Flash Fiction Friday

The swells felt like mountains to Graham. Having spent his life in rural Kansas, the ocean was a terrifying mystery that he wasn’t sure he wanted to solve. He glanced around, breath escaping his lips in shallow pants. The shadowy figure to his left seemed doubled in size from the way the sunlight fought its way through the morning fog. The man moved slowly, purposefully. Somehow gliding across the peaks and valleys of the white sand beach.

Graham’s fear sounded an alarm inside his head, a screaming blast as loud as a fire engine. His choice was clear. Jump in the water and try to swim to the neighboring island or spend the rest of his short-lived life playing cat and mouse with a psychopath.
He thought of his parents, sound asleep in their clouds of white sheets, and told them he loved them. He’d loved them every day of his ten short years. He even loved his annoying sister Amanda. He pictured the last time he wrapped himself in the warm fur of his dog Juno and tears stung his eyes.

The man was closer now. His shape appeared solid, his features sharper - like the blade in his hand. Pushing aside his feelings, Graham ran as fast as his legs could carry him, sinking and wobbly in the sand. He jumped into the water, arms treading, legs kicking.

He’d take his chances with the swells.

*Pic from Trip Advisor