alerted him to other matters.
They came for him with knives drawn. Some twirled and danced around others in intricate choreographies, tethered by black vapours. Their many faceted eyes dripped with the same flickering blue light as the the other visitations but closer at hand this was the very worst thing about them. They were bedecked with mirrors which swirled and caught the moon light as they flowed sinuously toward him.
“Gonna fuck you up bitch,” the speech was rasping and loud, drawn across a thousand tight dry membranes as they spoke together.
“Why?”
“Traitor” came the response.
“I used to play a game” he said.
They paused, this was unexpected.
“Go on,” they said.
“A card game, it was tedious and I didn't make the rules, but the only way to win was not to play. You had to lose to win. None of the other players would get it.”
“You lose,” they spoke in unison. Their knives swished and scraped together as they crowded close, they watched each other carefully, noting their own dramatic menace in a thousand poses.
“I'd rather die a thousand deaths than become like you,” he said sadly. “Than watch them hurt each other.”
“You stole our shit, mother fucker.”
The anger rose in them all. It's sweet perfume reached him on the breeze like oranges and cinnamon.
He hung his head sadly and admitted defeat as they swarmed over him. They were disappointed, that he wouldn't resist, that he wouldn't squeal. He didn't run away.
He did nothing at all, it was his finest moment.
When it was over they melted away into the shadows. A small stunted Miracle Tree sprouted from the open ribs of Johnny's torn chest. Within minutes it sprouted branches and bore terrible fruit which stank the night air. Each bitter little orb had a mouth and together they began speaking.
“I'll harm them no more. Not for you. Not for anything.”
Soon the mouths were quieted by vengeful birds alerted to the noise, pecking them to pieces. And the seeds were scattered wide across the earth.
