Can I keep it?

Can I Keep It?

My hands shook.

It’s not real. It can’t be real…telling myself that didn’t make the flashing lights and pulsating quivers the crash had caused any less real.

It happened. I had watched it crash.

And my husband hadn’t come back.

Damn fool of a man. I begged him not to go. I begged him just to sit until the police came. Did he listen?

There was an echoing snap that reached my ears through my home’s walls. It sounded like a branch breaking—only so much louder. I had to swallow past my heart as I pushed the blinds back to peek through the window.

The woods didn’t allow much for sight. I could see shifting shadows in the moon’s glow—and there, in the distance, was swirling faint lights. Almost like a flashlight, but not the right color.

“Mama, mama!” His tiny frail voice had come from outside.

“Oh God…” I stumbled, moving so fast I knocked the lamp over. I reached the door, pushing the lock down and swinging it open.

My little Aaron stood there, his long hair damp with coming morning dew. His diminutive hand was held by something with much longer fingers. The thing—for it was most certainly not human—was about the seven year old’s height. Eyes from sunken sockets stared up at me from a head disproportionately large. They blinked, each eye at a different time.

“I found it in the woods, Mama.”

I stood there, unable to move, unable to speak, as its mouth unfurled into a smile that split its chin open and revealed unnaturally long and sharp teeth. It blinked again, deliberately slow.

“Can I keep it?”



Word Count: 279

Submitted to: Daily Flash Fiction (2/7/15). Prompt:Use the phrase: "I found it in the woods"(No Placing) Link to contest: http://www.writing.com/main/forums/item_id/896794-Daily-Flash-Fiction-Challenge