On a nice autumn morning, the warm sun rises, the golden brown leaves gracefully rain down upon the ground and the delicate breeze shake the towering trees while the welcoming scent of cider fills the air. Rushing through the calm wood is the shy Wallflower Blush, jogging and hopping over stray puddles as the dry, dead leaves crunch beneath her shoes. The continuously falling leaves land and tangle up in her green, unruly hair, prompting her to put her dark gray hood on for protection.
Checking her phone, Wallflower plays another song through her ear buds, scrolling through her incredibly huge schedule of daily insignificant tasks before making the unfortunate discovery of falling back a whole minute behind schedule. Panicking, she picks up the pace and ends up sprinting down the straight path.
Passing a normal happy family fishing down by the grand lake, Wallflower pulls and tightens her hood further over her head, puts on a huge pair of black shades and continues down the path while the loving unit innocently wave on.
Searching on a map app, Wallflower finds a shortcut not far from her current location, nodding to herself in approval over her plan. Her forehead grew wetter, her panting grew heavier and her lungs grew hotter with each breath. Finally, she spots the shortcut just a few feet ahead, to her relief.
However, her internal celebration is cut short, for a thick and sturdy root trips her over and sends her falling head-first into the moist dirt.
Groaning in defeat, Wallflower angrily slaps the dirt, twigs and leaves off her hoodie as she staggers to her feet. There, as she recovers, something bright in a tall, cracked tree stump near her catches her eye.
"Huh..." she ponders.
Approaching the mysterious object, she finds it to be a golden pocket watch with a thin chain hanging from one of the stump's nubby branches. Wallflower looks to find no one nearby before hesitantly reaching over and picking the item up. Upon further inspection, she hears a faint ticking coming from the watch and sees the watches hands and gears moving normally.
Wallflower pulls out her phone and checks the time, "9:58 AM".
She looks back at the watch, "3:19".
Turning the watch, she twists the nob on its side around and soon, a swarm of leaves gracefully glide around the bewildered girl toward the ground before stopping. Looking back at the watch, Wallflower gives the strange object a quizzical look before hanging it back on the stump's branch. She quickly turns around to continue jogging toward the path until-
BUMP!
The surprised introvert rubs her head wincing, opening her eyes to see the same tree stump carrying the same pocket watch standing right in front of her.
"What the..." she utters, wiping the bits of moss from her forehead.
She looks behind her to see the path, then looks back at the stump. Wallflower checks behind the stump, nothing.
Backing away slowly, she accidentally steps in a dip in the ground, loses her balance, falls backwards and ends up landing right back in front of the same stump.
"Ugh, I don't have TIME for this!" she hisses.
Questioning her own sanity, Wallflower pinches herself and looks around intensely, hoping the whole thing was just some mind bending prank. There, she squats down low with one hand on the ground and the other clawing at the air behind her as she takes a slow, careful step away from the stump. Making it closer to the path, she holds her hand up front before turning her head around, path still laying behind her like normal.
Eventually, she successfully makes it to the dirt road. Wallflower takes her phone out and puts her ear buds on to test her music, which plays normally, to her delight.
"That's bet- AHH!"
Suddenly, as she attempted to walk away, a loud, ear-piercing ring mercilessly assaults the girl's eardrums, forcing her to yank the ear buds off. Annoyed, Wallflower blindly makes a mad dash away from the stump, going completely off course.
Leaves continue to float down around her like a calm rainstorm as she begins to cry, ultimately tripping and landing at the roots of the tall stump once more. Running out of options, she takes her phone and rapidly dials 911, only for the loud ringing to grow louder and she hangs up.
But then, she heard it.
The ticking...
That. Dreaded. TICKING.
Pushed to the breaking point, Wallflower jumps to her feet and grabs the accursed watch, searching for something to rid herself of this nightmare before seeing the massive lake nearby. The ringing gets more and more aggressive as the girl pulls her arm back to throw the watch away until it was too much for her and she collapses.
Sad and exhausted, Wallflower crawls her way over and lays her back against the tree as the ringing fades, lifting her hood off. She glances at the watch still clutched in her quivering hand for a moment before wiping her eyes. The soft breeze gently waves through her bushy hair as the glistening horizon puts her at ease.
Seeing the leaves dance in the air around her and the majestic sun's scattered light shining through the towering trees and reflecting from the cool lake gives Wallflower a nice moment of peace. Peace that she has been lacking for so long.
Rising to her feet, she dusts herself off, removes her shades and takes a deep breath of autumn's aroma, letting out a long, accepting sigh before putting the chain around her neck, holding the watch close to her chest.
Rolling her headphones around her finger, she sticks them in her pocket along with her phone and walks back on the road. She suddenly feels the weight coming off her shoulders, eventually turning around to find herself far from the stump, giving it a warm smile as she leaves.
Enjoying nature's beauty, Wallflower continues down the path, strolling right past the shortcut.
Author's Note
Sometimes you need to stop and take time.
Other times, you need to let time take you.
