Flash Fiction Friday

(I ran this Flash Fiction piece last year and I'm bringing it back with an invitation to add a sentence or a paragraph to finally let the world know what happens next!)

Beware The Gris Gris

By:  Donna L Martin

Low hanging spanish moss made it difficult for the piroque to cut through the trees of the swamp.  The air is humid and smell of rotting vegetation.  Lee scratchs his arm where a mosquito bit him and he's glad he is up to date on his shots.  Swamp fever is a deadly thing to catch and can lay a man low for months even if he is lucky enough to survive the fevers.

The light is fading fast and there is just enough time to make it to the cabin before night.  Lee sure doesn't want to be on the water after dark.  He has heard the legends of the gris gris and he isn't taking any chances. 

Old man Boudreaux even saw it once; standing about seven feet tall and covered in grey moss.  A creature born of the swamps and known to tear a man limb from limb if he was dumb enough to be on the water after dark.  The old man was rushing to get home one hot summer night when he saw something move among the trees.  At first he thought it was just a gator; could even hear its deep croaking in the distance but this thing was too big to be a gator.  Rising out of the swamp, the creature quickly moved toward him and the old man almost had a heart attack when he realized he was looking into the evil eyes of the gris gris. 

Lee wipes the sweat from his brow and looks nervously around him.  He can almost make out the front porch of his cabin.  He just might make it home safely after all.  Old man Boudreaux was lucky that night he got caught in the swamp.  He made it out alive and days later was telling anyone who would listen about the swamp creature that almost got him. 

What is that?  A sound Lee has never heard before.  Almost like a low moan and getting louder.  The hair on the back of his neck rises as he realizes what is making that sound.  The last thing Lee remembers is the smell of death and the shock of the swamp water as the creature rises out of the deep and reaches for him...