Help Me Again - Flash Fiction

A flash fiction about a rescue gone wrong

The night was black. Miguel fought through the flood with arms burning and chest tight. He pulled away debris, pushing toward higher ground where people waited. His teeth chattered from the cold, but he kept moving.

"Help me..." He heard a shaking voice. He turned and saw a girl clinging to a branch. Her hair covered her face and her body was shaking in the rushing water.

Miguel immediately grabbed her arms. They were cold. Too cold. 

Then lightning split the sky.

Her face came clear—skin gray and peeling in strips, lips cracked and torn, cheeks sunken as if eaten away. Her eyes, pale and lifeless, stared like glass marbles. Black water and mud leaked from her open mouth, carrying the stench of rot.

“Thank you…” she whispered, her voice wet and hollow, as her lips stretched into a grin far too wide for any living face.

In an instant, her bony fingers locked around Miguel’s throat, sharp as claws. He thrashed, gasping, but her grip was unbreakable.

The flood swallowed his cry, and over the rushing water her broken voice rose again—

“Help me…”