The Willow Tree

Her hands shake as they clench in and out of terrified fists; his voice ringing through her head, over and over while the cold fingers attempt to regain a sense of control over their movements.

A shadow moves on the floor near the window where she is curled into an immobile ghost in the corner. Breathe, her silent thoughts whisper to the air more than to herself. But it is a childlike fear that returns from the sight of the moving branches dancing on the walls: the moonlight monsters of the night.

Look at what you’ve done. This is your fault. Yours alone.

Ice, in glistening pain, slides down her spine and her body convulses unwillingly. The warm sunlight screaming through the open window hits her bare feet on the carpet, but her chilled body continues to shake; it’s simple, just breathe, your body knows how, doesn’t it? It should be easy.

But it isn’t. It isn’t simple, not anymore. Not after what she’s done. And she knows it, and the room knows it; the carpet and the walls and the desk and the lamp that doesn’t work, and the loose papers in her writing drawer, and the pens that leak and the picture of her sister in the frame next to her bed, and the shadows on the floor, and the willow tree outside, and the world.

And He knows. He knows what she has done and there is no turning back after what he has done"what she has made him do.

Why can’t you breathe? her psyche struggles to comprehend…

She feels the rope, the fibers engraining themselves into the skin around her neck. In her mind she knows this cannot last; her brain screams for clean air as the blood in her body slows its movement.

You let this happen. How could you, how could you just let him go?

She no longer tries to breathe.

The burn of a soul leaving the body and she fights no more.

Reviews

[Elemenopy]

Interesting. I like how it is short and to the point. You managed to put a lot of emotion into so few words. Suicide is always one of those topics that writers love to touch on. It walks hand and hand with death, and death is the ultimate mystery. I think you accomplished everything you set out to with this piece, and I found it a very quick and easy read. You created simple prose that flows well, and you let us know exactly how the narrator felt. I have nothing to criticize about this piece. The grammar looks good. It works, good job.

[Dominique]

That was a heartbreaking story that shows you the one scary thing in life.