"Oh... Oh my God," Dipper whispered to himself.

He ran towards the tree, wondering where on earth he had found himself.

"Oh my..." He murmured, looking closer.

The boy's skin was tan, but it was deathly pale and taught like parchment. His hair was a dark brown shock, and a thick, ebony substance rolled down his cheeks from his closed eyes and over his long nose, into his mouth, which was slack. Dipper recognised it at once as the tree sap. He realised less than a second later that it was the same dark red tree in which the boy was trapped in. It's sap ran down his face like black treacle tears.

Not much of the boy's body could be seen, as thick branches encased him and were wrapped tightly around his limbs, torso and neck, but Dipper could see that he donned a dark navy cloak and a bright red hat similar to a gnome's. Branches spindled around this, too. Leaves engulfed the boy.

Dipper considered the situation. He had no idea where he was or how he had got here. He had a horrible feeling that the dream demon Bill Cipher had something to do with it... But anyway, here he was, lost and alone, finding trees which trap people in their rough clutches. He thought first-
'I need to check if he's alive.' Yes. There would be no point in trying to recover some poor lost soul's corpse from this awful tree.

Dipper carefully moved aside some twine so he could get close enough, then placed his first two fingers on the boy's cold white neck and, holding his breath, felt for a pulse.

Nothing.

Dipper sighed deeply and looked sadly at the forest floor. The boy was dead.

But then... He stirred.

"You're alive!" Exclaimed Dipper, beaming at him as he slowly forced open his wide, dark eyes, from which black goo continued to ooze.

He looked at Dipper for a long time. Then he opened his mouth, as though to speak, and more sap spilled out.

Dipper recoiled, disgusted, as the boy choked and gagged. He was going to suffocate.

Dipper gasped and began yanking and pulling at the branches, ripping the leaves away. They were extremely strong and thick, tightly trapping the boy.

"Hold on!" Dipper said shouted. "Don't worry! I'll get you out!"

The boy just spluttered and coughed. A couple of leaves fluttered from out of his mouth, and a tiny finger of twine grew from his throat out of his tongue.

Dipper yelled and tugged even harder, but it was no use. The boy was turning into a tree.

"No!" Dipper screamed. "No!"

He ran around the clearing, searching for something to help break the branches. Suddenly he glimpsed a flash of gold in the moonlight, (the sun had fully set now,) and rushed over to whatever had caught his eye.

He bent down and saw, lying in the tall black grass, a pair of beautiful golden scissors in the shape of a bird.