Are you ready, Freddie? CONTEST. VINTAGE VOICES.

Note: This contest is run by @dreemsteem.

To enter go here - https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@dreemsteem/are-you-ready-freddie-50-sbi-come-get-some

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The Stone Fish of Antioch.

Twas a darkened evening in late November when we found ourselves riding shoddily along in a horribly retched carriage. I wasn't sure the name of the outdated town through which we careened wildly over mountain pass, surely coming ever nearer to our deaths.

Tommy, Rostald, and I bounced back and forth on the red plush cushions. A fourth passenger.... a young lady of some questionable heritage, banged her head loudly and quite accidentally against the cracked and dingy window.

"These horses are out of control!" someone shouted.... it might have been me.

A Scouting expedition.

100 gold Francs to whomever could secure more life for the king.

More life? Foolishness. Still, an adventure was ever to our liking, and I needed a vacation.

"They say the Great Fish of Antioch swims in yonder river, waiting yet to be caught." a wide grin from our illustrious lady. She was 40 years if she was a day. At least 5 teeth were missing from her crooked yellow smile. Damn but she smelled something awful.

"Are we almost there?" said Tommy, gasping into his long black coat sleeve.

I sat perfectly still, staring into the night. The year was 1835. I'd have that fish and I'd have that money.

"I'll tell you what else, I'll probably sleep with the stinking whore too!" I thought to myself, almost vomiting in laughter.

We arrived just before 8:00 p.m. A large manor, rented just for us adventurers. A meal of turkey and chicken giblets was already prepared on a large wooden table. We shoved it down our gullets with a few fingers of whiskey, and got ready to rush into the night.

Only two horses waited in the stable. Charlotte took the white mare, and I the black stallion. Tommy and Rostald would have to walk.

It began to rain as I rushed towards the river's edge. Although I could barely see the Earth in front of my own two eyes, the horse seemed unfazed tumbling along at great speed. Quite suddenly we were there. I expected the others to show up at or near this very spot, but I found myself quite alone.

I had no fishing gear. What exactly was I planning here? I waded into the water up to my hips.

"You're a fool James Haggerty!" I screamed out loud. "A fool and a drunkard!"

It mattered not. A free trip at any rate, to this horrible hellhole. I was drenched from above and below.

"A fish, a fish, my kingdom for a fish!" My voice deep in the night.

A FISH. It rang.

A FISH. Again.

And then there was one.

Staring at my very face. A beast of 10, neigh, 20 meters. His eyes bearing deep into my soul.

I doggy paddled slowly. Frozen in place. Frozen in time.

ANTIOCH. Softly whispering.

ANTIOCH.

I could feel myself changing.

Shrinking.

Hardening.

ANTIOCH. The voice in the night.

And then I was gone. My mortal coil shucked off in the beast's belly.

They found this statue washed ashore that very morning, among the White Sands of Mertarkle Beach.

"What a beautiful figurine!" Tommy clasped his clammy hands around my waist. My waist?

"Aye, that's mine, it is!" Rostald grabbed me by my now rigid tail.

Nearly 200 years has past, and I've traveled from home to home. A store shelf, a trash can, an alley way, another house. But I feel not the passing of time. Not the same as the others, for they are dead and I'm alive.

I try to scream aloud from my mantle piece,

I'M ALIVE!!!!

I'M ALIVE!!!!

No one hears me. How much longer will I suffer here? I hope one day to shatter into a thousand pieces, to live no more in boredom on this horrible planet.

Would I die even then?

The dream that never ends.

More life? A nightmare.

The worst part is, I never even got to sleep with that old stinkin whore.

Original content by @jeezzle written exclusively for @dreemsteem