Today is day 25 in the Writer's Digest February Flash fiction challenge. The prompt was " Today's prompt is to write about a cryptid."
I've never heard that term before, I suppose because I don't read that genre, but now I've learned something. According to Webster's Online: an animal (such as Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster) that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist.
My story is about the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
Benny lived amongst the gnarled roots of the bald cypress trees. He loved it in the murky waters, his webbed feet perfect for swimming. He loved everything about where he lived now in Honey Island. Well, except, that the food made his breath smell. He couldn’t help that. It was on account of the mushrooms and swamp grass that he ate. They were full of rotting leaves and black goo.
Benny took another bite. His two long and sharp front teeth pulled at the roots of the swamp grass and the black muck that floated in the river oozed from between his molars as he chewed.
He was torn between laughing and crying at the sight of that man. I suppose he shouldn’t have talked with his mouthful. He saw the man come up the path by the water and smiled at him. Benny forgot that he had just taken a huge bite of grass. Goodness, he must have looked just like that Honey Swamp monster that everyone kept talking about. That’s the only explanation Benny could think of for that man to pee his pants, drop all his expensive gear and run away.
And that’s what made Benny want to cry. You see, he moved down to Louisiana from Pennsylvania because, well two reasons. His arthritis wasn’t doing so well in the cold, and people in Pennsylvania were plumb stupid. Every time he tried to make a friend, they’d try to shoot him.
Seems like that’s been happening here too. At least here, they leave all their stuff and run instead of trying to shoot you. Benny had quite a collection of things; his favorite was the radio that some woman left behind. That’s how he heard about the swamp monster.
That scared Benny. He didn’t mind the bears or the snakes, but a swamp monster, oooooh, that gave him the creeps.