The sand shifted, even though there was no breeze. It revealed a bright, white shell. It glistened.
The child looked up and cooed. Feet unsteady and uncertain he stepped off the blanket and onto the warm sand. The grains tickled his toes. 
The sand seemed to sing, a low beckoning sound full of promise and excitement. Adventure.
Blue sun hat wedged on tight, tiny plump body streaked with sunscreen to prevent too much pinkening, the child walked out as the sand sunk up around his feet. He giggled as the grains rose up higher to cover his ankles, crept up calves. The child made a noise in the back of its throat, annoyed at his pace being slowed.
He began to fuss and stress, a wail starting to build. Behind him a sun umbrella shifted, fell in such a way that the child was blocked from view.
The sand moved suddenly, and the child fell forwards, landed face down in the soft, cushioning sand, into an itchy embrace. Gritty grains flooded his throat and nose, blocked out the noise of a cry before it could escape. Sand rolled in waves over the small body, pulled it down, down, down. Hit it. Buried it. All except for the little blue sunhat, left sat on the beach.
#
Rosie blinked her eyes open. The glare of the sun, the lazy breeze coming in off the sea, the sense of calm and relaxation, she couldn’t believe she’d dozed off.
She lifted her head.
“Petey?” she called out. Rolled over, looked around. There was no sign of her son.
Rosie sat up as panic flooded her system.
“Petey?” she called, louder this time. “Petey answer me.”
The couple on the blanket next to hers began to pay attention.
“Petey? Peter! Peter!” Rosie’s voice got more and more shrill with each shout. A tone that set the spines of the other parents nearby on high alert, that tingled in their bones as they looked around for their own children. A primal, instinctual thing.
Rosie got to her feet and turned to the couple nearest her.
“Have you seen my son?” she asked, somewhere between a shout and a plea. “A little boy. Blonde. With a blue hat and… and… and… and dinosaur shorts.”
The couple shared a look, shook their heads. Negative.
“No. Sorry,” the woman said, but Rosie had already turned away.
“Petey?” she called again.
Her eyes scoured the beach around her. There were so many people. Surely there hadn’t been this many people earlier on, like even five minutes ago. Had there? Now, it was all umbrellas and windbreaks and towels and everybody half naked and they all looked the same and there were children everywhere.
“Petey!” she called. Voice far beyond the edge of hysteria. “Answer me Petey.”
The happy shouts of children at play in the water reached her ears. Rosie’s heart pounded as horrible thoughts flooded her mind, before a voice pulled her attention back.
“Is this your son’s,” a man asked. In his hand was a small blue sun hat.
“This… this is Petey’s,” Rosie snatched the sandy headwear from the man. “I only bought it for him yesterday. Where’d you find this? Where?”
He pointed towards the sand dunes.
“Over there.”
“Has anybody seen a young boy come this way?” Rosie called. “A small blonde boy.”
Others took up the cry. Word spread fast. A child had gone missing on the beach.
The police came. The search and rescue people. The water safety people. They found no sign of little Petey. Hope was hard to hold onto.
Then the narrative changed, and eyes turned away from the water. A child had been ‘snatched’ from the beach. Suspicious looks were exchanged, questioning who had been seen acting strange, acting weird.
Through it all Rosie returned again and again to that spot, the little blue hat clutched tight. Beneath her feet the sand held its secret bounty tight in a slow, satisfied digestion.
For now, it was sated, but soon it would feed again.
- About the Author
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Ken McGrath lives, with his wife, in an upsidedown house in Dublin, Ireland. His fiction has previously appeared in horror magazines and anthologies, such as Dark Descent: Whispers From Beyond, The Siren’s Call, Hyphenpunk and Tales From The Moonlit Path. You can find him online here https://kenmcgrathauthor.tumblr.com/ if you like.
Is this a full novel? If so, where can I get it?
No, it’s just a standalone short story Johnny. Glad you liked it though.
It was really great, Kenneth.
Thanks Corey. Really glad you liked it.