#picturefiction #flashfiction

The surf pounded in the distance as Jenna and Bill crested the hill. A low mist obscured the boundary between sky and Earth. The day was chilly but that  would ensure they were alone for a romantic walk on the beach.
A shape, indistinct in the mist and spray, surfaced and began to move onto the rocky shore.

Surely a surfer or swimmer; but who would be out on such a cold autumn morning in surf so cold and with visibility near zero?
The form moved ashore and a swirl of mist revealed its misshapen limbs. Hands like paddles and legs shaped like those of a hoofed beast. The creature’s head was spongy with yellow-white nodules that roved across its entire surface. The nodules appeared like soft pustules. They roamed as if attempting to spread their corruption across the mass of the head.

Jenna gasped. The nodules stopped their roving and shifted to the front of the beast to face the gape mouthed humans. Bill shuddered, the milky, egg shaped nodules were the thing’s eyes.

A slit formed in the thing’s head beneath the clustered eyes. The gash opened to reveal a slime filled maw from which a trumpeting note emerged.

A thousand other spongy heads surfaced in the ocean and Jenna began to scream.