I have at last found a home for my strange tale of cannibal fish. This is loosely based on my childhood. My brother kept pacu piranhas and started out with a dozen but ended up with one giant fish. No wonder it gave me nightmares! Read the Kai edition at www.flash-frontier.com/august2021kai/
Vicious Little bastards My brother fell in love with a species of Amazonian fish bought at our local aquarium. “Piranhas have pointy teeth,” he said, tapping his incisors with a fingernail. “But my pacus have straight ones just like us.” His large tank stood in the corner of his bedroom. At night, the thrum of the pump through our shared wall drove me crazy. Always a quirky kid, Paul preferred pets to people. Before pacus, he’d bred stick insects, which I hated even more than the fish. I was forever finding them wobbling on their skinny pins in the drawers or up the curtains. When Paul started high school, everything changed. He refused to tell us what was wrong. As the weeks rolled by, he complained of stomachaches, stole money from our parents, and became withdrawn. Near the end of the first term, the fish stopped jumping at night. I went into Paul’s room to investigate. There were no longer ten pacus. Now there was one gigantic fish—almost too big to turn. It stared at me and flashed its human-sized choppers. I pointed to the fish. “What happened? Where are the others?” He chucked his school bag down and flung himself on the bed. “The vicious little bastard has eaten them all. Why can’t I get away from bullies?” The pacu snapped its jaws.
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BioI am an author and artist. I enjoy writing short stories, flash fiction and am currently working on a Biblical Historical Romance series. Categories |