Beth was awakened from her deep slumber by the sound of a breaking branch at the far side of the garden.. It was out of her site line, but it was a different sound from the normal quiet of the witches garden. Beth had no idea how long it had been since she was turned into a statue, it felt like years, but it was irrellavent... She was ageless.
She patiently stood waiting to see if the thing that had made the noise would come into site. Eventually.. A man in a trench coat walked in front of her. He was well built, maybe in his late 30's and had brown hair. She noticed also that he had a gun in his hand, and a shiny badge inside the coat.
He was a detective! Maybe he was looking for her she thought.. Hoped. He was carefully inspecting her facial features when he was startled by a noise behind him. Lifting his gun in that direction he began walking, slowly, to see what it was.
The witch stepped out of the shadows in front of him " so detective, I see your quite good at getting to the root of things.. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your looking for that missing girl, Beth? Well you see she is that statue behind you. And she's not going anywhere."
The detective stayed silent, keeping the gun trained on the witch.
"... And neither are you!!" The witch screamed. Disappearing in a flash.
The detective frantically looked around for her, by then yelled in paiturningn as he dropped the gun. From Beth's perspective she could see his feet sinking in the mud... And his hands hardening and turning brown. He lifted his hands to his face in shock as his arms locked into place. At this point the skin of his legs were turning into bark and that bark was rapidly moving up his legs to join his changed arms. His legs were becoming one, as they merged until he looked like a tree from the chest down. He never had a chance to move or scream. His face stuck in a horribly terrified look, as it too became brown with bark. His brown hair turned green, sprouting leaves.. And his fingers and shoulders began to sprout limbs, growing up and over his head.
And in minutes, where the startled detective stood was a tree instead, with a very human shape. And notably a face of terror etched in the bark.
Beth, filled with dispair, simply looked at the new tree... And silently prayed for someone to come to the rescue...