‘Stormy seas’ can often be cliche, but your description of the sea storm is beautiful, and I love the mystery of your piece.

“It threw all sorts up on the shore” left me wondering: sorts of what? I also found the continual switching from complete sentences to fragments a bit disconcerting and arbitrary. A bit more editing would gain you some precious characters. For example, in “Dawn burst clear and fresh the next day,” the last three words are redundant and could be omitted without changing the flow of the story.

It’s a good story. I have the sense that I know precisely who “she” is.

I really like the mood and the mystery here. Cool stuff and really points to a lot more drama to come.

I like the image of the sea throwing things up on the shore – I like the ways you’ve personified the sea in this.

Jon, great piece. I could feel the chill in everyone’s bones.

Could I suggest you somehow make HER stand out?

followed by Her

followed by her

I read back through the story to see what I missed.

Thanks, as always, for the comments.

August: ‘all sorts’ is pretty much covered, I thought, by the list in the next sentence; your other comments are taken on board (no pun intended) although I only partially agree.

32: Good idea! I have capitalized as suggested.

‘Bladderwrack’ – great word, I didn’t realise at first that you hadn’t made it up!

I think the terrific power of this ficly is that it describes the consequences of the storm, not the storm itself.