She stood at the edge of the water, the wind whipping her cheeks. The sun was just rising, stretching through the trees and striping the muddy marsh where she stood. A ray of sunlight glistened over the lake.
Her routine was always the same; a brisk lap around the aquadrome before breakfast. Yet this time she stopped by a small muddy bank that sloped gently down into the water to watch bubbles appearing on the surface. While waiting for duck or fish to appear, she reached into her pocket to take out a tissue, but instead pulled out an opened packet of marshmallows from the night before.
Pink and white pillows scattered the mud like sprinkles on chocolate icing. Cursing, she blew her nose before bending down to pick up the wrapper. Mallow by mallow, she put the mud coated sweets back into the packet. Inching out a little further towards the water’s edge, she noticed the bubbles again, growing closer. She stopped to watch something break through the surface.
When it rose its head, it looked like a man with grey skin, that glowed indigo in the sun. His nose lay flat below yellow eyes. He waited, as still as her, before slowly reaching out a webbed hand.
She leaned back a little. She wanted to run but couldn’t make her legs move.
With his long fingers moving towards her, he gently picked up a marshmallow by her feet and sunk back down into the water.
Alice Rose is a UK writer. She was shortlisted for The Bath Flash Fiction Award (Feb 2017) and has been published at CafeAphra and ReflexFiction. Rose writes from her St Albans flat, feeding other people’s cats and attempting to keep her plants alive. You can find her on Twitter @a1ice_r0se
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