The Girls of the Tree

A girl once sat by a tree on a hill, a beautiful tree of red leaves and healthy branches. The girl kept her eyes closed, since she wanted to keep dreaming. Dreams were a beautiful way of leaving the awfully small things that became monsters on the prowl. The girl always wanted to escape them forever, but it wasn't quite possible. She would have to leave the tree to find anything different, the only place she was sure she could be safe. What would happen if she left the tree for something else? If she found out it would be either too early or too late to go back. But it was also awful staying near the tree. There was a constant fear of anything coming near the tree, paralyzing even. So there were two choices for the girl, either face what is outside the tree or stay forever in fear near the tree. After many days of questioning and letting the fear fester into despair, she finally decided to take a leap. The girl, after so long, had finally taken the first step. She began walking outside the tree's perimeters. After some time walking, the girl entered a wonderful forest, one of many trees and flowers. As she wandered, she saw a man among white lilies. He had the empty stare that could strip life from anything he could see. When the girl looked away, only a second had passed, but crimson had painted the white lilies red. As the girl looked down at her chest, she saw the deep red. The girl looked at the man, he was holding a shotgun, there were barrels left on the ground. The girl ran all she could, a hand on her bullet wound. As she ran through all the awful things that had been there to torment her, she saw the tree up the hill. She crawled up the hill, leaving a trail of blood on the grass, stabbing her hands into the ground. She felt so much pain, tears were feeding the grass under her. She couldn't make it up the hill, but she could peek up to the tree. A girl was sitting on the tree. It was the last thing she saw, as she began to dream again, permanently. Perhaps she had escaped the monsters forever. A girl once sat by a tree.