The Earth Swallows

By Eady H

A collection of short stories about the darker side of nature.
A lost sister returns home, the mother of nature combats death, and a scientist goes too far before the lord god destroys us all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eady H
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223565369

Book preview

Family Tree

The weight of the key in Maggie’s hand was like a lead paperweight as she slid it from her jacket pocket and stuck it in the lock. As she turned it, she heard the bolt echoing in the too quiet house. The door creaked open and the stale air escaping the house punched Maggie in the face. The house was exactly like she remembered from childhood. But those memories were fleeting and tinged with sadness. For a moment, she stared with dull eyes at the worn living room before her. Everything was the same as the last time she saw it when she was eight. Maggie expected to feel nostalgia, or perhaps some sort of reverence, but instead a small seed of fear nestled in her stomach. With a deep sigh, she stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

One week, Maggie whispered to herself. You can make it one week.

She walked from room to room trying to remember when the house had been a happy home. When there were two little girls that lived there. But those years were overshadowed by loss and anger. Her steps led her upstairs to the bedroom she’d shared with her older sister Tiffany. Her heart crashed in her ears as her mind took her back to the last night she'd spent in this room. She remembered the window open above her bed where Tiffany had slept that night because Maggie had seen something outside that scared her. How Maggie's screams had drawn her parents only for them to find Tiffany gone. As Maggie got lost in the memories, tears spilled down her face. She still felt guilty for Tiffany’s disappearance. If only she had slept in her own bed that night. Maybe her father wouldn’t have hated her. Maybe her parents wouldn’t have gotten divorced. And maybe her father wouldn’t have died literally hugging a tree. Maggie’s mother blamed her father’s death on his drinking, but Maggie knew he’d died when Tiffany disappeared. The drinking was just a byproduct.

I’m sorry Tiff, Maggie whispered as she shut the bedroom door.

She went back downstairs and out into the yard. She wanted to see the tree her father had died on. Chilly wind sliced through her thin jacket. Maggie’s mother had moved them to a warmer climate when they left her father, and she didn’t own anything thicker. Her father had never left the house, believing Tiff was coming back. A mighty oak stretched over their entire yard with a smaller one in its shadow. Her father had died clinging to the smaller one. Maggie remembered playing in the larger tree as children. Up until her sister’s disappearance she never remembered seeing the smaller tree. Maggie placed her hand on the trunk of the smaller tree and felt a sense of love emanating from it. She chocked it up to the residual feelings of her father in his final moments. He must have felt bliss at the end to stay there and die that way. Maggie broke her connection and shivered in the chilly air. She wasn’t going to be like him. She went back to the house and looked through the kitchen cabinets. They were bare like she’d suspected, and she ordered a pizza. After dinner she made herself return to her childhood bedroom. In the fading evening light, the shadow of the tree branches stretched across the wood floor. The sight unnerved her. Maggie left the hall light on as she crawled into her old bed. She told herself there was nothing to worry about. It took her a long time to fall asleep because he the window sounded like bones clicking together. When she did fall asleep, she dreamed the grand oaks branches were reaching through the window like a claw. Maggie jerked awake with a shiver and realized the window was open. She thought it had been closed when she went to bed. In fact, she was sure of it. Maggie leaned forward to shut the window and stopped short. The large tree in the yard appeared to be moving, but when she focused on it, the tree was still. A shiver ran up her spine as she closed the window and wrapped the covers tight around her. Maggie didn’t sleep the rest of the night as she stared at the shadow of branches on the window. The next morning, she was groggy and irritable. Six more days, she told herself as she took a hot shower. When she was done getting ready, she went into her dad’s study. It was the only room of the house that looked lived in. Papers were scattered around the desk and floor. In the window there was a potted plant that had little handmade stick figures in it. Maggie inspected it in curiosity. When she was a child, her dad used to make them for her and her sister.

Maggie picked up a paper from the top of the desk. On it was a charcoal drawing of a tree. One that looked remarkably like the grand oak in the yard. The paper under it