Hot Potato

Look! I did a thing! Well, we did a thing actually. I teamed up with two other bloggers to write a story. We turned it into a game. One would write 100(ish) words and pass it to another one of us who would in turn write 100(ish) words, pass it, and so on. I can’t tell you how hard it is to stop yourself from writing once you get going, knowing that you are going to pass the story on to someone and hope that they pick up on where you were taking the story. At the same time, that’s the beauty of it! Not knowing what they are going to do with what you wrote, and not knowing what it’s going to look like when you get it back. I’m not going to say who wrote what, I kinda think that would take away from what we tried to do here. The following is the story that Gloria, Richelle, and I wrote, or at least this is what we have so far…

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Stumbling out of The Watering Hole, a tree caught my fall. I kid you not, the thing leaned down and stopped me from walking into the street. I nearly pissed myself! But I quickly dismissed it as just one too many drinks.

I think I might have passed out there for a bit too. When I came to I found myself braced against the tree, vacating everything that I had consumed that day onto the street. A branch creaked towards me, resting it’s leaves on my face, then wiping it clean as it bent back into position.

Surprisingly, I was able to piece together a sober thought, “What the hell are you!?”

I tell you, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. Right in front of my face bark shifted into the shape of a mouth and the thing said “We are Legion, for we are many.”

I quickly push myself off of the tree, causing myself to lose my balance and fall onto my back into the street. I lie there staring at the tree. Could this be? Was this tree really just talking? No, I had to have been hallucinating, I did have a lot to drink tonight.

I get up and brush myself off. I turn to walk away when suddenly, something is wrapped around my ankle.
“Where are you going?” the tree asked.

I froze, I didn’t know what to do. This tree really was talking.
“I’m going home, it’s late and I’m tired.”
“Like hell you are!!”
The tree grabbed both of my legs and snapped them at the knees. I screamed out for help, but the streets were empty, nobody could hear me.
“Get over here!!” The tree screamed before ripping off my left leg.

The tree quickly slams my body against its trunk. In a calm tone, it tells me to settle down.
“Settle down?! You ripped my le-” Before I could even finish my sentence, it snapped my leg back into place.

I immediately start to feel the ground crumble beneath me and I start to free fall. “Ahhhh!” I shut my eyes in an attempt to end this alcohol induced episode I seem to be having.

My my feet hit the not so solid ground and I open my eyes. I’m standing on endless taproots. I was definitely sober now.

There was a thunderous boom. A single bolt of lightning darted across the sky, jumping from one cloud to the next. I’ve never seen anything like it. As it travelled it spelled out “We Are Legion”, then shot down into the center of the tree. The tree opened its mouth, which was now glowing, and said “we are many”. Smoke poured from its mouth as it spoke. So much smoke, I could barely see.

Yep, this was real. Definitely not a dream or hallucination like I had hoped. I turned to run but found myself surrounded by all sorts of plants, animals, bushes, and trees… Where did they all come from!? How did I not hear them coming?…

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Until next time, do a collaboration or guest post.

P.S. We didn’t decide on a picture before I decided to post this so I grabbed a screenshot of our conversation in the group… Nothing to see here…