A Morro Bay Fog-Mythos Flash Fiction
Jenny shivered, pulling her jacket tight. “Collin, let’s go. I can’t even see it anymore.”
The fog had swallowed Morro Rock whole. One minute, the monolith was a golden silhouette; the next, it was erased by a wall of white that smelled of ozone and wet pennies.
Collin kept his phone aimed at the bay. “Just one more. Look at the water. The reflection… it’s still there.”
She looked. He was right. The inner bay was a preternaturally still mirror, holding the sharp, clear image of the Rock as if the fog didn’t exist.
“That’s weird,” Jenny said. The air felt heavy, pressing on her ears. The usual bark of the sea lions was gone, replaced by a thick, suffocating silence.
“It’s incredible,” Collin murmured, tapping his screen. “It’s like the water remembers what’s supposed to be there.” He zoomed in. “Wait. What is that?”
On the phone’s screen, at the base of the reflected Rock, a shadow moved.
“Collin, we need to leave.” Jenny’s voice was thin. The coppery smell was stronger now, tasting like blood.
“Shh. Look.”
The shape in the reflection detached itself from the mirrored stones. It was pale, glistening, and impossibly large. It moved with a wet, spider-like articulation, dragging a segmented, slug-like body toward the water’s edge.
“It’s just a glitch,” Collin whispered, but his hand was trembling.
On the screen, the creature turned. It had no face, just a hollow cone. But inside the maw, a faint, electric blue light pulsed.
“It sees us,” Jenny choked out. “Collin, in the reflection… it sees us.”
In the phone, the creature dove. It didn’t dive deep. It swam toward the camera. Toward the surface of the glass.
Jenny looked at the real water in front of them. It was flat. Empty. Silent.
“It’s not real,” she whispered.
Then, the water at their feet boiled.
A pale, chitinous limb, thick as a telephone pole, erupted from the surface without a sound. It smashed the phone from Collin’s hand.
Before he could scream, a second limb wrapped around his waist.
The foghorn groaned, masking the wet crunch of bone.
Brummmm-Hoooooo.
Jenny stumbled back, gasping. The water was flat again. Collin was gone.
And in the perfect, silent reflection of the bay, a small ripple moved away from the shore, dragging a dark shape down into the deep.
By Pamela Beach
The fog holds more secrets…
“The Water’s Memory” is a flash-fiction glimpse into the legend. Discover the full stories of the Watchers, the Takers, and the mist that consumes, in the Morro Bay Fog-Mythos Collection.
Pamela Beach is a multi-genre author, poet, and lyricist who writes from her home on California’s foggy Central Coast. She is the creator of the “Morro Bay fog-mythos” and author of The Unstoppable You. You can read more of her work and explore her complete “fog-mythos” collection at her blog, Beyond the Blog with Pamela Beach.
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