A Tide of Change
“The boat is back.”
The words moved from mouth to mouth through our settlement. “Did you hear? The
little rower is back in the tree, just as it was the last time.”
I allowed the words
to wash over me, while trying to make my excitement match that of those
surrounding me. Appearing curious and intrigued would be good, but I couldn’t
allow them to see how delighted its return made me.
Most of us spent
that day watching the vessel in the tree. Just like the last time it had
appeared, exactly a year ago, people wondered where it had come from and how it
had ended up in the branches. The ground was dry so the only thing we knew for
sure was that it hadn’t been a tidal wave stranding the boat there. And while
my knowledge about the vessel and its owner—I had to fight hard to repress a
shudder every time I thought about him—exceeded that of my neighbours, I had no
real answer for those questions either.
Day turned to
twilight before darkness descended, the boat turning into a barely visible
silhouette in the pale moonlight but nobody returned home. A year earlier the
boat had arrived one day only to have disappeared the next morning. This year
people were determined to stick around and find how it would dislodge itself
and where it would go. Their presence worried me.
A fragrance moved
on the soft evening breeze, something barely perceptible yet heady and
alluring. Excited speculation became interspersed with yawns and people dozed
off around me. Within minutes I was the only person left awake, excitement coursing
through my veins while I waited.
“Have you decided?”
His voice came from behind me and was exactly as I remembered it; deep and
seductive. A shiver ran down my spine and the hairs on my arms stood to
attention but I didn’t turn around.
“Yes,” I replied
while still looking towards the tree-bound rowing boat. “This time I’m coming.”
I’d tried to forget
the night we’d spent together a year ago. I’d done what I could to purge him
from my mind, but like a virus he’d inserted himself in my body; always present
and conjuring up his voice, touch and embrace in my memories without warning,
at the most inconvenient times.
“Get in the boat
then.” He’s still behind me, where I can’t see him but he’s clear as day in my
mind’s eye. Slim, tall, with long flowing white hair, he mesmerised me a year
ago. I would have gone with him then, but he told me I had to be sure, that the
decision would be irreversible. I wasn’t sure what he meant then, and I still
didn’t know how to interpret his words but the question had become meaningless.
I would go anywhere with him.
He wrapped his arms
around me as soon as I sat down on one of the narrow planks in the boat. I knew
without a shadow of a doubt he hadn’t walked past me, but my mind refused to
worry about how he’d gotten there before me, too busy watching in wonder as a
giant wave reached out for the boat and carried us away from the island without
a drop of water touching the ground.
I relaxed into his
body as the water carried us away from the only life I’d ever known. His lips
touched the sensitive flesh on my neck and those few inches of skin became my
sole focus.
“You’ve chosen me,”
he said; his voice a hypnotic mixture of awe and possessiveness.
“Forever,” I
replied not sure why I’d chosen that word but certain it was the right answer.
“You’ve no idea how
right you are.” His words were the last thing I heard before teeth replaced his
lips and bit down hard, changing me and my destiny irrevocably.
****
650 words.
I think I may have
outdone myself when it comes to weird this week but hopefully this flash will
leave you intrigued, if nothing else.
More stories based
on the same image can be found in the Monday
Flash Fics Group on Goodreads.
