The dirty black Honda Civic sputtered up the long gravel driveway leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. Lisa looked out the dusty back window and scowled at the very few scrawny trees that dotted the large clearing that surrounded her great uncle’s manor.
Lisa was staying with her uncle while her dad went on a two month long business trip to Russia. She had begged him to let her go with him since she had only seen her uncle once in her life when she was five, but he refused stating that this trip was strictly business. After several weeks of arguing she finally realized she wasn't going to win this fight so she went to her room and packed.
Now her she was in the back of her dad’s car staring up at the large manor that her uncle called home. The home look like it had been pulled straight from a horror film. It was big and dark with walls painted white that had long since yellowed and was peeling off of the wood siding in large chunks. The yard was a dead jungle of tall dry grass, dandelions, and about three sparse dead looking skeleton trees. About eight dark and dirty windows glared down at her from the front of the house. Four were on the ground level, three on the second floor level and one from where she assumed was the attic. She was waiting for a helpless girl to scream as she was getting murdered in one of the rooms. Or maybe even a white demonic face to appear in one of the windows like in the movies The Conjuring or The Woman in Black.
While she was glaring daggers at her temporary home she hadn’t realized that her dad had gotten out of the tiny car, retrieved her bulky teal blue bag from the trunk and stood in front of the car motioning his hands for her to get out. She looked at him and sighed.
“Don’t worry” she whispered to herself, “you can make this work. After all it is only for the time being.”
As she stepped out of the car and onto the gravel driveway the big oak door slowly creaked open to reveal a tall and skinny silhouette of a man.
“Well look who it is!” a deep voice boomed, “My little brother George and his no longer so little daughter Lisa!”
“Hello uncle!” her dad answered
Her great uncle looked so out of place as he came out on to the porch. He was dressed in dark blue almost black fitted jeans and an AC-DC band shirt. He had on some black converse and his hair was cut short and laying perfectly on his head. His green eyes were such an intense color that Lisa thought there was no way they could be real, but they twinkled as he smiled down at her. Lisa found herself thinking that if she wasn't related to him and if he was more her age that she would find him very attractive.
Within the next few minutes hugs were given, small talk was made, goodbyes were passed, and she was escorted to her room. It was an amazing room and completely the opposite of what she expected. Three walls were painted a light sky blue and one black.She spotted a giant fancy stereo system in one corner. The bed was queen sized with a black and white comforter with an electric guitar and some dark red splatters. The headboard was a simple chrome arch with white Christmas lights wrapped around it. The only other furniture was a black dresser with chrome handles, a white couch with a glass coffee table in front of it and a small nightstand with a lamp. The window also had a window seat that was bursting with pillows of all shapes sizes and colors.
“Do you like it?” Lisa jumped at the sound of her uncle’s voice from the doorway. He had not been there before and she had been too busy looking at her new room to hear him walk up to her
“Yes!” she said, “It is amazing! It’s all my style and is a lot like my dream room.”
Her uncle let out a soft laugh. It was a comforting and nice sound, she hoped he laughed often. “I thought it would be” he said, “I realized that you would need something like this since you will be here in a creepy mansion that is in the middle of nowhere with someone you haven’t seen in, oh how long has it been, twelve years? Anyway I have been talking to your dad a bunch this past month and took the time to remodel this room to be your personal getaway.”
“Wow” she looked up at him and said, “Thank you so much! I love it!” She was about to give him a hug but then thought that it would be a little weird so she just gave him a big excited smile.
Later that evening after she had unpacked all her things Lisa was wandering around the house. She noticed that it was much nicer on the inside then the outside. While the outside was scary and cold looking the inside was welcoming, clean, decorated nicely and painted cozy and happy colors.
Lisa descended the stairs leading to the main floor full of wonder of what the rest of the mansion looked like. She walked down one of the many hallways and spotted a set of double doors. She stopped to look at them. They were a good eight feet tall and made of very dark almost black wood. They were carved with an intricate design of swirls, circles and weird shapes that all blended into one another. She was just too curious to not open the doors. She grabbed the gold handles and opened the doors slowly. She let out a loud gasp once she saw what was inside.
A large library was spread out before her. It was like the one from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. The ceiling rose two stories above her head. Almost every part of the wall was covered by floor to ceiling bookshelves, and those shelves were filled with books. Several spiral staircases were scattered around the outside of the massive room and led up to a walkway that was halfway up the shelves and went around the whole border of the library. The only part not covered by the shelves was the fireplace on one side of the room. It wasn't just any fireplace either, it was one that you could easily fit over ten people in and was taller than Lisa herself. It was also surrounded by large leather couches and a few coffee tables.
Lisa couldn't contain her excitement any longer. She ran to the middle of the room and squealed. Her insides felt like they would burst from all the joy she was feeling. Lisa loved books, she could sit in a room and read all day long. She spun around taking in her surroundings once more. The air held a smell that was a mix of new and old books, along with polished wood, leather, and fire. She took in a deep breath and sighed.
“Wow” she said to herself, “that is now my new favorite smell!” She walked around searching for the next book she would read. She was as observant and ready to pounce as a lion that was stalking its prey. As she was looking at all the books she found herself being drawn to the back and darkest corner of the room.
There was one book that was in shoved into the back corner of the bottom shelf. It was like any book but it seemed to be calling her telling her to open it. She could have sworn it had a slight green glow emanating from it, but there was too much dust coating it to be sure. She was mesmerized by it. She didn't know why since it looked like every other book just older. She slowly reached out her hand to grip the spine of the strange book.
“Stop!” A voice yelled out. Lisa’s hand froze an inch away from her target once she heard her uncle’s voice. “Don’t touch that book!” he said, “I don’t want you to ever open that book much less read it!”
“Why?” she questioned, “It’s just a book”
“No,” he replied, “It is not just any book, this book is by far the most dangerous, it has ruined many lives in the past.”
“Why? Is it your diary?” She asked trying to see if he was joking but by the look on his face he was dead serious.
Well there were thousands of books in this room if not millions so if he didn't want her to read this one then she wouldn't. He had put a lot of time and work into making her feel welcome after all so it was least she could do.
That night Lisa was laying in her bed wide awake. It was well past two in the morning but she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. The reason was the book. It was all she had been thinking about. Why can’t she read it? How is it dangerous? What was in it?
Finally she threw back the covers and snuck to the library as quietly as humanly possible. The fire had gone out so the room was dark the only light was from the full moon’s glow leaking through the few windows. she found the book and grabbed it. It seemed to be vibrating but she dismissed it as her shaking from the fear of being caught.
She ran quietly back to her room and turned on the bedside lamp. She curled up on the bed and looked at the book. It was very old with yellowing pages and a dusty cover. The cover was a light brown with a golden circle in the middle. There was a simple light green maple leaf in the circle. Lisa slowly opened the book. As the cover fell open a gust of warm wind hit her face and whipped her hair around. The breeze only lasted a moment but it frightened Lisa a little, her window was closed so she knew it had come from the book.
She suddenly felt uneasy and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up something felt off and almost sinister. “It’s just a book” she told herself “Nothing evil is going to come out of it.” She started to read. It was a poem about plants. It seemed strange but suddenly she was too tired to care. Her eyelids got heavy and she wanted nothing more then to close them and float into dream land. She slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep with the mysterious book open in front of her.
As she slept the book woke up.


From the crease between the two pages a light began to show. And from the light a sprout appeared. The sprout began to grow into vines. They grew in number and length and crawled all around her room engulfing everything in their leafy clutches. The only noise that could be heard was the rustle and slither caused by their movements. They wrapped her in a cocoon of vines and leaves. But it wasn't wanting to protect her, it was ready to destroy her and everything in its path. He had warned her about the book but now it was too late.

Two months later
Lisa’s dad drove up the long driveway that he had driven up just two months before to drop off his daughter while he went on his trip. But what he found at the end of the driveway was not like where he dropped her off. In the place where the mansion had stood was a massive tree. It was three stories tall and as big around as the mansion that had been there. The ground and tree were infested with a jungle of vines, flowers, bushes, and many other plants. How had he managed to not see it as he had driven up he had no clue.
He got out of the car and with his mouth agape he walked to the tree. At the base there was a bunch of vines in the shape of a body. It was just the right size to be his brother. A scrap of cloth was wedged between two vines. He bent down and picked it up. He looked at it and gasped. He dropped the piece of cloth. On it were the yellow letters AC-DC.
He looked up to find another bunch of vines that hung from one of the lower branches. They resembled a medium sized body being hung by the neck. It was the same size as his daughter. A dark red liquid seeped out from between the big leaves at the vine person’s neck. The crimson droplets rolled slowly down the body and dripped to the ground.