In the quiet suburbs of Karen, life is peaceful and full of tranquillity. The birds chirp among the trees, a cool breeze caresses your senses and the feeling is exquisite. But hidden in plain sight, among the lovely cluster of trees is an occurrence that borders on the paranormal.

We normally see this kind of thing in Hollywood with vampires sucking the life out of unsuspecting victims. And even so, this is just a figment of a talented writer’s imagination. But seeing this phenomenon among trees is mind blowing.

If you attempted to tell anyone such a thing, they would probably take you for a fool. But what if it was true? Would you believe it? Yeah you should! Watch, as I blow your mind away.

As I was cycling on the weekend as a way of keeping fit, yes, I have no social life. I came across what I would call a ‘demon tree’ but since I do not want to upset our young readers so let us call it a vampire tree.

At first it looked like a normal tree, with its branches dancing back and forth as the wind blew softly against them. But upon a closer look, there it was, the act of cannibalism, so to speak.

This vine-like creature had wrapped its tentacles around the defenceless, mould infested tree, sucking the life out of it as the African python does to its prey. Unlike the Hollywood narrative, this creature was satisfied with just nutrients.

It took me a while to wrap this around my mind, how this young looking tree was taking advantage of this obviously elderly tree. I was disillusioned for a minute but as I went around the tree, I was struck by what I saw.

Right before me, was what looked like the shape of a face on the old tree, of course, mangled by the crushing force of the parasitic vines. For a moment, it seemed like the tree was trying to tell me something.

The look on what seemed to be an eye was a little scary. For a minute, in a bizarre sort of way, it did speak to me. I could see a look of determination, strength and resistance in that face. In a way, it looked like the tree was fighting back with all it had. Rightfully so, since it had put up a fight for a number of years and was still going strong.

As I walked away, I could not help but think, of something I read a while back. “We are not responsible for what happens to us, but we are responsible for how we react.” Here this simple act of defiance had inspired me to do something of value.

Although no one knows the fate of our elderly tree or the vine like creature coiled around it, all we know is that as long as the sun shines, the elderly tree will keep up the struggle for a vine free life. And if this experience has taught me anything, it’s that we should always strive for a better tomorrow despite what our present looks like.

This story refers to a group of organisms that grow on the surface of plants called Epiphytes.  According to Wikipedia, Epiphytes differ from parasites in that epiphytes grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily negatively affect the host. So there are no vampires among trees!