Friday Flash Fiction

It had to happen sooner or later:

The other side of the river
By Neil Beynon

“I have never been to the other side,” he said sitting on the cold stonewall looking at the far bank.
“What never?” asked the gargoyle turning on his plinth to look at the man swinging his legs idly above the bank.
“Nope,” he said. “Not once in a thousand years. Haven’t you heard about the water?”

The gargoyle looked back at the bank. “Ah. It’s not much different from here, more trees, people are both more friendly and more hostile.”
“Ah,” he said. “Sounds wonderful.”

“So you’ve lived here your whole life?”
“Oh yes,” said the man who wasn’t really a man.
“God you must be bored?”

“Bored, how could I be bored in a city…”
“Half a city.”
“…in half a city such as this. Such sights to see…”
“Bored out of your mind?”
“Completely.”

The first glows of sunrise approached over the horizon, the gargoyle watched as he did every morning to ensure the city was safe, and when he turned back the vampire had gone.