A dream trip deep in the backwaters turns nightmarish when two vanish without a trace. Five began the journey—how many will return?
Flash Fiction Prompt
Grab-Hold First Line:
The water was still that morning, but silence can carry secrets heavier than any catch.
Paragraph:
Captain Ellis prided himself on knowing every twist of the swampy backwaters, every place where the bass hid, and every camp spot that seemed safe. His five clients—city folk chasing adventure—trusted his steady hand and weathered eyes. For two days, the fishing was good, the nights filled with laughter under mosquito nets, the world pared down to water, stars, and the hiss of campfires. But on the third dawn, two tents lay empty. No footprints. No splashes. Just absence. Ellis searched the reeds, the sandbars, even the hidden channels where alligators cruised. Nothing. The remaining three looked to him with suspicion and fear, their banter gone, their lines cast with trembling hands. At night, they whispered: What if it wasn’t the swamp? What if it was someone among us? Each shadow grew longer, each sound sharper. Sleep became an enemy. By the sixth day, the question wasn’t about finding the missing—it was who would vanish next, and whether Ellis himself was as trustworthy as he appeared.
Questions to Spark Writing
- What secret might one of the remaining members be hiding that explains the disappearances?
- How could the wilderness itself become a character in the story?
- Who will be the final survivor—and what truth will they reveal?