The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Bathing
by Kim Richards 

Doremi stepped into the clear water of the channel near her home. She shivered from its cool caress along her feet and legs. Soft sand tickled her toes as she walked. She smiled and continued forward until the water reached her hips.

She came to bathe in the healing waters. The rough night ended with the loss of her hopes, followed by a sacrifice. She needed the peacefulness to soothe her aching body and mind. She loosened the front knot of her sarong and untied it. Doremi heard something and paused.

Off to her right, something moved with wet splooshing sounds among the fog covered grasses. She recognized its noise and shook her head.

“Not now. I want to be alone.”

A deep throated gurgle answered her along with a splash as it dove down beneath the surface. After a few moments, Doremi felt a touch on the side of her calf, like a velvet kiss. She ignored it and removed her sarong, swirling it around in the water to rinse out the blood.

This time, the caress climbed from her ankle to her thigh and back down. It tickled and she giggled. She reached down and caressed its scaled head. It playfully nipped her fingers.

“Come now. No love bites.” She rubbed the bruises on her right forarm.

A lumpy half toad, half fish with razored teeth thrust its head out of the water. Its thick grey tongue lolled to one side. It bobbed up and down, then spun in a circle.

Doremi stroked it again, just above the three bulbous eyes. “Yes. You are cute!”

She turned around and waded back to the shore where a woven market basket sat among the soft grasses. “Last night was bad for me,” she said as she picked it up.

Behind her the toad fish followed her, lightly splashing as it moved. Again, it gurgled from deep in its throat.

“That’s good news for you though. He wasn’t true.” Doremi shrugged. She reached into the basket and withdrew the bloody severed head of her lover. She sighed and flung it into the gaping maw of her pet. Then she wrapped her dripping sarong around her torso and walked home with the sounds of crunching filling the air behind her.

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Fiction © Copyright Kim Richards
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com