Under the Devil's Club

by Kim Beck

Mosquitoes and black biting flies swarmed him, the fresh blood. Jeremiah swatted them away, smacking the thigh-high grass and plumed fireweed back from the trail. His blood felt vicious, hot and menacing. Rachel, his thieving girlfriend, pilfered the nuggets of the vein, took his raw, beautiful gold. He charged further through the forest, searching for a gleam reflected off the bright Alaska sun. At the end of the trail he smirked, standing before the unforgiving thicket, spiky spines protruding from towering stalks and mammoth leaves; no one would find her under the devil’s club.

6S

Kim Beck lives in Kenai, Alaska with her husband and two young children.