Dark Corner

Chapter 25

The Vine that Killed the South

We darted outside as we heard the screams from the porch. Charlotte and Abigail were being dragged down the steps, their legs tied by a creeping green vine, pulling them toward the woods. The vine continued wrapping them into a cocoon until their screams were muffled. I heard Abigail gasping, trying to say incantations. Pixel and I jumped on the vine, gnawing and clawing at it. “Terra, nothing’s working,” Abigail said through strained breaths as the vine tightened around her.

Mrs. Twiggs flew down the stairs, brandishing a kitchen knife. She cut at the vines, but as quickly as she did, they grew back.

“Kudzu,” Mrs. Raintree yelled. “It’s the vine that killed the south. You can’t cut it. It grows back faster and stronger.”

It wrapped around Mrs. Twiggs’s legs. She cut at it feverishly, scraping her legs with the knife. Mrs. Loblolly and Mrs. Raintree pulled at the vines, trying to free Mrs. Twiggs. Mrs. Loblolly fell to the ground, and the vine wrapped around her throat. She tugged at it, gasping for air. Tracker barked and jumped around the vines, trying not to be entangled. His sharp bark pierced the still night. Abigail and Charlotte disappeared into the woods. I leaped from vine to vine until it wrapped around my paw and pulled me to the ground.

Pixel screamed. “No, Terra, no.”

“Pixel, run,” I yelled. “Save yourself.”

“No, Terra.” He jumped on the vine that wrapped around my legs, clawing and snapping at it. The vine reached for him, pulling me into the woods farther away from the cabin. Pixel stepped back, staring.

Through the tight green vine, I saw Mrs. Raintree jump on the cabin railing as the kudzu wrapped its way around the post, searching hungrily for her flesh. Pixel turned and ran up to the porch. He crawled up her leg until she picked him up and held him. “You fix.”

“What Pixel?”

“You fix now.”

She understood. The last thing I heard was Mrs. Raintree singing a Cherokee war dance song, the same one I had heard Agatha Hollows sing. The vine wrapped around my eyes, blinding me. I felt the air leaving me as my lungs collapsed. Elizabeth came to me. She was glowing white with silvery angel wings, her skin ethereal. She sat on the edge of Poinsett Bridge. She didn’t speak, motioning for me to come to her with open arms so she could embrace me. I gasped as my lungs filled with air again. The kudzu shriveled and fell off me. It took me a minute to capture my breath as I looked around. I was deep in the woods past the stream. I ran back to the cabin. Charlotte and Abigail were hugging Mrs. Twiggs. Pixel ran and tackled me. He licked my face and picked pieces of the dead vine off me. “Terra clean now,” he said.

Wanda Raintree is a steward of the earth like her goddess foremother, Elinhino. She has the power to nourish the soil, to feed the plants and the trees. Somehow Pixel knew she also had the ability to extract those nutrients, starving the kudzu to death. “Thank you, my friend. You saved us all, Pixel. How did you know she could do that?” I asked him.

“Me friend told me,” he said, running back into the cabin. I glanced around at the enchanted woods. How could the kudzu enter this sacred space? Only twice had the enchantment been broken. The last time was when the lieutenant came for Agatha Hollows.

Mrs. Twiggs bent down and picked me up. She looked at me. There was no terror in her eyes. I could hear her heartbeat slow and steady. She was at peace. “Terra, I think we should go see about Mrs. Lund now.” I agreed.