It was dark as I walked along the waterfront. Thick fog clung to the widely spaced lamp posts like a lover’s lingering touch. My thoughts lingered in another life, and it took a force of will to pry their grip from the throat of more painful times. I moved my gaze from the pool of light in which I seemed to drown.

Dark and mist. The barest outline of a human form. A few furtive steps brought me close enough to see a face I knew. It had been a long time, but I had neither forgiven nor forgotten. My tendons creaked in anticipation. I relaxed. A deep breath. Lunged.

Fingers closed around his throat. Bucking and flailing we went down, splashed in the murky pools lining the sidewalk. I felt hands searching, finding my windpipe. A ball of limbs noisily splashed in the overhead glare of the streetlight.

We struggled, I was tossed on my back. Sweat and rain fell into my eyes. As my vision blurred and darkened, a ray of light struck down toward me. It pierced the droplets, my eye, and cast a spray of multicoloured light across the dark sky. It faded with my vision.

 

Written as part of Sunday Photo Fiction.

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