The Search for Serenity

14 - Beautiful

- Alice -

"This is a terrible idea."

"Come on," Toby drags out his words, "Don't be so dramatic." He rolls his eyes playfully as he practically drags me to one of the trees in the woods. I begrudgingly follow with an exaggerated groan of distaste.

"You do realise we can fall and die, right?" I say with widened eyes, my panicked state eliciting a chuckle from his throat. "Well, I'm glad you find my suffering amusing." I huff as we come to a stop, folding my arms over my chest.

He rolls his eyes again, shaking his head. "It'll be fine, trust me. The view up here is stunning." He looks up and I follow his gaze, holding my breath as I take in the height of the thick tree before us, its long branches splayed in a ll directions.

Once I finished with my work earlier, Toby helped me pack up and drove us here, only telling me we'd be going to the woods, so we stopped off at home to pick up my camera first. He said he knew the perfect place to go to take great photos. So here we are, standing before an old tree with tangled branches and intricate indentations in its bark.

I'd admire it if it weren't for the fact Toby expects us to climb it, practically sentencing me to an early death.

"If I die, I'm coming back to haunt you." I threaten with a mumble as he chuckles again. I ignore him, lifting the camera strap over my neck as we move closer to the tree.

My palms begin to sweat and I blow out a breath, not even sure why I'm going through with this. Toby's back is turned to me as he surveys the branches. My nerves pick up slightly and I look between Toby and the tree, feeling unsure.

"You good to go first and I'll follow up after you? That way if you do happen to slip, which is highly unlikely, I'll be there. Or should—" He stops in his tracks as he does a doubletake upon noticing the visible distress on my face. "Hey, if you really don't want to climb, we don't have to. I promise I've done this a thousand times before, it'll be alright." He ensures me earnestly, stepping closer to me.

I take a deep breath. I can't always live without taking risks, I need to push myself more sometimes, get out of my comfort zones. Or else I'll always be stuck. 

"No, no, I'm just overthinking it. I'm quite the professional at that." I laugh my nerves away before shaking my head. "I want to go up, you said it's nice, right?" I insist, looking for any kind of reassurance to convince me that this tree is not a death trap.

He nods. "Exactly. But if you change your mind, that's okay."

I give him a smile in return as I begin to internally hype myself up to give myself some courage. Despite my apprehensiveness, I want to at least give it a go. You only regret the things you don't do, right?

Unless it's drugs.

Definitely don't do drugs.

Toby gestures for me to go first. "My lady," he bows slightly, making me snort a laugh.

"How chivalrous," I giggle, and the tension releases from my shoulders from the light-heartedness. Pressing a hand to my chest, I play along with the act before removing it and taking another deep breath.

I grab onto a low-hanging branch, holding on and lifting a foot to another, pulling myself up. I huff as I climb higher, slowly finding my footing and pushing myself up again.

"Is this high enough?" I try to balance my voice as I speak, but the slight tremor in my tone remains. I refuse to look down as I hear Toby's laughter.

"Alice, you're barely up five feet," he rasps between small wheezes of his laughter, "I promise it'll be okay if you go a little higher up."