A Hag on the Beach

A weird horror flash fiction. A prize.

Okay. I did a contest last Saturday (was it? How time flies!), my champagne brain thought it’d be a good idea. Anyway, the winner was

Andrew | Dad Explains

. The prize - a flash fiction by me, written on his terms. His requested theme was forging connections, a whymsical horror set on a ghastly beach. I’m not sure if I nailed it, but here goes…

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The rain and the wind chased away the handful of tourists from the beach. The time was perfect!

“Damn parasites!” A large grey stone grumbled. A circle of stones was sticking out the wet sand like a row of broken teeth. They say once it had been a gathering place for druids, a spirit-summoning portal. Nowadays the only spirits the stones summoned were flocks of pathetic tourists wading through the usual rainy weather.

The stone opened a pair of bloodshot eyes. It shook the stiffness away from its limbs; an old Hag in a stone coat stretched and yawned. Her stringy fingers pulled a pocket watch out her grey stone coat; a fine little thing carved from human bone with pearly-white baby teeth ornaments.

“Arrrgh!” The Hag gurgled impatiently, a minute before the muddy sand near her stone feet bubbled up. A dark silhouette emerged from the sandy grave. It was an elegant man dressed in black, he shook the sand off his fine suit.

“…and you are…?” The Hag growled with the sound of two stones grinding.

“Chronos sent me,” the man replied carelessly, looking down on the pathetic stone-creature.

“Chronos who?!” She croaked.

“Chronos who owes you, that’s who,” he replied with an elegantly annoyed sigh.

“Grrrr,” the hag gurgled looking the man up and down. A handsome bastard he was indeed!

“You look like one of his folk. He remembers, doesn’t he?!” The Hag grinned; her mouth full of yellow teeth. The man gifted her a sour smile. She looked at his pearly whites with unhidden envy.

“Chronos never forgets,” he replied.

“Gimme the stuff, this stone-coldness is breaking my bones,” the Hag said impatiently.

The man reached into the pocket of his elegant suit and handed her a tiny crystal vial. The Hag’s bony fingers grabbed it, she pulled the cork out with her ugly teeth and chugged down the crimson liquid. The man turned away with disgust.

When he turned back, the stone-hag was gone, but a stunning young woman stood in her place. Her eyes were sea-green as the restless waves behind her back. She wore a black leather coat, black boots, and nothing else, with a heavy belt locking her tiny waist.  Her luscious black hair absorbed the raindrops, while the ones hitting her face slid down into her parted lips.

“What a stunning transformation! Now I understand Chronos!” The man exclaimed.

The former stone-hag stepped closer to him.

“Nothing heals the soul like liquid time,” her raspy voice drew a seductive smile on the man’s face. He closed his eyes as her red, plump lips moved closer to him, but she stopped a sand grain away from his lips.

“Tell Chronos I’ll be waiting for him in the usual place. We have some…portals to explore.” And with it she turned her back on him, hitting the man’s face with her sea-scented hair.

“I’d sure love to explore your portals…” he murmured under his nose.

The Hag gave him a sly smile half turning, and replied,

“If you didn’t like me at my worst… Chronos knows good stuff, unlike some,” she grinned and walked away, leaving the man alone on the wet beach.