The Tree House

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A gnarled oak with two knots that looked like eyes. The right one was slightly higher than the left, giving the tree a lopsided, almost mischievous expression.

Twelve-year-old Stephen Romano's summer takes a terrifying turn when he encounters an ancient oak tree on Cowboy Hill—the beloved playground for the children of Locust Street in Winthrop, a sleepy seaside town outside Boston. What begins as a chance meeting quickly evolves into an obsession as Stephen discovers the tree can communicate, its voice "like the sound of roots grinding against stone."

The oak offers Stephen a tempting proposition: to build the perfect treehouse, one superior to all the "rickety, precarious things" other children cobble together with "scavenged wood and stolen nails." Day after day, Stephen returns to Cowboy Hill, following the tree's whispered instructions, working with mysterious materials that appear each morning. The treehouse takes shape—sturdy and impressive—while Stephen grows increasingly isolated from his friends.

When the structure is complete, the tree makes one final request: "Spend one day with me, enjoy what you've built." This innocent invitation conceals the oak's true intentions. Stephen awakens inside the living wood, the treehouse and his freedom gone, absorbed into the tree's flesh where "the walls around him pulsed faintly, like the slow beat of a heart."

The town's desperate search efforts prove futile as no one thinks to look up, where Stephen's sneakered foot protrudes from the tree's trunk. Meanwhile, the children of Locust Street continue playing on Cowboy Hill, passing the oak without a second glance, occasionally hearing voices they dismiss as "probably the wind." The tree watches and waits for its next builder, its mouth "curved into a faint smile."

What childhood fears still haunt your dreams? Listen now and remember why we instinctively fear what lurks in the woods.

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