The Bench

A story that started off with a couple words, then into some pages after a while. its unfinished, but id like some feedback nonetheless.

It was a cold and boring evening, and Tom had decided to take a walk outside to the woods to get some fresh air and a cigarette.

He took a seat on a bench in the middle of the woods, which was his favorite spot to think about all the problems and nonsense that was his life.

Sitting there, he took a moment to chuckle on how much he hated smoking in the first place, but nonetheless took out a fresh new pack from his bag and lit one up.

Tom was lonely, but couldn't remember if it was a choice or a consequence of his personality.

He was a nice guy but his low self esteem and procrastination made him worry about the future he had never really planned on, that was, until the day the newly elected president came into office.

Throughout his campaign Johnathan Westfield made promises no knew if he would keep, in fact, no one had ever possibly imagined him actually winning the electoral and popularity vote by more than 100 points.

Tom never really cared for politics, or even the future of the United States for that matter, all he ever really worried about at the age of 19 was what he was going to do right after he got off work at 3, and how the hell he was going to be making his living at the age 30.

That all changed as soon as he finished his cigarette and decided to check out his good old reddit page.

That's when he noticed the first post on the trending feed on the site, that in bold words read,

"THE RUSSIAN AND CHINESE GOVERNMENT HAVE OFFICIALLY DECLARED WAR ON THE UNITED STATES."

For a more than a split millisecond Tom was actually worried, until he saw the post right underneath it. The second post, also in bold words, stated,

"WITNESS CLAMS HE HAD FOUND ACTUAL EGYPTIAN GOLD HIDING BENEATH HIS RECTUM."

Tom laughed out loud,"This is why I love reddit."He continued scrolling down when a text had popped up in front of the page.

It was from his mom.

"I don't care where you are, but I need to come home right now Thomas."

Tom was confused. 

He texted back,"Whats going on? Do you need me to pick up Abel or something?

A few seconds later, another text popped up,

"I already have him." 

Now Tom was getting worried. He knew his mom had a late shift tonight, so why in the hell did she have to pick up his brother from class?

Another text popped up.

"Sweetheart I'm begging you, just come home."

He quickly texted back,"I'll be home in a minute mom, don't worry."

Tom shakingly took another cigarette from his pack and lit it.

He went back to the first post on the reddit trending page that he had read a few minutes ago, and scrolled down to the comment section and noticed a comment with a gold star marked on it.

He hastily finished his cigarette and ran as fast as he could,without thinking about putting on some of his axe body spray, or throwing a piece of gum in his mouth, as was his usual routine after a evening smoke.

He just ran back home, repeating the comment with the gold star over and over in his head.

"lord have mercy, please god help us."

When Tom came back from the war, as in straight off the plane, straight off the bus, he didn't go home to his family. 

He didn't go home, because he had no reason too.

He wasn't Tom anymore.

Nor was he Thomas, or son, or brother, or a 20 year old who had no idea what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

He left all of those labels behind

Back In that monstrosity of a place.

All he wanted to be at that very moment was a bench. A bench and a cigarette in the middle of the woods, and so thats where he went, back to a place he hadnt seen in 4 years. It was the last place where he ever felt alone.

Tom wasnt alone anymore.

He had the echo of screams, of crying, of begging, of viciousness and inhumanity to keep him company.

That was what he had brought back from the war.

When he walked down the familiar streets of his neighborhood, he was fascinated to see how quiet it was. 

He remembered it being brimming with life, with children running around, dogs annoyingly barking at each other from across their fences, all that was left of his neighborhood was dead silence and uncleaned yards.

He also noticed there werent any people insight either, which was odd, but understandable. There hasent been anything remotely lovely to come out to nowadays. 

He continued walking down the road, then through the closed pathway, then after a few short minutes he was where he would always go when he wanted to be properly alone in peace. 

Even after the.....

Wait a minute.

Wait a f*****g minute.

Who the f**k?........

There was someone sitting on his bench.

Tom took a single step closer for a better view.

There was a woman sitting on his bench.

Then slowly, Tom took about 4 steps towards the woman until he stopped almost compeletly. 

He stopped because he realized that his hands where shaking violently, so violently he was punching his own leg. He started muttering to himself while pacing around the area near the bench, not seeing how insane he looked, whispering things like:

".....not in my f*****g bench....." 

".....tie you with some f*****g rope and burn you along with it....."

"......ohhhh you f*****g cu......"

"Excuse me?"

 Just like that, Tom was awoken from his silent rage to find he was standing only a few feet away from the woman on his bench. He noticed she was wearing a red jacket with a hoddie covering most of her hair, and a cigarette, sitting right between her lips.

"Are you alright man?"she asked.

"Why the f**k wouldnt I be?", Tom barked out.

The woman was shocked by his frustation, but didnt back down from his response.

"Maybe cause you were talking to yourself like a damn lunatic?"

Tom reached for his ciggerate pack in his jacket, pulled one out, and lit it up. He stared at the woman dead in the eyes, all while blowing smoke in her direction.

"Well if Im a f*****g lunatic , then your the pretty girl in the woods Im supposed to gut like a fish right?"

He slowely smiled, trying to add on to the mysterious lunatic, psycho killer, type persona he thought he was buliding up amazingly, so amazingly in fact, that she would f**k off to some other bench.

He was wrong.

She smiled back.

Tom muttered "f**k this," turned around and walked back into the direction he came from. He didnt want to go back to his family home, so instead he headed to a diner that was close by to his neighborhood.

He remembered heading in there when he was younger, either alone or out for another monthly family get togather. The days he did walk in alone, he had always felt embarrassed.

Embarrassed and paranoid.

Like everyone was watching him, judging him, pitying him. It always made it so hard for him to finish his meals. He would eventually just take his burgers to go and head outside in to the evening night, right back to the bench in the middle of the woods, right back to where he felt the most safe.

As soon as he opened the diner doors, he realized he had spent the remaining amount of cash he had leftover on the bus ride to town. He sighed and took a seat in the back, right next to the little televsion hooked up above him.

Tom looked around the place, still fascinated on how little to empty this hotspot once was. It seemed like the whole town had gone to war with him, except he was the one who came back.

He noticed a pretty red haired waitress cleaning tables from across him.

Jane.

He remembered her.

He remembered she gave him a free soda that one time.

He wanted to talk to her, had always wanted too, but he could never find the self confidence to make the conversation last, let alone start it in the first place.

So just as Tom was getting ready to head her way, he sat right back down. A back and fourth motion he knew all too well. 

He just sat there.

Sat there with his hands in his jacket pocket.

"Nothing f*****g new,"he muttered under his breath. His eyes began to slowely close down, as the noises and movement around him began to fade away. 

There was a little girl walking towards him.

She was smiling.

The same sort of smile that the woman sitting on his bench gave him.

The smile alone could tell you alot.

It could tell you how charming Tom could actually be, whether he wanted to or not. 

Most likely not.

It was all in his eyes.

There was a innocence to his lonlieness, a belonging that he deeply wanted, that you could almost immedietly notice, something that uncounsicensly pulls you towards him.

The little girl had some flowers in her hands, and a smile that continued to grow wider the closer she came running to Tom.

Tom was smiling too, he was about to give out a full length grin until......

Until.

Until a bullet ripped through her forehead, covering Tom's entire body with the little girls fresh blood. Tom was able to catch the now deceased little girl, even with her peircing red blood blinding him to the point where he thought the bullet had went through his one eye, circled back, then came for the other.

He grabbed the closest thing he could reach to wipe his eyes. After he regained his vision, he noticed the little girls flowers in his hands, painted with the blood he used to clean his eyes with.

At that point, Tom still hadent understood what had happened.

That was until he saw the mother of the little girl, a few feet away, bending on both knees, tears in her eyes, and a smoking rifle in her arms.

Tom understood right then and there, it all came to him at once.

He put the blood red flowers in his back pocket, replacing it with the army knife that had been sitting there.

He opened it, and ran straight to the mother with the still smoking rifle.

Thats when a plate of a double bacon cheeseburger with fries had been slammed right down next to Toms deep sleeping head.

Tom suddenly jumped up from the table, grabbing the knife next to the burger, and yelled out with all his strength,

"She didnt have to die, god f*****g damn it, she didnt have to die!" 

The entire diner population had there jaws dropped.

He then noticed the girl with the red jacket, the same f*****g girl that was sitting on his bench literally sitting right in front of him, jaw dropped with the rest of the crowd.

There eyes met, then hers slowly moved down to the knife that was being pointed at her.

She sat there still in shock but managed to speak up locking eyes with Tom again, almost as if she was searching for that innocent belonging she had seen in him a few hours ago.

"I...I...bought you some food.....I saw you sleeping here...an...and I remembered you..um..from before...in the woods....I just....,"she started to tear up.

Tom still had the diner knife pointed in her direction, still not configuring the who and what of the situation.

Then he heard a shotgun pump. 

It was June, and the rifle was aimed at him.

"Oh s**t."

He shakingly tried to muster up a sentence,"I was....I thought...I...it was the little girl...she....she brought me flowers and...,"

He saw disgust in their eyes.

It was no use, they didnt understand.

But not her.

Not the girl in the red jacket.

She looked at Tom with something he had never really seen before, or really something he had failed to notice.

It was an embrace.

An embrace and an understanding.

Just as belonging was in his eyes, compassion was in hers.

Her eyes stayed with his, even when Tom had his full attention to the shotgun being pointed at his body, she didnt move or hesitate.

She cried, then she slowly smiled.

"I understand.....its okay.....,"she said softly,"I promise you it'll be alright."

Tom was shocked. He didnt know what to say.

So he threw the knife on the floor and loudly stated,

"Im...uh...going out for a cigarette...,"

and with that Tom ran out of the diner. 

He didnt know where he was running off too exactly, but it became all to familiar when he stumbled across the hidden pathway that led to that special place for him in the woods. 

Author's Note

there is quite a bit of profanity, and grammatical errors in the story.
i apologize for the second one.

Reviews

[Emma]

As you said in the above authors note, there are a few grammatical errors. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed your story and it made me laugh more than once!