30 July 2012
I sit on the creaking platform staring at the moon appearing from out the water, like a sea monster from out its icy lair. The moon spews light into the black water, rippling gently.
"You know what the moon looks like, Alice?"
"What?"
"Like it was strangled by a sea monster and all his blood is leaking out, mixing with the water."
"Eww...Rosie, you are so gross."
"Cripple would if liked that story." I sigh, lying down on the splintering wood.
"You mean that boy you played with when you were little?"
"He wasn't real."
"Oh." I knew that i must of made Cripple up myself, told myself he couldn't possibly be anything other than a figment of my imagination, but when I was five he felt so, so real. The way he brushed his hand through his dark hair, the way his twisted smile always made me feel like everything was going to be alright, the way he mysteriously left one day, disappearing right in front of me, and I never saw him in the forest outside my house again... No, he couldn't possibly of been alive. He never even said his name, just told me to call him cripple.
"Don't you want to go inside with the others?"
"No."
"Me neither."
"I know Rosie, we've been best friends since we were seven."
"Yeah, that was funny."
"You fell out my tree, looking for goblins."
"Yup."
" While everyone else is playing spin the bottle, they're missing out on this."
"They don't care for this."
"Lucky us."
"Mm..."
"What's that?" Alice's nose scrunches up as she peers worriedly out at the water.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just for a moment I thought I saw something, sort of like, like something shifting."
"There's nothing there."
"Probably just my imagination."
"Or maybe it's a sea creature coming to eat us!"
"Rosie, that's not funny."
"it's nothing, Alice, just your over active imagination."
"There! Just there, did you see?"
"No, where?"
"It's gone again." Alice's eyes dart around, scared
"What was it?"
"A shadow on the water, something sort of moving."
"Moving where?"
Alice's voice cracks with fear. "Moving towards us."
Blue • Opuss № I