My Cardboard Balcony

The Sushi Roll by Belinda Roddie The sushi roll felt strange against my teeth, and as I chewed, it was as if the rice were slowly disintegrating beneath my tongue, like dust that tasted rather nice. The fish started to melt, too, and I thought, "Is this the food, or have I somehow fell into some sort of druglord's frenzy, fraught with hallucinations and witches' spells?" The sushi chef appeared before me then, wielding a pair of large knives that he rubbed against each other, the sound hellish. When I asked him to stop, his evil sneer scrubbed my courage away, "If you dare to spite the sushi gods," he snarled, "you die tonight!"

If you leave, I will follow you to the little black pond at the edge of the forest, where the leaves turn to gold in the middle of the night, and the sun cannot touch the soil and turn it from gray to brown. If you drink from the pond, I will plunge my whole body into its water, to give myself the immortality that you so desire for yourself. After that, it will be tainted - there will be no God among man but me, and I am not quite man nor God.