The Other Side (FFfAW Challenge)

Photo credit: Enisa

The creek’s constant, coursing vigor surprised us both. On its other side loomed the unknown. It seemed to breathe at us, and we hesitated in the cold, rushing water.

“I don’t think we should cross,” I said, scrambling up the small embankment to squelch back into my sneakers. Goosebumps covered my skin. I should’ve brought a jacket or something. Was the darkness on the other side watching us, matching our giddy shivery breaths with its own?

Max had already reached the other side. He slipped in the mud but scrambled up the rest of the way, laughing. “It’s fine! You’re probably just scaring yourself with your imagination.”

I didn’t like the way he said “probably.” He was right, though. I did tend to imagine stuff that wasn’t there.

“Wait for me!” I called. I squished across the creek and up the other bank, then froze. The air. The color. The trees. They had all changed. And then I realized: the woods on this side of the creek were in an entirely different world.

173 words

This piece of flash fiction was written in response to this week’s FFfAW challenge and The Daily Post’s prompt for today.

~H