Silver Fish

“The Maze” by Silver Fish

Submitted to Contest #101

      “Would you like a hint?”            I stared up at the owl grimly, sweat pouring down my face, my hands streaked and bleeding.            “I want to get the hell out of here,” I spat back.            I was trapped in a corn maze. I’m wasn’t sure how long it’d been; my only guess was at the sun, which had been slowly rising and was now at its ze...

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“The Beautiful Hunt ” by Silver Fish

Submitted to Contest #100

The Beautiful Hunt We woke up before sunrise to hunt. I walked out into the cool, gray day, in that strange time before the sun rises but after the light has seeped into the air. It was quiet; even the frogs and the crickets seemed to still be asleep, and the tall, naked elms were like white bones sticking up into the sky. Everything was still.            Charlie walked out behind me; his soft footfalls on the dead leaves the only sound around. We didn’t need to speak. We knew what we ...

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“The Range” by Silver Fish

Submitted to Contest #57

Our backs were hot from the heat of the sun, our clothes sticking annoyingly to our slimy skin. We walked in a horizontal three feet apart; five of us holding screwdrivers and shovels and tramping through the hot, stinking mud. It was the Fourth of July, and we could hear the carnival music from next door. We could smell the funnel cakes and the hot dogs and could see the lights on the top of the Ferris wheel glinting in the sun. “Why the hell do we keep putting up with this shit every year?” Ralph muttered over his full lip. He spat a blac...

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“Atlantis ” by Silver Fish

      It was a Tuesday night, and the four of them were sitting hip to hip around a little marble table. A round porthole was carved into the wall beside them, letting in a ghostly blue light. The strange little capsule they lived in was splotched with whitewashed light and resembled something like a spaceship. The four people at the table were laughing cheerily, their bodies slumped, their skin seeming to glisten with moisture. Casual onlookers might’ve thought they were drunk. But there were no drinks at the t...

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“Mantis” by Silver Fish

Submitted to Contest #55

The room was dark, reeking of tobacco; the men could barely see each other’s faces through the drifting smoke. Glasses of scotch and plastic bags of white powder littered the table, and the men leaned close to get a better look at the action. “I’m running this city already, ten hotels and more on the way,” Damian said, leaning back and puffing on his cigar. “No one’s catching me now.”   “You’ve been making these roundabout deals with everyone at the table, you’re dirtier than shit,” Mantis replied angrily. He’d been growing more and m...

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“The Ride Back” by Silver Fish

Submitted to Contest #54

I live far away from home now. It's been decades since I've seen Jenny. I have a big corporate job now. Time to think is a rarity, something I cherish amidst the chaos of my life. The work often feels like too much, like it’s stacking up against my chest and threatening to strangle me. My days are often filled with people yelling, misunderstandings and missed opportunities. Sometimes I wonder if the corporate life, with its gray interiors and fluorescent lights, is meant me for me at all. When the work gets to be too much and I feel myself u...

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“Grace” by Silver Fish

Submitted to Contest #53

I met her at the park.            Since quarantine started, I’d been going on evening walks. The park was usually empty, eerily silent but also peaceful without the usual scream of soccer whistles. Most of the time I would have the place to myself, an abyss of green fields, abandoned baseball diamonds, and a gravel trail through the dense woods. I would go around sunset and find myself marveling at the fiery sky as the sun sank into the horizon, coloring the clouds.    &nb...

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