Short Story

Couldn’t Get Away

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for The Unicorn Challenge
and also for Melissa’s Fandango
Flash Fiction Challenge #319. This
week I am inspired by two photos.
In exactly 250 words, this is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

Officer Johanna Bell had just settled down to breakfast when piercing screams shattered the morning calm. Her fork clattered against the plate, food forgotten. Heart racing, she bolted from the table leaving her breakfast untouched.

The screams had come from the boardwalk, an area she often patrolled. As she sprinted toward the source, her mind raced with possibilities. Was it a prank, or was someone in real danger? The screams echoed, chilling her to the bone.

As she approached the boardwalk, Johanna saw a crowd gathered near a picnic table. She pushed through the group of onlookers; there, sprawled on the ground, lay a young woman, her lifeless, frozen eyes staring into the void. Blood pooled around her, contrasting sharply with the whitewashed boardwalk. Two young girls, maybe 4 and 5 years old, stood nearby, trembling and crying.

As sirens wailed in the distance, Johanna approached the children. “Hi sweeties. I’m Officer Johanna. Can we talk for a minute?” Wide-eyed, the girls nodded. “Can you tell me what happened”. Through sobs and deep gulps, the children relayed the story of the terrifying seagull attack while they were eating. They said the gulls swarmed around their baby brother’s carriage trying to get his food and their mother tried to protect him but the birds viciously attacked her. Johanna listened to the gruesome story, then with great trepidation approached the baby carriage. It was empty. When asked where their baby brother was now, the girls pointed to the sky with trembling fingers.

© David Griffiths on Unsplash

NAR©2025
250 Words

This is “I Ran (So Far Away)” by Flock of Seagulls

The Unicorn Challenge-09/05/25
Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge #319

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

33 thoughts on “Couldn’t Get Away”

  4. Oh no, that was dreadful!

    However, that song, and even more the band – ‘A Flock of Seagulls’ – I was watching and listening, and the date… Was I there? Was that my hair at the back? 1982 in Liverpool, it could have been me… WOW.

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  11. Well that was something else – great build-up of tension to a horrific climax… that leaves all to the imagination.
    Expertly done, Nancy.
    I’m going to have shivers for the rest of the day! 😉
    (Especially since I currently have pigeons nesting in the walls of the house!)

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    1. Thanks very much, Jenne! Don’t open the windows, whatever you do!

      I’ve been sitting on that seagull pic for a while and when I saw yours, I knew the two needed to go together.
      Seagulls are brazen bullies and can become aggressive. I’ve seen them rip an entire ear of corn out of a woman’s hand. One landed on another woman’s big straw hat and when it flew off, it took the hat with it and left a nasty cut on the woman’s head. I don’t trust them!

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