Signs #flashfiction
This blast from the past was originally written for the Indies Unlimited weekly flash fiction prompts. Original posting date was August 20, 2014.
In the past they used to give you prompts and a picture and then you went from there. The story can fit the prompts, it can be your own thing based on what you draw from the prompts, the only limitation is that it needs to be 250 words or less. It’s that easy, and that hard. Ever try to write a story with such a limited word count? It can take a lot out of you.
So, I could keep talking all day but ya know, I think it’s time we get into the story.
Signs
On this peninsula, the weather can come from any direction. You learn to watch the animals for signs of the big storm.
Photo by K.S. Brooks
I saw the gulls coming from the north and moving fast. They paid no attention to me or my bag of cheese puffs. They were clearly panicked.
Looking back, I saw the cause of the alarm. It wasn’t the weather…
The crash of the wave exploded across the shore line. The wall of water had been huge. But that wasn’t what caused the bird’s panic.
The giant green lizard rose from the sea, a mountain of scale and flesh. I had to be dreaming, kaiju, really, freaking kaiju. Of all the places to run into something like this, and I don’t have a damn camera.
The beast looked nothing like the movies. Sure was built like a pine tree with limbs but the lizard features were more pronounced, and it didn’t breathe fire. But the thing did crush my hut under one of its great paws.
It was at this moment that I realized the movies made a little sense. I knew I needed to run. For a brief moment I stood outside myself and screamed at my physical body to run. But I stared, mouth agape, and promptly forgot that my legs are useful forms of conveyance.
But I tell you this story now, you say. Sure, it happened. Giant beast like that stepped right over me. That moment, frozen in fear saved my life. Though I lost my house, I lived another day to not be rescued on the island.
I found it pretty amazing that I lucked into a rescue a few months later. A science boat in search of the beast’s origin, but that is a different story.
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If you enjoy these stories, consider leaving some coffee money in the jar or you could buy a book or two. Either way helps keep the stories flowing.
