The blistering heat of the scorching sone bore down on the backs of Janet and Remy, splayed out on the beach like ragdolls. This is how Pedro found them. This is where he dragged his boyfriend, Grady, to see. The skins on their backs were beet red, and hot to the touch, as Pedro found out. No doubt that they're dead, though. Pedro felt and found no pulses.

He felt a pang of sadness for the old couple as they reminded him of his grandparents, who had died a year ago. He stayed and observed their bodies. Naked from top to bottom. They must have had a little summer fun, got tuckered out and rested on the huge rocks in the deeper waters. That must have been where they met their fate. Panicked, Grady, started to hyperventilate. Pedro held his hand, looked him in the eyes, and asked him to call for an ambulance. It was already too late but they were not medical professionals. The panicked lad nodded and scrambled for their bags to call for help, turning his back on Pedro.

As Pedro was looking at Janet's back, it seemed he saw something move. Her back twitched. That was impossible. Perhaps his mind is playing tricks on him. Until Remy's back was twitching too. Violently. The couple, both face down on the sand, were being wipped around by some force from their backs. Pedro felt in his gut that he should back away, that this was unnatural. But now it was his turn to panic. He sat on the sand in a crab walk position as Janet and Remy's backs erupted, spraying gore and viscera everywhere. Plenty landing on Pedro. A gelatinous fluid moved of its own free will from the what was left of the couple's backs and slithered into the ocean, still attached to the corpses and dragging them in. Pedro stared in awe, unaware that the blood and guts all over him -- his face, his chest -- were now seeping into his skin. Processing the events that just played out. He looked at Grady, who saw the whole thing, and gasped. Right as his face exploded, causing gelatinous tentacles to wrap themselves around Grady.

© Dustin Julian Domingo