for fiction writing class, a setting assignment that i twisted into my own :D based off of the picture on the side, this is approx 1200 words(:
i love you willard<3 thanks for the soon-to-be-montage, and for the being the best friend a buttface like me could ever ask for. you've always got my back, and despite what you may think, i always have yours too. i love you man, more than you know.
Though a mossy green carpet guided Marla down the path she swore she’d never walk again, she could have found her way through the forest with her eyes closed. Sunlight somehow forced its way through the thick treetops, desperately trying to brush the lush undergrowth that lay hidden below the trees. Constricting them like a vice, layers and layers of moss and vines smothered the tree trunks– wrapping, strangling, suffocating. Birds, insects and wildlife sang harmoniously around her, but all Marla wanted was them to shut up. As a curious finch landed on a nearby bush and chirped at her, she ignored it and brushed past a branch that nearly collided with bird.
The wind blew in gusts, weaving its way through the great oaks, ashes and pines that littered the dense forest. It was the kind of wind that felt warm upon contact but gradually froze everything it touched, slowly but surely from the inside out. As it breezed by Marla, it whispered of lost hopes and forgotten dreams, reminding her of a time when everything was okay, when the world wasn’t twisted and cruel, and when guilt didn’t cling to her like a shadow.
Suddenly, the trees that had matched her path every step of the way abruptly halted as she reached a small dell, as if the trees were murmuring, this is a journey you must make alone. The towering giants hugged the perimeter of the clearing, and she remembered that she used to think of them as guard dogs when she was younger. She exhaled, expelling thoughts of everything awaiting her at home and gazed around the clearing; the glade was the one place that sunlight could break through the opening in the treetops, lighting up Marla’s dark world below. Earthy greens and browns exploded around her in a spectrum of nature, and there was a peaceful stillness that had used to help clear her mind.
But in the center of the forest, of the opening, of her world, stood a structure. It was a simple tree house, braced on four surrounding sturdy trees, hovering a terrifying 15 feet above the dirt floor. Bracing herself on the dusty ladder, Marla hauled herself up and into the wooden room. It groaned under her, complaining of 4 years of disuse, the dust swirling around and attacking her for abandoning her forest for such a long time. She ran her index finger along the wooden railing, and upon entering the dimly lit interior, she felt tears prick her eyes. Inside was a single table and two chairs. Bright colors now dulled, one sat upright whereas the other laid overturned and broken. She remembered that chair well, too well. Childish drawings littered the pine walls, ranging from unicorns to self portraits to a boy and a girl standing together in a treehouse. Small pine shelves and cabinets lined the opposite wall, housing jars of bright crayons, markers and colored pencils. Browning construction paper laid strewn across the space, shifting every so often with the rhythmic breeze of the wind. The sheets themselves looked as if their color had been sucked out of them, so it was impossible to even tell what their original color might have been. A thick layer of dust covered everything, preserving and separating the past from the present.
Grasping the railing overlooking a patch of dirt, Marla almost felt home. Almost. Because this wasn’t how she had remembered this place before– it had been a light in the dark, the brightest place in the world. But that was before the incident, before everything changed. This place was different now than it was then, she changed from who she was then. Guilt, for one, was a companion she had gained from that fateful day and had been traveling with ever since. Without warning, his screams resonated in her head, and she slammed her eyes shut in attempt to block out the haunting pleas for help. She gripped the wooden beam firmly, her hold becoming tighter and tighter as her brother’s screams seemed to amplify to a deafening roar, playing on a loop in her skull. The one word he had shrieked before a sickening thud and then– silence. Marla. He had screamed to her for help, to his big sister, and she couldn’t do anything but watch his small frame plummet over the side of the treehouse, over the very railing that she was presently clutching. Squeezing the wood tighter and more urgently, she reprimanded herself again and again as she had countless times before.
Why had she been so stupid? Why couldn’t she have just listened to her parents when they said he wasn’t old enough to climb the tree house? Why did he have to fall and become paralyzed–
The fragile wood splintered beneath her hands, a shard embedding itself into Marla’s palm, but she didn’t seem phased at all. She stared blankly at the blood dripping from the cut, knowing she knew full well why she didn’t wait until Cam was older to take him to the tree house– Marla and her dad had spent all summer building it the moment they found out her mother was pregnant with her Cam. She had been overjoyed that she would get to be an older sister, and the second he had learned to walk, she had demanded her parents they let him go see the tree house that had been built in his honor. No one knew that it would actually be his downfall.
When her parents had denied her the permission to bring him to the forest, she had thrown a fit, storming up to her room and locking herself in her pink room. Brainstorming, she came up with the grand idea of sneaking him out. In hindsight, she realized she couldn’t have been stupider. They had been sitting and coloring, when a butterfly fluttered by. Hovering in front of Cam’s face, he grew excited, babbling like the 4 year old he was. When the butterfly flew over to the edge of the balcony, he chased after it, reaching but only grabbing air. She remembered standing up so quickly that her chair tipped and shattered, watching in horror as Cam teetered forward on the railing, and then that heart-stopping moment when he fell prey to gravity’s cruel hands.
She yearned to give into the words of forgiveness that the woods and wind seemed to whisper, but no matter what, she couldn’t get rid of the sickening darkness in the pit of her stomach.
YOU ARE READING
Short Stories
Cerita Pendek*not to be read in any particular order* Varying from action to realistic fiction, these are my stories. Some are from my fiction writing class in school, some are for a contest, and some of them are just because I feel like it. You can read them in...
