Forever Amber

Short Story

Awarded 9th Place in the 11th Writers Playground Competition

While fleeing through the shadowed swamps of Louisiana, escaped convict Ray Donner stumbles upon a hidden treehouse and a mysterious child named Amber, whose strange calm unsettles him more than the storm outside. What begins as refuge quickly turns into something far more dangerous when Ray’s greed draws him to the golden pendant around Amber’s neck—a relic said to hold powerful, forbidden magic. As the swamp breathes with memory and menace, Ray learns that some treasures are best left buried, and that the only thing hungrier than the wild may be what waits within it.