"Strange Lights"
The evening was wearing on and Ruby tried to repress a yawn that ached at the corners of her jaw, but eventually gave in to the urge. Edgar noticed and got up, brushing the sand from his pants and then held out his hands to help her up, "We should be getting you back."
Frank and Agatha were disappointed to leave. In short order they seemed to be consumed with each other. Reluctantly though they agreed, even with their heated bodies, the chill was getting harder to ignore. The group was silent as they started their long walk in the sand towards the beach entrance. Ruby lifted her head surveying the eerie darkness of the shoreline, but it was not all dark. In one of the windows at the far end of the beach, past the entrance, an odd blue glow flashed. She skipped over it at first and then drew her gaze back, alarmed. The light was blinking.
"What is that?" She pointed to the attic window where the light could clearly be seen from the beach. The rest of the windows were dark, as they should have been.
"What?" asked Frank, reluctantly breaking his conversation with Agatha.
"That light. Do you see it in the window there? It's blinking."
"Get down," ordered Edgar. He seized Ruby's arm and drew her down behind the protection of a small weathered rock formation half buried in sand. Frank and Agatha followed suit. The brightness of the moon would easily show their figures on the beach if someone was looking. Adrenaline rushed through Ruby as she realized the implications of the light. They sat huddled in the shadow of the rock for what seemed like hours as they watched the light erraticaly blink on and off.
“We need to get someone,” Ruby said at last.
Fireflies at Dusk (in progress)
Catherine Callicott
Author
Copyright © Catherine Callicott . All rights reserved.