Splash

The trembles that had lurked on her skin froze as she watched the burlap sack hit the water, a mile away from the beach. It emitted a scream that cut off into a bubbled garble.

She erupted, screeching hoarsely at the place where the sack, and her sister within it, had been swallowed by the ocean.

On the rowboat, two men smirked as she mindlessly thrashed against her restraints -- their amusement mocking her will to dive in after the body they’d thrown overboard.

But she was already being carted off, dragged away from the scene. The sand gave way to her heels as the weight of shock turned her legs to jelly. A foul smelling bag was smuggled back over her head, overrunning her sight. Dots of light broke through holes between the woven threads. They were a personal audience to her screams as she pleaded sense into her life’s ruin -- willing her sister from her watery grave.

Bruises rose with each passing second from the blows of wooden steps slamming against her shins while her body was dragged up an elevation. The restraints around her wrists were cut, only to be re-tied around a rod behind her. Cries from the world flooded her senses as the sack was jerked from her head. The smell of firewood and salt blended in her nostrils with each erratic breath.

Blood from the collision wounds covered the wooden board where she stood. Before her, the crowd surged, ebbing with an unrecognizable hunger for destruction that distorted their faces. The no longer looked human, and only beckoned Hell.

She closed her eyes, tears overtaking her face. But, in the chaos, she suddenly heard her name.

A spark went off.

And she was engulfed in flames.