The Often Trodden Path – #WRITEPHOTO

The Often Trodden Path – #WRITEPHOTO

Tom looked at the beautiful colors surrounding him as he walked along the small path. The leaves looked so beautiful at this time of the year. Two weeks back he had been unable to walk around this place. Every time he tried to walk he would find himself running back to the villa in terror. Those were the initial days after he had just inherited the estate from his late wife Kathy.

Those days he had had visions of the leaves of the trees in this path dripping with blood. When Kathy had been alive, almost every evening he used to take walks along this path with her. Those walks had always ended with the two of them happily making love by the side of some tree or the other. After Kathy’s death, every time he tried to walk along this path, he had a vision in which the leaves of the trees appeared to be dripping blood.    

Tom realized that the problems he was facing were entirely due to his conscience which was carrying the burden of the horrific act he had committed. But what could he do? Kathy had been meeting that other fellow on the sly. He had not known who the fellow was and had pretended to be entirely unaware of what she was up to. It had been a terrible time for him. Finally he had not been able to stand it anymore and had killed Kathy by slipping a liberal dose of arsenic into her coffee.

Kathy had passed away peacefully in her sleep.  Everyone had believed that Kathy had died of a heart attack. That was natural as everyone was aware of the fact that Kathy had a weak heart. He had intended to kill himself after killing her but his courage had failed him at the last minute. 

It was after burying Kathy that he had started having those frightening visions.  Unable to bear things, he had finally got hold of John who was a famous psychiatrist. He had not revealed to John the burden his conscience was carrying. John had told him he was suffering from some obscure disease or the other and had written out a prescription. Tom had taken the medication regularly. Slowly the visions had subsided and finally faded. He still felt sorry about what he had done to Kathy. But he felt okay now.

As Tom walked along the path he suddenly saw something that made him draw his breath in sharply. What was that? Was it a noose hanging from the branch of a tree? Yes, it must be. He reached the tree with the noose. He suddenly felt elated. He smiled to himself. He knew what he had to do now. He climbed up the tree and slipped the noose around his neck and kicked his feet away from the branch he was perched on.

At a distance of 50 feet John stepped out of his hiding place behind another tree and walked over to where Tom’s body was hanging, very dead. He looked up at the hanging body and spoke, ‘You got what you deserved, you scum. You took away my Kathy from me. You did not realize that I was Kathy’s lover, did you? And you took all the drugs I gave you happily. I could have killed you myself but I could not bring myself to take a life. So psychedelic suggestion. Always works like a charm. May your soul rot in hell…’

Author’s Note: This post is written as part of Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt – #WRITEPHOTO