Instincts.

A little venture into a day I had at the beach. I didn't use quotation marks, again. But look, commas! Paragraphs!

I stare at the man standing in front of me on the bike path. Just standing there, looking over the beach grass and to the ocean. Right in the middle of the path. Excuse me. I speak up finally, after coming to the conclusion that he hadn’t noticed me. He glances over at me, his hands shoved in his pockets. He asks me what a girl like me is doing riding my bike all alone. Something about him makes my stomach lurch, more so than other people. I bite my lip down and tell him that I’m just on my way home. He steps towards me. I try to push my bike backwards without drawing too much attention to it. Excuse me. I try again. He shakes his head. You really shouldn’t be out all alone. His voices makes me nauseous. I feel my forehead starting to sweat, my heart starting to become frantic. I focus on choking the air out of my lungs and then back in again. I-I-I’m going home rrright n-now. I stammer the words out of my mouth and push my bike over and start to pedal. I pedal and pedal and pedal away from the predator until I’m on the sand path that leads back to the campsite. 

When I think I’m far enough away from the man, I stop and sit down. I lean against a pine tree, feeling the cuts on my legs from the beach grass. I try to calm my overactive heart, but at this point it’s hopeless. I count backwards in my head and pop Altoid after Altoid into my mouth. I try to tell myself that I’m not going to die. I try to fight the vile taste that’s crawling up my throat. It feels. Like I've. Just run. Up a big. Hill. I can't breath. I can't breath or think and I'm going to die.

I glance up from my panicking to see a deer, staring at me, a curious look on it’s face. It is standing not ten feet away from me. It stares at me and I stare at it, and then it goes back to it’s grazing. For a mad second, I consider the irony of us two creatures who seem to have gotten our instincts mixed up. Here I am, panicking and convincing myself that I am going to die because of an encounter with a shady man. And there is the deer, who should be bolting away, that is carrying on with it’s life in the face of potential danger as if it’s nothing. 

I envy that stupid deer.

Author's Note

I enjoy leaving out quotation marks. I don't know why, but I do.

Reviews

I like the contemplation between two creatures, it really says a lot and works as a literary device. Definitely would recommend punctuation though, but other than that it was quite nice. Thanks