Short stories

Wednesday, 01. 06. 2022

Write a short story about a woman who works in a Firewatch tower and one day witnesses a murder (1000 to 10˚000 words)

It happened on a normal day. At least, as normal as it gets. From up there you can see acres and acres of wood and wildlife, which always amazes me. We live in a huge planet with tons of types of animals, and most of the people only sees them in zoos, or in the television. I would call myself a lucky lady, because I have been born in Utah, where there are lots of mountains, forests, and everything that a hiker would love to climb.

I have been working on a fire watchtower for over 5 years when this happened. As always, I went up to the tower early in the morning and I stayed there for a week. I had a small kitchenette, a little living room, a small bathroom, and a bedroom. My only work was to watch out for any fire that could spread out in the forest in my area. I was sitting in a hammock that I bought with me, drinking a warm tea because it was cold when I heard some shuffling noise at the bottom of the tower.

First, I thought it was a deer or a bear, so I didn't pay any attention to it. When the shuffling didn't quiet down and I could hear some growling, I quickly looked down, because it wasn't an animal growling. No, it was a man growling, who was bound by his arms and legs. I quietly stood up from the hammock, trying to make as little noise as I could. I dared closer to the ladder that went down from my platform to the bottom of the tower, and as I started to get some courage to move down to help the man, another figure emerged from the shadows around the tower. It was getting dark, so I couldn't see his face, but he was tall and very muscular. He said something to the man, kneeling in from of him because of his bounds, but I couldn't make out anything that he said. Tough, the wind brought up his voice to me, it was rich, and so, so dark. Goosebumps broke out on my arms and a tiny shiver worked through my body as I watched him. He slowly raised his arm, and there was something in it. I tried to look closer, so I put my arms to steady myself and leaned down on the ladder. The last rays of the sun reflected on the gun that the man was holding, my breath hitched. It's not like I never saw a gun before, even my dad had one, but I never saw it pointed at another man. It was a pathetic sight. I might've been dumb at that moment, but I started to get angry. There was this man, bound, possibly hurt, and shaking, while the other was pointing a gun to his head with no remorse. I didn't think. I shouted to the man and started climbing down. I have been replaying my actions from that night and I still don't know how I didn't end up dead too.

I was climbing down the ladder so fast, that I started to get dizzy, but I was determined. When I put my legs down on the ground I looked up at the attacker, and I faltered. He was almost twice my side, with bulging muscles, his face like a Greek god, and God, those eyes. He had so blue eyes, like ice. I shivered when he looked at me and growled. I steeled myself and thought that this was a wolf. A very manly wolf, who pointed a gun at another individual, but I was determined and angry.

"You're so pathetic. Pointing a gun at a bound and hurt man. That's a weak man who can't face another man in a fair fight." I said much steadier than I felt. The man with the gun chuckled but lowered the gun.

"You have some balls lady, to jump into a situation that is clearly a dangerous one." Mocked me the man and made a mischievous smile. He looked like a big wolf, who was never tamed and had no pack. The most dangerous type of wolf. At his feet, the other man started to whine. But the attacker paid no attention to him.

"So, tell me, lady, what was your plan? Swing in like a knight in shining armor, and what? Take my gun? Call the police when there's no service here? You're on your own, without any backup, and a dangerous man in front of you. And you call him weak?" He chuckled and turned back to the bound man in front of him, paying me no more attention. My blood boiled.

"Oh, yeah, how do you know I don't have a plan?" I mocked him and started to watch his movements. When I was young, a pack of wolves sneaked into our garden, and I was outside when they came in. I survived with little scratches, but my father then sent me to various types of self-defense classes and fighter clubs. I won most of the competitions and I had a black belt in krav maga, so I was no damsel in distress. But the man didn't know that. I slowly got into a fighting stance and waited until he looked at me again.

"Look, lady, I don't care what pathetic plan you cooked up in your head, so if you don't want to get up dead with this guy, I would advise that you go back to your safe little tower and mind your own fucking business" clipped back the man at me, and turned around, pointing the gun at me. My adrenalin skyrocketed and smirked. When the guy saw my stance, his eyes rounded but was too stunned to block my attack. I hit him in the stomach, and when he grabbed his stomach, I swung my leg and rammed it straight into his nose. Blood ran down into his mouth, down to his chin, and his tailored suit. Who comes into the woods to kill a man in a suit? A dumb one, that's for sure.

When he regained his senses, he growled at me and threw the gun to the ground, next to the bound man. I was so engrossed in our fight, that I didn't see what was happening around us. We fought, but it was an even match, I even liked it a little bit. The man quickly saw that I was no newbie to fighting, so he gave all his might to it, probably didn't want his ego bruised. When we both run out of breath, we stood, eyeing each other. Then I heard a gunshot. The man who was bound now stood behind his capturer, and the man whom I fought with, fell onto the ground on his knees. The man with the gun sneered down at him and threw the gun away. He walked in front of his capturer and kicked him in the face. He slumped to the ground. I quickly located the gun with my eyes and started to inch toward it, but the bound man who was now standing in front of his capturer snapped his gaze at me. He chuckled darkly and began walking toward me.

There was an inhuman gleam in his eyes that scared the crap out of me. He wasn't that intimidating like the other one, but in his eyes, I could see that he might not be as strong or as fast as the other, but he was much worse that the other man. I jumped to the gun, snatched it up, and pointed it at the guy. He smiled, but it was so scary, that my hands started to tremble. Suddenly the other man, who got injured because of me rammed into the crazed guy and started to wrestle with him. There were grunts and smacks as they tore into each other, but I couldn't watch it just standing there, doing nothing, so I made up my mind. I leveled the gun, pointing at the crazed guy, and tried to find the moment where I could shoot him, but they were too tangled up in each other, that I risked shooting the other man. Now you may ask, why didn't I just shoot and kill both of them, but there was something in the guy whom I sparred with that I didn't want to kill him.

"Move!" I shouted, and the guy actually listened to me, instantly jumping away and I fired instantly. The crazed guy looked down onto his chest, where blood was pooling around his injury. He then looked at me, that crazed smile was still intact, I was so scared that I shot him again, but in the face. I ran to the other guy and inspected his wound, while the crazed man died.

"Look, I have a first-aid kit up in the tower and I can clean your wounds, but I will need your help to get you up there. Can you climb up?" I asked and he just grunted. Okay, then. I helped him stand up and guided him up to the tower.

I treated his wounds and helped him get cleaned up.

"Why did you help me? You could have just killed both of us." Rasped the man out.

"Look, mister...?"

"Just Jay."

"Look, Jay. I can't answer your question because I can't even understand why I did it. But I liked sparring with you, and you didn't look at me with murder in your eyes, so I chose to kill the other instead." I explained to him, and he looked at me like I was insane, which I probably was. He then shook his head and laid down on the bed where I was planning to sleep in it.

"I leave you to rest, but in the morning if you disappear on me, I will be mad and I will find you" I said to him, pointing at him, but he just chuckled.

Spoiler alert, he wasn't in the tower in the morning, but to his credit, he made me a cup of coffee and left his phone number under the mug.

1704 words, ~ Shinedown – How did you love ~

Credit to: the.plottery (Instagram)