The hallway point of the year. Wow… just wow. And it’s time for another picture flash fiction. A pretty cool photo this month. Of course, as I’m writing the post I still have no idea what I’m going to write, but…. no excuses, right. I’ll just make this up as I go along 🙂 So… here’s the pic and the resulting story….which is going to be insanely short because I’ve spent most of the day trying to resurrect my iMac.
“For the love of god, Becca, put your damn arms down. Or are you suddenly a water bender? A goth water bender. And who the hell wears high heeled boots to the beach, anyway?”
Becca glared at her brother over her shoulder, sticking her tongue out at him before begrudgingly lowering her arms. She turned back to stare at the lake, watching the large swells roll into shore, covering the tops of her boots. The white water crashed against some rocks off to her left, the constant beating of the waves soothing something raw inside her.
This is what she needed. What made the tumbling feeling in her gut bearable. What made her believe that, even for just a moment, she was normal. Just a regular girl watching the clouds drift across the sky above a sea foam green lake. A flock of seagulls chattered overhead, diving and rolling in the gust of wind that kicked up her hair, nearly knocking her hat off her head.
She inhaled, rewarded with a strong scent of fresh water and early spring. She’d always loved this time of year—watching everything awaken in waves of green and pink and yellow. But not today. Today the hint of warmth in the sun only served as a reminder of what little time she had left. How her life was about to become nothing more than endless prison.
She released a weary breath as she turned to face Nicholas. “You’re just jealous because you’d be stuck wielding fire.”
Nick winked at her as a grin spread across his face. “Can’t help it if I’m…hot, sis.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Can we not go there? I’d rather not spend my last few weeks thinking about you and hot in the same sentence.”
His smile faded. “These aren’t your last few weeks. We’re going to find a way to stop this.”
Guilt settled in her gut. “I know you want to believe that. That you’re doing everything you can, but… We’ve been searching for a way to stop this for months, and all we’ve unearthed is a bunch of useless glyphs we can’t even decipher.”
“We’ll find the key. We’re close. I know it. I can feel it.”
“Nicholas—”
“No!” He paced away, kicking at a shell and tumbling it into the frothing waves. “I won’t just give up. You’re all I’ve got, and I’m not going to stand here and let that monster take you because of some ancient agreement between our ancestors and the damn faery realm. The entire island can turn into a barren wasteland for all I care. He can’t have you.”
She speared her fingers through her hair, giving him a small smile. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe—”
“What? His Royal Highness, Prince Douchebag will be nice? You’ll fall in love and live happily every after?”
“I wasn’t going to say that. It’s just…maybe he doesn’t want this any more than I do. Maybe he’ll back out.”
“Right, because that’s happened exactly zero times in the past thousand years. We might as well stop searching for the solution now.”
She snorted. Her brother definitely had a way about him. She’d grant him that much.
Mecca walked over to him, playing a hand on his shoulder. “Then what the hell are we doing standing here? Pretty sure that key you keep talking about isn’t hiding in the sand.”
He straightened, giving her a playful shove. “Now that’s the Becca I know and love.”He motioned toward the hill behind them. “Shall we?”
She nodded, taking one last glance at the water, hoping it wasn’t her last.
That’s it for me. Go check out Bronwyn’s amazing piece, here… Bronwyn Green.
This sounds like and interesting beginning to a good story. More! More! 😀 Thank you for the tease. Enjoyed it.
I agree with Pansy. Add it to the list!
Also, I’m cracking up. We both went with brother and goth sister. 😀