Member-only story
Red Light, Black Light
First Line Fiction Prompt# 25
She’d always known there was something different about her, but today she finally understood why. As she coddled the sobbing girl, Charita wondered if she would ever forget her daughter’s face as she hauntingly repeated, “Black light! Red light! Black light! Red light!”
Wrapped beneath one arm, Charita cushioned the rescued girl’s cries and tears with her bosom. In her other hand, she clamped firmly to Devika’s clammy palm.
Three men, random shoppers, and a mall security guard held another man against the glossy gold and grey tile floor. Turning to the sound of heavy slapping footfalls rushing toward the scrum, Charita allowed a calming breath, her first since the terrible ordeal began. Three uniformed policemen descended into the huddle of citizen arrestors and the sicko lowlife who’d nearly succeeded in abducting the traumatized little bird she now held under her wing.
Nearly abducted. The words stood in her mind’s eye like a stop sign: A giant, red stop sign. If Devika hadn’t sounded the alarm and if she hadn’t understood her daughter’s message, the girl would be gone. The thought of what that animal might have done made her shudder and shook loose the tears she’d barely kept at bay.
