A broken twig by John Jones (best biographies to read TXT) 📕

a detour to fill up with petrol, he drove to the familiar parking space and walked the fields and hills, the wind blowing and the temperature fairly low, but into the vortex he jumped.

When he came out it was a bright, sunny, warm day, and he observed the village for a while before deciding he would venture out a little further.

Observing his surroundings as he walked he saw no-one, only a few birds circling in the sky in the distance.

He cautiously braved walking further east for around a mile and a half before spotting a river curving through a valley. He made his way down there. Grasses and shrubs sporadically lined the water's edge and he walked up to the flowing water, knelt down and splashed his face. It felt good, cold and fresh.

When he opened his eyes, there was somebody staring at him on the other side.

A little girl of about seven, kneeling down to fill a bowl locked eyes with him.

Fear began to rise within Geoffery, and he stood up, backed away, then turned and ran as fast as he could back to the vortex.

He leapt into the void and emerged back into his present. The weather was the same, the sky slightly darker throwing down specks of rain. He hauled himself as fast as he could to his car, but at one point he had to lean against a rock to regain his breath.

Onwards he went, walking, running, walking, running, until eventually he came to where his car should have been.

 

Except it was gone.

 

He collapsed and stayed there for a while regaining his strength as he knew he would have to make his way the three miles to the caravan park.

Knowing he would have to start sooner rather than later, reluctantly he continued the trek back home.

He knew he may not see any people on his way so wasn't too surprised when he saw nobody as he was out in the sticks in the Scottish countryside in cold and rainy weather. So after around an hour he walked the path to the caravan park.

As he got closer he could see something wasn't right.

There were no caravans.

Not as they were anyway. They were broken and smashed, strewn across the park.

There were also no people.

He panicked and ran down towards the beach, but stopped as he saw other caravans and cars smashed, scattered along the sand and some in the water along the shoreline. A car alarm was blaring somewhere down there, but he could still see no-one.

He sighed in despair, walked across to a rock, sat upon it and gazed out to sea.

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Publication Date: 04-11-2021

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