The Short Story

The Aquatic Invertebrates

Hello. I can’t believe I let myself get in the position I was in. A glass wall behind me, a great looming shadow in front of me. A few floating specters glowing an eerie pale blue to my left and right, and myself, smack dab in the middle of it all. The shadow lumbers closer, then I saw the killer for a second before the jaw, the largest I’ve ever seen shot forward to take off my other arm, then…
Oh?
I’m getting way ahead of myself. I am an aquatic invertebrate of some sort, but the human beings call me Shrimp, so that is my name. I used to live in a beautiful place, and although human beings have names for everything, I called it home. It was a large… river, I believe, and it was a peaceful day . The surface of the water had finally melted, revealing the flowers that finally had awaken from the deep slumber that occurred ever since I could remember. Then a net swooped down and tore me from the rock I was on and tore one of my arms off. I know it may sound bizarre, even a bit gruesome, but it hurt me much more than the average person could think. Although it should have grown back, it didn’t. Now not only do I have one arm, I’m even more strange as it won’t grow back as every other shrimp would have. It took much time to go from the wild to a glass box, with a few stops in between. The one day I got where I am now, I was relatively happy with my new home. It was 60 gallons, and beat the ten I was in at the store. This is where my story begins.

Day one
This was the day I moved in. the second I touched the artificial soil, I scrambled into a cave. The cave wasn’t very safe, but it would have to do. I spent most of my days in this cave. Peering out, a shadow overcame me. I backed up further, but the cave was shallow and had already ended. More shadows drifted around in the murky water, blending the shadow into a dark blob. I did not sleep well that night, maybe it was the lack of food I ate, or maybe it was something bigger. Much bigger.

Day two
Today I left the cave. I found some food behind a rock, but it was not at all plentiful in this tank. I saw some other shrimp here today, along with some of the other creatures. I first saw an enormous red aquatic creature, who, instead of claws, had large fans and was filtering food from the water. He had the feel of someone who works as a lumberjack, or maybe someone who hasn’t had any education. Or just didn’t pay attention.
“Ah, it be a new visitor,” he nearly screamed. Well, not really screamed, as we aquatic invertebrates speak using our antennae, but if he was actually making noise, he would be screaming. ”Do ya have a name? I’ve got one, and I think it be rather good. I be Sixlegs, a aquatic creature a some sort. That be tha name some a those two-legged walkers have given me.
“Oh, do you mean human beings? They called me Shrimp.”
“Ah, yes, human beans. I have a second name two, and it be Shrimp, too. I dun’t suppose you n’ I be related? Na, you have got dem claws. I saw a aquatic critter like you, claws n’ all, but they’ve been missin’ for a time now. I have a suspicion they got their lives tak’n”
He returned to pulling food bits from the stream of water made by the filter, and I continued on. I saw a slightly smaller aquatic creature. This one was the same type as the other, only smarter.
“Greetings. I ascertained you are a shrimp, am I wrong? My name is Mantis. The store did have the wrong species name. Idiots. Yes, yes.” He mumbled on about me being Shrimp and other things I couldn’t understand.
“I am Shrimp. I am looking for food.”
“Ah HA! Hypothesis is proven correct! You are a shrimp, like me and my relatives!”
“Are you gonna help me?
“ I must record this! I have been correct 98% of the time! Using data, I should pinpoint this exact species name and find more info!”
I left to go back to the cave. No use talking to a wall, and he was listening worse than one.

Day 2.5
This is night now. I have left the cave. There is a weird aura coming from the back corner, and it is glowing. Upon closer analysis, some flying clear shrimp are circling a shadow. A haunting chant comes whirling in the current…
“Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?...”
The shadow twitches a bit as the ghostly antennae from these strange beings brushes against it. I move over to the side and accidently uproot a plant, which promptly floats to the top of the aquarium.
The chanting stops as 24 dark eyes look upon me.
“No. Escape. No. Escape. No. Escape…” They moaned. One of the largest steps forward, and waves his arm in the water.
His one and only arm.
“We lived here once. We belonged here once. It was until that day…” His eyes looked at something inside the Easter Island Head statue decoration just off to the side of the piece of driftwood.
“So, you are saying you were eaten? But wouldn’t that make you…”
“Yes. Dead as a dinosaur.” The chanting in the background became louder ”And you have come to REPLACE us!!!! Now it is your turn to feel as we did…”
At this point the chanting became screams as twelve nightmarish creatures, claws and all, came at unbelievable speeds, until I ducked into the back of the cave. I did not sleep well this night either, and it might have been the lack of food, or maybe it was the chanting telling off the thing that was bigger. Much bigger.

Day 3.
I am trapped here. During the day there is a monster around the corner, and at night, twelve ghosts looking for their replacement. I only leave when food comes my way. I have seen some interesting fish: one that looks like a combo elephant-whale, one that is like a rope with fins, and a monster with a huge mouth, but no teeth and puny eyes, much like purple Venus fly trap. I saw yet another aquatic invertebrate today, probably one of my favorite so far. He called himself Vampire.
“ I shee you’ve got a claw. I’ve almosht gotsh a claw, but they’re actually jusht legsh. It givesh me the name Vampire. You and I am the shame shize. Yesh, we are. I’ve actually got fansh like the other aquatic guysh.”
Yeah, he did talk like he was wearing those plastic vampire teeth. He and I think alike.
“Have you seen the ghostly figures in the night? The ones who chant?”
“Ooooh yesh. I saw them yeshterday. Shtay away from that lot, I tell you, or you’ll be paying for it. They all shaw the shame lasht thing: a jaw closhing around them. I shaw it happen. Not a pretty shight, my friend, not at all.”
Day 4 (so I thought)
My eyes stare into the dark depth of the Big Ghost’s eyes. He warns me about something, but mumbles it in a way I can’t understand. Maybe it was in German? He tells me of the “Oblivious Stare”. What in the world is the “Oblivious Stare”? Then I see it in his eyes. Two eyes looking in opposite directions, a stupid grin and… a moustache? No, that can’t be right. He raises his one claw to show me the pain he felt, and suddenly I see my reflection. Is that going to become me? I realize that maybe the pain I feel I bestow upon myself. Then…
I wake up.
Day 4 (It really is this time, no jokes)
I need to get out of here. I’ll risk my chances if it gets me food. I also need to find who took the lives of the Ghosts, well, before they were the spooky glowing mirages they are now. And who it is who wants to make lunch of me. And why. I ask for help from the others, and we made a plan.
Sixlegs decides it’s his job to handle the Ghosts, “I’ve gotten these guys there shakin’ from der antenners to da tips of the legs they’ve got. It’ll be a easy task for ol’ Sixlegs.”
Mantis makes a highly sophisticated plan. “We start here, then slowly making our way here to reveal that the perpetrator is indeed chasing us, yes, yes…”
Finally, Vampire stutters out his portion of the plan. “Shuprise him! Shuprise him! Vampire’ll knock the wind out of him!”
Any with that, I feel pretty confident.
Day 4 ½
The ghosts are out and taunting the shadow. More unanswered questions are uttered from the ghastly specters. Then Sixlegs gets in on it, and tells them they need to get a life, and not lose it this time. It made them angry, but it would have worked better if it didn’t sound like this:
“You guys thar betta’ get yo self a life’n not be los’n it dis time!”
They began their slow dance toward him, but he was faster. Step one complete. I lobbed a small stone toward the shadow, and hit it directly. It flinched, and knocked over the Easter Island Head. It, unfortunately, blocked the escape path.
“I know you’re here…. I can feel you…” It began to chase me, and locked me in the corner. I saw it’s face. Eyes facing this way and that, stupid grin, and… a moustache! No, whiskers. Or wait… Catfish! It approaches me, and then Sixlegs plan fails. The Ghosts circle me and the Catfish. A glass wall behind me, a great looming shadow in front of me. A few floating specters glowing an eerie pale blue to my left and right, and myself, smack dab in the middle of it all. (Déjà vu, huh?) The shadow lumbers closer, then I saw the killer for a second before the jaw, the largest I’ve ever seen shot forward to take off my other arm, then…
“BWAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”
Two legs that like claws come down on the enemy, then two fan-like appendages start beating the scales off of it.
“That oughta teach you, you good for nothing catfishsh!”
The heat from the heater added a volcano effect here between an Easter Island Head and a pane of glass. The catfish turns tail, but has nowhere to go, as the others have their fans waving the beast into the corner, into the back of the statue. The Ghosts jump forward and grab at my legs, but I grab a twig from the ground and beat a few senseless. Easy. Finally, the only one left was Big Ghost. He grasps a piece of crystal from the nearest rock. My twig snaps instantly. He swings down with a look in his eyes I never hope to see again. I pull my arm up and block it.
My one last arm functions perfectly as a method of defense. But now it’s time to try offence…
I lunge forward and knock the crystal to the ground.
“Aha! The tables have turned!”
“Not for long, you waste of space! You’ll find life is much better when you’re not living it! Let me show you!”
He jumps and takes off part of my antennae. I lunge back.
“Ah, so let me show you my pain for a change!”
I take a final jump and yell, and in seconds his other arm was on the ground in front of him. Another blow, and a cracking sound occurs as the exoskeleton on his back cracks. He vanishes almost instantaneously, screaming something. It sounded like he was thanking me for not having to exist in pain forever.
I could have been wrong, though.
Day 5
I’m the most exciting person I’ve met!
I revealed the enemy to the “Human Bean” as Sixlegs would call him. A mesh device with a handle came down and scooped him up, out of the water, and away. I may never know where. I met some of the other fish today, like one that looked like a fish with a crown on his head, ones with the looks of an over-inflated balloon, and one with the looks of a striped candy. All are good friends now. But nothing can top Vampire and Co. , even when there were 13 enemies, all were very weak and didn’t put up much of a fight. The numbers have to have strength individually before there is strength in numbers. Does that make any sense?
I still can see the eyes of the monstrous creature blankly look at me, the mouth opened wide and me, precariously holding the jaws of the animal open with the whiskers twitching around me, right between the Easter Island Head. It seems strange… being between a creature probably seven inches across, a glass wall, and a giant head!
And it is now I realize what a use this one arm is. While the ghostly arm still lays at the entrance to my cave, my arm is still here.
My life is complete.
( Until I saw the Human put another aquatic creature in here, one with a huge claw and one that wasn’t so huge… a crab, says Mantis. But that, my friend, is another story.)

The End