Gasp

Flash fiction (very short story)

© 2023, Tanweer Dar

I gasped for air as I broke the surface, falling back beneath the cold, black water almost instantly. My eyes stung as if a thousand sharp needles had been plunged into them, and I clambered desperately through the murderous liquid once more.

I saw a dark shape on the surface, reaching out towards it with trembling fingertips. My hands found purchase around the flotsam, and I held onto it for dear life.

There, in the empty vastness of the ocean, I bobbed up and down on the surface, finally able to catch my breath.

And then I saw it...

Another shape in the water. Moving. Towards me.

I let go of the floating debris, my last gasp one of total surrender.