Baby Belinda soars upwards and appears to stop in mid air for a fraction of a second before she begins to plunge to the ground, her arms and legs flailing wildly.
Kade, primed and ready – catches the infant perfectly and cradles her in his arms.
We both check her over. Apart from shock, she seems unhurt and she remains surprisingly quiet given her ordeal.
Kade looks up, anger flames from his eyes, "Hey, you could have gently dropped her down to me, there was no need to fling her like that, she's a new born baby not a football for freaks sake," he shouts up. Twin:1 looks down on us, smiles and says, "You two will regret our baby's wakening hour." I note her smile with a shiver – it's the same as The surgeon's.
"You two are crazies," shouts Kade, struggling to contain his anger. They don't respond, they just stand and stare, until blood-drenched Twin:2 leads her sister away and they disappear into dense tree foliage leaving a bloody trail in their wake.
......
Kade hands me baby Belinda and rushes to the foot of the tree, "Hey no, come back here, I apologize for calling you crazy. Look, come back and lets discuss what you're doing up there..."
I can see him veering toward desperation and attempt to pull him back with some gentle words, "Kade, take a breath. We need to find out how to get up there; yelling at them isn't helping anyone," I say, fighting my own sense of foreboding that's threatening to engulf me.
He takes a deep breath in, exhales and says, "Sure. I gotta get the mental image of what they're doing up there outta my head." He looks at me, his face quivering, "Slicing up and sewing my sister to her boyfriend together..."
"Stop!" I say, firmly, "Let's look for away up there and disable them before they get any further along with whatever it is they're doing." I take off my sweatshirt, wrap it around baby Belinda and place her in a small hollow at the base of a tree. She's sleeping: safe.
......
Kade and I search every crevice for signs of a way up into the glass tree house, "There has to be a way, a secret panel, lever or something," says Kade, swiping his hands all over the trees trunk.
I do the same, until a loud thud by my foot distracts me. I glance down at my feet. Shoot – one of the tree creatures has fallen from the tree.
I step back from the teddy bear/doll fusion – it creeps me out.
I continue my visual search, looking high into the trees. But, I'm disturbed by another thud at my feet. It's another tree creature and this one lands directly on my foot.
Instinctively, I kick it away. BUT – it remains attached!
It's probably caught in my sneaker lace. I shake and kick my foot to detach it.
BUT – I feel a grip tightening around my ankle – is this thing grabbing onto me?
A sudden sharp pain shoots into me and I realize something is scraping at the back of my leg, at my calf muscle.
I try to remain calm and rationale is my foot caught in something?
No – I can move my foot – I stoop to look closer and jolt back when I see the dolls head burrowing around the back of my leg.
My calm crashes and panic pounds through me, "KADE! Get this thing off me – it's alive – it's biting me!
He immediately drops to my feet and pulls at the thing, "NO – Don't!" I cry out, because I feel its grip tighten as it resists Kade's pulling with a considerable strength.
