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Writer's pictureKara Chatham

The Tuxedo Tree | Make It Monday Short Story


This is part of my "Make It Monday" challenge, where I have challenged myself to make some form of new content every Monday. You can hear me talk about it here on my YouTube channel. Today's content is a prompted short story. It's nothing spectacular, but the challenge was completed for today! Enjoy!

 

Prompt: You are on a hike alone deep in the woods, you come upon a clearing where a man in an immaculate tuxedo is standing alone.

 

 

Exploring the glorious outdoors. Something I wish I could do more often than I do, but cherish when I do get those moments. There was this one time when I explored the trail near my complex and I figured out why most people did not go on that trail. Its nothing terrible, I promise. Well...maybe I shouldn't promise anything. You could perceive the situation differently than I.

So this happened on a Tuesday. It was early afternoon. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Honestly, the trail looked too good to be true. Imagine what you think the most stunning nature trail looks like. That is what this trail looked like. The colors were so vibrant! There was a clearing about two miles in, where I was planning on turning around at. And there was this tree (at least, at first glance it looked like a tree) at the edge of the clearing. What was eye catching about this tree, that caused for a second glance, was the fact that it appeared to be wearing a tuxedo. Sounds crazy, I know. And I promise that this person was dressed as a tree. He was clearly one of those masters of disguise types, because one moment he was a tree wearing tuxedo and the next he was just a guy wearing a tuxedo.

This tuxedo wearing guy was on his knee and had a ring box in his hand. He never said a single word. He just sat there on one knee with the closed ring box in his hand.

I stared at the box for a while before deciding to walk away. Bad idea. My walk had to transform into a run, because when I took a single glance back, the ring box had changed into a handgun. A million thoughts ran through my mind. The primary one being that this had to be the reason why no one ever came down this path.

The guy was shouting something at me, but I could never completely hear what was being said. My main goal was to get out. Running is not my strong suit, but adrenaline had kicked in and I was determined. Apparently my adrenaline and determination was not enough though. I heard the bullet be fired from the gun, and before I could dodge one way or another - the bullet found a home within my right shoulder. I still pressed on. The miles seemed longer than when I walked in. Danger changes all perspectives.

So maybe the situation was terrible. I mean, it could have been worse. The bullet could have made its home in my chest instead of my shoulder. If anything, that situation made me rethink going on adventures alone. I hope you at least get that from this semi-unfortunate situation.

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