The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

She Washed Away
by Melissa R. Mendelson

They had no idea that I was there. I slipped along the rocks like a shadow, watching them, watching her. My body was resting somewhere that did not belong here, and my mind slipped through like a waterfall. I actually thought it was a dream until I found the same place in my waking world, and there, it was not so beautiful. Here was different, and so was she.

She reached for the waterfall, letting her hands disappear beneath the water. She glanced over her shoulder. Did she see me? Did she know that I was there? Her eyes moved along the jagged rocks, a pebble kicked out from underneath her shoe. Satisfied that she was alone while her friends searched the caves, she slipped her hands back and forth beneath the waterfall. If only it were that easy.

I thought I was being punished, stuck watching her from where I was, but as I watched the water pour over her skin, I wondered. Was it that easy? If it was, then would I miss the life that I would leave behind? No, I would not, so I waited.

I could feel my body back there, where it did not belong here, turn cold. I was running out of time. It was me or her, and there she was again, sitting by that waterfall, watching her hands disappear beneath its surface. Only this time, I was strong enough to grab hold, pull tightly down on her wrists, and she screamed. But her friends were too far away, too busy with their discoveries to hear her, and I pulled again. She fell beneath the waterfall, slipping down, all the way down into the cavern below, followed by a soft thud.

“Are you okay,” traveled along the caves to the waterfall.

“Yes.” I stepped out of the waterfall and took her place sitting beside it. “I almost fell in.”

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Fiction © Copyright Melissa R. Mendelson
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

About Author Melissa R. Mendelson:

Melissa R. Mendelson is a Horror, Science-Fiction, and Dystopian Author. Her short stories have been published by Sirens Call Publications, Dark Helix Press, and Transmundane Press. She also has a variety of short stories and poetry available on Medium.