The Tree of Life

“Wow~,” Elias whistled as he looked down over the cliff before him, his black hair waving in the wind,. his backpack settled with a familiar weight. He was 5 ft 10 in. He had everything needed to survive in his backpack, as well as two Beretta M9s. He had dedicated quite a while to learn how to shoot “duel wielded”, but it had saved him in several occasions. He had always been an adventurous kid, but ever since his seventeenth birthday, he had taken to cliff climbing like a fish to water. Elias smiled faintly as he remembered the climbing he had done for his birthday. His parents had taken the family to the Rocky Mountains. The drive was tedious but the views of the mountains were worth the drive. His smile faded as he remembered what had happened shortly after his family had gotten back. No matter what he did, it always came back to “This Memory”

They had gone their separate ways, his parents living together, and him living with his sister. He had gone to visit his parents. As he approached their room, a red substance had leaked under the door. Shocked, Elias had opened the door, to find his parents murdered, and a note in his parents hands.

“Bring the money by tomorrow, or we take the girl.” The note had a date on it. 1-23-12. “That was two days ago!” Elias had thought to himself, he was starting to see red in his vision. As he ran out the door, all he could think was “Protect Grace, kill them, my parents, dead, death, death, death to them all!”  Elias got in his car and floored the gas, ignoring all the traffic laws he had ever learned. as he got to the apartment he and his sister shared, Elias saw a car pulling out, and flooring it down the street. He quickly pulled the wheel to the right and followed them..

The kidnappers car suddenly took a turn. Elias quickly yanked the wheel to follow them. As the kidnappers pulled into a warehouse. Elias realized a fatal flaw in his rescue plan. he only had the stuff he had when he was at the Rocky Mountains, which was his combat knife, a canteen, some rope, and an MRE pack. “Phooey, not much to work with.”

His flashback rushed forward to when he had followed one of the kidnappers until he was alone.

As he slowly approached the kidnapper, who was currently crouched down looking at a screen, Elias started to smile. This wasn’t a happy smile, this was an insane one. Elias glanced at the screen, he realized it was the security cameras, and he was now coming into view. The kidnapper started to turn around just as Elias charged and stabbed him in the heart. His smile grew and he started laughing. This wasn’t a happy laugh, this was complete, utter, insanity. After he continued and brutally murdered everyone he came across, he finally got to his sister, Grace.

She was sitting in a dark room, a light suspended over her head. As Elias walked forward he noticed she was bruised and unconscious. Elias growled “When I find them, I’m going to kill them.

Now next to the chair, Elias heard a voice behind him. “You have already found them. and here I am.” He turned and saw complete red. He screamed and charged forward. Elias stabbed the man multiple times in the chest before stopping.  Back in the present, Elias gasped. He had been trying for months now to repress that memory, because whenever he thought of it, the only thought that would go into his mind was “Death” . He had gone insane for a while until he calmed down again. He stumbled forward, out near the edge of the outcrop of the cliff.

*CRACK

Elias turned around to see a thin line running through the outcrop he was on. “OH, Shi-!” was all he had time to say before another resounding *CRACK was heard and the line between Elias and secure ground widened. Elias started running to make it across the line before the outcrop fell. He sprinted and jumped just as the outcrop was falling, barely grabbing the edge of the, now shortened, cliff. ‘Whew, thought I was dead for sure.’ thought Elias as he pulled himself up. As he stood up, a smaller, yet still resounding *CRACK echoed around. As Elias despeately looked around for the crack, he felt the ground below him give way. Now freefalling, Elias felt strangely calm. He looked up at the sky and thought to himself, ‘Never thought I was going to die doing this, I hope Grace is okay.” Elias closed his eyes for what he thought would be his last time, and was unable to see the mist slowly closing in around him as he fell. He hit a tree and was pierced through his chest while the branches slowed him down so that he became suspended on the trunk. Elias opened his eyes in shock as he felt the brutal pain faded into numbness as he started going into shock. Black slowly filled his vision and his last image was a body of mist looking at him sadly.