This is a fictional piece…written for BlogFEST 2012.  The host of the day is Daphne Palmer Romero of My Distant Husband.  It is a picture prompt—picture is shown below. 

I awoke on a brisk fall morning—to find that the waters, although calm, had turned dark.  It was a sign that fall was receding and winter was starting to seep in.  I poured myself a cup of hot tea and I sat down with my laptop near my favorite window over looking the beach.

I could not concentrate, so I shut the laptop and took in a sip trying to rid myself of the undeniable chill that seemed to cling to my skin.  I pulled the throw over my legs and looked out again.  To my surprise, their stood an apparition with his back turned toward me.

He could not have been much more than 11 or 12. Although he was small in stature his presence was strong. He gazed out onto the sea, and  I could see the waves kiss the sand through his form.  

I pinched myself to make sure I was not dreaming—and indeed I was awake.  I sat and I stared for quite some time wondering: Why he was there? What did he want? And a part of me had wondered: If he knew?

As if a channel had been bored into my head, I was immediately surrounded by the sounds of his affliction, “You don’t play fair!”

Betrayal.  Hurt.  Sadness. 

“I thought you were my friend?” 

Torment.

The sea reached toward him in response–this time chopping at the sand in front of him—making an effort for amends. In his state of anguish, the boy did not budge, unmoved by the ocean’s pleas for forgiveness. 

Stubbornly, the boy stood motionless-although his presence was starting to wane. I couldn’t help but wonder why he was so angry at the sea? And as the thought lingered in my mind—it seemed to float out there—and it was answered almost immediately.

The sea was relentless in its pursuit—what once begged forgiveness now demanded to be reckoned with.  The boy shrieked out from his soul and the sea waves started to pound on the shore. 

Despair.

His shoulders slumped and slowly the sea made its way to where he stood.

Fear. 

The ocean unleashed and his form was swallowed up in one strike.  In an instant, the boy was no more. 

Vanished.

The sea settled; the waters dark.  The air still carried a chill.  Another autumn slipping past to make way for a brutal winter.