Free The Tilting House by Tom Llewellyn

the metal box. I reached to pick it up, but before I could, moss covered it.
    The moss was growing.
    I stepped back toward the tent in surprise. With the metal box still clutched in his hands, Aaron ran in the opposite direction, out of the glow of the lantern. A moment later I heard him yelp.
    “What’s going on out there?” mumbled Dad behind me.
    “Help!” Aaron cried. Dad had pulled aside the tent flaps and was kneeling beside me. “Aaron?” he called, looking out. “Josh, where’s your brother? What’s going on?”
    Before I could answer, the lantern grew dim. In seconds, the light changed to an emerald glow and then went out. Moss had completely engulfed it.
    “Get in the tent, Josh,” Dad said. I did. He quickly pulled on his boots and climbed outside. I heard him call, “Aaron! Aaron! Aaron! Aaaaarrronnnn!” His voice became muffled. Then silence.
    My little brother and dad had disappeared in the darkness outside. What was I supposed to do? I realized I was still holding on to what had once been a tiny pocketknife. It was now the size of a machete. I dug through my pack and found my flashlight. I shone it at the door of the tent. Moss was moving quickly across the floor. I slashed at it with the knife, struggling not to scream. I tried to step outside, but the moss immediately began growing over my shoes and up my legs. I slashed at the moss on my shoes and the floor of the tent. I tore my feet free and climbed outside.
    “Dad?” I called. “Aaron?” No answer. I aimed the flashlight around the clearing. My hand was shaking so hard that the beam was jumping all over. I saw two shapes, one tall and one short. Both were completely covered in moss.
    I tried to take a step toward them, but my feet wouldn’t move. I shone the beam down and saw that the moss was growing up my legs again and had reached my knees. I screamed and hacked away at it with the knife. I knew I was cutting my legs, but I was so intent on freeing myself from the moss that I felt nothing.
    I kept slashing and peeling the moss off my legs, but it grew as fast as I could cut it away. I slashed my way over to Dad andAaron. I began cutting and scraping at the tall shape, jumping up and down to keep the moss from catching hold of my feet. At last, I peeled away a fist-sized section and Dad’s face broke through with a gasp. He stared at me wild-eyed a moment before he finally appeared to recognize me.
    “Cut me loose!” he cried.
    I cut and peeled until his arms broke free. He took the knife from me and began hacking at his feet like a wild man, cursing the moss and praying to God in the same ragged breaths. We both jumped and thrashed around like we were on fire, trying to keep the moss from catching hold. We made our way to Aaron and Dad scraped at Aaron’s face until he’d bared my brother’s mouth and nose. Aaron’s head fell limply to his chest.
    “Stand close to me!” Dad called as I kept jumping from one foot to the other. He continued working at Aaron’s feet. Aaron started to cough. His eyes opened. Blood was running down his cheek where Dad had cut him while scraping away moss.
    Dad spun me around and faced me the way we had come. “Shine your flashlight that way, Josh.” I did. I could see a pyramid-shaped hill of moss where our tent had been.
    “Now we run for it,” said Dad as he gave one final slash to free Aaron’s feet. “I’ll go first with the knife and clear a path. Josh, you keep Aaron in between us and shine your light in front of me as best you can. No one stops running until we hit the trail.”
    The moss grabbed at our feet, but between our fear-fueled speed and Dad’s sweeping slashes, we managed to cross the clearing and plow back down the hillside and through the bushes. We reached the trail, scratched and bleeding.
    Our packs and tent were buried back at the Mossy Spot. There was nothing to do but hike to the trailhead in the cold and dark.Just as dawn was breaking, we reached our pickup