Writing Prompt

The world, before, was a dark, dark place. There was only an orange tree growing all alone in the earth where it was planted, nobody knows why it’s there, or how it got there. The skies and the seas nurtured the sapling for years and years. The tree bloomed before the world knew about life, it stood in its place so tall, no one knew where it ended. It bore gifts for the creatures who would live there soon.

The orange tree sprouted a pristine white orb in the sky, it was the Moon! The moon brightened up the skies, and reflected on the seas, giving light through the darkness. But, it wasn’t enough, still, for the tree did not stop growing, a sign that it wasn’t yet time to rest, a greatest gift for the greatest creation!

Mankind.

The first men worshipped the orange tree greatly, the men who helped the seas, and the skies take care of the tree, with their families along side with them. They knew that the tree was responsible for the life that earth had, and they feel obligated to give back to the caring tree.

Feeling the compassion of humanity, the orange tree grew even more, and finally. Finally! The tree presented humankind its greatest creation, the orange ball of light, the one they call Sun! Slowly but surely, the sun erased the traces of the dark blue skies of the night, as it rises from the horizon to where the moon once was.

The birds flew happily, the fishes splashed through the waters, the lands were alive with animals running around on it. The bright sun leaving no darkness behind, the earth was thriving! The orange tree has finally brought mankind its greatest gift! But where the Sun now stood, the moon disappeared, with no more use if it, it was time to be destroyed.

Humanity prevented the destruction of the Moon, for they were grateful and attached still, to the light the moon brought to them. They requested not to part ways with the sphere of white light, and requested to the to have both of them. As a compromise, the orange tree split itself and half the earth sees the moon, the sun on the other. Hence, they became the guardians of the Night and Day.

The Sun continued to rise brightly from the east horizon waking up half of humanity, the Moon watching over the night in the west, and Humankind continued to worship the its greatness, the Orange Tree was satisfied, and now was the time to rest.

Fin.

The orange tree was in full blossom and the sun began to rise on the horizon. As the soft amber glow spilled its paintbox of colours over the rolling green countryside, I stood there, silently weeping.

The beautiful landscape blurred as my eyes burned. Leaning against the slender tree trunk, I merely choked up, shaking uncontrollably, thanking the heavens that nobody was around to see my breakdown. I tried so hard to be strong... but weakness was natural, I reminded myself. A natural part of the process, they had said. Yes, that was it.

My shabby trainers were soaked through from this morning’s dew around my feet. The grass was still green, no matter how much I sobbed. The sun would still rise, no matter how much I sobbed. And the orange blossom would still bloom and grow, no matter how much I sobbed.

I attempted in vain to take control of my breathing, but each time I gained a little bit of peace from my relentless howls her gorgeous face drifted into my aching mind’s eye, and I’d collapse again. I screamed to the fluffy pink cloud ridden sky. I demanded justice.

But justice would mean admitting, and justice, ultimate justice, would mean the loss of my life.

I remembered her dark eyes, sharp, inquisitive as ever, and yet full of betrayal. I could still feel the somewhat ironic softness of the pillow under my calloused hands, as I pressed it against her perfectly defined features. She struggled, but she was losing. It had started as an innocent pillow fight, and had escalated immensely; I suffocated her to death.

It wasn’t me that had done it- it was the beast in my chest, prowling murderously about my gut, rising up my throat and strangling me until I carried out its orders. It was unmanageable.

I had hated her and I had loved her. Now, as I trembled watching the sun ascend, I couldn’t remember the pure fiery hatred that used to boil up inside me. I said and did horrible things to such a lovely person, and now I poured out my remorse and regret. I confessed my guilt to the birds that tweeted melodies relentlessly.

But they were after me. They wanted me to complete the transformation, from a person to a psychopath. I resisted but it was no use. No use...

Justice was needed.

That old song about the wonders of the world danced into my head: I see fields of green, and clouds of white. Blah blah blah. But I never appreciated its relevance until this moment.

I crumpled to the ground, crushed, succumbed by guilt and anguish, and faded into nothing among the vermillion pansies.

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

 The orange tree was in full blossom and the sun began to rise on the horizon. I looked at him and smiled “we’ve been out here all night you know.” He just laughed and pulled me closer. “Calm down. Isn’t this what you wanted?” I looked him in the eyes and blushed. He was right, it was what I wanted.
 I never imagined myself having kids that young but I also never imagined doing it without him. He is.....he was my whole life. When I first found out I was scared shitless. But now I’m just looking back on it all like it was yesterday. 
 “Thank you.....for this for everything you’ve done for me. And for Ellis.” As I looked into his beautiful blue eyes I knew that everything I had ever wanted was right in front of me. My six year old daughter was dancing in the maze of orange trees, and the love of my life was sitting next to me. “Of course. I’m not like him Sarah, I won’t hurt you. None of you” he places his hand on my stomach. I looked at his hand and smiled. I was due in three weeks, another little girl. This time I was prepared. I was older. 
 “Danny are you coming with us?” He was asleep on my couch. I was six weeks from my due date and my mom was impatient. She hadn’t expected her seventeen year old to have a baby. Danny didn’t do much but drink, sleep and hit me. But I was ‘in love’ what did I know right? Anyways he didn’t go with us to the appointment. And he didn’t go anywhere the whole week. Well except to the liquor store. My mom didn’t know he hurt me. And she didn’t know he used a fake id to buy alcohol.
 The day it happened, I had just gotten back from an ultrasound. For my second. This one wasn’t Danny’s. I pulled into the driveway.Right away I knew he was drunk. When I saw Danny standing on my patio I knew it. He hadn’t been around in so long Ellis didn’t even know who he was. Colby was her dad. We got out leaving the car running and Ellis in it. And right away he started “where’s my kid?” He was slurring. “Danny go away” he glared at me “GIVE ME MY DAMN KID.” He approached me and I tended up I reached into my purse to grab my knife but before I could pull it out I was on the ground my head was bleeding from the fall and I was punched at least four times. But luckily Colby was there. He handled Danny for me. 
 We got rid of Danny. And now we were having an amazing morning in the Orange grove until Ellis saw it. “Mommy there’s a man In the pond and he’s bleeding” I smiled and looked at her. “He’s napping love” 

The orange tree was in full blossom and the sun began to rise on the horizon, but he couldn’t see it. The tree, the last thing he saw as he rode away in the back of the cruiser, was on his mind. The last time he saw the tree it burst with shades of green as if to show the world it was time for summer. It was late spring of ‘03. A dog laid on the porch adjacent from his house. Kids played basketball in the street. An elderly lady swept her door step, locking eyes with him for only a moment and stopping briefly to give him a neighborly wave. Girls walked down the street, wearing shorts that were far to short for them and shirts that cut into a low v-neck. One of those girls wouldn’t make it home that day. In fact, she would never make it home again, thanks to him. Now here he sat, thirteen years later thinking of the tree. Of all the things to think of, he thought of a tree he hadn’t seen in over a decade. He didn’t know the tree was in blossom. He hadn’t seen a sun rise in years. After today it would be certain that he would never see a sun rise again, as the sun was about to set on his life forever. Very soon two guards would arrive at the cell he had called home and tell him his time was up. The thought of it made himself sick. So he thought of the tree.

The orange tree was in full blossom and the sun began to rise on the horizon. With the sun rising in front of me, tears streamed down my face as I thought about the memories that had occurred in the last twenty-four hours of my life. My mom and sister were dead. The fight with my dad had saved my life. I haven’t always had a hard life, I wouldn’t even describe the recent events as hard. More so, tragic or unfortunate. Last year, with the death of my dad’s dad, things started to hit a rough patch. That first week was the first sign of something wrong. Annie, my sister, and I had come home from school the day dad found him, he hadn’t bothered to come to get us. We came home to find dad slumped on the floor, reeking of booze. We couldn’t find mom anywhere, but we heard the soft cries coming from the bathroom. She laid on the floor, her eye was freshly blue, obvious a victim of a punching accident. We ignored it, because that’s when we learned about gramps. From there it got worse. The death of his dad had brought out my father's worse traits. He started drinking. He would be gone for days at a time. The violence against her hadn’t ended. We would come home some days and she’d be locked away, refusing to see us, and dad would be nowhere in sight. He’d got physical with Annie and me before, but never resulting in hard punches, mostly just a push here and there. The day he murdered them, I had come home from school by myself, Annie was sick and stayed home. I walked in and he was beating on mom, his fist bloody because of her battered body. Annie sat in the corner of the room, crying her eyes out, unable to be any help. I wasn’t much bigger than him, but I had some size on me. I walked up to him and pushed him far away from mom, giving her enough time to get away to lock her and Annie in the bathroom. He screamed at me, I can never forget the words, but I will not repeat them. He kicked me out, telling me that if I came back that he would shoot me. I thought with them in the bathroom, they would be safe, he would calm down. I knew that I would be doing nothing if I had been shot. I crashed at a friend's house, them waking me in the earlier hours to tell me. From there I found this spot, the beautiful orange tree on the edge of the cliff. It’s hard, it really is. My reasoning for finding this spot was the cliff. The beauty added, but it made me sick because of what I was going to do. It was really too beautiful for someone to kill themselves right now, but what else was there to do?