Dead Leaves

Written for the prompt 'Daddy, dont let go' In Highwind's Flash Fiction contest:

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #1098822 by Not Available.

Go check it out.

‘Dead Leaves’

The memory of it all is so painfully vivid. The classroom was colder than usual. A thick, dark cloud of foreboding lingered in the air. The teacher’s dull drone had sent me wandering into my thoughts - and not for the first time on this particular day. My previous daydreams had been predominantly populated with worrying thoughts about Dad and Clayton….Was the journey going okay?….Had they nearly reached their destination? I recall it as clear as if it were yesterday. My whole body was shaking in waves of anticipatory fear. I could sense something was wrong.

As I stared out the window I let the beauty of the autumn afternoon ease my mind momentarily. A carpet of browns and yellows littered the ground below, leaving only the odd patch of green visible among the withered leaves. Death was in the air. A confetti of leaves being blown in circles on a rogue gust of wind captured my attention. I could feel my eyes begin to close again when suddenly a horrific vision flashed through my mind…

I could see Clayton….and Dad…something was wrong. It was the plane. Some sort of unlikely accident had blasted a hole in the side of the aircraft. A sandstorm of bodies and objects flew through the plane in a resultant wind tunnel. The last thing I can remember seeing was Dad holding tight on to Clayton’s wrist as he was being sucked towards the gash. As reality and the sub-conscious freely intertwined, I screamed out in desperation as loud as I could in the classroom: but before I could force out the words Dad had lost his grip and Clayton was sucked from the plane.

“Please Daddy, don’t let go.”

It was too late. Like a dead leaf in the breeze, Clayton was gone.

word count:300 words