Paul sat looking at the flames. He rotated his marshmallows, watching them brown above the heat. After a moment, he pulled his fold-out chair a little further back. The heat from the fire had begun to burn his legs.
A field mouse skittered by. Paul thought nothing of it. A duck waddled past him. He grabbed a hot dog bun and tore a hunk off of it, then tossed it at the duck. It kept moving, uninterested.
The fire guttered out from a sudden, strong gust of wind. But Paul was not lost in darkness. He looked up at the moon, an orange sphere in the sky. The moonlight had flooded the trees. It seemed to slither downwards and illuminate all of the hidden alcoves and thickets in the woods.
He looked back at his marshmallows. They were burnt. He set them aside and looked back in the sky at the pale, white moon. “Wait a minute,” he said.
When he located the orange sphere again, it blinked out of existence for a brief moment. It had winked at Paul.
He tried to run from the monstrous eye, but a mammoth patchwork of glistening flesh, which could only be a hand, reached down and snatched him from the earth, screaming.
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©2011 Zach Owen
Tags: Zach Owen
May 26th, 2011 at 3:44 am
Nice imagery, and I can relate to the hot legs as well.
Why was the duck uninterested in the bread though? That bit stood out for some reason.
Keep it up!