TØP Øne Shøts

.:The Hanging Tree:.

.:Didn't make a titlepage:.

A young man stood in front of the hanging tree, broad shouldered and tall, staring up at the butchered branches, reaching to the sky, almost as if in a mock surrender. The same branches, withered and snapped from old age and raging storms. The raging storm of death, the catastrophe that is suicide. I shoved the rope back into my cinch sack, watching the boy.

"Its so sad," the brunette boy said, moving nothing but his thin lips. "To watch something so lovely and beautiful... So, so... Unaware of true, pure life, die." He took in a deep whiff of the melodic air, allowing it to flow through his lungs and back out his nostrils. The air was sweet, flavourful and placid like a c minor with a dash of the husky, savory feel of a c major combined in perfect harmony to produce the chord that is the oxygen we breathe.

"If you don't mind me asking... How can something unaware of life die? It doesn't know life, so it was never alive, correct?" I asked, watching the wind rake through his hair. I imagined my fingers tangled in the soft brown locks instead and found myself heating up from the inside. I wiped the few minute old tears from my cheeks, watching as the boy shifted his weight from his left foot back to the right. "The tree isn't dead yet anyway."

I was nearly two feet away from the boy when he turned to me. His lips were like a broken hearts flat line, although so soft and fragile looking, yet so full of life and plump at the same time. His dark brown eyes fixated on something beneath my frame.

"I'm aware the tree's not dead, I didn't say it was, and... Not exactly." He assured, wrapping his red flannel covered arms around himself. He traced his pale lips with his analogously colored tongue, tucking the corners into his cheeks after correcting me. "You must have misheard what I said."

"No sir, I don't think I 'misheard you'." I stubbornly quipped, tangling my sweatshirt cuffs around my fingers.

"It's Tyler, not sir, and what I said was, 'everything comes to an end'. I just find it disappointing how fast some inhabitants time here on Earth comes to such an abrupt ending, or the ending is self inflicted. How it sneaks up on us..." I cocked my eyebrows, brain aching from deep thinking. Tyler took in a deep breath, watching as I stared in confusion. "Maybe an example, what are you here for, Joshua?"

How the hell did he know my name?

How did he know?

I looked down, neck and cheeks heated. My eyes focused on my white tennis shoes, the wind blowing my highlighter yellow hair.

He placed his thumb under my chin, leading my eyes back to his.  Once they met, his arm fell back to dangle at his side, swaying in the wind.

"How fast and abruptly it all comes to an end."

His words echoed in my head before he left me staring at the tree, he disappeared into the night. He pushed past the spirits of Hanging Hill, lost and on the hunt of the true, pure life they never knew.

Authors note: uh yeah. høpe you like this. just a little thing i threw at yøu guys haha. løve yøu. stay alive. |-/
yøu're wørth it.