Monday's Minutes Challenge

I am going to do the picture prompt AND the sentence prompt.
Here is the sentence prompt: I'd told myself I would never come back here again... yet here I am.
And the picture:

Isn't it gorgeous??? =)

I'd told myself I would never come back here again... yet here I am. I hold the lantern up, waiting. Watching.

I stand in the boat, the water surrounds me. I watch for any glimpse of life.

He has to come. But, he never does.

I sigh. What if he tried to trick me all those years ago saying that he’d come? That he’d come back and be here for me?

I lower the lamp just a bit, my hope was only a flicker now. But I had to keep waiting, keep watching for a glimpse of him.

He said so many years ago he’d come. He also said it’d be on a night like now. Where the moon is full, the water crystal, and the stars shine like never before.

I hear a rustle in the distance. Could it be?

I stare all the harder into the forest that is at the edge of the water. Is he finally home?

I do not dare whisper the word that I long to say.

But, then I hear the rustle come even closer to the water’s edge.

My eyes widen. It has to be.

I cannot hold it back any longer, “Papa?”

The whisper shakes the silence—the rustle too. It stops.

Please, no.

I hear the rustle start again after many moments. But this time it is so slow, as if someone drags themselves to the edge.

I bring the lantern up to my face. Please.

I finally see a figure at the water’s edge, “Cynthia?”

I smile. It has to be Papa.

“Papa!” I shout.

I row the boat as fast as I possibly dare. When I jump out, I don’t see him. Anywhere.

“Papa?”

An arrow slices the air, inches from my face.

“Your papa’s dead, Cynthia.”

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This is 299 words. =)

Hope you like it!! =)

abrielle lindsay