A Bad Day in the Woods - Freewrite Day 492 Entry - Prompt: Double Crossed

Hello friends. I hope that you're doing well :)

This is my response to the Freewrite prompt, a daily writing exercise that I am really enjoying doing. Thank you @mariannewest for hosting these, and thank you to the people who have delegated SP to me to be able to continue utilizing the Steem platform. I'm very grateful for all the support.

I’ve been challenging myself to make all of the freewrites I do match a particular theme. So far, I have made them about wild animals that tend to get a bad reputation, and am finding it to be a very enjoyable challenge. However, this prompt isn’t lending itself to this theme, so instead of forcing myself to stick to it, I’m going to allow myself some freedom. I’m open for other suggestions though, and am considering trying to make these a continuous story concept. I may play around with things a bit more in my coming freewrites.

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https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-492-5-minute-freewrite-sunday-prompt-double-crossed

Prompt: “Double Crossed”

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I was walking along the trail in the woods. The air was clean, the sun shining, and I was having an excellent time. I heard birds chirping all around me, and the occasional buzz of a happy insect flying by. As I crested a small hill, I paused, gazing at the magnificent views in front of me. I took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly, letting myself relax. I was one with nature.

I turned back and continued on down the path. To my surprise, I found someone walking the other way. Being in a friendly mood, I called out to them.

“Hi there! How are you finding the trail ahead?” This was a new path for me, so I was hoping that they may have some advice.

“Oh, it was fabulous. A beautiful hike. Make sure to spend some time on the bridge, and listen to the gurgling stream, it is really peaceful,” they replied with a smile, and then continued walking on by.

I thanked them, and continued my walk. While hiking, I always keep a fairly calm pace, so it took me a bit to get to the stream. But my fellow traveler was right, this was a gorgeous stream, with a beautiful wooden bridge covering it, about 15 feet over the water. I walked out onto the bridge, and stopped to listen. I took my bag off and closed my eyes, letting the gurgling noise of the water crashing over the rocks fill me, enjoying the calm.

However, I heard a loud crack, and opened my eyes, looking around. A split second later, I was falling through the bridge, the wooden planks having broken beneath me. I threw my hands up, and was lucky enough to catch one of the boards. I knew I was in trouble, but that’s when I heard footsteps nearby.

“Help!” I called out. The footsteps sped up, coming right up to the crack in the bridge. That’s when I heard the laughter. I looked up, and saw that it was the person I had passed, standing over the hole with a sneer on their face.

“Ah, I knew I would be able to get you. You city hikers, coming in here with your expensive gear, making us locals look bad. I cut out the supports for the middle of the bridge, and knew I would catch someone. Looks like it’s not your lucky day.” With that, they reached past the hole, and grabbed my bag. They turned to walk off, chuckling to themselves. “Quite a haul this time, I’ll be able to make some good money off your misfortune.” They then turned back, and for a brief second, I was hopeful they had changed their mind. Instead, they spit in my face. I wasn’t expecting this at all, and almost lost my grip. With that, they turned, and ran off down the path I had come from.

So here I was, double crossed by some random stranger in the woods, hanging by my fingertips from a broken bridge over a rushing stream full of rocks. I knew I had to get up, but couldn’t pull myself up through the hole. I looked around, trying to figure out a safe option. In a flash, it hit me. I could get to the side of the bridge, and climb sideways back to land. Unfortunately, I was dangling right in the middle. This would be risky, but I had no choice. Gathering my strength, I swung towards an edge, letting my hands fly through the air, as I rotated to catch the ledge. Luckily, I did this sort of thing semi-regularly, so was able to catch myself. With a breath of relief, I started moving sideways, and in a few short seconds, made it back to land.

I collapsed to the ground, exhausted both physically and emotionally from my ordeal. I knew I had to start heading back soon, to get out before dark. That person was long gone unfortunately, as was all my gear. With a heavy sigh, I turned back to the trail I had come from. It was going to be a long walk back.

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Well, this turned out to be much longer, and darker, than I had anticipated it to be. Though with this prompt, I knew it wasn’t going to turn out well. Today I wrote a post about my favorite outdoor activities, so hiking was on the brain for this apparently.

Hopefully this gorgeous picture will undo some of the bad feelings from the story.

_Source

I do love hiking, and have never had an experience like this. I don’t know of anyone who has, and hope this sort of thing doesn’t happen in the real world. If anyone has had something bad happen, you have my deepest sympathies.

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I am looking for a partner for the we-write contest if anyone is interested. You can find details here.

If you’re interested in writing with me, please send me a message on discord, my username is nmcdougal#1503, or on Telegram.

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Until next time,

Namaste

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