Summer Sweetness by Ani Arutiunian

 The sweetness of a bright summer morning

has always been his comfort. It gave him hope, saturated all the troubles and misery surrounding his life. Its shimmering rays would always swathe around his limbs, granting its warmth and pulling him closer to the town's beloved beach. The effort has always been met with no resistance – after all, what is the point in refusing a precious bliss? The tender touch of almost snow-white sand, that urges all his muscles to finally break free of its nervous confines; the playful sway of waves, that send him into a trance-like state; the sound of cheerful laughter that eases his worried mind – that is a priceless gift that summer has to grant him. And all he is supposed to do is accept it.

It's funny how a scene so delightful can turn into a sour nightmare in the matter of a few seconds. The sandy grains have lost their tenderness, now replaced with searing harshness. Each step he now takes is met with a biting pain, reaching the deepest of his senses. The sea has morphed into a grotesque figure, devoid of its past merry spirit. It scares him now, he thinks. Its pull becomes stronger and stronger with each passing moment he spends staring into its mass. The summer rays, his only hope, do nothing to aid him: the glimmering shackles only tighten around his form, stemming all his attempts to flee his blazing prison. The sweetness is now acrid on his tongue, all thanks to a small reminder of his horrifying past.