A Strange Encounter

 by Alex Wilkinson

It was a cold frosty winter's night when a dark slender shadow slid out of the murky sea. It was a still night, the sea shimmered motionless as though made out of mercury as the moon glistened down bathing the scene in its pale cold light. The shadow laid  on the cold coarse sand with the silvered sea slowly biting at its extremities.
After what seemed like hours the shadow suddenly burst into life, flailing around on the shore gasping for air and coughing up rivers of water before falling exhaustively forward. It began to tilt its head back to try and take in the surrounds. As it angled its head the moon caught a short glimpse of its eyes reflecting the pale light as though it was shining in two oblong glass mirrors.
It was clear, that this shadow was not of this world...
The shadow began to crawl up the beach in an attempt to escape the slowly encroaching water it had oozed from. The shadow slowly headed over the rocks that peppered the landscape, glistening like rhinestones under the pale cold light providing markers on the cold unforgiving sand. As the shadow crawled up the beach the rocks seemed to dance under the moonlight reflecting an ever changing landscape. Empty, cold, and hollow.
After the better part of an hour the shadow finally slumped over at the base of a monolithic dark sand dune that seemed to be stretching unrelentingly towards the stars. This obstacle dwarfed the figure cowering at the base of this unforgiving obstacle. There was no guarantee this mound of sand was the gatekeeper that would be able to free it from its torment, but it knew one thing for sure: the sea had nothing to offer, at least not anymore.
Sapped of all energy and still struggling to get used to this alien place the shadow knew in its current state its only recourse would be to wait. Wait until the cold pale light is dispersed by the warming soothing glow of the sun. But would it last the dark in this alien place? From the depths of the sea the warm soothing glow slowly began to envelope the landscape.
Slowly turning the sea of mercury into a rich deep blue as the soothing glow dispersed and danced across the entire landscape, the once lifeless landscape began to animate as the light of day began breathing new life across the landscape.
A new shadow appeared across this once lifeless landscape jogging across the sands, only to stumble upon the dark shadowy figure huddled by the sand dunes. As he drew closer he saw this figure was unlike anything he had ever seen before and with curiosity getting the better of him moved over to inspect the alien figure more closely.
Panting he looked down at this contorted alien figure which slowly turned its head to look into his face only to ask: “Where is this place?”
Startled at the alien's command of the English language he replied, “You’re in Blackpool, in England.”
The shadow muttered, “It's worse than I thought,” as it slowly edged back to the sea from where it
had once came.