Reach – Flash Fiction

This story is based on two images – one from VisDare and one I found while tootling around on instagram.

Image from VisDare

Reach

She stared down at the creature splayed out on her plate. It was alien in its ugliness, all tentacles and suckers. She didn’t even know where to begin eating it, so sawed a little tip off of one of the tentacles and gingerly slid it into her mouth. It was salty sweet, not what she was expecting; delicious, even. She smiled carefully at the taste, aware that people were watching her, aware that they would amend their actions to complement hers. This is what came of being a captain in the Vittorio family; a heavy price to pay for such fabulous power.

A little girl ate at a table not so far away, with her parents, smiling and mushing her food around on her plate. The image of a childhood that Clare herself had never had. She found them distracting, measuring their hands against one and others’, in love with family and home.