(HSSC2) The Killer Tree

The wind was brisk on this chilly October night as Gregg Carson was trying to get an early nights sleep from the all the decorating he'd done to his yard in preparation for Halloween.

"A week from now, I'll have to dismantle everything," he thought, "but it's worth it for the children's sake."

Gregg had put up ghosts and goblins with an internal ligt so the effect would be more eerie for the Trick or Treaters on Oct. 31. He also had skeletons hanging from a tree, with a couple of flood lights pointing upwards to them. Several fake tombstones completed his decor.

He had planted the tree right in front of his bedroom when he moved in 20 years ago. He had planted a Poplar because it was fast growing and would provide him shade for his bedroom in the summer months in the afternoon.
The poplar grew to be quite large and needed trimming because it was getting close to his bedroom window, but he decided he do it when he removed the Halloween spooks from it.

That night though, the wind was pretty strong, and a branch of the tree would rap against his window every so often.

"I'll trim it in the morning," he told himself, and kissed his wife good-night and fell asleep.

The next morning, he trim the troublesome branch off and re-arranged his haning skeletons. That night though, he was awoken by a sharp rap on his window.

"What the...?" Gregg got up and looked out his window and to his surprise, the tree had grown the branch that he'd sawed off, as good as new. "This is too weird," he told himself, "I'll just cut the whole thing down tomorrow and be done with it." This was just to weird for Gregg to handle.

The next day, Gregg cuts the tree down, de-limbs it, cuts and chop it into peices small enough to put in his fireplace when cold weather sets in. "I'll just have to plant another one farther away from the house next time."

That night he was awaken from his sleep again by a rapping noise at his window. "You stupid tree," Gregg shouts as though the tree could hear him, "I'll fix you to where you'll never grow back!" This was really too weird for Gregg as he made his way down to the garage to retrieve his chainsaw and a gasoline can.

He made his way out to the front yard and as he yanked on the pull cord of the chainsaw, he uttered,"I'll send you to Hell for this Halloween, you abomination!"

The next morning, his wife woke up to find Gregg not in bed. "Gregg?" she calls out. No answer. She gets out of bed and checks on her still asleep children. Still snoozing away. She goes down stairs and finds Gregg nowhere in the house. She checks the garage and his car had not been moved. She makes her way to the front door and steps out onto the porch, still in her robe, and looks to see if Gregg was working on the decorations in the yard this morning.

What she saw next, totally shocked and frightened her so bad, she was sure to have woke up the whole neighborhood when she finally let out a scream.

Gregg had become part of the decorations hanging in the tree. His limp body hanged from the tree beside his skeletons. His eyes, nearly bulging out of his head, still had the look of terror in them. His chainsaw and his gasoline can was still underneath him.

Gregg would miss out on this years Trick-or-Treaters.