Lil' Remy, the Luckiest One.

The water splashed cold and there was a clean I wasn’t used to in the pet store, I saw all the boys from the old neighborhood were here with me, they ran a lap and exchanged congratulatory hi-fins in the misguided belief that they’d left the bosom of Wal-Mart and stepped into anything less than the long con run short.

Marky was the first to go, a shadow lunged out of an old log along the bottom and he hadn’t even finished telling us what he was going to do with all this space before a sentry of that space consumed him. Suddenly it was a starshine supernova of golden scales as the armor of my brothers was shredded. The water held a nightmare tint of red as the sounds of futile resistance were being snuffed all about me.

It was dumb luck when that gars fin knocked me halfway across this glass walled world and beneath a false rock outcropping at the far end of the tank. I fell asleep to the sounds of teeth still gnashing. I thought that first night was hell….but it didn’t occur to me that hunger would drive you mad.

By night 3 I was delirious from the pain stabbing me in the stomach, it was a feeding frenzy all around me but I still hadn’t left the safety of the little cave I was so rudely thrown into. Suddenly it wafted in, a whitish flake whose musky scent drove me insane; it wasn’t until I woke up from the self-induced food coma that I realized I’d eaten the cast off remains of one of my own kind.

They say what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger…they’re right. Enough meals at the cannibal buffet and I was strong enough and fast enough to make my way around the new block. I made some new routines, cracked some skulls to round up a crew, and now I run the game in this tank. Just don’t tell me I look fat and happy, I may be fat, but nobody get’s happy eating their own kind, it’s just the way the game plays out here on the streets.

Editors Note:

Ariel wanted to do a "news story like you used to Dad" for fathers day, so that's what you'll find below, it's much cuddlier than the tale you read above. I apologize for the janky audio but my toys aren't as neat as the ones I got to play with at KQ2.