The Rootbound Tome
The forest waited.
Dark, still, breathing beneath the wind.
Cuco stood at the edge of it, alone this time. The others had warned him—especially Isabela—but he knew this was something he had to do by himself.
He could feel it pulling him.Calling him home.
His mark pulsed like a compass, guiding him deeper into the trees, each step crunching over old leaves and bones of forgotten things. The sun barely touched this part of the woods, and the deeper he went, the more time seemed to stretch.
At last, he reached the clearing.
It was just like in the vision.
The ancient tree stood before him, taller than a house, its bark gnarled and split in the center—like it had once opened and screamed.
Cuco dropped to his knees, digging through the roots.
Hours passed. Or maybe minutes.
Until—
Clunk.
His fingers hit something solid.
Wrapped in bark and vines.
He pulled it free.
A book, bound in roots that were still alive, twitching faintly. Its cover was carved with the symbol—the circle inside a triangle inside the eye.
The mark burned on his hand in response.
He didn't even open it.
Because the moment he touched it—
A whisper crawled into his head:
> "You are your father's son.
But you will not end like him.
You will finish what he could not."
Suddenly, the wind died.Everything went still.
Then—
SNAP.
A twig behind him.
Cuco turned.
And saw three figures stepping out of the trees.
Hollow Ones.
But different.
They wore the faces of his classmates—flickering like broken TV signals. Their eyes leaked shadow. Their mouths twitched as if trying to speak through broken glass.
One of them stepped forward.It looked like Linux.
"Give us the book," it said, voice layered with others.
Cuco backed away, clutching it to his chest.
"No."
The Hollow Ones lunged.
Cuco raised his hand—and the mark erupted.
Light and shadow burst from his palm, knocking the creatures backward. They screeched, flickering, unraveling at the edges.
But it wouldn't hold them for long.
Cuco turned and ran.
Through the trees.
Through the cold.
Through the dark.
And as he fled, the book whispered to him.