A Charred Tree

A Story by CircMa

"This sky", he thought to himself as he drove down the empty road. "It seems like the whole world has been set on fire." He couldn't tell what exactly made him fell this way. Maybe it was the heavy grey clouds, spread out like a cloak of ash and smoke, seemingly forever. Maybe it was the fading sunset, tainting the horizon whit a shimmering orange glow, almost like an ember. Maybe it was the early fall heat that filled the afternoon air, making it almost claustrophobic. But then again, maybe it was something completely different.

He wished that it would rain. Sure, it would probably complicate things a little, but just a few drops wouldn't hurt. The clouds had been menacing it for hours, but the dirt road still remained as thirsty as it had been all summer and the dry dust had started to make its way inside the car.

This road was hell. He had been driving for almost an hour now, mostly smoothly, but now he found himself in a nightmare of loose stones and potholes. Every now and then his tires would run over one, and the whole car would shudder. From inside his trunk, something seamed to complain whit a loud bump and that sound, that rhythm, or the lack of it to be more precise, was driving him crazy.

His grandfather had been a carpenter of sorts. Looking back, he could barely remember his face, but the sound of his hammer swinging had never left him. Always precise, always constant, almost hypnotic. He remembered thinking that, if the world came to an end, that hammer would carry on the same, filling the void. But then grandpa's heart started to falter and soon his body whit it. That sound, once so precise, was now irregular, impossible to predict. There was no comfort in its mysterious cadence, only a harsh reminder that all order descends into chaos. By the end, he didn't even really care if the old man died or not. He just wanted the sound to stop, and after a while it did. And now, all these years later, it had returned and found a new home in the trunk of his car.

A blur of green at the edge of his vision snapped him back to reality, as he realized he had finally reached the woods. At this pace, he could probably make it to the cabin before the sun completely melted into the horizon. He almost wanted to slow down, relish the last few feet of a road he usually hated. The last time he had been there was when his best friend Billy died and coming back he felt somewhat nostalgic. That place had always been good to him, and he needed a good place. His foot hit the gas and the car accelerated pass trees. In the trunk, the bumping grew louder and faster.

After a few minutes and a last bend on the road, the cabin suddenly popped into view. The first thing to catch his eyes, however, was the old dead oak to its left. It had been growing there since forever, seemingly finding a way to resist the axes of countless generations. By the time his dad took him there for the first time, it was by far the tallest thing for miles so it hadn't really come as a surprise when it had been hit by lightning during a winter storm eight years back. However, there it remained, dead but still standing, a monolith of charcoal guarding the way. And it had always inspired a strange reverence in him. During the summer after the storm, he and his cousins had buried a cat among its roots. He couldn't explain it, he just knew that it felt right, like pushing the final piece of a puzzle into place. For a while he thought that that might be what kept the tree standing for so long. He had a better idea now.

He turned off the engine and got out of the car, taking a moment to savor the cool and dustless breeze. Orange autumn leafs cracked beneath his boots as he started to make his way towards the tree, slowly raising his hand to touch it. He walk carefully and deliberately, as one might do when approaching a wild animal, his eyes almost fearful. When his fingers finally touched the wood, all the dread that filled him was washed away. He was finally home.

The tree felt rough and jagged under his hand and it exude a strange pulsating heat. Well, it didn't really fell strange, not to him. Still, now he understood that he had been mistaken. How could he had even considered bringing her here? She wouldn't understand. He was glad he hadn't followed through whit it, especially since she had shown her true colors. Leaving him, and after all he had done! And for what, a firefighter living whit his grandmother? Please, what could he do for her? What would he do for her? Would he sacrifice his own live, like he had done? When she said that she didn't like his friends, would he pushed them away like he had done? Like when he had brought pour Billy to the cabin and slit his throat to please her? When he stuffed his body beneath the floorboards and feed his blood to the tree just because he rubbed her the wrong way? And for what? She never even knew what he had done and she probably wouldn't have cared if she did. But he was going to show her. Show her who really deserved her.

He caressed the old oak one last time and stepped rapidly towards the car. As he popped open his trunk, he was greeted by the smell of dried blood. Inside, whit his hands bound and his mouth gagged, laid a man who, for the moment being, was still a firefighter. His eyes were red and swollen, but he no longer cried, greeting his assailant whit a glance of sharp defiance.

The man outside the car responded whit a smile that, in other circumstances, one might interpret as kind, if only to avoid think about what lay behind the cold dead eyes above it. He took a final look at the sky and was pleased to see that the fire blazed on. Then he got to work.

A short time later, a thunder boomed in the sky and it might have muffled a scream. The clouds continued to grow heavier and louder well into the night, but, despite the threats, the rain wouldn't arrive until the first glimpses of morning. The ground around the charred tree, however, had been wet for hours.

© 2018 CircMa

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Reviews

Onlyme

Great read, loved how it drew you in deeper and deeper with each new paragraph and tales you told. Long read but well worth it.

Posted 6 Years Ago

6 Years Ago

i'm glad you enjoyed it

Katelyn Kennedy

I agree with the other reviews. I like how you start and end your story talking about the sky. I will admit there were a few paragraphs I skimmed just because of all the describing words. When I got to the fifth to last paragraph though, you really grabbed my attention and things got interesting and intense. You've left my wanting to know what happens next.