Short Stories, Poems, and Prompts for Practice Writing

Prompt: "Insecurity in the harbor"

The night was cold, the wind nipping at any skin that wasn't covered by Lisa's fleece-lined windbreaker. Lisa repeatedly switched between rubbing her hands together, hoping to keep her numb fingers from getting frost bitten before the night was out.

"I thought you had gloves," Her partner Clark said from where he sat slumped against the side of a shipping container. The man was alternating between scanning the harbor with the binoculars and absently rubbing frost from his glasses. Lisa shivered as another blast of wind chilled her to the bone, and she scooted a bit closer to Clark.

"I left them in my car, and that's at the office. Are they here yet?" She asked in a low voice, eyeing the shadows cast by containers and the huge fog lights mounted on all sides of the harbor. It was enough of a maze in broad daylight -- adding shadows and the howling wind only made things creepier.

Clark shook his head as he scanned the docks again. "They technically still have another hour to go, so if everything's going well, we can confirm and be home by five," he said, a small, amused smile pulling at his lips.

Lisa quietly groaned. "It's three in the morning! At this rate, I'd be lucky enough to get out of this only missing a finger," she said, grimacing.

Clark frowned, squinting into the binoculars. "Scratch that, Liz. It looks like they're early." He dropped to a low whisper, barely audible over the whistle of the wind.

Lisa pulled herself up to a crouch just enough to see over Clark's shoulder. She frowned, squinting into the gloom. "What are they dragging?" she whispered. Two men were pulling something out of the small fishing boat that had appeared out of the fog while a third was tying the boat to the dock.

Clark was quiet as he adjusted the binoculars, only to suck in a sudden breath. He dropped back, barely catching himself from spilling out on his butt, while Lisa fired off quiet but hurried questions.

"What is it? What are they doing? Are you alright? Do I need to radio Boss?" Lisa had his arm in a vice grip as she pulled him up and back onto his heels. The man had gone as white as a sheet, his eye wide and hands shaking. Clark nearly threw the binoculars at her and crawled behind her to get to their bags.

Lisa trained the binoculars to the docks, heart pounding. Focusing on the dock, she scanned the boat and the men for what could have possibly made her partner so scared. She frowned, confused. "Clark, what am I looking for? I'm not seeing anythi-"

A sudden animalistic roar shattered any sort of silence the harbor had. Lisa felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as the creature shuffled into the light on the docks.

It was unlike anything she'd seen before. It looked humanoid, except it stooped over so much, it looked like it folded over on itself. Its shoulders drooped low, the arms brushing it's knees. The face was a mess of loose flesh and creases, the skin sloughing off to leave behind a bony, decrepit structure with hollow eyes and bloody, crooked teeth. It's scalp, with what little skin was still stretched over its skull, was peppered with thin, wiry hairs that fell about its ears, swaying as the creature moved.

"God above, what is that thing!?" she whispered, falling backwards and into Clark.

Clark pulled her up roughly, shoving her bag into her chest. "I don't know, and I sure as hell don't want to find out! We need to get out of here, get the boss on the radio!" he said, voice tight.