After a little more digging around – apparently even such a horrific image doesn't stop human curiosity, such stubborn creatures, of course, I was one too – she had more than enough evidence not only to prove his guilt but also the horseplay that will lead to the soon-persecution of a, while hated, innocent man.

This left her in a difficult situation, which is why I decided to acknowledge this girl's worries.

On one hand, she could take this to the authorities and have them deal with the whole situation.

Personally, I do not understand how the idea of the police being corrupted by the money this politician was willing to give in exchange for silence had not once crossed her mind. The concept on this choice, however, was understandable: let justice and truth prevail.

But as commendably noble the thought was, it was not that simple – no affairs regarding humans ever are.

She was, whilst naïve, a smart woman, well aware of the fact that there were risks tied to how she proceeded with the evidence in he hands, especially with her opponent being such a public figure.

There was a good chance that he would bury everything under black money even if she did hand in the information; this humble tree, however, thinks the phrase 'a good chance' would be better off swapped out for 'almost certainty'. My thoughts are irrelevant in this case, all I can do is commend the young woman for knowing it could happen despite of her naivety.

An alternative from going to the authorities herself, publish the information online. The case being so high-profile, with the right tags, the data would spread like wildfire. Once in the hand of the public, there was no way for the information disappear. She could post it anonymously and let the news spread.

This woman had come up with many alternative plans for how she can have the corrupt politician do time for his crime, or to at least let people know he was the real culprit. However, maybe due to her overthinking to an extent, she couldn't come up with a single one she was wiling too go through with.

Why?

Because in all the cases she could come up with in her head, there was one thing that wasn't guaranteed: her safety.

This young woman had pulled off the feat of procuring a successful job, a stable engagement, a good social life, essentially her life was as perfect as it could get. And the politician with the money and power to falsely accuse a university professor most definitely had the resources to both find out she was behind it and ruin her life.

She had aspirations, people she cared about, too many things that could potentially be in harms way if she were to make any attempt to reveal the truth.

Someone so sick they would even consider to keep such horrific photographs in a flash drive would not think twice on using her family, her friends, her job to threaten her – this was the thought of her's I agreed with the most, as well as why I agreed that she had every right to worry.

From the thoughts I have seen from other human's and the actions this man had committed, he was more than capable of doing so.

When I thought about it, however, I think in her position I would at least say enough to have the innocent man set free long enough too prove he was not behind the murder of his student. It made no sense for him to go down for a crime he hadn't committed. I don't know why he was hated r why I thought this way, but this all made perfect sense to my mind.

That being said, first and foremost, I am only a tree who is almost certain to have been human in my pass life, with no way of proving that as true or not. I have no idea if this is a instilled sense of morality from when I was human or an opinion which has formed over my decades of people-watching. Either way, I was a tree, what I thought had little to no effect on anything.

This young woman was extremely torn with which path she should proceed, stick by the truth or her life – a drastic notion, but, with the hyperbole removed, summed the essence of the dilemma rather finely. Should she go against such a powerful person on cower in her fear of him.

Slowly, the woman, who had been sat for quite some time, waiting for the boardwalk to clear for a few moments, stood up and slowly walked over, stopping just short of the piles of shovelled snow the two men from earlier had left. She looked up at my leaves almost as a child would, in a lost wonder.

However, it was soon that her face morphed into a scowl, her worries nagging her again. Digging her hands deep into the pockets of her long, black coat, she let out a long breath, staring morosely at the vapour formed from her breath dispersed into the winter air.

All she could think about is what she should do, whether the risk was worth it, whether doing the right thing was really the correct action to take. She had so much to lose, her fiancé, her brother… job and friends aside, these were two things she could never give up on.

Then suddenly the strangest thing happened, the worry-stricken lady smiled; the smile was bitter, cynical, mocking even. What a peculiar action it was.

Curiosity got the better of me, her reason for smiling like so required me to dig a little deeper into her head, which is where I have been stopping myself for quite some time. This time, however, I let indulged myself a little.

She was scorning herself. Her fiancé and brother as reasons why to keep silent? She found it laughable that she could say that.

There was a more simple reason, the only reason she needed: she didn't want to risk her life as it was. She was living her dream, why should she give it up for a teacher who made his living by terrorising students? What has any of this got to do with her?

Deep within her mind she had completely accepted that she was not willing to give up her life as it is now for people she would never come across again. As horribly selfish as it was, she was not such a good person.

While she did not like to admit it, she knew she had long made her decision; she could use other's to appease her self-righteous ego all she wanted, but even without them in thought, her mind was made up. She knew that no matter what, she was never going to risk losing everything she had worked so hard to receive, especially those she had already once lost. In her mind, she knew she was too much of a coward, both with doing what was right and with accepting she had chosen herself over the innocent man going on trial.

She reminded me a little of a particularly scary student that had once visited me, while I couldn't quite tell how long ago this was, what the exact circumstances were or even if it had really happened as I remembered, but he had a horrifying mind that scared even the likes of me. While this woman seemed much stronger with a clear resolve, there was something that felt nostalgic between the vague memory and the young office lady stood in the winter air, huddled in her coat.

Besides that, I couldn't help but let my mind wander along a tangent. This woman seemed to know that her excuses were to comfort her on choosing the morally unacceptable course of action; that was her truth.

From what I knew, many human's were like that, perhaps all – not in the sense of being so self aware, more in how there were ulterior motives behind everything. Most probably, I had once been the same; the more I watch human's the more I find myself lowering the chances of me having been a good person, because you meet far more of the other.

The road along the boardwalk was starting to get busier, making the young woman aware of how long she had been here, in front of a tree she had no belief in. It was her best friend who had told he about this tree. Along the line, she had been so conflicted that she had decided to lean on fantasy.

"Of course, there was never an option really."

The mumble was near silent but in her entire aura was pained, still conflicted, perhaps even more so. The cynical smile slowly melted off her face and she shook her head in disbelief. She had work, why was she standing in front of a tree?

Without hesitation, the woman who had spent so much time looking up at my snow-laden branches and early winter sky whilst contemplating her decision she seemed to have already made, turned in the direction of a cluster of offices within the financial sector, not once looking back as she made her way to work.

As she left, I almost gave into my curiosity a second time, wanting to see what she thought in the deepest part of her heart, however I had done enough digging around for today.

I do not want to use too much of my HP.