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What My Father Left Behind
by Nathaniel Spain
EXCERPT
… I could move neither my arms nor my legs, and was overwhelmed by the feeling that something was about to happen. My ears strained intently. At first I could only hear my own breathing. Then there was something more; a kind of rustling or sweeping. Like something being dragged down the hallway. There were no footsteps. I turned my neck with tremendous effort. The door was ajar and through it I could see the corridor beyond. A sliver of moonlight streaked across the wall, painting the floorboards. A shape moved in the shadows, low to the ground. It was drawing towards me.
It’s hard to describe the terror of that moment. It was like facing death; knowing that one’s life has culminated in this absolute point, and it has all been insufficient. That I could have been better prepared for it, but now the seconds were running out and I must make the most of them.
I watched the shape slither toward the bedroom. There was nothing I could do; I was pinned to the bed like one of the insects in Father’s collection. I constructed a fantasy — that it was only a cat or rodent that had got inside a bag and was now stumbling about — but then the shape came into the moonlight. It was the mermaid. Of course it was. Her skeletal arms were outstretched, fixing upon the boards with her ragged nails to haul herself into the bedroom. Her wrinkled face was eyeless, her shrivelled lips gaping wide.
Water, she rasped. …
… Read the complete story in our anthology Broken Ground.
… Read about illustrating 'What My Father Left Behind'.
… Read our Q & A with author Nathaniel Spain.
Nathaniel Spain
Nathaniel Spain is a writer and designer based in the North East of England. He has a background in publishing, environmentalism, and the community sector, and is the editor of Carnyx Press.
