Following In My Footsteps #microcosms #flashfiction

‘Hey, yo, moron. See.’

‘What, spotty?’

‘Footprints. Told you there was someone, dude.’

‘You’re the moron. They’re yours. Ours. Mine.’

‘Yeah, right. Like I’d fall for that trick. Geez.’

‘I’m creeped by your stupid obsession. Talking to yourself. Don’t you get it yet?’

‘See. My foot’s smaller than the print.’

‘God. Of course. It’s sand, numpty. It spreads.’

‘Yeah but there’s two tracks.’

‘So?’

‘Two tracks. Two people.’

‘Thus me. You. Us. Christ, will you stop talking to yourself. I’ve walked round this island twice and there’s no one.’

‘Not that we’ve seen.’

‘Like on the boat? You pushed the skipper overboard…’

‘That was a stowaway. Hey, it could be him. Here. Maybe he swam…’

‘That was two days ago. You think he swam ahead of the boat?’

‘Why not? That would explain the footprints.’

‘Can’t. You. Get. This. You killed our one hope of rescue. You crashed the boat into this godforsaken rock. And now you think there’s someone stalking us, me.’

‘Yeah, exactamondo. We’ll catch him and kill him.’

‘Yeah? And how… Geez, where’d you get the knife?’

‘Ha! You think you’re so smart.’

‘You’re cracked, the shrink was right. Effing psycho. You know what they’d call it if you did catch the guy making those prints?’

‘Self defence.’

‘Suicide. Hey, what are you doing? Be careful with that knife.’

‘Not so keen now, are you? Maybe your making those prints. Maybe your the creep.’

‘Of course I’m making the prints. You are too. They’re our prints. It’s just us, me, We, I who’s here. If you… bloody hell, that hurt.’

‘Yeah, it did, didn’t it? What about this…?’

‘Mate, you’ve stabbed me!’

‘Me too. That’ll teach us.’

‘Hey, look. There’s a boat.’

‘Too late…’

This piece is part of this week’s Microcosms prompt, here, using the following: character – teenage psychopath, setting – island, genre – horror. It scored me an honourable mention from the judge.

About TanGental

My name is Geoff Le Pard. Once I was a lawyer; now I am a writer. I've published several books: a four book series following Harry Spittle as he grows from hapless student to hapless partner in a London law firm; four others in different genres; a book of poetry; four anthologies of short fiction; and a memoir of my mother. I have several more in the pipeline. I have been blogging regularly since 2014, on topic as diverse as: poetry based on famous poems; memories from my life; my garden; my dog; a whole variety of short fiction; my attempts at baking and food; travel and the consequent disasters; theatre, film and book reviews; and the occasional thought piece. Mostly it is whatever takes my fancy. I avoid politics, mostly, and religion, always. I don't mean to upset anyone but if I do, well, sorry and I suggest you go elsewhere. These are my thoughts and no one else is to blame. If you want to nab anything I post, please acknowledge where it came from.

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