Fish Keeper

Fish Keeper -

On the hour every hour, the very last qualified fish keeper glided across the room and dropped the flaky food in the bowl. “Another hard day’s work for you”, she softly says, “too much crime in the world today,” then she quickly made her exit. The fish in the bowl swam around and nipped hungrily at the sinking flakes. Their job, their hard job was to emit toxic fumes whenever a handcuffed prisoner was brought to the front of their bowl. 

Each and every day, all day at exactly fifteen past the hour the guards would bring in the next hardened criminal sentenced to death row and deposit them in front of the fishbowl and would leave the chamber. The fish would promptly swim to the top and ‘exhale’ and within seconds the criminal would fall to the ground. Just like clockwork, exactly thirty-four minutes after the toxic fumes had dissipated the guards would come back in and remove the corpse. This removal process was allotted ten precise minutes, with a minute to spare and then the process would start all over.

The toxic fish would do this day in and day out ridding the world of the sentenced  murderers, junkies, pedifiles, rapists, con artists and others sentenced to death row. It was humane! This day something went terribly wrong...a screw up in the office, a dead battery, a glitch in the system.

The chamber door was opened two minutes early, after the toxic fumes were expelled, promptly killing the guards. There was no standby crew in the area to quickly remove all three corpses, therefore throwing off the feeding time. The fish were not fed on the hour, they were angry and hungry and in turn emitted the deadly toxin on the hour as the last fish keeper glided in and she too fell victim. “Why? Why did you do that? one fish said to the other. Who’s going to feed us now?”

  #Nightmare Fuel, Day 1